SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY ASSOCIATION.

Evening Star, Issue 2825, 8 March 1872, Page 2

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY ASSOCIATION.

To the Editor. Fir, —There is one phase of this question which has not received its due share of attention, and it is one which only requires to be mentioned to make people shudder at the cruel system the drapers have of making girls and young women work such long hours in close unhealthy rooms, and breathing frightfully vitiated air, generated by such a quantity of bad gas. As facts are the strongest arguments, I shall simply state a case which I heard from a friend of the unfortunate victim, and I fully believe it will be the best “Eye Observer ” yet heard upon the subject. There was a young lady, who had naturally a strong desire to assist her aged parents. Thinking that it would be a good thing for her if. she could get work in one of the drapery places in town, she applied, and was successful. After working a few months, th ■ long hours began to tell upon her. She had a one and thi’ee-quarters miles to walk to the shop, and so had to take her lunch with her, but sometimes she felt so ill that she had no appetite, and many a time she brought it home with her untouched. Her sister told my friend that on Saturdays she was never home till ten, eleven, or twelve o’clock, and sometimes even one o’clock on Sunday morning, and often has she brought home her lunch then untasted, her appetite having entirely left her. You will no doubt be anxious to know what became of her, and I am sorry to have to tell you that she fell a victim to the cruel system of long hours, and —died a few months ago. I am, &c., Justice and Humanity.