The Brookhaven leader., 1886-06-10
Stand a, the corner Of a street in New

The working girls Of New York and
Brooklyn. These engaged in head work,
these in hower-making, in millinery,
paper-box making; bat, most overworked
of all and least compen ated. the SEWN g
women. Why do they not take the city
cars on their way up: They can not afford
the FIVE cents. IT, concluding to deny her
self 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, hotter fire, a more
agonizing death. Ask that woman how
much she gets for her work and she will
tell you six cents for making coarse shirts
and finds her own thread.
speak more fifty of womau's wrongs
because she has not been heard ia the
present agitation. You know more Of
what men have suffered. l said to a COL
ored man who, IN Missouri last March,
came into my room in the morning to build
my fire: "Sam, how much wages do you
people get around heref" He replied:
"Ten dollars q month, sir" | asked:
"Have you a family" eyes" said he,
"wife and children" Think of it; Sl2O a
year to support family on. My friends,
there is something in this world awfullv
atwist. When | think of these things |
am not bothered as some of my brethren
with the abstract questions as to why
God let sin come into the world. The only
wonder with me is that God don't smash
this world up and start another in place
Of it.
One great trial that the working classes
feel is physical exhaustion. There are
athletes who go out to their work al six or
seven O'Clock in the morning and come
back a. night as fresh as when they start
ed. They turn their back upon the shut
tie or the forge or the rising wall, and
they come away elastic and whistling.
That is the exception. have noticed that
when the factory bell taps for six O'Clock,
the hard working man YEARLY puts his
arm into his Coat-sleeve and starts for
home. He sits down in the family circle
resolved to make himself agreeable, to be
the means Of culture and education to his
children; but in five minutes he is sound
asleep. He is tagged out-strength of
body, mind and soul utterly exhausted.
He rises in the morning only half rested
from the toll Indeed be will naver have
any perfect rest in this world. until he
gets into one narrow spot which is the
only perfect rest for the human body in this
world | think they call it a grave! Has
toll frosted the color of your cheeks: Has
it taken all spontaneity from your laugh
ter: Has it suJtracted the spring from
your step and the luster from sour eye,
until it has left YOU only half the man you
were when you first put your hand on the
l, 4.
morrow, in your place of toll, listen. and
you will hear a voice above the hiss OF the
furnace and the groan of the foundry and
the clatter OF the sbuttle-a voice not of
machinery nor of the task master, but the
voice of an sympathetic God, as he
says
Come unto me all you who labor and are
heavy laden, and VII give you rest
Let all men and women OF toll re-
member that this work will soon be over.
Have they not beard that there is a great
holiday coming: O! that home, and no
long walk to get to it. o! that bread and
no sweating toll necessary to earn it. o.!
these deep wells of eternal rapture and no
heavy buckets to draw up. wish they
would put their head on this pillow stuffed
with the down from the wing of all Gods
promises. There remains rest for the
people of God.
wonder how many tired people there
are in the house to-day. A thousand?
More than that. Two thousand people
who are tired, tired oIt with thor life,
tired in hand and foot and back and heart.
Ali there are moe than two thousand
people here to-day, supposing all the rest
to be in luxury and in ease. Yonder is a
woman who has her head down on her
hand. What does that mean? Ask her
1t has been tiresome week to her.
so" she says, "when will l ever get
anv rest?"
Do you say:
1--WE have sewing machines now in our
great cities AMI the trouble is gone"
No, It is not see q great MANY women
wearing themselves out amid the hard
SHIPS of the sewing machine. A Christian
man went into uouSe OF good deal Of
restitution in New York, and he saw a
poor woman there with a sick child, and
he was telling the woman how good
Christian she ought to be and how she
oue int to put her trust in God.
son :" she said, II have no Goi. | work
from Monday morning until Saturday
night, and ] get no rest, and | never hear
any thing that does my soul any good !;
and when Sunday comes | haven't any
bonnet that can wear to church, and
have sometime got down to pray, and
then | got up saying TO my husband: MY
dear, there is no use of my praying; | am
so distracted | can't pray; it don't do any
good Oh sir, it is very hard to work on
as we people do from year 20 year, and to
see nothing bright ahead. and TO see the
poor little child getting thinner and thin
ner, and my man almost broken down,
and to be getting no nearer to God, but to
be getting farther away from him. Oh, if
l were only ready to die"
May God comfort all who toll with the
needle and the sewing-machine, and have
compassion on those horne down under the
fatigues of life
Another great trial is privatiOn of taste
and sentiment. There are mechanic, who
have their beautiful homes, who have their
fine wardrobes, who have all the best
fruits and meats of the earth brought to
their tables. They have their elegant
libraries. But they are the exception.
A great many of the working people
of our country are living in cramped
abodes, struggling amid great hardships,
! living in neighborhoods where they do
not want to live, but where they have TO
live. do not know of any thing more
/ painful than to have a fne taste for paint
ing and sculpture, and music md glorious
sunsets, and the expanss of the blue sky,
and yet not be able TO get the dollar for
the oratorio, or to get a picture, or to buy