To show the extremes to which the doctrine of possibilities may lead in this development of misery and vice, we will recur to the statement of some of the London prostitute needle-women themselves. We quote from Mayhew’s letters to the Morning Chronicle:
“I now come to the second test that was adopted in order to verify my conclusions. This was the convening of such a number of needle-women and slop-workers as would enable me to arrive at a correct average as to the earnings of the class. I was particularly anxious to do this, not only with regard to the more respectable portions of the operatives, but also with reference to those who, I had been given to understand, resorted to prostitution in order to eke out their subsistence. I consulted a friend, who is well acquainted with the habits and feelings of slop-workers, as to the possibility of gathering together a number of women who would be willing to state that they had been forced to take to the streets on account of the low prices for their work.[312] He told me he was afraid, from the shame of their mode of life becoming known, it would be almost impossible to collect together a number of females who would be ready to say as much publicly. However, it was decided that at least the experiment should be made, and that every thing should be done to assure the parties of the strict privacy of the assemblage. It was arranged that this gentleman and myself should be the only male persons visible on the occasion, and that the place of meeting should be as dimly lighted as possible, so they could scarcely see or be seen by one another or by us. Cards of admission were issued privately, and, to my friend’s astonishment, as many as twenty-five came on the evening named to the appointed place, intent upon making known the sorrows and sufferings that had driven them to fly to the streets, in order to get the bread which the wretched prices paid for their labor would not permit them to obtain.
“Never in all history was such a sight seen or such tales heard. There, in the dim haze of the large bare room in which they met, sat women and girls, some with babies sucking at their breasts, others in rags, and even those borrowed in order that they might come and tell their misery to the world. I have witnessed many a scene of sorrow lately; I have heard stories that have unmanned me; but never, till last Wednesday, had I heard or seen any thing so solemn, so terrible as this. If ever eloquence was listened to, it was in the outpourings of these poor, lorn mothers’ hearts for their base-born little ones, as each told her woes and struggles, and published her shame amid the convulsive sobs of others—nay, of all present. Behind a screen, removed from sight, so as not to wound the modesty of the women, who were nevertheless aware of their presence, sat two reporters from this journal, to take down verbatim the confessions and declarations of those assembled, and to them I am indebted for the following report of the statements made at the meeting.”
Then follow a series of most heart-rending statements, all to the same purport as those quoted in other parts of this work, and bearing all the internal evidence of truth. The letter concludes with the following sentence:
“They were unanimous in declaring that a large number of the trade—probably one fourth of the whole, or one half of those who had no husbands or parents to support them—resorted to the streets to eke out a living. Accordingly, assuming the government returns to be correct, and that there are upward of eleven thousand females under twenty living by needle and slop work,[313] the numerical amount of prostitution becomes awful to contemplate.”
Thus, then, we have it in evidence that “probably” one fourth of all women engaged in sewing occupations for a livelihood are compelled to have occasional recourse to prostitution as their only and compulsory refuge from starvation.
The number of women engaged in these sewing occupations is enormous. According to the census of 1851, they constitute, indeed, the main support of the female working population throughout Great Britain, exclusive of domestic servants, laundresses, and persons employed in agricultural pursuits, and in the cotton and linen factories. The figures for the three kingdoms are as follows:
| Hatters | 3,500 | |
| Straw-hat-makers | 20,500 | |
| Bonnet-makers | 7,600 | |
| Cap-makers | 4,700 | |
| Furriers | 1,900 | |
| Tailors | 17,600 | |
| Shawl-makers | 3,200 | |
| Milliners | 267,400 | |
| Seamstresses | 72,900 | |
| Stay-makers | 12,700 | |
| Stocking-makers | 30,700 | |
| Glovers | 25,300 | |
| Case-makers | 31,400 |
| In all Great Britain this class numbers | 1,787,600 | |
| Of whom there are under twenty years of age | 458,168 |