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    256 INSTITUTION FOR EMPLOYMENT OF NEEDLE...

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    -*«»- There Has Long Existed In Society ...

    eeeding from happier circles . So sad is its tone , that even fashion has arrested her course and humanity has turned to investigate the

    depth Heart of -rending that wail 1 are . the facts revealed by those who have followed

    that cry into its depths of misery , and who have returned to bear witness to the hardships and privations which thousands and tens of

    thousands of our fellow-creatures are daily enduring . Delicate females and tender children obliged to work from eighteen to twenty

    hours a day , securing even then such low wages that they cannot do more than exist . In factonly those who take the trouble to

    , investigate the real extent of their distresses , and the almost incredible payments needlewomen receive for _unwearjdng toil , can at all

    mind realise is their left them position , no . interchange No time for of relaxation thought , res and t , feeling or culture , nothing of the

    but the necessary calculation of uncertain gain . The bitterness of spirit engendered by disappointment , when they find that , work as

    they may , independence is impossible , breaks out too often in rebellion ; and discontent finally takes the place of hopeoverthrowing

    , the barrier between self-respect and sullen despair or crime . When the reports of the misery of needlewomen are accredited ,

    to society protest is of that course some the remed first loudl is necessary y to declaim and must against be their adopted wrongs , for- ,

    getting that its own selfish y want of interest in the lives of others is the one crying cause of the evil . So far has this evilhowever ,

    , spread , so deeply seated has it become , that many of those persons most anxious to relieve the needlewoman in her trials , on attempting

    to discover a plan to ameliorate her condition , have drawn back disheartened at the first attempt , unable to face- the numbers who

    need succour , or to devise effectual means to meet the difficulties of their position . The consequence isthe cry still arises from that

    , class Happ " We ily there are oppressed are those , undertake in the present for us day . " _^ , who , acknowledging in

    true sympathy a deeper and more living principle than the excuse for of human sentimentalit suffering y or , inaction without , are making not contented a strong to effort look to on raise this mass their

    position . sideration Living , the as we overstocked do , in an state age of of competition the needle- , market and takin it is g useless into con to

    hope that needlework can ever be a remunerative emp , loyment ; but since humanity must be clothed and a large quantity of work be

    done , the question arises , cannot a new organisation of the routine of work lace the needlewoman a more independent footingby

    securin p g to her a larger proportion upon of the actual money paid for , the execution of work , which under the present system does not reach

    her . "What do you mean , " says the fashionable lady , who , unacquainted

    victims * It is an computed nuallto b overwork y Dr . Lankester at the needle that . one thousand needlewomen fall

    y

    256 Institution For Employment Of Needle...

    256 INSTITUTION FOR EMPLOYMENT OF NEEDLEWOMEN .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/40/