Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-05-31
An Eight-Eour Reflection.

There Is class oil people IN this country
who get up at five o'clock in the morning
and who never get back TO bed uutil ten or
eleven o'clock at night; who work without
ceasing the whole of that time, and receive
no other emolument than food and the
planest clothing; they understand some
thing of every branch Of economy and labor,
from finance to cooking though harassed
by a hundred responsibilities, though driven
and worried, though reproached and looked
down upon, they never revolt, and they
cannot organize for their own protection.
Not even sickness releases them from their
posts. No sacrifice is deemed too great for
them to make, and no incompetency in any
branch of their work is excused. No essays
or books or poems are written in tribute 10
their steadfastness. They die in the hnr-
ness and are supplanted as quickly as
may be.
These are the housekeeping wives Of the
laboring man. 1t is they who get their
husbands break fast at 5 o'clock in the
morning, get The children of to school, do
the washing, ironing, baking, sew ing, scrub.
bing, sweeping and marketing, caring all
the while for the babies, and doing the
mending after the husband lies snoring.
They 90 TO bed, but hardly Sleep for nursing
children often draw their life from them all
the night long.
What leisure or enjoyment for them?
What chance for improvement or uplifting?
And what do they think OF the eight'ho
movement? They think it means that the
calico they now buy for 3 cents will cost S
cents by and by; that the coal will soon be
81 and IS ton, and that the pittances out
of which they now buy these will be loss
before long. Is it q pleasure to them that
their husbands will have two hours more
leisure2 If the men stay ct home during that
time the chances are the wives will be re-
preached for what's deemed neglect, and that
some of the children will BIO whipped. Will
the husbands fetch coal, or black the stoves,
or take the washing from tho line, or go TO
the market? Not for one day out Of the
3G5. They will irritate them with their
criticisms will make the children unhappy,
and then leave for some place moro suited
to their seltishness. 1t sounds hard, but it is
true, and every woman knows that it is
true She knows that there will 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 crnicism she awaits the re-
suit.
Are those women striking for eight hours?
Have they union to which they can ap-
peal against the cruelty of their task mas.
tiers? Are eloquent voices raised in their
behalf? Are there any laws enacted for
their benefit? Are there any prominent
journals advocating their cause? What
would their husbands say if these women
turned out Ell masse and voted not to work
but a certain number of hours per day, and
demanded that more righteous division OF
the income be made hereafter?
They would doubtless say it was midsum
mer madness. Is the picture overdrawn
Do or do not these women receive their
share2 Is working Is hours day cooking
over hot stoves, scrubbing over washtubs,
exposing the body to every change of our
tickle climate, bearing on an average one
child a year, md making both ends meet
after the rent is paid and the husbands beer
money is spent, in return for food, shelter
and the plainest clothing-is this fair halt
Of the working partnership? Is this an
equal division OF labor with an equal diatri
button of the profits? What would some OF
The men who are paradiug the streets vol
unfairly out Of work and in their best clothes
10 if they found themselves bound to en-
oloyers by tie that could not be dissolved,
while their work was made thousand times
more laborious, and the hours nearly |
doubled ?-ChicdgO NcWs.