1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



437 



of many individuals. It would not be their money 

 that would be wanted — or at least but. little, and 

 that only in the commencement — but the support 



and strength furnished by their favor, and their 

 influence with the public. A master printer and 

 publisher, for example, who would take a dozen 

 female apprentices, could not fail to make sufficient 

 profit, provided he was merely assured of having 

 enough work furnished to him, at fair prices, or o. 1 ' 

 sufficient demand lor his publications. But with- 

 out an assurance of full employment, he could not 

 justifiably, assume such duties, and such heavy 

 responsibility, nor would he be trusted by others 

 with so delicate and important a charge. Give 

 such individuals however, the backing of a per- 

 manent association, and these difficulties would 

 be removed — not speedily perhaps, but surely, and 

 effectually. 



We are a people slow to abandon old usages, 

 and it is to be feared that it would be long be- 

 fore any considerable change in labor could be 

 produced even by zealous and well directed efforts 

 for the purpose. More especially would it bedfficult 

 to induce the parents and friends of young girls 

 to adopt for them such novel measures, even 

 though heartily approved by them in theory, lest 

 there should be a failure in the attempt, or some 

 loss of caste, and even of character be sustained, 

 from improper company, or from unfounded 

 popular prejudice. These objections, these fears, 

 would proceed from feelings that deserve all re- 

 spect and indulgence — they would be excited by 

 the general purity of our female population, and 

 by the keen sensitiveness as to the most distant 

 approach to any thing like a stain on female cha- 

 racter. Long may these feelings exist! It would 

 be the care of the members of the association to 

 cherish them — and to take every care to treat with 

 attention and respect the young females who may 

 be trusted to their guardianship. This could be 

 easily and completely effected. The workinir es- 

 tablishments under their patronage, might be as 

 well organized to secure purity of morals, and pro- 

 priety of manners, as the best boarding schools — 

 and every apprentice might be made sensible, by 

 the kind notice of the ladies who were members, 

 that their labors were as honorable, as idleness and 

 dependence would be likely to lead to want, and 

 degradation. 



It may be objected to this scheme, that as soon 

 as a female apprentice had served her time, and 

 was capable of earning good wages, that she 

 would often become a wife and a mother, and then 

 be compelled to renounce her acquired trade. 

 .Even were this to be the case, there would be no 

 loss sustained greater than is now general. The 

 female would have been at least well employed, 

 for the interest of others, for some previous years, 

 and would probably have acquired habits of in- 

 dustry and economy, which would be valuable in 

 any condition of life. But this worst case would 

 not be so frequent as others of very different cha- 

 racter. Young and poor females often marry on 

 the first tolerable opportunitv, and most imprudent- 

 ly, not so much from inclination, as to gain a home 

 and asylum from dependence and threatening 

 want — and without considering that the step is 

 almost sure to bring greater future want and mis- 

 ery to themselves and their children. Now the acqui- 

 ring of a good and gainful trade would make a girl 

 at once independent — and would be doubly a safe- 



guard against her marrying without proper mo- 

 tives, or very hastily and imprudently. At any 

 rate, it would be a strong inducement to postpone 

 marriage until the wages of a few years had been 

 accumulated — and thus the evils of imprudent 

 marriages would be greatly lessened, if not often 

 avoided altogether. 



If such measures as have been proposed, could 

 be used, and had the effects anticipated, the re- 

 sults would not be more important to the interest 

 and happiness of women, than to society at large. 

 The many thousands of young girls who will 

 otherwise grow up to live, like their predecessors, 

 in dependence, and destitute of the common com- 

 forts and even of necessaries, would be made in- 

 dependent of the charity, or of the oppression of 

 others, and would possess within themselves the 

 sure means of earning a competent and respecta- 

 ble support. There would be removed the now 

 existing powerful inducements, (amounting often 

 to necessity,) for many a mercenary marriage — 

 which, whether the object be a life of luxury and 

 splendor, or merely to secure bread under the shel- 

 ter of a hovel, is simply a species of legal prosti- 

 tution. The laborious father who had necessarily 

 lived "steeped in poverty," to support a large fa- 

 mily of young children, in dying, would be reliev- 

 ed of the heart-rending conviction which must 

 now exist, that his daughters would be destitute 

 except, from the charity of friends, or of strangers. 



By the change of position contemplated, woman 

 would rise in the scale of society, and in dignity of 

 character, as much as in comlbrt and happiness. 

 She would be a substantive being — no longer a 

 mere adjective to and dependent on man, whether 

 situated as his valued companion and sharer of 

 his toils and pleasures, or the mere object of his 

 sensuality — as the pensioner on his bounty, or the 

 slave and victim of his selfish tyranny. Nor, by 

 this change, would there be any loss in the value 

 of woman, as the solace, and best of all the bless- 

 ings of man: on the contrary, she would become 

 so much the more prized, so much the more a dis- 

 penser of happiness as a companion and wife, in 

 proportion to her advancement in useful pursuits, 

 and to that increase of knowledge and enlarge- 

 ment of mind, which would necessarily follow such 

 pursuits. 



The men, who would otherwise have occupied 

 the places which this scheme would give to fe- 

 males, would be engaged in other pursuits re- 

 quiring the strength, (physical or mental,) the en- 

 ergy or the enterprise of the stronger sex. In our 

 young country there can be no want of demand 

 for services in all such pursuits; and of course no 

 loss, private or public, by the change of occupa- 

 tions could be expected to occur. 



To the commonwealth, to the public interests, 

 the gain would consist in the change of many 

 thousands of unproductive consumers, to produc- 

 tive and profitable laborers — the obtaining, in fact, 

 the fruits of the advantageous employment of half 

 our population, which now may be considered (as 

 to the public interests) as a class of paupers — 

 which take away much from the public wealth, 

 and return no compensation, except as breeders, 

 and reproducers of the class of male laborers, 

 which existing institutions and prejudices have 

 made the only productive class. 



POI.ECOX. 



