Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-05-21
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Elm, Innr Thnnrhts.

HUT
There is a class Of people in this country
who get up at five o'clock in the morning and
who never get back to bed until 10 or II
O'Clock at night who work without ceasing
the whole of that time and receive no other
emolument than food and the plainest cloth
ing; they understand something Of every
branch Of economy and Labor from finance
to cooking though harassed by hundred
responsibilities, though driven and worried,
though reproaohed 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 incompentency in any branch of their
work il excused. No essays or books or pO-
ems are written in tribute to their steadfast.
ness. They die in the harness and are sup
planted as quickly as may be.
These are the housekeeping wives OF the
laboring man. II is they who get their hus-
bands breakfast at 8 O'Clock in the morning.
get the children of to school, do the wash
ing ironing, baking, sewing, scrubbing,
sweeping, aud marketing, caring all the while
for the babies, and doing the mending after
the husband lies snoring. They do go 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 |?
Aud what do they think of the eight. hour
movement2 They think II means that the
calico they now buy for cents will cost
cents by and by that the ooal will soon be
81 and SIS ton, and that the pittsncos out
of which they now buy these will be less be-
fore long. Is it pleasure TO them that their
husbands will have two hours more leisure Z
II the men stay at home during that time the
chances are that the wives will be reproached
for what is deemed neglect, and that some of
the children will be whipped. Will the hus-
bands fetch coal, or black the stoves, or take
the washing from the line, or go to the mar
ket Not for one day out of the 800. They
will irritate them with their criticisms, will
make the children unhappy, and then leave for
some place more suited to their selhshness.
It sounds hard, but it is true. She knows
that there will be two hours less in which to
earn money and two hours more in which Ia
spend It, She knows that her burden will be-
no lighter, and in patient cynicism she awaits
the result.
Are these women striking for eight hours
Have they union to which they can appeal
against the cruelty of their taskmasters Are
eloquent voices raised in their behalf2 Are
there any prominent journals advocating
| their cause What would their husbands
say II these women turned out en- masse and
| voted not to work but certain number oil
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 theii
share Is working 10 hours a day cooking
over hot stoves, scrubbing over washtubs ex
posing the body to every change Of our tickle
| climate, bearing on an average one child q
/ and rnaGinf, aFt q h.
rent is paid and the husbands beer money il
spent, in return for food, shelter and the
painest clothing-is this a fair half of the
working partnership Is this an equal divis
ion of labor with an equal distribution of the
profits What would some of the men who
are paradng the streets voluntarily out OF
work and in their best clothes do if they
found themselves bound to employers by
tic that could not be dissolved while theii
work was made thousand times more labo
rious, and the hours nearly doubled p CHicd
| 90 Daily Neios