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    EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN. 369

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    ^ ¦ <» The Fact Revealed In Tlie Census ...

    bated master and mistress , a master only is engaged ; and as there is no rule of the Council of Education compelling the managers of

    schools thus situated to teach the girls together with the hoys , the former are frequently made over to some poor creature who can be

    had cheap , and who can only read , write , and sew ; or whose arithmetic , if she profess to teach it , is so imperfect as to be merely

    nominal . The natural result of this plan is , that thirty thousand men are employed to sell riblbons , laces , and other articles of

    millinery , while our streets are fall of starving "women who cannot find employment , and so long as this system of education is pursued the

    same results must inevitably ensue . Last winter , a district visitor in a London parish found a

    respectable girl just recovering from illness in a lodging-house : she had been a seamstresshad caught a fever , and spent all her money .

    The mistress of the , lodgings had kept her as long as she could afford , but was now about to turn her out . The visitor asked the

    girl what she meant to do ; would she return to her old life of sewing ? "No , " she replied , "it had made her ill ; if she returned to

    it she must die . " Well , had she any plans ; how did she mean to live ? After a pausethe girl said she thought she should beg in

    the streets . The visitor , took care of her , and got her a place in a . shop . She was slow and ignorant at iirst ; but the people of the

    shop were patient and merciful , and she is now doing * well . It cannot be expectedhoweverthat many tradesmen will be equally

    bene-, , volent , and risk injuring their custom by employing incompetent persons to wait ; therefore , if we wish women to be employed

    behind the counter , we must establish in every quarter of London , and in all country towns , evening classes for young women and girls ,

    where they may learn arithmetic and book-keeping , and where those pupils who become proficient may procure certificates of competency .

    If this is done they will be enabled when their sewing trade fails , as fail it shortly will _5 not only to become saleswomen and cashiers ,

    but to engage in other occupations enumerated before , where intelligence is required rather than strength . _* We have said that the sewing

    trade will shortly fail , bad as it is now , it will soon be worse . In fact , ere long it will cease to be a trade at all , for everywhere the sewing

    machine is superseding human fingers ; the few seamstresses who will retain their places will be kept to tend the machine , not to do

    the sewing * . These machines can execute every kind of work , except perhaps elaborate trimmings ; not only as well , but far better

    than women ; they can sew shoes , gloves , gown bodies , and shirts , and make every description of under-clothing with wonderful

    despatch and neatness . We have seen a small one doing in two minutes as much work as an expert needlewoman could execute in ten : it is

    been * A formed society in whose connection _object w is itli the the establishment National Association of such classes for the has Promotion recently

    ascertained of Social Science , , is at , 19 the _} Lang office ham of Place which . , where further particulars may be

    Employment Of Women. 369

    EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN . 369

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 369, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/9/