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    FROM PARIS 267

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    - No. Ii. I Came Here For The Express Pu...

    land . I visited Lyons last year , where almost all the workwomen are grouped in ateliers eiht or ten togetherbut there I was told of

    a growing desire among g the richer capitalists , to build large factories for the sake of economy . At Rouen it is the same ; and I see

    the sewing machine advertised all over Paris , in immense placards , whereon a ladyin a grass-green petticoat with a blue jacket ,

    is embroidering young a vermilion , collar by help of a machine . The rich italists are likewise naturally acquiring the same immense

    influcap ence over the well-being of the workpeople which they possess with . us . "Les Barons de VIndustrie " I heard them called the other day ,

    and that unless this new feodaliU was thoroughly gained over , the working population of France could not even be maintained at

    its present level of health and morality . Each rich man in a manufacturing country is a unit in a vast system , whose exterior working he

    can no more control than he could alter the course of the tides ; if he slacken his own pace he is overwhelmed . But though I know

    he cannot alter one iota of the laws of political economy , I am very sure social that machine he can whose _, if he working chooses , watch he superintends carefully . over He the cannot action ( alas of the !)

    render his workpeople less dependent on himself , but he can largely control their physical and moral conditions for good . He is the

    feudal lord of the present age , and must remain so until some cooperative system reduces his power ; he therefore must be gained at

    all costs by those who wish to save the people . Such was the gist of my conversation with a man eminently fitted by nature and by

    official position for estimating truly the present condition of France . I cannot also deny the unfavorable side to the great industry

    practised hy married women in France , and more particularly in Paris . The vague ideas which we entertain on their condition have

    gradually acquired form and substance in my mind from what I have heard from one and anotherand from what I have been able

    , tropoli to see s in in five the we way eks . of It industry seems that consists the in _speciality what are of the calle French d 6 < Articles

    mede Paris" objects of taste and ornamentation , bronzes , painted and gilded porcelain , wood-carving , filigree work , and a hundred

    indescribable nick-nacks , including all the false jewellery and bijouterie , which hardldeserves the ithet of " false" inasmuch as it does

    not pretend y to be of gold or ep silver , but is made , of tortoiseshell , of aluminaof ivoryetc . etc . Paris _supjolies the world with these

    objets de , luxeand , women , largely supply Paris . They are enrployed in the processes , of manufactureand still more in the processes of

    , sale , I hope to offer the details of many of these trades in future numbers of the Journal ; but for the present it is enough to

    recognise the fact of the immense employment of women to which they give rise ; and particularly of married women , since the educated

    girl , even of the shopkeeping classes , marries very young . The servantsainwho cook and do housemaids' work for whole

    families , are constantl , ag , y married women who come out by the day ;

    vol . v . t 2

    From Paris 267

    FROM PARIS 267

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/51/