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THE GOYERNESS QUESTION. . 167
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.
^«»» " Governesses Again? We Really Thou...
as 46 they worthless had latel ! Tlie y parted writer with saw a a very letter valuable recently governess from , a lad , y who , say had ing
heeu with her four yearsbecause they wished a younger person . " "Oh _g-enius ! thy _^ patrons , more cruel than they , *
First feed on thy brains , and then leave thee to die . Cardinal Ximenes said of princes with their servants , " they treat
them like oraiig * es , squeeze out the juice , then throw the peel away . " It is unpardonable in this country to despise tradethe greatness
, of England lias been achieved as much by commerce as by arms . Let your daughter possess money ( honorably acquired too ) at the
terrific age of thirty-five or forty , and see if she will not be more considered than the genteel starving governess . It is observed by
various writers , foreign and English , that there are more , old maids in England tlian elsewhere . Governesses form a powerful majority .
What chance have they of marrying . "When out of a situation , shifting about from one obscure lodging to anotherspending the few
, pounds they may have saved from their paltry salary , ( many ladies requiring a great deal of dress from the poor dependent , ) the
governess must forego every hope of domestic happiness . Had she been engaged in any business during the years she has withered in
gentlemen ? s houses , she might have become some worthy man ' s wife , with her own fireside ties to cheer her : the genteel governessif
fortunate enough to obtain interest , may starve out her remaining , existence on fifteen pounds a year , the maximum which the Fund
affords . A governess must out-do old Elwes , in economy if she can have saved anything out of the salary now generally given .
Servants are often pensioned off , and we hear of considerable bequests from deceased masters . Not so the governess . In Franceprevious
, to the revolution of 1789 , it was a common occurence for a conscien- ' tious governess to receive an annuity for life . Miss Brizitt in
. " Adele and Theodore" is presented with her brevet of fifteen hundred francs the day Adele reaches eighteen . "We believe this
humane custom still exists in France ; in Belgium it is quite general . We should be happy to hear of similar good feeling in magnificent
England . Every one seems of late years to have combined to render the office
of governess as humiliating as possible . We will begin with the new estate sprung up : the agents . It is difficult to say which most
deserves the prize of meanness ; the agents , or the ladies who employ them . The governess , _jDerhaps reduced to her last sovereign ,
must pay the five per centage on a whole year's _salary , though she remain only a month ! Ladies of course know this well : the agents
take advantage of the wants of the poorer party , wring her last farthing from her with true servilityleaving the great ladij
un-, scathed ; who generously lets the poor governess pay for the blessing * of entering her house !
The agents tell " the nobility and gentry , " they have numerous
* The insects which prey upon the dying elk .
The Goyerness Question. . 167
THE GOYERNESS QUESTION . . 167
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/23/
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