“Just so,” replied my friend; “or that wages were always to be paid before four o’clock on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I could respect them for that, instead of despising them, as, upon my word, I now do, for their much ado about nothing; that is, about nothing to them.”
I am, however, induced to think, from much which I have met in my own experience, and also from what I have heard through other observers, that among the better class of working-men (a class whose value and importance to this country cannot be over-estimated) there is a sincere wish to avail themselves of the assistance of any helping hand held out to their relief. They have often confided to me their troubles, with the simplicity and earnestness of children, and have asked—
“Do you think, ma’am, you could do anything for us? We should be so glad, if you could put us up to some better way of getting on.”
This subject is worth every attention, even with those who take no higher ground than what will pay. How many of the victims of unhealthy houses are now crowding into our hospitals, asylums, and workhouses, a burden to their country, living upon its wealth, instead of adding to it by their activity and skill! Sin and sorrow, in this world, are inseparable. Neglect and bad management have made the very class intended by a wise and kind Creator as the spring of the country’s greatest wealth, to become a source of great trouble and expense.
If there is any doubt as to the duty of caring more for the poor, we have only to look at the example of Him who went about doing good, who, “when He saw the multitudes, had compassion upon them.” We cannot, like Him, heal the sick and cleanse the leper; but, by the use of appointed means, how much sickness and moral leprosy may be prevented!
If the government of this country would, in this way, follow the steps of “another King, even Jesus,” doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, then might we look for the fulfilment of the promise—“I will open the windows of heaven, and pour out upon you such a blessing as there shall be scarce room to contain.” And now that dark clouds are rising around our political horizon, and many hearts are failing them for fear, is it not a time to turn unto God in the way that He has Himself marked out?—“Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house: when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily.”
When we contemplate how great a change would be wrought in a nation, were its rulers men fearing God, and hating covetousness, and, like Daniel, going many times a-day to ask counsel of the Lord, we seem to see the pen moving in the hand of the recording angel, as he writes, “No weapon formed against it shall prosper.”
We must return for a moment to our own more immediate work. In consequence of the disadvantage to which we have alluded, we have not been able to effect all the improvement we could wish in the dwellings of our poor mothers; but, by the introduction of cleanliness, order, and ventilation, the aspect of many homes has been much changed. Soon after we commenced these meetings, we spent the greater part of one evening in explaining the nature and effects of pure air and ventilation, and illustrating the subject in various ways. The listeners were startled at the facts brought before them: and by their unfeigned expressions of astonishment, it was evident that their ideas on the subject, and nature’s intentions, were quite at variance. Several months afterwards, on entering a house where two of our poor mothers lived, I was pleased to observe how clean and well-ventilated it was. On remarking this, one of the women said—“Ah! that was a wonderful evening when you told us all about what air we could live upon, and what we couldn’t. I says to Mrs L—, as we were going home, ‘There now, we have been a-shutting up our windows, and thinking we were shutting the pizen out, instead of which we were shutting of it in.’ I soon got my window made to open at the top, and it has never been quite shut since; for we always sleeps six in this room. The neighbours did say, at first, that we should catch our deaths; but they soon saw that we were so much better, that half the people in the street open their windows at the top now.”
This same woman came to me a few weeks ago, and told me that she had lately removed into another street, where the houses were apparently of a better order than those she had left; but after the first week or two, she found that, in consequence of a drain-pipe being out of order, they were constantly subjected to an unpleasant smell. “I tell my landlord of it,” she said, “every Monday morning when I pay my rent; and he always says to me, ‘I’ll send a man here in a day or two, and have it put to rights;’ and that have been going on now for six weeks, and nobody has been a-near the place to do anything yet. I have two children ill with fever; and we all wake of a morning now with that old miserable, sick, tired feeling we used to have before you told us how to manage better. My boys said this morning, ‘Mother, the work do seem so hard now, to what it used to.’ You know, ma’am, the work isn’t no difference; but we are all getting pizen’d with that nasty smell; and it do seem so hard to me, for I have never had no illness to speak of among ’em all, for the last four years.”
At a very early period in our meeting we introduced a whitewash brush. This is lent to any of the mothers who apply for it. It is very frequently out; indeed, in the spring of the year, it is seldom at home. As many as seven or eight of these brushes have been worn out in the service of the society since its commencement. A thick iron saucepan is also kept at the house of one of our missionaries, and lent for the purpose of soup-making. Each member is supplied with a large printed receipt, giving particular direction for the composition of this soup. This receipt is so valuable, that I intend placing it at the end of this book.