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large enough to contain two beds, and two young women sleeping in each bed. The atmosphere of this room may be imagined; the poor girls could scarcely breathe. The doctor who saw the deceased declared that the apartment was not fit for dogs. The natural consequence of this mode of life was exhibited in Mary Aon Walkley’s case. Slje was taken ill on Friday; but, says one of the other girls, u we are often ill, so that not much notice was taken of that.” She was worse on Sunday, but does not appear to have received proper medical attendance. Some of her companions, however, sat up with her until she went to sleep, and in the morning her bedfellow found her dead at her side. A post-mortem examination was made, and the surgeon stated* in evidence that the deceased had died from apoplexy, but that her long hours of work, and sleeping in such a badly ventilated room, would have a great tendency to produce the symptoms. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with this evidence, but suffered the system to which Mary Ann Walkley had fallen a victim to pass without censure or remark.Now, the question will naturally strike the reader, for one case of this kind brought before the public, how many are there in which the unhappy sufferers spend their lives in misery, sink prematurely into their graves, and pass unnoticed from the world ? Nothing is heard of them, for the simple reason that when nature can sustain the burden no longer, they return tome to die. The West-end of London abounds with places of the same description as that in which Mary Ann Walkley met her death. Hundreds aud even thousands of young women are imtnured in dens for which a slave ship or the Black Hole of Calcutta is the only fitting comparison—working at least sixteen hours out of the twenty-four iif crowded and heated rooms, until they are actually fainting from exhaustion, and then condemned to sleep in places; to breathe the atmosphere of which is to inhale disease and death. No efficient check will ever be placed upon this system until Parliament itself shall take the matter in hand, and compel the proprietors of the West-end millinery and dressmaking establishments to have a due regard for the lives and the welfare of ihose they employ. The inspectioq and sunervision of these hooseaare quite as necessary asshould berisk their lives for a* scanty pittance; preferring eyen this wretched existence to dishonour, is one of slow murder, and can be called by no otherA - - * *name. The attention of the Government has been called to .the subject in both Houses of Parliament, but it appears more than likely that the bringing in of a measure to remedy the evil will be. left to independent members. Meanwhile it is the duty of the public to give such an emphaticexpression of opinion upon the matter a3 shall insure Legislative action, and remove this foul blot and reproach from among us.BT THE YOUXO MAX FROM THE COUHTBTSATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1868The attention of the public has, within the last few days, been once more prominently called to the condition of a large class of our population, whose circumstances frequently compel them to place themselves, in pursuit of their calling, in positions of great wretchedness andtrial. We allude to the needlewomen and dress-■makers of London, in whose behalf the voices of benevolence and eloquence have frequently been raised, but apparently without effects The effortsmade by the humane to ameliorate their condition have been powerless to meet, the evil in its fullest extent, from the circumstance that the workpeople are almost at the mercy of individual employers, whose only object is to, gain as much by the toil of their workpeople as they possiblycan, without consideration for their wantsor their rights as human beings. -Hence the paragraphs that occasionally find their way into the public journals, nfith such headings as u Death in the Work-room,” “ Worked to Death,” e., which have the effect of eioitiag a passingfeeling of commiseration in the minds of thereaders, bat rarely lead to anything beipg done to benefit the sufferers. A few wordsf pity for the unhappy women who are condemned to such a fate, aud of censure for the selfish and hardhearted class who constitute their employers, and the English public passes by, as iif it were entirely impossible to remedy a state of i things so disgraceful to our character as a civilised and Christian nation. * # *The case which has lately formed the subject of .remark, both in and out off Parliament, is that of Mary Ann Walkley, aged twenty, aneedlewoman in the employ of a /Coitrt dressmaker in Eegent-street. This poor yottng woman was found one morning dead in hei^bed, and from the statements of her companions in doubt can be entertained that her death was tto toinequence ofa 7 *excessive toil, combined with the eflects of living 5and sleeping in an atmosphere little if nny better than that of a slave ship. It app^d from -the ng.rrn.tiye of one of the fellow A omen of -the deceased, that about forty of thhw1 sre in the habit of working together in a close and crowded room. They were called in the m^rnigg at halfpast six, and shortly afterwards conui toil, which at ordinary times continue*'clock at night, bat frequently lasted jOn. the occasion of a Drawing-rooni at the' Palace' they would work .ijjg,': through. „ At night they retired to divided into little eells eadr of ...... . - V ©saaroom
Newspaper Details
Business Gazette
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Jun 27, 1863
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 01 Jun 2023
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