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BRISTOL FEMALE MISSION. 147
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.
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In the small girls and of the laboring houses * class and find of all their these living thousands as domestic and hundreds servants ;
poor , of thousands , of girls , a vast proportion have no adequate guardianshi being p beyond dead or absent their mistresses unwilling for or unable the time to attend being to , — them their . parents Again ,
, among these mistresses so many fail in their duty , in one way or otherthat the helless young servant is worse than unprotected *
I am , not speaking p _" without book , " but as the result of the investigations of trustworthy agents and " missing links . " Mistresses of
the humbler class are , of course , as varied in character , for good and sible evil a temp , as power tation other as human to they great exercise beings and , grievous but over the their _j wrong > ossession poor . drud Some of ges such are is too irrespon unkind often - ,
harsh , and cruel ; some are drunken or ill-conducted ; some ( careful on enoug errand h , for s their of all own sorts children —perhaps ) send to out the their public servants ~ hoii . se at for all drink hours ; ,
some starve or over-work the girl ; some withhold all her hardearned wages on pretence of breakages , or of gifts of their own
worn-out clothes ; some dismiss her at a day ' s or hour ' s notice , and ( as I have myself known it ) actually at night , without a home
to go to , or a shilling of money ! It will be said , " Why does not the girl seek for justice ? " But the idea of applying at a
policeoffice is the last these poor children would ever entertain , and their mistresses are but too well aware of the fact . It is not wonderful that irls in such circumstances fall under the temptations which
g every walk in the streets places in their way—it-would _Tbe wonderful were they not to do so .
To meet these evils was the problem to be solved . In January , free 1859 , an istration intelligent Office woman . Girls was from installed twelve as to ag ei ent hteen for a in small need Reg g
, The of places agent , soon examined applied each , and case also , and emp recommended loyers needing to the service servants girl for as .
want the truth of clothes might were warrant assisted . Such from as could a store not of go good plain ones in the office"When the irl went to her place the agent visited
her at intervals . ascertained g that all her circumstances were physicalland morall , Healthfuland collected such share of her
little y earnings as the y girl desired , to invest in the savings' bank When of the tlie institution irl needed , which to leave repays her fourteenpence service another on was every s shilling ht for . oug ,
and she was g carefully guarded in safe lodgings , if any interval took impatient place . It of may such perhaps control be as imag this it ined , is and found that decline that the to mistresses onl take had girls would from _, the be
office . Buton the contrary , y _employers shrink added moral from , the influence legitimat broug e supervision ht to bear . All on good the ones conduct rejoice of in their the
servants ( who , of course , are always admonished in case of fault by the agent ) and on the respectable appearance the clothes allowed m 2
Bristol Female Mission. 147
_BRISTOL FEMALE MISSION . 147
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 147, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/3/
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