The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-09-28
copyright, 1893, by American Press Associa-
toni

sAss exist for those who live by
grinding the faces of the poor. 1t is hard
enough to be poor, God knows; to do
without the thousand and one things
that make the difference between com
fort and misery; to see loved ones pine
and wither for want of the necessities of
life until the machinery stops and falls
apart and the weary body is at rest.
But 1t is not the work that am COM
planning about, for work is right, is
honest and should be pleasure, but it
should be paid for, and paid for willing
ly, and the poorer the person is who has
done the work the greater his or her
claim for pay. Half the talk about the
laziness of the poor and their unwilling
ness to work hard comes from two
causes. One is that a half starved man
or woman cannot put in day" with
the same vim that q well fed ono can,
and another is that there is so little en-
couragement to work when the pay is so
grudgingly given. Often even when a
poor woman has toiled all day long clean
ing paint or washing or sewing she is
put off and told that she should havo
her money next week.
have been brought in contact within
the last few years with hundreds of wom-
en- who had the same tale to tell. They
would wash, iron, scrub or sew until
ready to drop with pain and WEAKNESS
and when they went to collect their lit
tie earnings they were coolly told to
wait till it suited their employers to
pay. They would not realize, those re-
fined ladies, that these few pennies or
dollars meant food, fire, rent and per-
haps medicine or burial "It was such
a small matter"
For these very trifes families have
been put out on the sidewalk shelterless
in the rain and sleet; others have gone
three days without food or fire. One
woman whom I know took home large
washing which, with part pay on pre-
vlous one, amounted to over 81, and the
''lady of the house" "was out" and the
poor woman went back to find the sher-
lit putting her things out on the side
walk, two of The children being sick
with measles. Neighbors afterward
gave them shelter for few days, but
these two children have nearly lost their
eyesight. Now there is another baby.
This woman washed and scrubbed up to
the last day to keep these poor children
and is still struggling.
Another trouble with the moor ia that
eve.y lady takes it for granted that her
own work is the only hard work the
poor wash or scrub woman has to do, so
that there is always an awful effort to
get thorough cleaning. One poor wom-
an told mo that she hated the words
thorough cleaning" for they always
meant the hardest and most wearing and
disagreeable toll for dollar day, and
there was not ono Gladly" out of 500 who
dc not set all tho old scraps and dry
cl#sts saved up for week before her for
he.& dinner. Then, too, many ''ladies"
try to reduce the amount of their pay by
making them take their castoff garments
and old shoes in part payment at least.
The haggling over the scanty wages
of the poor woman by the same Gladly"
that pays So to So for some cosmetic only
worth about 10 cents, or some other eX-
travagant folly, is crime, and one for
which think punishment as hard as
that he bears who kills another in the
heat OF passion should be the penalty.
But II this were to come true we have
not prisons enough in the land to hold
the women who think they are doing a
righteous action in grinding the faces of
the poor and "scriInping" on the poor
laborer's wages.
The utter heartlessness and lack of
common humanity Of our '1adies" to-
ward their help passes description. They
will load the woman who comes in for a
days washing with enough work to kill
man, and then when the poor back
aches and the limbs almost fail they will
bring out perhaps pair of blankets to
ssust run through before you go; it
Won't take a minute"
Many persons would look upon wom-
an as q hardened criminal and would
have sent her to prison, leaving the five
little children she is toiling so hard to
keep together to starve or be scattered
here and there for pawning all the
''wash" which she had in her house for
one of these economical ladies'" The
i. lady went off and left no money to pay
for the work when done, and the poor
mother, desperate with her hungry chill
dren around her and her angry landlord
threatening, pawned the things for Just
the amount of her bill. 1t required the
hardest kind of work on the part of SYM
pathizing people to save her from the
wrath-the righteous and religious wrath
of the owner Of the garments, who
can thus find herself guiltless Of wrong
when she neglects or refuses to pay for
honest work.
1t is no wonder that women go down
to perdition when other women feel that
they are doing meritorious action in
."scrimping" their female help. l may
be old fashioned and foolish, but think
that those who push are more guilty than