Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-09-13
Zone More Unfortunate"
rom Kate Fields Washington.


From Kate Fields Washington
Those good women who, with devotion that
deserves more encouragement than it gets, give so
much Of their time and sympathy to their fallen
sisters are beginning to see that the old proyerb,
can ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure" contains large amount of truth. The
hand of friendship held out to young workng-girls,
a little money devoted to their amusement and
instruction, efforts in the direction of making
employers remunerate them justly-all these things
would be ounces of prevention. Neglect them,
and your pounds of cure will not be many. At
one period of life I passed many seasons in
London, and came into contact with women inter-
ested in the s'social question" Over-population
and the struggle for existence have made this
problem most serious one and, while l acknowl-
edge that the women of the streets in London are
birds Of prey, and very ugly birds, too, I still
maintain that the first step on the road which leads
them to Regent street and Piccadilly after night
fall need not be taken if the endeayors of honest
women were more wisely directed.
Let us look at what may be termed typical
CASE We will call our heroine Mary Jane Brown.
Her people are tradespeople in very small way,
either in London or some lesser town, and conceive
that they have done their duty by her when they
get her employed in one of the large retail stores
at the West End. She is handsome young
woman, and, dressed in trailing black silk-the
property of the store-she "tries on" dresses and
cloaks, that would-be purchasers may see the
effect. Her wages are, perhaps, three dollars a
week, and the work of the day over, the doors of
the softly -carpeted, well-warmed Emporium close
on very shabby young creature who makes her
way-muddy shoes on her feet and leaky
umbrella over her head-through the London slime
to not over-clean room somewhere off Oxford
street, which she shares with sister, or with one
of her companions at the West End store, or,
it may be, with some girl from her native place.
These girls live on tea. 1t is easy to make, and,
in the long run, cheap. The only occupation that
offers itself is reading They tired after their
days toll, and have not been taught artistic
needlework. For that matter, if they had, such
light as they can afford would make it difficult.
The music halls, to which they would naturally
incline for amusement, cost money; theatres even
more and, being decent girls, they avoid the
streets, and spend their evenings reading that
pure, delightful literature, so true to nature, on
which the Anglo-Saxon vaunts himself. There
Mary Jane learns that all handsome young women,
especially II they are OF humple pTth, are pouhd
to marry Dukes and ii is borne in on her mind
because she knows the life of the poor-that to
marry any man in her own rank would be but an
exchange of calamities.
One day there comes to the Emporium Mr.
Arthur Dobbs. His sisters select their summer
dolmans from having seen them on Mary James
back, and the brother-who is the very image Of
Lord Reginald in the "Factory Fairy's Fate"-is
struck by Mary James appearance, and takes to
meeting her on her way home. After week or
two the Emporium knows our heroine no more
She lives in tiny house, Fulham way, with a
hideous drawing-room, lot of blue furniture,
lace on the pillow-cases and dirty curtains. Mr.
Arthur Dobbs, who pays the rent of this Rosa
mons Bower, is no noble lord His father is a
successful attorney in small town, and allows
Arthur two hundred pounds sterling year. The
young man, a stock-broker, spends at least three