The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-11-03
Out Of Work.


There are always some persons who arc
most of the time out of employment
One reason is that they are not willing tc
begin at the foot Of the ladder. They
want to start with high wages, and disdair
the slow process of climbing up. A
woman who seemed anxious for work by
which to maintain herself and two chill
dren called the other day upon sewing ma.
chine operator. She watched the busy fing
ers fold and arrange the cloth, and steady il
as it passed through the clicking process
for some time, then said : Glow much
| do you earn a day ?"
about 49,"
THAT is good pay if could make 81
day, would go into the business. But ]
don't see how you do it; tried it once
but found made but forty cents day
and so gave it up"
How long did you try itg" "Only
one day; that was enough for me-"
"Well, you earned more than did on the
start, for l made but thirty five cents. So
persevered, and every day 1 earned q
little more, till by the time had paid for
the improvement, I found / was doing
very we'll. What are you doing now r.
Nothing. i have been looking around
but l haven't found anything to suit me"
but how do you get along. My chill
dren would go hungry if did not keep
at work.
Well, / manage somehow. We ALWAYS
have something to eat I can't say we live
on the fat of the land, for we are frequent
ly reduced to mush and molasses, but ]
hope to do better by and by. have tried
ever so many things but won't work I'M
less l get good pay"
Was fate against this woman, as she
sometimes averred, or was it her own lack
of perseverance that kept her walking the
street in search of employment
A few years ago we were acquainted
with two persons who were out of bust
ness. One was a lad of sixteen, the other
man of thirty. Both tried for some time
to get work Of the kind they were accus-
toned to do, but both failed The boy
after three weeks of idleness, concluded
that if he could not do what he would, he
must do what he could, and he went out
one morning determined to find work of
some kind. Before noon he had engaged
as day laborer on the road to shovel sand
at S15 a month. Being unused to manual
labor, his hands and feet became blistered,
and he returned home every night COM
pletely exhausted. But he perseVered for
six weeks, till the job was completed, and
then taking his earnings he went to anoth-
er town where he soon found more con-
genial employment.
The man hung round the city for weeks
and months. He had but little means and
that little dwindled away. He was offered
situation after situation, but he disdained to
work unless he could have "big thing"
as he expressed it, His clothes grew
shabby, and he ran in debt at his tailors !;
his board bill became due and he borrowed
money as long as he could find any person
willing to lend, some of it coming from
the pocket of hard working men upon
whom he looked with disdain. At last
he became 50 poor, partly through striving
to keep up appearances of wealth that he
determined, if he did not "strike anything"
by the time he was again broke, he would
commit suicide. Fortunately for him at
least, perhaps unfortunately for society,
for the world loses but little in the death
of such man, he struck something, or
thought he did, and went to the mountains
to work. Now as he looks back to the
weeks and months he spent in waiting for
something to turn up, he fancies he was
an i'll used man and that fate was against
him.