The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1900-03-21
g s.nas can understand. the line

rhair work IS AOnOTaCle. ii tneS w
nractical work, it is dishonorAble. That
our young women may escape the cen
sure of doing dishonorahle work, | shall
particuiarize. You may knit tidy for
the back of an armchair, but by no
means make the money wherewlth to
buy the chair. You may with deli
cate brush beautify a mantel ornament
but die rather than earn enough to BUY
marble maDtcl You may learn artlS-
tic music until you can s4uall Italian,
but never sing Ortonville or ,OtG
Hundred" Do nothing practical II
YOU would, in the eyes of rehGed soc'ei
ty, preserve your respect1olliIy.
scout these 6nical notions 'elt YOU
:, woman 20 more Ian man, mas
r;sht 70 occupy place IN this world
unless she pays rent Tor II,
vast majority of those who would
nave wcln4n industrious shut her up to
few kinds of work. My judgment in
this matter is that woman has right
to do anything she can do well. There
should be no department OF merchan-
disc, mechanism, aTtor science barred
against her. If Miss H9smer has gen,
JUS for sculpture, give her chise!. If
Rosa Bonheur has fonduess for oe-
liueatiDg saimalS, let her make The
Horse Fair" II Miss Mitchell will
study astronomy, let her nouat the
starry ladder. If Lydia will be ner-
chant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia
Mott will preach the gospel, let her
thrill with her womauly eloquence the
Quaker meeting house.
1t is said if woman is given such op-
portunisies she will occupy places that
might be taken by men I say if she
have more skill and adapteduess for
any position than msu has, let her
have il She has as much right to her
bread, to her apparel and to her home
as men have. But it is said that her
nature is so delicate that she is unified
for exhausting toll. | ask in the name
Of al! past history what toll eu earth Is
more severe, exhaustiog and tremen-
dous than that toll Of the needle to
which for ages she has been subjected!
TIE battering ram, the sword, the car
bine, the battleax. have made no such
havoc as the needle. would that
these living sepulchers in which wo-
men have for ages been buried might
be opened aud that some resurrection
trumpet might bring up these living
corpses to the trash air and sunlight
We talk about women as though we had
resigned to her all the light work aud
ourselves had shouidered the heavier
But the day Of judgment, which will
reveal the suferings Of the stake and
ioouisi,ion, will marshal before the
throne If God and the hierarchs Of
heaven the martyrs of washtub and
needle. Now, | say if there be any
preference in occupation, let woman
have it. God knows her trials are the
severest. BY her acuter seusltiVencss
to misfortune, by her hour of anguish,
Idemaud that no one hedge up her
pathway to q livelihood Oh, the
meanness, the despicability Of men who
begruige woman the right to work
anywhere in any honorable calliog
hear from sill this land the vail Of
womanhood. Man has nothing to an.
sger to that vail but Batteries. He
says she is an angel. She is
not. She knows she is not. She is 8
hnman being who gets hungry when
she has no food and cold when she has
DO fire. Give her no more batteries.
Give her justice. Oh, the thousands
of sewing girls! Across the sunlight
comes their death grosn. 1t is not
such cry as come from those who are
suddenly hurried out Of life, but a slow,
grinding. horrible wasting away.
Gather them before you aud look into
their faces, pinched, CHASTITY, hunger
struck. Look at their fingers, needle
pricked ard blood tipped. See that
premature stoop in the shoulders. Hear
that dry, hackiog, merciless cough.
Stand at the corner of q street in
some great city s or I o'clock in the
morning IS the women 60 to work.
Many Of them had DO breakfast except
the crumbs that were left over from the
night before or the crumbs they chew
on their way through the street. Here
the7 come! The working girls Of the
cities. These engaged in bead work,
these in flower making, in millinery,
in paper box making; but, most over
worked of all and least compensated,
the sewing women. Why do they not
take the city cars on their way up?
They cannot afford the 5 cents. If,
concluding to deny herself something
else, she gets into the car, give her a
seat. You want to see how Latimer
aud Ridley appeared in the FIRE. Look
at that woman and behold a more horri-
bic martyrdon, hotter FIRE, more
agonisiug death. Ask that woman
how much she gets for her work, and
she will tell you 6 cents for making
coarse shirts aud inds her own thread
Years ago, one Sabbath plight in the
yestibule Of our church, after service,
a woman fell in convulsieDs. The doc.
tor said she needed medicine not so
much as something to eat. AS she be-
gan to revive in her Gclirium she said
graspigly: Eight centsl Eight
cents! l wish ! could get it done !
am so tired. | wish | could get some
sleep. but [ must get it done. Eight
cents! Eight certs" We found after
ward that she was making garments for
8 cents apiece and that she could make
but three of them in a day. Hear it!
Three times eight are "a. Hear it,
men and women who have comfortable
homes Some Of the worst villains Of
our cities 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 dol
lar or two before she gets the garments
to cork on When the work is done.