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    188 TWO CHAPTERS ABOUT CHAKWOMEN*

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Chapter I. My Experiences Of The Class.

    on washing days whenever the kitchen door chanced to be left open . She ; toowas fond of narrating her domestic trialsbut certainly

    , , not a trace of trouble ever showed itself about her nierry looking face . When questioned as to the number of her childrenshe

    re-, plied that she had had ten children " and the last one was tivins _, " and we are to this day in . doubt whether she meant ten or eleven . She

    had buried six of them ,. she told us , and then a tear rolled down her cheek , even while she owned that there was often but a scanty

    supply of food for those who remained . Still she felt quite sure , she said , that if there had been more mouths there would have been

    more bread also . Happy faith ! But Peggy differed greatly from her predecessor , Mary . She

    was not clean in her person , and my mother declared that her presence was not desirable within a few feet . Moreover she had

    no notion of putting things in their places , but always left all her working materials in the apartment where they were last used .

    It was not therefore pleasant , when , one wanted a sweeping brush , to have to sit down and think wMch room _Teggy had swept the

    last , and so on with all the paraphernalia for dusting and scrubbing . But this was not the worst . My mother , accustomed to receive

    almost reverential respect from her old servants , could not endure poor Peggy ' s familiar ways ,

    I was partly to blame , for seeing my " help" lost in admiration at sight of my beautiful and much-loved piano , I sat down and

    played some old Irish airs . The woman was nearly wild with delight and could not keep her feet still , while I rattled over " Garry

    Owen , " " The Young May Moon , " " Norah Creina , " and such like . Then when I essayed to sing " Erin go Bragh , " she joined for a

    moment , and at last hid her face in her apron and sobbed aloud . I was rather proud of the effect of my music , which , as Peggy

    declared , had taken her back to the _" owld" country again , I talked about the sentimental Irishwomanand compared her feelings for

    , her native land with those of our phlegmatic , unimpulsive English folk , rather , I fearto the disadvantage of my own countrymen and

    , women . On'the following Saturday , I was singing to quite another sort of

    auditor ; for a handsome moustached bachelor was hanging over my chair , and seeming quite as much pleased as my poor Irish

    listener had been . He , too , had rather a weakness for Lover's songs , and I had just finished " The Low Backed Car" when I heardfirst a

    ,, vigorous clapping of hands , next a hearty laugh ; and , lastly , the unmistakable voice of my Irish washerwomanexclaiming" There

    , , now , isn't that capital ? I just heerd you singing that ; so , thinks oi , of 11 just stale in , and whin she ' s done , _oi'll tell her how she was

    singing all about swate Peggy , niver knowing that Peggy herself was close to the fore . Now isn't it a joke ?"

    She went bouncing off into the kitchen again , laughing and

    singing at intervals , and evidently quite unsuspicious of offence .

    188 Two Chapters About Chakwomen*

    188 TWO CHAPTERS ABOUT CHAKWOMEN _*

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/44/