*THE
WORKER*
BRISBANE,
SEPTEMBER 14, 1895.
How
the Poor Sempstress is Ousted.
The steadily rising tide of
precariousness of employment, which is creeping up to social grades
once thought high and dry beyond its reach, is illustrated in Mr.
Sparrow’s Quiver article on
woman labour in London:
“It
is difficult to say whether it is a good or bad thing that making
fine underclothes is passing almost entirely from the hands of the
poorer class. It is a striking sign of the continuances of
bad times, that the wives and sisters of clerks and tradesmen
undersell their
starving sisters, and snatch the bread from their mouths to put it
into their own. Not only fine sewing, but making the fringes for
toilet covers, the braiding of aprons, night cases, &c., the jet
beading for trimming, even the buttonholing of cuffs and collars is
eagerly besought by numbers of trim and neatly dressed persons in
reduced circumstances; while the heads of such establishments assert
that they are besieged with applications for similar work from
governesses past their prime, and teachers whose teaching
days are over, but who hope to eke out a pitiable existence by a
means not hurting to their pride. So it is gradually being taken from
the working woman, and given to those with whom, at least it is
presumed, there will be less risk of disease or infection. Hence the
working woman is driven to manual labour.”
- Review of Reviews.
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