Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

| fellow citizens OF New
| York-editors, lecturers,
| philanthropists-men and women, have ar
rayed this hostof womenperishing for lack oi
wages, and appealed through them TO the
patriotism and humanity OF the nation; and
to every appeal have responded with a
larger host Of women in the country ham,
lets perishing for lack of help, and have
said publicly and privately, "Send me ten
these city sufferers, who will do as well as
they can, and 1 will be responsible to the
extent Of providing them with homes where
at least they shall have comfortable shelter,
abundant food and as large wages as they
shall show themselves capable Of earning.
Not one woman has ever come.
The last cry of the starving resounds from
Delmonieo's. 1 suspect little sarcasm in
the report which deals with the silk gowns
and velvet wraps and tailor-made costumes
and Delmonieo lunch of the Delmonicons,
before reaching the object toftheir assembling,
the discussion of
woRKINGwoMEN's WRONGS.
But have no sarcasm for the we'll dressed
disputants. With all their silks and vel
vets they were, no doubt, as hard-working
women as the seamstresses for whom they
spoke, and they had as good right to eat
Delmonico's lunch As Delmonico had to
cook it. That their wages were better than
the wages of the sewingwomen is not the
fault of their hearts, but the strength of
their heads.
Mrs. Davis, former missionary from
Asia Minor, and leader If not the founder
of the society of "The Kings Daughters,
is reported as saying that there are working
women spending 16 hours day for little
over 500 year; that nothing is surer than
that there will be a revolt in the ranks and
that at no distant date. "There will be an
uprising" says Mrs. Davis, "and if God
spares me 1 shall be in it,
Miss Van Etten is reported as taking the
opposite side from Mrs. Davis. Mrs. Davis
looks to the spread of Christian charity,
the growth of the religious spirit, for the
relief of working women. Miss Van Etten
was so sure that individual effort must
take the shape of demanding public legisla-
tion that "her strong face was pale with
emotion" The discussion had "stirred her
blood" to insist that Organization is the
only way to fight capital" SIT is very
well to condemn strong measures" Miss
Van Etten is reported to have said, "as you
sit here in elegance and comfort, but down
in Lafayette Place are little group of
women trying to arm to fight starvation"
WORKED TO DEATH.
In village wot of there is another
group of women not trying to arm, but. all the
time arming and fighting, not against death
from starvation, for they have food in galore,
but against death from overwear of muscle
and nerve and brain in the attempt to make
homes 1t is a pleasant village lying open
to the sun; lying along the broad highway
winding, curving at its own sweet will
through green country of hills and woods
and brooks and trees and birds. 1t is not a
village remote, inaccessible. The telegraph
touches it. Horse cars come dangerously
near. The steam whistle of the railroads is
heard there 40 times a day, and twice each
day comes the friendly hand of the national
Government bringing letters from the farth-
est corners of the earth. The evening skies
are illumined with the electric lights of four
cities-the Aurora Borealis of man; and
when Boston burned her crooked streets, not
long ago, the hamlet hills we're aflame be-
meath the stars. And the saddest tidings
brought for many day is tidings Of the
death of sewing woman in that pleasant
village. A sewing woman. not from want,
but because her skillful needle was always
in demand and could not always be secured,
SO great was the requisition on her time.
There was want, but it was on the part of
the village. A low voiced, sweet natured
woman, no lady lunching at Delmonico's
was more a lady than she. Her gentle face
bore always a welcome to the home-return-
ing. For the home-departing she would
lay aside all other work that could be laid
aside and devote herself to the needed last
preparations. Intelligent, she required
only to be told what was wanted. How to
accomplish it she knew herself.
MONEY NO OBJECT.
There was never question of price.
When her work was done she was paid
whatever she found her work to be worth.
She insisted on furnishing items, but no one
wanted them, except sometimes for con-
venience, never for guarantee. And all the
time as wife, sister. daughter, she fulfilled
all duties with gentle fidelity that made
her village-sewing seem a special personal
favor; and found time, too, for her sundry
village festivities, church tea-parties, county
conferences, summer picnics at the beaches,
candy-pullings and concerts of winter
evenings. Always cheerful, always help
full, always neat, reticent of trouble, if
trouble she had, a fountain of sympathy
and succor. her too early going has left
home desolate, village in tears.
1t is not a selfish sorrow if we sometimes
ask ourselves what we shall do without her;
and yet fear in our stress of need and in
her never failing obligingness we have
sometimes overburdened her strength with
out knowing it. She was not starving; she
was not even poor. She had modest but
simple independence. She needed not to go
beyond her own doorstone for all the COM
forts and enough of the luxuries of life.
She was the comrade and friend of her en-
ployers. But she had no children, which
gave her the advantage in leisure over
those who had many. She had faculty"
which gave her the advantage in execution
over those who had it not, aud SO when the
pile OF mending grew too high, when the
dressmaker's day came with its ail-compell-
ing strenuousness, it was too easy not to
fall back on her sweet, calm soul-help
without agitation, sympathy without mis-
giving, complete understanding and unfail
ing sunshine.
ANOTHER PICTURE.
In the next house to Our Lady of the
Needle, Sweet St. Martha gone now to the
harmonious activities of her eternal rest,
lives another woman whom death has not
yet subdued, but whose strong young figure
Is beset with premature disease and debility,
On a lower plane her services were equally
in requisition, her spirits equally unfag-
ging, her responses equally unfailing. With
o home of her own to care for, she cared
also for dozen other homes because there
was no one else to do it. Morning, noon
and night, spring and summer, autumn and
winter, the washtub, the fat iron, broom
and bread board, mop and duster, were
never far from her hand. She could not
sew, but she could faithfully scrub. Ruling