Page:The Battle for Bread (1875).pdf/41

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CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN AND THE POOR.
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stricken widow, the bereaved orphan, are sinking beneath the waves of oppressive toil, or perishing by the slow degrees of pinching penury and want, where shall we find the life-boats and the heroes to man them, who will go forth upon the mighty sea of civilized, or rather uncivilized society, and strive to rescue the vast multitudes who are sinking beneath the engulphing billows of injustice and oppression?

Of the two alternatives, I would rather that my loved ones and myself, should go down into the ocean-depths, than to die the lingering death which the tyranny and greed of our present false and Ishmaelitish system imposes, and be subjected to such a life of bondage, as we find illustrated in the case of the little children referred to in Allegheny; and the counterpart of which, we may find all over the land, and cases even more painful to contemplate.

Little children, who should be. free as the birds to bask in the sunshine and the pure air—to play upon the hill-side slopes, or ramble in sportive glee over the sunny plain, inhailing health and developing their physical being—to be shut up in factories and workshops, growing prematurely old—never knowing the joys of childhood—O, how sad!

Can any nation expect the blessings of Heaven to rest upon it, which loses sight of the simplest principles of justice and humanity—which makes 'hewers of wood and drawers of water' of the wealth-producers and 'palace-builders of the world,' and blights the lives of children for all time—and that too, merely to gratify