The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-01-18 00:00:00

"GOING OUT TO TEA!"

rnder this head the Daily Telegraph bas a kindly article,
from which we make the followiag extract

a -
We went out to tea on Friday, the tenth of
January, under somewhat peculiar circumstances;
and, if we lost our dinner in consequence, we were
compensated by the consciousness of having witnessed
a most interesting and edifying spectacle. A New
Year's Treat, under the auspices of the Institution for
the Employment of Needlewomen, in Hinde-street,
Manchester-square, London, was given on the even-
ing in question to four hundred poor sempstresses.
The locality fixed upon for the entertainment was
Bnekingham-street, Portland-road, in the commodious
halls of the Trinity Schools, organised by the Rev. Mr.
Cadman. There were some pretty Christmas decor.-
in the shape of holly and evergreens ; the walls
were adorned with comfortable texts gaily illuminated;
there was plenty of warmth and plenty of light; and
at six o'clock p.m. the four hundred needlewomen
sat down to an ample and substantial repast. It was
a "Meat Tea," and even old Cobbet might have with-
drawn his gibes about the " cat-lap " and the " tea-
tackle " had he been able to see the infusion of the
fragrant leaf supplemented by a goodly dinner of
Roast Beef and Plum Pudding. In accordance with
the newly revived and most admirable custom, the
guests were waited upon by ladies and gentlemen.
Perfect order and nnmingled harmony prevailed,
and the poor people seemed most thoroughly to enjoy
the banquet prepared for them. Heaven knows, to
many of their number it was a banquet indeed. They
may have dreamt of beef and pudding for days, and
for days to come they may dream of the realization
of their vision. Do you know how much these needle.
women —paid by the institution at rates far higher
than those accorded for slopwork- can earn? At
most eight shillings a week. For less than a hundred
pence every seven days not much beef can be bought
between Saturday and Saturday.
When the four hundred bail plentifully fed they
were marshalled on benches in the largest school-room,
and another portion of the evening s entertainment
commenced. There was ventriloquism; there was a
magic lantern; there was sacred and there was
secular singing, and appropriate addresses were de-
livered at the beginning and at the end rrf the
proceedings by two reverend gentlemen, Mr. Fom.ift
and Mr. r ladman. The women seemed very patient,
very quiet, very docile; and, indeed, according to
the admirable Lady Superintendent, Miss Ellen
Barlett, the authoress of Our Homeless Poor"—
the work which first called attention to the neces-
sity for ouch an institution as the present--they
are always quiet and well-behaved. Rarely have we
looked on a more poverty-stricken, careworn-look-
ing, and dejected assemblage of countenances. The
bountiful meal, the warm room, the shows and 111118iC, .
the kindness of their hosts, hail cheered them up a •
little; but it was easy to see that, for six days out of
the seven. life WBB a very sad and serious thing to
them. They were all decently clad ; but they had a
pinched and "peaking" look. With the exception of 1
half a score ruddy young lasses who did " machine i
work" and so earned better wages, the four hundred j
were mature and middle-aged women. Many of them I
were old. They seemed but a feeble folk, poor
quivering osiers and aspens of humanity, liable to be
swayed and buffeted hi every blast. It was but a little
that they could do. "Plain work" summed up their
entire capacity. They were not "cutters" or" fancy"
hands. They could just new the parts of a shirt
together. Numbers of them, we are told, were the
widows or the deserted wives of mechanics; many
had large families; many more had lices, from youth,
single and self-dependent women. We are apt to laugh
s ttttt etimee at "1,1,1 maids ;" but ttiere is nothing very
provocative of hilarity in the spinster of the humblest
classes--too " plain " to find a husband, even among
bachelors of her own degree—illiterate' unfriended,
and forlorn. These are not the kind of women who
prefer "flaunting sin" to honest industry, or who fill
penitent homes. They are meek, decent, harmless
beings, whose entire energies are devoted to the ac-
quisition of daily bread, hut who are constantly fain
to cry out in agony—although they may never have
read a line of Tom Hood—that bread should be so
very dear, and flesh and blood so cheap.
The usual price paid by the "slop" houses for ,
Making a shirt, is Nib.) but the Inetitution for Needle-
women, which takes in Government work only, has
been able, during the last seven years, to raise the I
allowance to 9d. per shirt, with the additional help I
that the stitching is done by machinery, which is :
, worth, in the sempetreits's estimation of time, 2d. a
shirt more. For some years past, the War Office has
: given the Neeffiewomen's I nstitutions an annual con-
tract for tifty thousand itirl,l lees shirts ; lint the number
has now been reduced te fifteen thousand, and notice
has been given that, next -Vpril, the contract will be
withdrawn altogether, in order to supply the soldiers'
1 wives at Woolwich with employment. The managers
I of the institution have been thrown into, state of con-
sternation bordering on despair by these cruel tidings ;
and it has become necessary to exert all the in-
fluence which the needlewomen's friends can
bring to bear upon the Government, to induce it, if
that be possible, to reconsider a hasty determine-
thin. The War Office is doubtless actuated by a
laudable desire to ameliorate the conditron of the
wives of our soldiers ; but it is an well to bear in mind
that those women are the wives of men in active em-
ployment and in the receipt of wages, whereas the
Hinde-street sempstrewses are entirely self -dependent.
The soldier's wife very frequently goes abroad with her
husband. She often gets the officers' washing; she is
usually a bustling, robust woman, in the prime f life;
at all events, while her husband wears the Queen's
scarlet, she cannot become utterly destitute. The
poor London neeillewomen, whose came is so eloquently
pleaded LT Miss Barlee, and to help whom she has no
indefatigably laboured, will have no refuge, if the
withdrawal of the Government contract be persisted
in, but the workhouse. They are too old to emigrate;
they are not fit to go out to service ; they can only
sew ; and if the Government sewilio be taken away
from them, to the union they must iairllibly go. Minis
Barter cannot take in private slop.work. The wages
are simply starvation. Skit too tking at 3.1. to 4id. a
piece will trot keep body osol soil together.