The Woman Who Toils

⠄The Woman Who Toils

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Woman Who Toils
by Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van Vorst This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Woman Who Toils Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls
Author: Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van Vorst
Release Date: March 1, 2005 [EBook #15218]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: MRS. JOHN VAN VORST AS "ESTHER KELLY" Wearing the costume of the pickle factory]
[Illustration: MISS MARIE VAN VORST AS "BELL BALLARD" At work in a shoe factory]
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THE WOMAN WHO TOILS
Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls
BY
MRS. JOHN VAN VORST
and
MARIE VAN VORST

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK:
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1903

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DEDICATION
To Mark Twain
In loving tribute to his genius, and to his human sympathy, which in Pathos and Seriousness, as well as in Mirth and Humour, have made him kin with the whole world:--
this book is inscribed by
BESSIE and MARIE VAN VORST.

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PREFATORY LETTER FROM THEODORE ROOSEVELT
_Written after reading
Chapter III
. when published serially_
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, October 18, 1902.
_My Dear Mrs. Van Vorst_:
_I must write you a line to say how much I have appreciated your article, "The Woman Who Toils." But to me there is a most melancholy side to it, when you touch upon what is fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country--that is, the question of race suicide, complete or partial_.
_An easy, good-natured kindliness, and a desire to be "independent"--that is, to live one's life purely according to one's own desires--are in no sense substitutes for the fundamental virtues, for the practice of the strong, racial qualities without which there can be no strong races--the qualities of courage and resolution in both men and women, of scorn of what is mean, base and selfish, of eager desire to work or fight or suffer as the case may be provided the end to be gained is great enough, and the contemptuous putting aside of mere ease, mere vapid pleasure, mere avoidance of toil and worry. I do not know whether I most pity or most despise the foolish and selfish man or woman who does not understand that the only things really worth having in life are those the acquirement of which normally means cost and effort. If a man or woman, through no fault of his or hers, goes throughout life denied those highest of all joys which spring only from home life, from the having and bringing up of many healthy children, I feel for them deep and respectful sympathy--the sympathy one extends to the gallant fellow killed at the beginning of a campaign, or the man who toils hard and is brought to ruin by the fault of others. But the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage, and has a heart so cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish as to dislike having children, is in effect a criminal against the race, and should be an object of contemptuous abhorrence by all healthy people_.
_Of course no one quality makes a good citizen, and no one quality will save a nation. But there are certain great qualities for the lack of which no amount of intellectual brilliancy or of material prosperity or of easiness of life can atone, and which show decadence and corruption in the nation just as much if they are produced by selfishness and coldness and ease-loving laziness among comparatively poor people as if they are produced by vicious or frivolous luxury in the rich. If the men of the nation are not anxious to work in many different ways, with all their might and strength, and ready and able to fight at need, and anxious to be fathers of families, and if the women do not recognize that the greatest thing for any woman is to be a good wife and mother, why, that nation has cause to be alarmed about its future_.
_There is no physical trouble among us Americans. The trouble with the situation you set forth is one of character, and therefore we can conquer it if we only will._
_Very sincerely yours,_
_THEODORE ROOSEVELT._
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PREFATORY NOTE
A portion of the material in this book appeared serially under the same title in _Everybody's Magazine_. Nearly a third of the volume has not been published in any form.

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CONTENTS

By MRS. JOHN VAN VORST

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introductory 1
II. In a Pittsburg Factory 7
III. Perry,