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148 THE PREVENTIVE BRANCH OF THE
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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them enable them to make . The proof that such is the case is this , that the institution grew in a few months with marvellous rapidity .
A good house was engaged for a new registration office , agents were multiplied as neededand girls and employers continued to
flock more and more , so that , at the proper hour a small crowd was always waiting for the attention of the excellent old lady who from
the first presided over the registration . Much of the success of the undertaking mustindeedbe attributed to this good woman ' s
untiring spirit and energy , , and , the sagacity with which she conducts all her business . Her address is Mrs . Bartholomew , 3 , Park
Row , Bristol ; and if any lady should visit that city , and desire to acquaint herself with the working of this institutionshe cannot do
, better than call on her . At the end of the first year nearly six hundred girls had been
guarded and helped by the registration office , and then another want became manifest . Many of the children were utterly ignorant
of all domestic duties . In most poor families the eldest daughter is juade a sort of drudge and sacrifice to the various little Molochs , as
Dickens calls her "baby brothers and sisters . She is kept away from school to help her motherand she grows up to sixteenperhaps ,
• when the other cMldren , cease to require her assistance , , without knowing how to use a needle , or read or write . For these and
; many other neglected and ignorant girls it was obviously needed to open a servant ' s training school . To send them to service in their
. state of stupid ignorance was only to insure their speedy dismissal . A Home was accordingly opened at some distance from the
Registration office . Here as many poor girls as desired it attended day classes for sewing , reading , & c , & c . A certain number from these
classes were in succession admitted to the privilege of boarding in the house and learning laundry-work and cookery . From this
Home they could Ibe recommended to the better class of situations . Still , there was another want . Among the girls who applied for
help were many who , it became manifest , would never be suitable for service . Dismissed from place after place for faults of temper
or the like , it became impossible honestly to recommend them to any new applicants . What could be done with them ? There exists three
, miles from Bristol a large cotton factory , managed by very good peopleand where the general morals of the " hands " is unusually
, high . A Factory Home was evidently the proper resource . A small respectable house with a little garden was hired , a kindly
matron installed , and the girls gradually established under her charge . After a few weekswhen they have learned their business
their earnings are sufficient , to cover the expense of their board , & c , . Such is the whole scheme of the Preventive Branch of the
Bristol Female Mission . It was , as I said , devised by Miss Stephen , of Clifton , and carried out by her labors , assisted by other ladies
belong of course ing , b y priva the Female te subscri Mission ptions ) amount The whole to £ 500 expenses , This ( defrayed includes
148 The Preventive Branch Of The
148 THE PREVENTIVE BRANCH OF THE
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/4/
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