The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1863-11-27
The Wall of the WorkWomen,

A few evenings ago, says the New York
World, the home of the Secretary of the Treas.
ury in Washington became for few hours the
exposure of all eyes. Carriage after carriage
thundered up to its doorways blazing with light,
and from each in its turn emerged its fairy
freight Of grace and beauty, cloud after cloud
of ''silken wonders" miracles evoked by wo-
mans taste and woman's toll from the looms of
hundred lands.
To one who watched that gay and gorgeous
scene how bright beyond even the optimistic
dreams of Mr.. Secretary SEWARD must the state
and hope of the republic have seemed! The
daughter Of the magician who has filled the land
with green and growing promises to pay was
that night welded to senator whose name
should be the synonym of prosperous "patriot-
ISM" Since the marriage of Aladdin with the
Princess Badourah no such happy fulfllment of
opulence, woven from air and hcaped up by
Djnns as potent as impalpable, hath been SEEM
Wealth and power were striking hands; and the
soul Of jenkins swelled within him as he passed
in glittering review the splendid tribute which
these conjoined divinities of his hearts adora-
tion were bringing to the shrine of youth and
beauty. Let not jenkins be blamed; nor let
one harsh thought be brcathed upon that brill
liant bridal hour.
But the jewels and the flowers, the diamonds
and the laces, which turned the night to fra
grant day on that fair festival, rose and fell to
the pulses of women's hearts. The scene itself
were but an empty pageant or worse, save for
the sanctity which the soul of wotnanhood sheds
over the wedding feast and the wedding gar
ments And wherever in all the land a wo-
mans eyes are resting with natural and COM
mendabe delight upon the fascinating details of
costumes incomprehensible to the masculine
mind, of jewels bright as the stars, and embro-
deries delicate as the froc frost-work on the
forest trees Of winter we ask that woman's
heart and soul TO turn with US for Il moment to
anoihcrscene which marked that night of Thurs
day in another city of the great republic Ina
hall in the l5owery of New York there are cath.
cred together hundreds OF girls. 1t is no bridal
festival which they are celebrating. Hunger is
in their eyes; their hands arc worn and hard
with ceaseless labor; their cheeks are wan with
care and disappointment and despair. No mu-
sic aatters this sad and eager throng into deli
cious dreams; no flowers wreathe for them the
gaunt realities of daily life with whispers of love
and hope and happiness TO come. 70 them the
''cup has been dealt in quite another measure"
To them life seems simply living; The fierce, re.
lentless, unremitting effort to clutch with those
thin, frail fingers the scanty bread of every day
from the world that whirls about and above
them, noisy, clamorous, needless Of them and
theirs. These are no daughters Of the Treasu-
~, no brides Of the Senate. These are the
daughters of the people; the patient, sad-eyed
daughters of labor and of suffering. Like the
prondcst and fairest in the land, they, too lead
their womanly life in secusion from the public
eye. Year after year they work on uncomplain-
ing, nnheard of, asking only to be suffered TO
keep body and soul together in such wise tha,
the body's life may not be purchased by the
rours death. Content to know as little of dia-
rnonds as of the stars, Of laces as of the clouds.
1t they can but save an aged mother, a helpless
iather, an orphaned household Of brothers and
sisters from the wolf that prowls forever about
the door
The proud and the fair emerge from the sump-
1uous privacy of home for brief moment at
the summons of pleasure, and happiness, and
love These emerge from their privacy, as dear
iof all ITS poverty, at quite another summons.
They come before US, not that we may admire
the splendors of their trosseaux but that we
may measure the depth Of their despair. The
prosperous land which lavishes upon the Prin-
cess lBadourah its fifty thousand dollars worth
OF magnificent parapheralia deals out to these
sisters of hers an average income of two dol
lars per week. Once they lived upon this pit.
tahce and made no sigh, wringing from it house
rent, clothing, fire in winter, food in health
where health was a kind of sickness, medicine
inisickness where sickness revealed the one sure
hope OF rest. But the wand of the magician
Las smiiien their dollars. and withered them,