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IiOWELL AND ITS OPERATIVES. 391
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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? Boaeding Houses.
the only methods of forming an opinion axe a comparison of mortality in different places , the testimony of the operatives , and
therfopinions of physicians . Rev . Henry A . Miles , a former clergyman in Lowell , published
. a work in 1845 , in which , as the result of a comparison of the bills of mortality in three cities with that of Lowell—all the places
presenting nearly the same number and variety of city and rural population—he shows a difference of in one case 15 , in another 5 ,
in another 3 per cent , in favour of Lowell . The testimony of the operatives was , that their health was as good , or better , than
before coming to the mills , and the Doctor cites it as the opinion of the most eminent hysiciansthat— " The manufacturing
population of this city is the p healthiest , portion of the population /' From the increased attention given to similar measures since
that time , throughout the city , it is probable that a similar test now applied , would show a result even yet more favourable to
Lowell . Dr . Kimball , too , recently stated to the . writer , that the
operatives are a remarkably healthy class ; that he did not consider their employment injurious to health , but on the contrary more
favourable to it than most occupations pursued _loy women , since the exercise of different muscles by light labourventilated rooms ,
, simple diet , and regular habits , render them comparatively free from many of the causes of disease .
M 0 E 1 L _IltflXTJElSrCES _. So intimately are these interwoven with everything pertaining to
the factories , that little remains to be said under this head apart from otherssave some evidence to show the result of the salutary
regulations of , the boarding-houses and of the mills . Rev . H . A . Miles submitted a series of questions to two or three
matrons on each corporation , making no selection save a preference ' for those persons who had kept a boarding-house for several years ,
and the 21 matrons , who made returns , reported having had 6 , 786 irls as boarders in their houses . Out of this number , 46 only
had g been dismissed for bad conduct . Opening at random one of the Corporation Record books of
Jionourable and dishonourable discharges , he transcribes 16 of the former in 1 6 consecutive days ; while the record of the latter ,
as impartially opened , showed but 14 dishonourable discharges given in 3 months , and of the offences specified , 5 of them
indicat " reading e no deep in the moral mill delin " " altering quency , her but loom only / such 7 or having breaches " of left rule irre as
gularly . " The same regulations , are still enforced , the same watchful care exercisedand the moral character of Lowell factory operatives
, is as creditable now as then .
The large number of idle and vicious hanger , 3-on waiting for
Iiowell And Its Operatives. 391
_IiOWELL AND ITS OPERATIVES . 391
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1863, page 391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081863/page/31/
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