us see the result, and how far he is from being able to save wherewith to meet the casualties of sickness and want of employment.
| 44 weeks, at $4.50, | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | $198 00 | |||||||
| Shoes and clothing for self and wife, | - | - | - | - | 24 00 | |||||||||||
| For two children, at $8 each, | - | - | - | - | - | 16 00 | ||||||||||
| Rent, 50 cents per week, | - | - | - | - | - | - | 26 00 | |||||||||
| Soap, candles, &c. at 8 cents per week, | - | - | - | 4 16 | ||||||||||||
| Fuel, at 15 cents per week, | - | - | - | - | - | 7 80 | ||||||||||
| Bread, meat, drink, vegetables, &c. for self, wife, and two | 116 68 | |||||||||||||||
| children, at 8 cents each per day, | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||||
| $194 64 | ||||||||||||||||
This is a sample of a large class, whom citizens, wallowing in wealth and enjoying all the luxuries of life, vituperate for not saving enough when employed, wherewith to support themselves during hard winters and times of sickness!!! And let it be observed, that this calculation is for two children, whereas some of those persons have four or five.
There are, I believe, some journeymen in Philadelphia whose wages do not much, if any thing, exceed four dollars and a half a week.
Philadelphia, June 28, 1833.
ESSAY V.
But we are gravely told, that some of the seamstresses ought to go to service—that servants are scarce; if they would condescend to fill that station, they might have comfortable homes, abundance of good food, light labour, and high wages.
That there may be found some individuals among those oppressed women who might go to service, and whom a false pride prevents from taking that course, I admit. But on a careful inquiry of the Matron of the Provident Society, and of the Managers of the Female Hospitable Society, I am persuaded the number is small, and bears but a slight proportion to the whole number of the seamstresses. There is among them a large proportion of aged widows, who are wholly unfit for service, and many young widows, with two or three small children, who are as dear to them, as theirs are to the rich; whom, of course, they cannot bear to part with; and whom their wages, as servants, would not support at nurse.
Extract of a letter from Mrs. Margaret Silver, Secretary of the Female Hospitable Society.
"On consulting with the Managers of the Female Hospitable Society, we have concluded from the experience which twenty-three years have given us, to return the following answers to your queries:—
"1. The number of women who apply for work in the winter season, is, on an average, five hundred.
"2. As to persons among them fit for house-maids, or service in families, not one in fifty.
"3. As to the number of widows, the proportion is as seventy-five to an hundred; the remainder, chiefly wives deserted by their husbands, or whose husbands do nothing for the maintenance of their children, who are too young to do any thing for themselves.
"4. As to aged females, one half are of that class, and one fifth of the whole infirm.
Extract of a letter from Mrs. Queen, Matron of the Philadelphia Provident Society.
