St. Landry democrat., 1885-06-13

many of our large establishments will be
swallowed up quicker than South
American earthquake ever took down
city. God will catch these oppressors be-
tween the two millstones of His wrath
and grind them to powder.
Why is it that female Principal in
school gets only 1925 for doing work for
which male Principal gets 81, $50? hear
| from all this land the wall of womanhood.
Man has nothing to answer to that wall but
batteries. He says she is an angel. She
| is not. She knows she is not. She is a
human being, who gets hungry when she
| has no food and cold when she has no fire.
Give her no more batteries; give her JUS
tice. There are sixty five thousand sewing
girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across
the sunlight comes their death groan. 1t
is not such cry as comes from those who
are suddenly hurled out of life, but a slow,
| grinding, horrible wasting away. Gather
| them before you and look into their faces
-pinched, CHASTITY, hung struck! Look
| at their ers-needle-picked and blood
| tippedI See that premature stoop in the
shoulders! Hear, that dry, hacking, mer-
CHESS cough.
At large meeting of these women, held
in hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches
were delivered; but needle-woman took
| the stand, threw aside her faded shawl,
and with her shriveled arm hurled very
thunderbolt of eloquence, speaking out the
horrors of her own experience. Stand at
/ the corner of a street in New York at six
or seven O'Clock in the morning, as the
| women go to their work. Many of them
had no breakfast except the crumbs that
were left over from the night before or the
crumbs they chew on their way through
| the street. Here they come! The work
| ing girls of New York and Brooklyn!
| These engaged in beadwork these in flow
| er-making, in millinery, paper-box MAX
| ing, but most overworked of all and least
compensated, the sewing women. Why
do they not take the city cars on their way
/ up? They can not afford the five cents!
/ If, concluding to deny herself something
else, she gets into the car, give her a seat
| You want to see how Latimer and Ridley
| appeared in the fire! Look at that woman
and behold a more horrible martyrdom, a
hotter fire, a more agonizing death! Ask
that woman how much she gets for her
work, and she will tell you six cents for
1
! thread!
MERCILEsS VILLAINS.
| Years ago one Sabbath night in the ves-
| tibule of this church, after service, woman
| fell in commissions. The doctor said she
needed medicine not so much as something
| to eat. As she began to revive, in her de-
lirium she said, gaspingly: Eight cents !!
eight cents! / wish could get it done! [
am so tired wish l could get some sleep,
but must get it done Eight cents! eight
cents ~ We found afterward that she was
making garments for eight cents apiece
and that she could make but three of them
in day. Hear it! Three times eight are
twenty -four. Hear it, men and women
who have comfortable homes! Some Of
the worst villains of our cities are the en-
ployers of these women. They beat them
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 the
| 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
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?" 'sYes,n she said, sand l have
come to get what you owe me-" He made
no answer. She said: care you not GO
| ing to pay me?" ssYes," he said, 81 will
pay you," and he kicked her down stairs.
| Oh, that Woman's Protective Union, 10
| Clinton Place, New York! The blessings
/ of Heaven be on it for the merciful and
divine work it is doing in the defense of
toiling womanhood. What tragedies of
suffering are presented to them day by
day! A paragraph from their report:
"'Can you make Mr.. Jones pay me? He
owes me for three weeks at 500 week,
and can't get any thing, and my child is
very sick.' The speaker, a young woman
lately widowed, burst into 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,"
Another paragraph from their report:
"a fortnight had passed when she mod
| estly limited desire to know how much
/ her. services were worth. sOh, my DEAR he
replied, you are getting to be one of the
most valuable hands in the trade; you will
always get the very best price. Ten dollars
a week you will be able to earn very east
ly.' And the girls fingers flew on with her
work at marvellous rate. The picture of
ten dollars week had almost turned her
head. A few nights later, while crossing
the ferry, she overheard the name of her