Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-06-09

should have equal compensation with
men. By what principle of justice is it
that women i'll many of our cities get
only two-thirds as much pay as men,
and in many cases only half? Here is
the gigantic injustice-that for work
equally well if not better done woman
receives far less compensation than man.
Start with the national government.
For long while women clerks III Wash
ington got 5000 for doing that for which
men received 81, 500.
To thousands of young women i'll our
cities today there is only this alternative
starvation or dishonor. Many Of tho
largest mercantile establishments of our
cities are accessory to these abomina-
tons, and from their large establish
ments there are scores of souls being
pitched off into death, and their em-
ployers know it'll
The Wall of yVomanIlood.
Is there q God? VIII there DO a .judg-
ment? l tell you, if God rises up to re-
dress woman's wrongs, many of our
large establishments will DO swallowed
up. quicker than q South American
earthquake ever took down acity. God
will catch these oppressors between the
two millstones Of his wrath and grind
them to powderi
l hear from all this land the wall of
~womanhood, Man has nothing to an
swer to that vail but batteries. Eo says
she is an angel. She is not. She 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 80, 900 sewing girls
in New York and Brooklyn. Across tho
darkness Of this night hear their death
groan. 1t is not such a cry as comes
from those who are suddenly hurled out
of life, but a slow, grinding, horrible
wasting away. Gather them before you
and look into their faces, pinched, ghast-
ly, hunger struck Look at their fingers,
needle priclled and blood tippedl SEQ
that premature stoop in the s%houldersi
Hear that dry, hacking, merciless cough!
At a large meeting of these women,
held in q hall in Philadelphia, grand
speeches were delivered, but a roedlc-
woman took the stand, threw aside her
faded shawl, and with her shrivoied
arm hurled a very thunderbolt of elo-
quence, speaking out the horrors of her
own experience.
A Pathetic Picture.
Stand at tho corner of n street in New
York in the very carly morning as the
women so to their work. Many Of them
had no breakfast except the crumbs that
were loft over from tho night before or a
crust they chew on their way through
the streets. Here they come-the work
ing girls Of the city! These engaged in
bcadwork, these in flower making, ii
millinery, enameling, cigar making,
bookbinding, labelling, feather picking,
print colorilig, paper box making, bat,
most overworiled Of all and least
compensated, the sewing women. Why
do they not take the city cars Oh their
way up? They cannot afford tho
5 cents. If, concluding to deny herself
something else, sho gets into the ear,
give her seat. You want to see how
Latimer and Ridley appeared il the fire.
Look at that woman and behold q more
horrible martyrdom-a hotter fire, a
more agonizins death.
One Sabbath night, in the vestibule
of my church, after service q woman
fell in commissions. The doctor said she
needed medicine not SO much as some
thing to eat. As she began to revive,
in her delirium she said gaspingly:
Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight centSl
1 wish I could get it done! l am so
tiredl with | could get some sleep,
but l must get it donei Eight centsl
Eight centsf' We found afterward
that sho was making garments at s
cents apiece, and that she could make
but three Of them in a day. Hear i'll
Three times s are PAT Hear it, rlen
and women who have comfortable
honest
Some of the worst villains of the city
are the employers CT these
They beat them down to the last penny
and try to cheat them out Of that. The
woman must deposit 81 or 50 before she
gets the garments to work on. When
the work is done, it is sharply inspected,
the most insignificant flaws picked out
and the wages refused, and sometimes
the 81 deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective union reports q
case where one Of these poor souls, find
ing a place whore she could get more
wages, resolved to change employers and
went to get her pay for work done. The
employer says, II hear you are going to
leave me?' YES, she said, land |
have come to get what you W me"
He made no answer. She said, Are
sou not going to pay me?' Yes" he
said, Il will pay you" and he kicked
her down stairs.