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Untitled Article
ting , and needlework are insufficient to prepare them for the proper discharge of the duties belonging to that station . Dayschools can teach them nothing farther ; but their mothers must supply the rest . For the sake of
argument we will suppose that their mothers may be able to do thisj if the means were in their power , but how should the inhabitant of one or two mean
apartments and whose scanty meal consists ofa few potatoes , instruct a child to go through the various business of an opulent family . If twenty or thirty girls dwell in one house , and if such a charitable
institution is managed by a prudent conscientious matron , the different employments of cleaning , cooking , baking , brewing , &c . may be performed in rotation ,
leaving ample time for such mental improvement as their humble lot requires . Such an institution once existed in the populous city of which I am an inhabitant . At
this seminary the wives of tradesmen used to apply for servants , and with such previous training ( added to the additional improvement derived from mistresses who
superintended their conduct ) a constant supply of industrious and capable servants might be obtained . This institution , alas ! exists no longer—the funds are applied in * different manner—let those who have suffered them to be so
alienated be answerable for the conse * quences . Parents are allowed the money which used to support the establishment , but those mothers
who are the best disposed acknowledge that they cannot teach their daughters what their confined sc&leof livingabsoluteJy precludes ; and with others whose indolence ,
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improvidence , and bad temper , render their wretched hovels scenes of dir ' , confusion , and irritation , what can be expected from their unhappy offspring but imbecility , obstinacy or profligacy ? How can society be more benefitted than by removing these unfortunate beings to an abode where constant exertion and regular habits will ensure their own comfort by making them useful to others , and how
can the heads of families be indifferent to institutions calculated to prevent an evil so generally the subject of complaint as the incapacity and vicious propensities of their domestics ? Your
correspondent has replied to Mrs . Cappe r s doubt whether indigent children should not experience the difficulties incident to their lowly station , and whether the regular supply ofa dinner would not be a dangerous indulgence ? Would net , on the other hand , an inability of satisfying the cravings of hunger prove a dangerous temptation ? Besides , this might be made an
objection to their becoming ser . vants , which , as I have already observed , is their natural destination . The luxurious profusion of large families is certainly a bad preparation for a poor man ' s wife , but the best preservative against such contagion is the early habit of conscientiously using the gifts of the Creator without abusing them . In the lowest state of
indigence food must be taken once or twice in a day , and however humble , or however scanty , it should be taken with as much regularity and decency as possible . Nothing tends to brutalize the
human species more lhan eating in a selfish , gluttonous , disorderly manner ; and on the contrary ,
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On Charity-Boarding . Schools . 687
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1814, page 687, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2446/page/27/
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