Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1844-10-12
THE LOWELL OFFERING.
LETTER FROM MISS MARTINEAu.

Your interest in this Lowell book can scarce.
ly equal mine for have seen the factory
girls in their Lyceum, and have gone over the
cotton mills at Waltham, and made myself ia.
mlliar on the spot with factory life in New
England so that in reading the "Ohering," |
saw again in my memory the street OF houses
butt by the earnings of the girls, the church
which is their property, and the girls them
! selves trooping to the MILL with their health.
fuI countenanccs, and their neat dress and ou-
! ct manners, resembling those of the tradesman
class OF our country. My visit to Lowell was
merely for one day. in company with Mr.. En-
ersons party,-he Cthe pride and beast of New
England as an author and phosophcr) being
engaged by the Lowell factory people 70 lee
tire 20 them, in a winter course of historical
| biography. OF course the lectures were de.
livered in the evening, after the mills were
| closed. The girls were then working seventy
hours week, yet, as | looked al the large au.
dience (and attended more TO them than the
lecture) saw 10 sign of WEAKNESS among any
of them. There they sat- row behind row, in
their own Lyceum-a large hall, wainscoted
with mahogany, the platform carpeted, well
| lighted, provided with handsome table, desk,
and seat, and adorned with portraits ofa few
worthless; and as they thus sat listening to their
| lecturer, all wakeful and interested, all well
dressed and lady-lke, | could not but tcel my
| heart swell at the thought of what such sight
would be with us. Tho difference is not in
rank, for these young people were all daugh.
tiers of parents who earn their bread with their
own hands. 1t is not in the amount of wages.
however usual that supposition is, for they
were then earning from one to three dollars a
week, besifes their food the children one dol
lar (4s. 3D. y the second rate workers two dol
lars, and the best three the cost of their dress
and necessary comforts being much above
what the same class expcnd in this country. II
is not in the amount otto for, as have said,
they worked seventy clear hours per week.
| The difference was in their superior culture.
Their minds are kept fresh and strong, and
power of thought aud this ia the reason why
they are not worn and depressed under their
! labors.
They begin with IA poorer chance for health
than our people tor the health ct the New Eng.
land women generally is not good, owing TO cir
cumstances of climate and other influences
but among the $500 women and girls in the
! Lowell mills when was there, the average of
health was not lower than elsewhere aud the
disease which was most mischievous was the
same that proves most fatal over the whole
cOuntry-consumption while there were no
complaints peculiar to the mill lite. At Walt
ham, where saw the mills, and convcrsed with
the people, had an opportunity OF observing
the invigorating effects of MIND in n life of la. &.
bor Twice the wages and half the toll would
not have made the girls. saw happy and healthy
without that cultivation OF mind which afforded
them perpetual support, entertainment and
motive for activity. They were not highly
educated, but they had pleasure in books and
, lectures, IN correspondence with home ;; and
had Their minds so open TO fresh ideas, as to
be drawn of from thoughts of themselves and
their own concerns. When at work they
were amused with thinking over the last book
4 they had read, or with planning the account
/ they should write home of the las, Sundays
sermon, or with singing over To themselves tue
song they meant to practise in the evening"
and when evening came, nothing was heard oi
tired limbs und Cagerness for bed but, if it was
summer, they sailed out, the moment tea was
/ over, for a walk, and, if 1t was winter, to the
. ipc IN no hal Il.rpp
or they got an hours practice ct the piano, or
wrote home, or shut themselves ~ with new
book. 1t was durlug the hours OF work 10 the
mill that the papers in the "Oiierng" were me-
dItated, and It was after work in the evenings
that they were penned There is, however, IN
the case OF these girls, a stronger support, a
more elastic spring of vigor and cheertulness.
! than even an active aud cultivated understand.
! ing. The institution of factory labor has
brought ease OF heart to many; and to many
occasion for noble and generous deeds The
ease OF heart is given 10 those who were before
suffering in silent poverty, from the deficiency
oi Prohta6ie employment for women, which Is
even greater IN America than with us. 1t
used to be understood there that oil women
were maintained by the men of their families ;
bat the young men of New England are apt to
troop of into the " est, to settle in new lands,
leaving sisters at home. Some few return to
fetch wife, but the greater number do not,
and Ihus vast over proportion of young women
remains and to multitude of these the OPEN
ing of factories was most welcome event a f.