The Penn's Grove record., 1894-06-08
PENIS GROVE, N. J., FRIDAY. JUNE 8. 1894.

I NN - ""hAANfA - HAhNh SAlgu VI
| portunities she will occupy places that might
be taken by men. l say il she have more
skill and adaptedness for any position than a
nan has let her have 1t. 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 delicat a
hat she is untitled for exhausting toll.
ask in the name OF all past history what toll
On earth Is more severe, eyhausting and tre-
mendous than that toll of the needle ia
which for ages she has been subjected? The
battering ram the sword, the carbine, the
battleax, ave made no such havoc as the
needle. Iwould that these living sepulchres
n which women have for ages been buried
night be opened, andthat some resurrection
rumpet might bring up these living corpses
o the fresh air and sunlight.
Go with me, and l will show YOU a woman
Who by hardest toll supports her children,
Ter drunken husband, her old father and
mother, pays her house rent, always has
wholesome food on the table, and when she
IAN get some neighbor on the Sabbath TO
,ome In and a k care Of her family appears
n church with hat and cloak that are far
rom indicating tho toll 10 which she is sab
ected.
Such a woman as that has boiy aud soul
tnough to fit her for any position. Shd
Iould stand beside the majority of your
alesmen and dispose of more goods. She
Gould go into your wheelwright shops and
,eat one-half Of your workmen at making
carriages. We talk about woman as though
We had resigned to her all the light work.
md ourselves had shoulierei the heavier.
3ut the day OF judgment, which will reveal
he sufferings of the stake AMI inunisition,
will marshal before tho throne OF God and
he hierarchs OF heaven the martyrs of wash.
ub and needle.
Now. Isay, if there be any preference in
occupation, let oma have it. God knows
Ter trials are the severest. By her acuter
ensitivenass to misfortune, ly her hour oil
inguish, 1 demand that no one hedge up her
pathway to n livelihood. Oh. the meanness,
he despicability of men who begrudge a
woman the right to work anywhere in any
honorable calling!
l go still further AMI say that women
.hould have equal compensation with men.
BY what principle OF justice is it that women
n many OF our cities get only two-thirds ms
much pay as men, and in many cases only
iali? Here is the gigantic injusticc-that
york equally well If not better done woman
eceives far less compensI tion than man.
Start with the national government. For a
ong while women clerks in Washington got
1900 for doing that for which mon received
1880.
To thousands of young women in our cities
o-day there Is only this alternative-starva-
ion or dishonor. Many Of the largest mer-
antile establishments Of our cities are ac-
,essory to these denominations, and from
heir large establishments thers are scores oil
touls being pitched off into death, and their
Employers know 1t!
Is there q God? viii there be n Judgment
tell you, If God rises up to redress woman's
wrongs, many Of our large establishments
will be swallowed up quicker than a South
Am srlcan earthquake ever took down a city.
dod will catch these oppressors between the
VIC millstones Of His wrath an grind them
o powder!
I hear from all this land the wall of wo-
manhood. Man has nothing to answer to
hat wall but batteries. He says she Is an
nigel. She is not. She knows she is not.
She Is a human being. who gets hungry when
.he has no food and cold when she has no
Ire. Give her no more batteries. Give her
Justice!
There are about 80, 900 sewing girls in ;aw
York and BROOKLYN. Across the darkne,, of
his night l hear their death groans. Il is
lot such q cry as comes from those who are
suddenly hurled out OF life, but a slow,
grinding, horrible wasting away. Gather
hem before you and look into their faces,
pinched, CHASTITY, hunger struck! Look at
tipped! See that premature stoop in the
shoulders Hear that dry, hacking, merci'
less cough
At q large meeting OF these women, held
IN q hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches
we're delivered, bS a needle-Woman took
The stand, threw aside her faded shawl, AMI
with her snrlveled arm hurled a very thunder
BOLT OF el~oquence, speaking out the horrors
Of her own experience.
Stand at the corner OF q street in New
York in the very early morning as the wo.
men go to their work. Many OF them had
40 breakfast except the crumbs that were
left over from the night beforo or a crust
they chew on their way through the
streets. Here they cone-th9 work
Ing girls OF the cityi These engaged in
beldwork, these in flower making, In millin-
cry, enameling. cigar making, bookbinding.
labelling, feather picking, print coloring,
paper box making, but, most overworkel OF
Ill and least compensated, the sewing
women. Why do they not axe the city cars
On their way up2 They cannot afford the
ave cents. If, concluding TO deny herself
something else, she gets into the car, give
her seat. You want to sec how Latimer and
Ridley appeared in the fire. Look at that
woman and behold q more horrible martyr
IONA hotter fire, q more agonizing death.
One Sabbath night, in the vestibute OF my
shurch, after service q woman fell in con
vulsions. The doctor said she needed medi-
cine not so much as something 10 eat. Az
she began to revive, In her de.lrium she said
gaspingly Eight cents Eight cents Eight
cents / wish l could get it donei an so
.iredl I wish 1 could got some sleep, but |
must get It donel Eight cents Eight cents "
We found afterward that she was making
garments at eight cents apiece, and that she
,ould make but three OF them in n day. Hear
I'll Three times eight are twenty-iour. Hear
Ii, men and 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 AMI try to
cheat them out Of that. The woman must
deposit 81 or 50 before she gets the gar
ments to work on. When the work is dona,
It is sharply inspected, tue most insignill-
cant flaws picked ont andtho Wages refused,
and sometimes the 81 deposited not given
back. Tho Women'S Protective Unioa re-
ports q case where one of these poor souls,
tlnding q place where sha coull get mOri
wages, resolved 10 change employers and
went to get her pay for work dom. The
employer says, ~ hear you ars goins to
leave me2' ayes" size said, and have
come to get what you " me-" He mule
no answer. She said, care you mo- going
to pay me?' eyes" he said, 81 will pay
YOU" and he kicked her down stairs.
How are these evils to be eridtcateli
What have you to answer. you who sell
coats and have shoes made and contract Tor
the southern and western marletsI What
help Is there, what panacea, what reiemp.
lion? Some say, ''Give women tho ballot.
What effect such ballot might have on Other
questions l am not hero to discuss, but
what would be the effect OF female suirrag.
upon woman's wages? do not believe that
woman will ever get justice by mi
| ballot.
Indeed, women Cypress women as much n
men do. Do not women, as much as men
beat down TO the lowest figure tbs won.ar
who sews for themP Are not women as sharI
as men on washerwomen and mtlliners and
mantua makers? II a woman asks 81 for hel
work, does not her female employer ask /
she will not take ninety cents? You say
"0niy ten cents difference" But that il
sometimes the difference between HEAVIER
and hell. ( Women often have less commits
grafton fol women than men. II a woman
steps aside from the path of virtue, man ma!
iorgive-woman neveri Woman will neve
get justice lone her from woman's ballot.
Never will che get it from mans ballot
How, thenP God will rise up for her. Coz
has more than we know o. Thu
flaming sword that hung at Eden's gait
when woman was driven out will cleave Will
It's terrible edge her oppressors.
But there Is something for our women tC
do. Let our young people prepare to exec
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