Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-06-15


quence the Quaker meeting house.
1t is said that If a woman is given such op-
pOrtunfties she will occupy places that might
be taken by men. I say if she have more
skill and adaptedness for any position than a
man has let her have it. She has as much
right to her bread, to her apparel and to her
home as men have.
But 1t is said that her nature is so delicate
tbat she is untitled for eXhaustng toll. I
ask in the name of all past history what toll
on earth is more severe, eXnaustinC and tre-
mendous than that toll Of the needle to
which for ages she has been subjected? The
battering ram, the sword, the carbine, the
battleaX, have made no such havoc as the
needle. would that these living sepulchres
III which women have for ages been buried
might be opened and that some resurrection
trumpet might bring up these living corDses
to the fresh air and sunlight.
Go with me, and l will show you a woman
who by hardest toll supports her children,
her drunken husband, her old father and
mother, pays her house rent, always has
wholesome food on the table, ami when she
can get some neighbOr on the Sabbath to
come in and take care of her family appears
in church with hat AMI cloak that are far
from indicating the toll to which she is sab
ecte1.
Such woman as that has body and soul
enough to fit her for any position. She
could stand beside the majority of your
statesmen and dispose of more goods. She
could go into your whe9lWright shops AMI
beat one-half of your workmen at making
carriages We talk about YOman as though
we had resigned to her all the light work,
and ourselves had shOulierel the heavier.
But the day Of judgment, which will reveal
The Sufferin IS of the stake AMI inquiSitiOn,
will marshal before the throne Of Col and
the hierarchs Of heaven the martyrs Of wash
tub and needle.
Io in
occupation. let woman have it. Col knows
her trials are the severest. By her acuter
5enSttlVeneSS to misfortune, by her hour of
anguish. demand that no one hedge up her
pathway to livelihood. Oh. the meauness,
the desPicabiIity of men who bCgrudge a
woman the right to work anywhere in any
honorable calling!
[ go still further and say that women
should have equal compensation with men.
By what principle of justice is it that women
in many of our cities get only tWO-thirds as
much pay as men. and in many cases only
half? Here is the gigantic in ustice--' hat
work equally well if not better done woman
receives far less compensation than man.
Start with the national government. For
long while women clerks in Washington got
5000 for doing that for which men received
$500.
To thous sands Of young women in our cities
to- lay there is only this salternative-starya-
ton or dishonor. Many of tho largest mer-
camille establishments OF our cities are ac-
cessory to these determinations, and from
their large establishments there are scores of
souls being pitched off into death, AMI their
employers know it
Is there a God? Will there be a judgment?
I tell you, if God rises up to redress woman's
wrongs, many of our large establishments
will be swallowed up quicker than a South
American earthq ever took down city.
God will catch these oppressors between the
+yyO mi illStOOpS of His wrath and grind than
to powder!
hear from all this land the wall of wo-
manhood. Man has nothing to answer to
that wall but batteries He says she is an
angel. She is not. Sne knows she is not
She is a human being. who gets hungry when
she has no food and cold when she has no
fire. Give her no more batteries. Give her
justice!
There are about %. 900 sewing girls in New
York and BROOKLYN. Across ths darkness of
this night hear their death groans. 1t is
not such cry as comes from those who are
suddenly hurled out Of life, but SLOW
grinding, horrible wasting away. Gather
them before you and look into their faces,
pinched, ghastly, hunger struck! Look at
their fingers, needle pricket and blool
tipped! See that premature stoop in the
shoulders! Hear that dry, hacking, merc;-
less cough
At large meeting of these women, held
in a hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches
were delivered, but needIe-woman took
the stand, threw aside her faded shawl, and
with her snriveled arm hurled very thunder
bolt Of elOquence, speaking out The horrors
Of her own experience.
Stand at the corner OF street in New
York in the very early morning as the wo-
men go to their work. Many of them had
no breakfast except the crumbs that were
left over from the night before a crust
they chew on their way through the
streets. Here they come-the work.
ing girls of the city! These engaged in
beadwork, these in flower making. in millin-
cry, enameling, cigar making, bookbinding,
labelling, feather picking, print coloring,
paper box making, but, most overworked Of
all and least compensated, the sewing
women. Why do they not take the city cars
on their way up? They cannot afford the
five cents. IF, concluding to deny herself
something else, she gets into the car, give
her seat. You want to SEQ how Latimer and
Ridley appeared in the fire. Look at that
woman and behold more horrible martyr
dom-a hotter fire, more agonizing death.
One Sabbath night, in the vestibule CT my
church, after service a woman fell in con-
vulsiOns. The doctor said she needed medt-
cine not so much as something to eat AS
she began TO revive, in her delirium she said
eight cents Eight cents Eight
cents l wish [ could get it done! am 50
tired [ wish [ could get some sleep, but
must get it done Eiglt cents Eight cents ~
We found a(terwarl that she was making
garments at eight cents apiece, AM that she
could make but three OF thom in a day. Hear
it! Three times eight are tWenty-fOur. Hear
it, men AMI women who have comfortable
homes
Some OF the worst villains of the city are
the employers OF these women. They beat
them down to the last penny and try to
cheat them out OF that The woman must
deposit 81 or 81 before she gets the gar
ments to work on. When the work is done,
it is sharply inspected, the most insignifi-
cant flaws picked out and the wages refused,
and sometimes the 81 deposited not given
back. The WOmen's Protective Union re-
ports a case where one of these poor souls,
finding a place where she could get more
wages, resolved to change employers and
went to get her pay for work done. The
employer says. 'G hear you are going to
leave me?' Yes" she said, ''and 1 have
come to get what you owe me-" He made
no answer. She said, care you not going
to pay me?' Yes" he said, II will pay
you, and he kicked her down stairs.
How are these evils to be eradicated?
What have you to answer, you who sell
coats an1 have shoes made and contract Tor
the southern and western markets? What
help is there, what panacea, what redemp-
tiOn? Some say, ''Give women the ballot
What effect such ballot might have on other
questions 1 am not here to discuss, but
what would be the effect Of female suffrage
upon hOii4du NdSeo' L uO MOI De1ieNe that
woman will ever get justice by woman's
ballot.
Indeed, women oppress women as much as
men do. Do not women. as much as men,
beat down 10 the lowest figure the woman
who sews for them? Are not women as sharp
as men on washerwomen ard millinars AMI
mantua makers? If a woman asks 81 for her
work, does not her female employer ask it
she will not take ninety cents? You say,
"Oniy ten cents difference" But that is
sometimes the difference between heaven
and hell. Women often have less commits
Grafton for women than men. If a woman
steps aside from the path OF virtue, man may
forgiva-woman never Woman will never
get Justice done her from womau's ballot.
Never will she get it from mans ballot.
How, then? God will rise up for her. God
has more resources than We know Of. The
flaming sword that hung at Eden's gate
when woman was driven outwill cIeaYe with
tnrriEls o.. Ln,.