PRISONERS OF POVERTY
WOMEN WAGE-WORKERS,
THEIR TRADES AND THEIR LIVES.
By
HELEN CAMPBELL
AUTHOR OF “MRS. HERNDON’S INCOME,” “MISS MELINDA’S OPPORTUNITY,” ETC.
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1900
Copyright, 1887,
By Helen Campbell
University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge
PRISONERS OF POVERTY.
| “Make no more giants, God, But elevate the race at once. We ask To put forth just our strength, our human strength. All starting fairly, all equipped alike, Gifted alike, all eagle-eyed, true-hearted,— See if we cannot beat Thy angels yet.” “Light, light, and light! to break and melt in sunder All clouds and chains that in one bondage bind Eyes, hands, and spirits, forged by fear and wonder And sleek fierce fraud with hidden knife behind; There goes no fire from heaven before their thunder, Nor are the links not malleable that wind Round the snared limbs and souls that ache thereunder; The hands are mighty were the head not blind. Priest is the staff of king, And chains and clouds one thing, And fettered flesh with devastated mind. Open thy soul to see, Slave, and thy feet are free. Thy bonds and thy beliefs are one in kind, And of thy fears thine irons wrought, Hang weights upon thee fashioned out of thine own thought.” |