Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/114

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108
CONDITION OF FEMALE OPERATIVES.

house, and scolds her for leaving the children. This sort of life continues till Miss B. is six years of age, when it is concluded to discharge old Betty, on the score of economy, and leave the younger children in the charge of Miss B., getting a neighbor to look in upon them occasionally.

At nine, Miss B. is taken into the factory, having obtained a certificate from a surgeon for that purpose. In this school she is surrounded from the first hour by influences of the worst description; and if she escapes contamination, it may be looked upon almost as a miracle.

At fifteen, (the age at which we left Miss Lowell,) she will have had six years of factory life, and may be said to be well skilled, not only in her daily toil, but also in much of the vice and immorality of her elder companions.

Let us now suppose that Miss Lowell takes it into her head to go into the factories, for the purpose of "providing herself with a marriage dowry."

She enters her name, and is received as a rational and accountable being, having a soul to be lost or saved. Full provision is made in every way for her temporal and spiritual welfare. She is provided with every thing she needs to make her comfortable, and receives good wages besides. It is on these, and only these conditions that she consents to go, and why? Because she need not go to work unless she and her parents are so disposed.

In a few years she realizes the object of her wishes, saves a few hundred dollars, quits the factories, and gets married.

Miss Bradford, on the other hand, does not enter the factories from choice, but necessity; she has no voice in making conditions, but must submit to such as are offered. She is not looked upon by her master as an intellectual being, but as an animal machine. No provision is made for her temporal or spiritual welfare, as these are