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
In these pages, authenticated by a pure and cultivated woman, who holds a
high position among us, every fact at which I hinted is made plain; and
here no careless talker may challenge the record with impunity. Here, as
in New York, smooth-faced men go on board the emigrant-ship, or the
steerage of the long-expected steamer; here, as there, they make friendly
offers and tell plausible lies, which girls who have never walked the
streets of Berlin at night, nor seen the occupants of a hospital-ward at
the Charité, can hardly be expected to estimate at their just worth. The
stories which I have told of unknown sufferers are here repeated. The
grand-daughter of Krummacher marries a poor shoemaker to save herself from
vice, and poor German Mary drowns herself in the Hudson because she feels
herself a burden on a heartless brother. Better far to sink beneath its
waves than beneath the more remorseless flood which sweeps over all great
cities. Now, when the story of the Water-street cap-makers is told, to be
matched by many another in Boston itself, it is no longer some ignorant,
half-trained stranger who tells the story, but the capable, skilled woman,
who, educated for better things, made tassels and coiffures, and accepted
commissions in embroidery, till the merchants were convinced that here,
indeed, was a woman without reproach. Water-street merchants would do well
to remember hereafter that the possibilities of a Zakrzewska lie hidden in
every oppressed girl, and govern themselves accordingly. Think of this
accomplished woman, able to earn no more than thirty-six cents a day,--a
day sixteen hours long, which finished a dozen caps at three cents each!
What, then, must become of clumsy and inferior work-women? Think of it
long and patiently, till you come to see, as she bids you, the true
relation between the idleness of women and money in the Fifth Avenue and
the hunted squalor of women without money at the Five Points. Women of
Boston, the parallel stands good for you. Listen, and you may hear the
dull murmur of your own "Black Sea," as it surges against your gateway.
Hasten to save those whom it has not yet overwhelmed Believe me that many
of them are as pure and good as the babes whom you cradle in cambric and
lace. If you will not save them, neither shall you save your own beloved
ones from the current which undermines like a "back-water" your costliest
churches, your most sacred homes.
Caroline H. Dall.
Oct. 29, 1860.
L'Envoi.
"Unbarred be all your gates, and opened wide,
Till she who honors women shall come in!"
Dante: Sonnet xx.
Footnotes
[1] Pronounced Zak-shef-ska.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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