The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-07-25

| ucy DtS 1OT tHeSc pieces iIiu Sct tHcHu,
but why women should not be paid as
much as men for similar service can
not understand My information is
that they are paid about half and the
employers excuse il that competition
is very great and rs others cut rates
they must do so, too, for labor is worth
only what it will bring-and a woman's
labor can be had cheaper than mars.
That is not good excuse. 1t is not to
the interest of the employer to get labor
ON such terms. Twenty dollars month
will not keep young woman in good
health and good clothes ard leave any
thing for sick mother or a child. or
for doctors bill. A big-bearted, gen.
erous man will Inquire into the condi-
ton of every female employee he has,
and as far as possible make it his own
concern. They are, as it were, his
wards for the time, and he cannot es-
cape the responsibility.
Before the war there were no shop
girls, but for 80 years this great
transition has been going on, and now
the south, like the north, is full of work.
ing girls. The children and grand
children of those who once were proud
and independent are now forced to be-
come their own bread-winners. There
is no exception for them. 1t is daily
food for daily labor. The rich are
growing richer by short cuts and ques-
tionable means, all of which in their last
analysis come from the earnings of the
toilers and grind the faces of the poor
Widows and orphans whose husbands
and fathers left them stock or bonds in
a great railroad, have lived to see it
wrecked by INSCRIPTIONS schemers and
by the time the wreckers had done with
it their stock and their bonds were
worthless. Daniel Webster got fee of
$4,000 for making a speech in the Myra
Clark Gaines case, and it was noised by
the press as an enormous fee, but now q
common lawyer gets $4,000 for bring
ing the money of wrecked railroad in-
to court. An incorporated company
accumulates a million dollars surplus
and asks the court what to do with it.
There was no fight, no contest, but the
lawyers who took the decree are award
ed $4,000 for bringing the money into
court. Receivers and lawyers prey upon
the carcasses of corporations like buzz
yards upon the carcasses of brutes, and
but little is left for creditors or stock
holders. These are the things that fill
the people with distrust and disgust
and paralyze industry and intimidate
capital. / knew a lady, and she is sit
ting near me now, whose father left her
$4,000 of stock in a railroad in Ala
bama. It was good stock and had good
prospects. but the schemers got it into
court and had a receiver appointed and
it was wrecked and she lost everything
but the certificate. When she comes
across it now among her archives hear
her humming that sweet old song:
This world is all fleeing show" But
let the working girls cheer up and al
ways look on the bright side. If they
can't get married let them look around
and see how much misery marriage
brings-how few women are happily
mated. Encourage a cheerful DISPOSE
ton, and il you can't be happy, be as
happy as you can. Trust in the Lord
and do good. 1t is not all of life to live
nor all of death to die. There are many
blessings that cost us nothing. never
pass my neighbor Mrs. Fields front
yard, that is radiant with beautiful
flowers, but what 1 think how cheap
they are to me. 1t is good idea to
sometimes think of that poor little boy
whose mother covered him with straw
one bitter night and put an old window
shutter ON the straw to hold it down.
Mother" said he, sit isn't every little |
boy that has a shutter to hold down his |
straw-is it?" And there is some COM
fort in Persian proverb that says:
Blessed are they who have but little,
for they shall not be envied. Bill Arp,
in Atlanta Constitution.