The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-06-14
WHITE SLAVES Ar THE NORTH.

WHITE SLAVES Ar THE NORTH.
There is class of people in this country
who get up at ) A. NJ, and seldom get
back to bed until ten and eleven at night;
who work without reading the whole of
that time, and receive no other emolumeat
than food and the p~lainest clothing. They
understand something of every branch Of
economy and labor, from finance to cook
ing. Although harassed by q hundred
responsibilities, driven and worried, re-
preached and looked down upon. they
never revolt, and they cannot organize for
their own protection.
Not even sickne IS releases them from
their posts. No sacrifice is deemed too
great for them to make, and no incompet-
cncy IN any branch of their work is excused.
No books or essays are written in tribute
to their steadfastness. They die in the
harness, and are supplanted as quickly as
may be.
These are the housekeeping wives Of
laborIng men. It IS they that get their
husbands breakfast at 5 A. b.; get the
children Off. to school. do the washing,
ironing, baking sewing, scrubbing, sweep
ing, and marketing, care for TIE babies
and do the family mending after the hus-
band lies asleep. They 60 TO bed, but
hardly to sleep, for nursing children often
draw their life from them all night long.
What leisure enjoyment is there for
them2 What chance for improvement or
uplifting? What do they think Of the
eight-hour movement? It means to them
that the calico they now buy for five cents
will cost eight by-and-by; that the coal,
instead of six, will soon be seven aud eight
dollars a ton, and that the ~pittances out
of which they bay these bare necessaries
OF life will be less before long. It is a
pleasure to them that their husbands will
have two hours more of leisure II the
men stay at home during that time, the
chances are that the wives will be reproaoh-
ed for what is deemed neglect, and that
some of the children will be whipped. VIII
the husbands fetch coal, or polish the
stove. or take the washing from the line,
or go TO market? Not for one day in the
3G5. Too often they viii ~irritate their
wives with their wittieIsms, will make the
children unhappy, and then leave for sone
place more suited to their s~elGshness. It
sounds hard, but it is true, and every We
man knows that it is true. She knows
that there will be two hours less in which
to earnmoney, and two hours morei in which
to spend It. She knows that her burden
viii bel lighter, and in patient cynicism
she awaits the result. Are these women
striking for eight hours? Have they q
union to which they can appeal against the
cruelty of their taskmasters2 Are eloquent
voices raised in their behalf? Are there any
lass enacted for their beneft2
Are there any prominent journals advo-
eating their canse9 What would their hus-
bands say if these women turned out ca
aaasse and voted not to work but 4 certain
number of hours per day, or demanded
that a more righteous division of tue in
come be made hereafter? They would,
| doubtless, say it was midsummer madness.
Is the picture over DRAWN Do or do not
| these women receive their shares? Is work
ing fifteen hours a day cooking over hot
stoves, scFubbing over washtubs, exposing
the body to every danger of our fekle eli
mate, bearing on an average 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 p~lainest eIothing-is this a fair half Of
the working partnership Is this an equal
division of labor with an equal distribution
of the profits. What would some Of the
men who are parading the streets, volun-
tarily out of work, and in their best clothes,
do if they found themselves bound to en-
ployers by a tie that could not be dissolved,
while their work was made 4 thousand
times more laborious and the hours nearly
doubled?-Kafg Harris.