St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-05-13
THE WIVES SIDE OF THE CASE
some Suggestions in Behalf of Those
Who Cannot Strike.

Some Suggestions in Behalf of Those
Who Cannot Strike.
There is class of people in this
n Country who get up at 5 o'clock in the
morning and who never get back to
bed until I'D or ii o'clock at night
who work without ceasing the whole
& Df that time, and receive no other
4 emOlument than food and the plainest
#clOthing; they understand something
4 of every branch of economy and labor,
B from finance to cooking; though
4 harassed by hundred responsibilities,
|thOugh driven and worried, though re-
\ preached and looked down upon, they
never revolt, and they cannot organ
ize for their own protection. Not
even sickness releases them from their
posts. No sacrifice is deemed too
4 great for them to make, and no incOm-
potency in any branch of their work is
Excused. No essays or books or poems
bare written in tribute to their stead
fastness. They die in the harness and
are supplanted as quickly as may be.
These are the housekeeping wives of
4 the laboring men. 1t is they who get
their husbands breakfast at 5 O'Clock
in the morning, get the children off to
ing. sewing, scrnbbing, sweeping and
marketing, caring all the while for the
babies and doing the mending after
the husband lies snoring. They do go
4 to bed, but hardly sleep, for nursing
children often draw their life from
them all the night long.
What leisure or enjoyment for themq
What chance for Improvement or up
/ e hot Il fl,nN f.,lr
1.-The eight-hOur movement They
#think it means that the calico they now
|buy for cents will cost 8 cents by and
+ by that the coal will soon be 81 and
SO a ton, aud that the pittances out of
which they now buy these will be less
4 before long. Is it pleasure to them
that their husbands will have two
. hours more leisureP If the men stay
are the wives will be reprOached for
4 what is deemed neglect, and that some
, of the children will be whipped. Will
4 the husbands fetch coal, or black the
4 stoves, or take the washing from the
a line, or 90 to the markets Not for
4 one day out of the 365. They will ir-
ritate them with their criticisms, will
make the children unhappy and then
ledNt ioi SouiC pitSO uiOiO S"iOOu w
&their selfshness. 1t sounds hard, but
Dit is true, and every woman knows
that it is true. She knows that there
Twill be two hours less in which to earn
money and two hours more in which to
spend it. She knows that her burden
will be no lighter and in patient eyni-
cism she awaits the result.
Are these women striking for eight
n I. L. A.,
they can appeal against the cruelty of
their taskmasters Are eloquent
voices raised in their behalfP Are
4 there any laws enacted for their bene-
fitP Are there any prominent Jour
nails advocating their causeP What
would their husbands say if these
women turned out ell masse and voted
Ito work but IA certain number of hours
per day and demanded that more
righteous division of the income be
made hereafter
They would doubtless say it was
midsummer madness. Is the picture
overdrawn2 Do or do not these wom-
en- receive their share Is working
Il fifteen hours day, cooking over hot
stoves, scrubbing over washtubs, ex-
posing the body To every change OF
our tickle climate, bearing on an aver
age one child year, and making both
ends meet after the rent is paid and
the husbands beer money is spent, in
return for food, shelter and the plain
est clothing-is this fair half of the
working partnership Is this AN equal
division of labor with an equal distri-
button of the profits What would
some of the men who are parading the
streets, voluntarily out of work and ia
their best clothes, do if they found
themselves bound to employers by a
tie that could not he dissolved, while
their work Was made ii Thousand time,
more laboriOus and the hours nearl,
doubled f-lChicagO News.