Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-19

L happened to arrive at the first
factory just as the dinner hour was
over and the girls were returning to
their work; indeed, the stairs of the
mill We're thronged with them as /
assembled. They were all well dressed,
but not to my thinking, above their
condition; for 7 like to see the hum
bier classes of society careful of their
dress and appearance and even, If
they please, decorated with such little
trinkets as come within the compass
of their means.
These girls had serviceable sson-
nets. good, warm cloaks ana shawls,
and were not above clogs and pat
tens. Moreover there We're places IN
the mill in which they could deposit
these things without injury; and there
wore conVeniences for washing. They
We're healthy i'll appearance, many of
thens remarkably SO, and had the man
ners aud department OF young women;
not OF degraded brutes OF burden.
The rooms in which they worked
We're as #ell ordered as themselves.
In the windows of some there We're
green plants, which We're trained to
shade the glass. in all, there Was as
much fresh air. cleanliness and com
FORT as the nature of the occupation
woui6 possibly admit of. out of 50
large a number of females. many of
whom We're only then Just Varging
upon won4anheod, it may be reason
ably supposed That some We're deli
cate and fragile in appearance; re
doubt there were But | selemnly de-
clare that from sill the crowd | saw
in the different factories that day,
canaat recall or separate one young
face that gave me a painful impress
sion: rot one young Girl whom, as
sub9ing it 10 be matter of necessity
that she should gain her daily bread
by the labor of her hands, l would
have removed from those works IL /
had had the power.
They reside in various boarding
houses near at hand. The owners Of
the mills are particularly careful to
allow no persons to enter upon the
possession of these houses whose
characters have not undergone the
most searching and thorough inquiry.
Any complaint thet is made against
them by the boarders, or by anyone
else. is fully Investigated, and if good
ground of complaint be shown to
exist against them, they arc removed
and their occupation is handed over
to some more deserving person. There
are few children employed in these
factories, but not many. The laws OF
the state forbid their working more
than nine months in the year, and
require that they be educated during
the other three.
At some distance from the factories
and on the highest and pleasantest
ground in the neighborhood, stands
their hospital, or boarding house for
the sick: it is the best house in those
parts. and was build by an eminent
merchant for his own residence Like
that institution at Boston which |
have before described. it is not par
celled out into wards, but is divided
into convenient chambers, each of
which has all the comforts of a very
comfortable home. The principal med
ical attendant resides under the same
roof: and We're the patients members
of his own family, they could not be
better cared for, or attended with
greater gentleness and consideration.
The weekly charge in this establish
ment for each female patient is So or
u snillings English; but no girl en-
ployed by any of the corporations is
ever excluded fer want of the means
of payment That they do not very
often want the means may be gathered
from the fact that in July, 1871. no few
err than 97s of these girls We're depos-
itors in the Lowell Savings Bank; the
amount of whose joint savings was es-
timated at 100000, or e20,oe0 English.
Firstly, there is q joint-stock piano
in q great many of the boarding
houses. Secondly, nearly all these
young ladies subscribe to circulating
libraries. Thirdly, they have got up
among themselves a periodical called
the Lowell Offering, "a repository of
original articles, written exclusively by
females actively employed in the
mills" which is duly printed, published
and sold and whereof l brought away
from Lowell 400 good, solid pages,
which | have read from beginning to
end.
1t is their station to work, and they
do work. They labor in these mills,
upon an average, II hours day.
which is unquestionably work, and
pretty tight work too Perhaps it is
amusements on any terms. Are we
quite sure that we in England have
not formed our idea of the station"
of working people from aecustoming
ourselves to the contemplation of that
class as they are, and not as they
might be? / think that, If we exam
inc our own feelings, we shall find that
the pianos, and the circulating libra
ries and even the Lowell Offering
startle us by their novelty, and not by
their bearing upon any abstract ques-
ton of right or wrong.
OF the merits of the Lowell Offering
as a literary production / will observe,
putting entirely out of sight the fact
of the articles having been written by
these girls after the arduous labors OF
the day, that it will compare advan-
tageously with great many Engllsh
| ANIMALS. 1t is pleasant to find that
| many of its tales are of the mills, ana
of those who work in them; they IN
! culcate habits of self-denial ana con-
tentment. and teach good doctrine OF