A Practical Illustration of "Woman's Right to Labor": A Letter from Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D. Late of Berlin, PrussiaZakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth)
Science
A Practical Illustration of "Woman's Right to Labor": A Letter from Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D. Late of Berlin, Prussia
Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth)
Women -- Employment
Mrs. Severance secured a boarding-place for me for the rest of the winter;
and paid my board, amounting to thirty-three dollars, from the funds of
the society. I lived quietly by myself; studied six hours daily at home,
with four dictionaries by me; attending six lectures a day, and going in
the evening for three hours to the dissecting-rooms. I never conversed
with any one in the boarding-house nor even asked for any thing at the
table; but was supplied like a mute. This silence was fruitful to me.
About New Year, I ventured to make my English audible; when, lo! every one
understood me perfectly. From this time forward, I sought to make
acquaintances, to the especial delight of good old Dr. Delamater, who had
firmly believed that I was committing gradual suicide. Through Mrs.
Severance, I became acquainted with Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, who was then on a
visit to Cleveland; and, through her, with the Rev. A.D. Mayo, who was
pastor of a small society there, known as that of the Liberal Christians.
I found many dear and valued friends during my residence in Cleveland, but
none to whom I am bound in lasting gratitude as to Mr. Mayo, who offered
me his assistance when he learned that I was in need; my extra expenses
having swallowed up the little money that I had brought with me, so that I
had not even enough to return to my sisters in New York. As the minister
of a small congregation advocating Liberal ideas, he had a hard position
in Cleveland, both socially and pecuniarily; yet he offered to share his
little with me. I was forced to accept it; and I am now, and have always
been, glad that I did so. No one, that has not had the experience, can
appreciate the happiness that comes with the feeling, that a rich man has
not cast a fragment of his superfluity towards you (and here let me
remark, that it is next to impossible to find wealth and generosity go
together in friendship), but that the help comes from one who must work for
it as well as the recipient. It proves the existence of the mutual
appreciation that is known by the name of "friendship." The apple given by
a friend is worth ten times more than a whole orchard bestowed in such a
way as to make you feel that the gift is but the superfluity of the donor.
I remained for ten months a member of Mr. Mayo's family; when he received
a call to Albany, and changes had to be made in his household. During this
time, I earned a little money by giving lessons in German, that served to
cover my most necessary expenses. For the last five months that I spent in
Cleveland, I carried in my purse one solitary cent as a sort of talisman;
firmly believing that some day it would turn into gold: but this did not
happen; and on the day that I was expecting the receipt of the last
eighteen dollars for my lessons, which were designed to bear my expenses
to New York, I gave it to a poor woman in the street who begged me for a
cent; and it doubtless, ere long, found its way into a gin-shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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