On this page
-
Text (1)
-
"4
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
» Paris, November, 1862. Iw A Late Numbe...
praiseworthy love of neatness and the enormous price of fuel oblige her to have done outthe handful of charcoal for her chauffer ette
_, during * the frosty weather , the price of candles when winter reduces the duration of daylight to seven hours , greatly diminish the
pittance that should be expended in food and raiment , and leave absolutely nothing whatever to treat herself to a booka short
country excursion , or a bouquet to freshen the close atmosp , here of a _onansarde in which the heat of summer and the cold of winter
are felt as they were beneath the leads of Venice . Often , work is not to be obtained throughout \ the months of July ,
August , and September , and the earnings of the other nine are not sufficient to provide for the period of chdmage . Were ignorance
therefore , to be left out of the question , it would be impossible for a , woman , whether burthened or unburthened with a childwho has
not 25 c . a day for food and clothing , to pay 15 f . a year , to a societe de secours mutuelthe aid of which she may not possibly for
years want , although it , is more than probable that in the course of a few months she will be seeking admission to an hospital .
It is in vain that she is told about its advantages . Were she acquainted with all the benefits it gives to those who become
members , it would perhaps be only an increase of misery so long as the payment of the required subscription would not be within her
power . She would only know that , were it possible for her to pay the 15 f . a year , she would , when sickness should come to disable her
from working , be freed from the necessity of contracting a debt of * 2 Of . or 25 f ., to repay which she mustif youngplunge into a course
of nameless degradation . But , small , as the , sum of 15 f . appears ; there are thousands of young women in Paris who cannot command
it . And when such is the case , how utterly impossible it must be for an elderly one to subscribe twice that sum !
Let none of your readers imagine that this is an exaggerated picture of misery in France . It isunhappilythe reverse . Last
July the author of the " Ouvriere" made , an attemp , t to mitigate its horrors by forming a society which would enable workwomen of
the class just mentioned , to become members of the societies for mutual assistance which have been founded by the municipality of
Paris . He first applied to a certain duchess whose name has escaped my recollectionalthough she is a daughter of the
philan-, thropic Count de Stilaincourt , and celebrated lov a fine countenance and noble heart . She at once offered him the use of her salon
for any meetings which he wished to hold , in order to discuss and give publicity to his projectas well as to do all in her power to
, obtain the aid of her charitably disposed friends in carrying it out . A week after , about thirty ladies of rank or fortuneand five
gentlemen , assembled in it for the purpose of hearing , what M . Simon had to propose . He stated to them that he had _long
been impressed with the want of some society on the plan of "
the dispensary societies in England , through which ladies united
"4
" 4
268 OUR FRENCH COREESPONBENT . *
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 268, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/52/
-