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30 INFANT SEAMSTRESSES.
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Into One Of Those Narrow, Gloomy Streets...
were most to be pitied . To be sure slie might have gone to the union , and it is so very easy to send old people there . We
somehow are quite old of peop opinion le do that hang she 1 back would Yery have much been . We better shouldn there 't , , were but
we in their position , oh no ! What a special favor it is that we , who would be such perfect specimens of propriety under any
circumstances of poverty and distress , should be placed so far above their influence . You and I , dear reader , would be very cleanly for
instance , would we not ? But cleanliness does cost something , whatever people may say to the contrary . Ah ! none know better than
the seamstress that " time is money . " Suppose a very common case : a hard-wrought seamstress has just now but one penny , which she
designs to spend in soap . She is content to wait till the morrow for ing food and , coug but her hing little and child choking stands 1 and at all her for knee bread , pleading tillhoarse and weep with
-, , , , the vain petition , it lies down moaning and exhausted at her feet . Ask your heart if it would be so very easy to answer that faint
hunger cry with a clean pinafore . But now there arose a murmuring among the children about the
removal of a canary , which it seemed had been used to sing in the window . They missed it , and there was a general reflection on the
old woman , who defended her conduct in its removal , hy stating that the little ones were all the time looking at it instead of minding
their work . They all promised , however , that if it might be brought back they would " never look at it once . " The old lady was
inexorable , and there was a general expression of discontent , which , after some other proposals on their part , receiving a decided
negative , gradually subsided , and again there was a general silence . A very old clock , that ticked as if it were tiredtold its strokes
, audibly . A faint restless hum of child-voices rose _from the street , and in the next apartment was heard the monotonous jargon of
some man evidently drunk , till it seemed " That all these sounds yblent , inclined all to sleep . "
It might not be . The little child that had interested us so much was awoke . We pleaded for a little more sleepbut the shirts had
to go in , and , though we had been doing a little , ourselves , we saw that if they mustnot a stitch might be lostand the hands must
, , move a little more quickly . Contrary to our expectation the little creature did not cry on being awoke , but meekly threaded her
needle , and with a sigh of resignation recommenced her hemming . Oh , how thankful were we , when a few weeks later we saw those
little hands folded and still , and those sad wistful eyes sealed in a slumber which no earthly voice might break .
What a credit to the mothers were some of those children . How clean their headsand carefully parted their hair . We observed
, that one of them had a bit of white tucker stitched in her frock ,
and the hair of another was attempted to be curled . " Very un-
30 Infant Seamstresses.
30 INFANT SEAMSTRESSES .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 30, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/30/
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