The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-06-06
torn and faded calico had ancestry of re


Washington got nine hundred dollars
for doing that for which men received
eighteen hundred.
To thousands of young women in our
cities to-day there is only this alterna-
tive: starvation or dishonor. Many of
the largest mercantile establishments
OF our cities are accessory to these
denominations; and from their large es-
Establishments there are scores Of souls
being pitched off into death; and their
employers know i'll
Is there God? viii there be judg-
ment, tell you, If God rises up to re-
dress woman's wrongs, many of our
large establishments will be swallowed
up quicker than South American
earthquake ever took down city. God
will catch these oppressors between the
two millstones Of his wrath, and grind
them to powder! !
hear from all this land the wall of
womanhood. Man has nothing TO an
swer to that wall but batteries He
says she is an angel. She is not. She
knows she is not. She is 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 fifty thousand sew
ing girls in New York and Brooklyn.
Across the darkness of this night I
hear their death groan. 1t is not such
cry as comes from those who are sud-
denly 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
pricked, and blood-tipped! See that
premature stoop in the shouldersl Hear
that dry, hacking, merciless cough! .
At a large meeting Of these women,
held In a hall in Philadelphia, grand
speeches were delivered, but needle
woman took the stand, threw aside her
faded shawl, and with her shriveled
arm, hurled a very thunderbolt Of elo-
quence, speaking out the horrors Of
her own experience.
Stand at the corner Of street in
New York in the very early morning,
as the women 60 to their work. Many
of them had no breakfast except the
crumbs that were left over from the
night before, or a crust they chew on
on the way through the street. Hero
they come! the working girls of the
city! These engaged in bead work,
these in flower making, in millinery,
enamelling, cigar making, book bind
ing, labelling, feather picking, print
coloring, paper box making, but most
overworked Of all, and least compen-
sated, the sewing women. Why do
they not take the city cars on their way
upP They cannot afford the Ave cents!
II, concluding to deny yourself some-
thing else, she gets into the car, give
her a seat! You want to see how Lat
inner and Ridley appeared in the FIRE
look at that woman and behold a more
horrible martyrdom, a hotter, a more
agonizing death!
One Sabbath night, in the vestibule
OF my church, after service, woman
fell in convulsions. The doctor said
she needed medicine not so much as
something to eat. As she began to re-
vive, in her delirium, she said, gasp
ingly: Eight cents! Eight cents!
Eight cents! wish could get 1t done!
am so tired! wish could get some
sleep, but / must get IL done! Eight
cents! Eight cents" We found after
wards that she was making garments
at eight cents apiece, and that she
could make but three Of them in day.
Hear it! Three times eight are twenty
four! Hear it, 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,
and try to cheat them out Of that. The
woman must deposit dollar or two
before she gets the garments to work
on. When the work is done 1t is sharp
ly inspected, the most insignificant
flaws picked out, and the wages refused,
and sometimes the dollar deposited not
given back. The Women's Protective
union reports case where one Of these
poor souls, finding place where 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 gong to leave me?"
Yes" she said, land | have come u
get what you owe me-" He made no
answer. She said: "Are you not going
TO pay me?" YES" he said, 81 will pay
you," and he kicked her down the
stairs
How are these evils to be eradicated?
What have you to answer, you who
sell coats, and have shoes made, and
contract for the southern and western
markets? What help is there, what
panacea, what redemption2 Some say:
"Give women the ballot" What effect
such ballot might have on other ques-
tions | am not here to discuss; but
what would be the effect of female
suffrage upon woman's wages. l do
not believe 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 TO the lowest
figure the woman who sews for them?
Are not women as sharp as men on
washerwomen, and milliners and man
tua-makers? II a woman asks dollar
for her work, does not her female en-
ployer ask her II she will not take nine
ty cents2 You say, "only ten cents
difference but that is sometimes the
difference between heaven and hell.
Women often have less commiseration
for women than men. II a woman
steps aside from the path of virtue,