New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-06-08
THE WORKING GIRLS OF NEW YORK.

We are all familiar with the great
dramatists appreciation of the man who
lays his hand upon woman save In the
way of kindness. But he who receives
her work at low prices, and then by pro-
cess of plain swindling, leaves her to
starve for lack of her pay, has had his
Immortality prologued by means of a
New York statute, which invites any new
Shakespeare, or other sort of bard, to pro-
pitiate him in such fashion as may make
the immortality safe. If Boxer is avail
able We should like to submit the statute
in phrase Ineligible to him, so that when
the dramatic opportunity occurs he may
outwork an inspiration adapted to the
coming Woman's era. Here is the law:
He who employs woman,
Aud her hire withholds, of which some
court
Doth furnish condemnation, shall be
seized
II still theron he do withhold her hire
And in the debtors prison be confined
Five days, and not the prison limits be al
This we think comprises all the act con-
tains appalling to the judgment debtor,
and having one quality of poetry, that is
to say the feet, has in our indulgent eyes
the tripping grace of statuette rather
than the sternness of statute. However,
with view to that further certainty"
always invoked in the cause of justice, we
give the legislators version of the remedy
in both its parts:
An act for the protection of female EN-.
ployes in the city of New York.
SECTION l. No property now exempt by
law shall be exempt from the levy, or sale
under an execution issued upon judgment
obtained in any court in the city OF New
York. for work, labor, or services done or
performed by any female employe, when
such amount does not exceed the sum of
fifteen dollars exclusive of costs.
SEC. 2. Whenever any execution issued
upon judgment as aforesaid shall be re-
turned unsatisied. the clerk of the court
wherein such judgment was obtained, shall
issue further execution to any marshal of
the city of New York, commanding him to
collect the amount due upon such judgment,
- a. NSAaAiS Va Poy AhShe tuCACol, " dlACSb
the defendant in such execution, and have
him safely conveyed to the Jail or debtors
prison of the county Of New York, and COM
the jailOr of said Jail to keep tie
said defendant without benefit of Jail limits
until the said defendant shall pay the said
Judgment, or be discharged according to
aw. But such imprisonment shall in no
case extend beyond the period of five days.
This persuasive writ is what in old
lines lawyers called capias ad satisfa-
,iendom, short ca. sa. 1t has been abol-
shed in all the States, here in 1910. The
world of New York, moving
IS all things, tangible or other, are said to
move, that is, in circle, or differently |
repeating themselves, has ad-
'anced back to the old civilization. There |
eems to be no other community so far on
n this backward progress-even in the
empire State-owing to the absence of
hat progressive ingredient in the popula-
ion that swindles females. But New
,ork is ever observant of one care, which
=, as she passes other cities in the race of
7ealth and numbers, to discard habits
hat are obsolete and excel examples that
re foreign, putting aside "sweet SIM
licity' with the grin of burglar, and
utvieing French social art with the
kill of prodigy. We remember New
'ork in her unsophistical days,
hen, to modest population of
vo hundred thousand, she cried
curly sail is well, from the cupola Of her
Id City Hall, which could not be truth
lily cried in the metropolis she now is,
original morals, model religion unex-
sptionably preached, murder as fine
It, and an audacity, domestic in its
rigin, perpetually exercising itself in the
rSest individual freedom, and limiting
! restraint to the community it enlivens.
Well will it be for New York and her
orking girls, if, in her backward
'ogress, she overake the good old times
all times when old are good.''
hen flesh and blood travelled abroad
tely in the old country stage, and morals
ere untempted at home by the seduc-
ons of vice-and when nothing could
we seemed so remote or impossible to
g dream of the legislator as ian act for
e protection of female employees in the
~ of New Vorl,