Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-19

who have comfortable honest Some of
the worst villains of our cities are the en-
ployers of these women They beat e
down to the last penny and try to cheat
them out of that. The woman must de-
posit one or two dollars before she gets tho
garments to work on. When the work is
done it. is sharply inspected, the most in
significant flaws picked out and the wages
refused and sometimes the one dollar de-
posted not given back.
A sTALwART FRIEND.
The Woman's Protective Union reports
q case where one of these poor souls, find
Ing a place where she could get more
wages, resolved to change employers and
went to get her pay for work done. The
employer says: 81 hear you are going to
leave me?" eyes," she said. land l have
come to get what you owe me-" He made
no answer. She said: Are you not go
ing to pay me?" eyes," he said, 81 will
pay you," and he kicked her down stairs.
Oh, chat Woman's Protective Union, 10
Clinton Place, New York! The blessings
of Heaven be on it for the merciful and
toiling womanhood. What tragedies of
u pIeSeuU6u W UuS1u udY ny
day! A paragraph from their report:
"'Can you makeM Mr.. Jones pay me? He
owes me for three weeks at $3.50 a week,
and l can't get any thing, and my child is
very SICK The speaker, q young woman
lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears
as she spoke. She was hidden to come the
next afternoon and repeat her story to the
attorney at the usual weekly hearing of
frauds and impositions. Means were found
by which Mr.. Jones was induced to pay
the $780,"
THE BALLOT NO REMEDY.
How are these evils to be eradicated?
Some q "Give women the ballot"
What effect such ballot might have on 9TH
er questions I am not here to discuss; but
what would be the effect Of female
suffrage on women's wages? 1 do not be-
lieve that women will ever get justice by
woman's ballot. Indeed, women oppose
women as much as men do. Do not
women, as much as men, beat down to the
lowest figure the woman who sews for
them? Are not women as sharp as men on
washer-women, milliners and mantua-
makers? If a woman asks one dollar for
her work, does not her female employer
1oA - IL IL l AOU HdAo AlueUy CeuUS.
You say: "Only ten cents difference but
that is sometimes the difference between
Heaven and hell. Women have often less
commiseration for women than men. If a
woman steps aside from the path of recti-
tude man may forgive, woman never!
Woman will never get justice lone her
from woman's ballot; neither will she get
it from mans ballot. How then? God will
rise up for her. God has more resources
than we know of. The flaming sword that
hung at Eden's gate when woman was
driven out will cleave with its terrible edge
her oppressors.
But there is something for women to do.
Let young people prepare to excel in
spheres of work and they will be able aft
er awhile to get larger wages. If it be
shown that a IONA can in q store sell
more goods in a year than a man she will
soon be able not only to ask, but to demand
more wages, and to demand them success
fully. Unskilled and incompetent labor
must take what is given; skilled and COM
potent labor will eventually make it's own
standard. Admitting that the law of sup
ply and demand regulates these things, l
contend that the demand for skilled la
Dor is very great and the supply very
small. Start with the idea that work
is honorable, and that you can do some
one thing better than any body else.
Resolve that, God helping, you will
take care of yourself. If you are, after
awhile, called into another relation, you
will all the better be qualified for it by
your spirit of self-reliance; or if you are
called to stay as you are you can be happy
o,l o1e er, D1a& r,o ca,I -
talking about man as an oak, and woman
as the vine that climbs it; but l AVE seen
many a tree fall that not only went down
itself, but took all the vines with it. I can
tell you of something stronger than an oak
to climb on, and that is the throne of the
Great Jehovah. Single or afianced, that
woman is strong who leans on God and
does her best. The needle may break, the
factory band may slip, the wages may
fail, but over every good woman's head
there are spread the two great, gentle,
stupendous wings of the Almighty.
SHARP CONTRAST.
Many of you will gos single-handed
through life, and you will ave to choose
between two characters. Young woman,
I am sure you will turn your back upon the
useless, giggling, irresponsible nonentity
which society ANONYMOUSLY acknowledges
to be a woman, and ask God to make you a
humble, active, earnest Christian. What
will become Of that womanly disciple of
the world? She is more thoughtful of the
attitude she strikes upon the carpet thar
how she will look upon the judgment;
more worried about her freckles than her
sins; more interested in her apparel than
in her redemption. The dying actress
whose life had been vicious said: "The
scene closes; draw the curtain" Gener-
ally the tragedy comes first and the farce
afterwards; but in her life it was first the
farce of a wretched life and then the trag-
edy of a wretched eternity.
Compare the life and death of such a
one with that of some Christian aunt that
was once a blessing to your household. l
do not know that she was ever offered the
hand in marriage. She lived single that,
,,ptrauma1od cha miuht ha ororybo1y-,c