The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

EOE EEE — — ——eE ae. NN ae ee eee eee eee oe —_— —$—_ le _— - 20 of my labour, wherefore should I not at least re- ceive the whole of this amount myself—instead of a poor three shillings and sixpence ?” “Because, my dear friend, the system is infamous to a degree and the poor workers are its wretched victims,” answered Julia, with a bitterness arising from painful reminiscences rather than from any present associations. “ Madame Duplessy employs a middle-woman, because it saves trouble in the first insjance—and secondly because the result is to keep down the price of the work thus put out to be done. The middle-woman whom Madame Duplessy em- ploys, contracts with sub-agents constituting a second grade of middle-women;—and from these last do the needlewomen receive their work end their pittances, Madame Duplessy, for instance, cares not through how many hands the work may have passed ere it returns again to her: or rather I should say, the more hands it passes through, the better she is pleased, because the earnings of the wretched needlewomen who do the work are di- minished in proportion. By thus keeping down the wages of the needlewomen, the great houses—such as Madame Duplessy’s—can from time to time re- duce the prices paid to the middle-women. Madame Duplessy says to Mrs. Pembroke, ‘ You have been able to beat down your workers to such low wages, that you can easily afford to reduce your own prices. —Then Mrs. Pembroke says to Mrs. Jackson, ‘My prices ure reduced, and I must expect you to reduce yours. —And finally, Mrs. Jackson says to Virginia Mordaunt, or any other young slave whom she em- ploys, ‘My prices are reduced, and your wages must therefore be diminished. —The result is that your earnings, Virginia, will continue to grow less and less: but I question whether Madame Duplessy will lower her prices towards her aristocratic cus- tomers.” “YT understand fully how the system operates,” said our heroine: ‘indeed, I obtained a pretty tolerable insight into it this morning—and the im- pressions I then received are now confirmed by your explanations. But my query yet remains to be answered -——” “Ah! I recollect,” ejaculated Miss Barnet. “ You wish to know why you cannot obtain work direct from Madame Duplessy, for instance, without the intervention of a Mrs. Jackson ora Mrs. Pembroke? The answer is plain and easy, my dear friend. In the first place the system of middle-women saves trouble to such houses as Madame Duplessy’s; and secondly it keeps down the wages, as I have ex- plained to you. This is after all the main point. By the mere fact of the work passing through several hands, it becomes more difficult to obtain on the part of the needlewomen—and the result is a readiness to work for almost any pittance sooner than have no work at all. Moreover, where so many agencies are engaged and so many interests are combined in keeping down wages, how can the poor seamstress possibly make a stand against such a colossal tyranny? Mrs. Jackson crushes you— Mrs, Pembroke grinds Mrs. Jackson—and Madame Duplessy keeps a tight hand over Mrs. Pembroke. By such a complicated machinery your earnings are reduced to a far lower standard than Madame Duplessy could possibly succeed in bringing them, if the dealings took place between herself and yourself without the intervention of any other THE SEAMSTRESS. parties. Madame Duplessy, you tell me, charged © the Duchess of Belmont four guineas for the dress ; but she only paid fourteen shillings for the making of it. Now, were Madame Duplessy left to fight the battle of labour’s value direct with you who did the labour, she would be pretty well at your mercy —because you could charge her at least a guinea for the work which she charged the Duchess four guineas for: and, however discontented Madame Duplessy might be at such a charge on your part, she has not the time to run all over London to ascertain who will work cheaper for her than you. But the intervention of the middle-women settles the point for Madame Duplessy, by fighting her battle with you—a battle in which yow are neces- sarily conquered and crushed. The result is that she gets done for fourteen shillings that work which she would otherwise be charged a guinea for: and thus, by the fact that the work passes through the hands of several persons, and each person has to get a living out of its price, this price is actually kept down below the standard that it would be able to maintain if the one individual who did the work were alone paid. From all that I have now told you, Virginia,” added Miss Barnet, “‘it is quite clear that Madame Duplessy has a direct interest in sustaining the system of middle-women, and that she would therefore discourage any innovation upon the mode of conducting her business.” “ To middle-women, then, must I alone look for work?” said the young seamstress, in a tone of the deepest melancholy. “Tt will be difficult for you to obtain it in any other way,” responded Miss Barnet. * And yet I thought—that is, I received from Mrs. Drake a hint to the effect—that you had sometimes more work than you could accomplish,” faultered Virginia; “and if that were the case, I hoped—I felt assured—at least I resolved to ask you——” “T know what you would say,” interrupted Miss Barnet: “and I will do all I can for you in that re- spect. I possess a good friend in the forewoman of a large house at the West End; and she sends me as much work asshe possibly can upon thesly. But if her employers knew that she did this, instead of sending everything to the middle-woman who con- tracts with them, she would lose her situation. Therefore you must keep the matter as secret as possible—and I shall be able to assist you.” ‘‘ Believe me, my dear friend,” exclaimed Vir- ginia, with tears in her eyes, “ that I am deeply, deeply grateful to you for this kindness on your art.” . : “Oh! it is nothing worth thanking me for,”’ cried Miss Barnet. “The truth is, I hate work— I can’t bear it—and yet I do not exactly choose to let Mrs. Robinson—that is the name of my friend the forewoman—know that I can do without it.” “You are happy in the possession of other ro- sources,” said Virginia, with a profound sigh. “But I suppose you have kind friends who assist oy < Yes—very kind friends,” ejaculated Miss Bar- net, with a smile which struck Virginia as being peculiar in its expression. ‘‘ Look here,” continued Julia, starting from her seat and throwing open the door of a cupboard in which several handsome dresses were hanging: “I can be as smart as any | lady of quality, when I choose. Here is a beau'iful EOMIGIoOO “S G 0) im