The Rain brings dullness, dullness brings dismay Come, Sun, and chase the weeping clouds away! The little guileless child Is growing wild With sighing for the air, And bearing care. Its mother chides; for Patience hides When drowsy Dullness bides. Come, Sun! and cheer the day With merry ray; The Rain brings dullness, dullness brings dismay- Come, Sun! the summer-time Your dazzling presence yield The town and field, Ere Winter snows on earth repose, And Nature throbs with woes. Come, Sun! and cheer the day With merry ray; The rain brings dullness, dullness brings dismay Come, Sun and chase the weeping clouds away! Thou may'st be more prodigal of praise when thou writest a letter than when thou speakest in presence.—Fuller. Praise not people to their faces, to the end that they may pay thee in the same coin. This is so thin a cobweb, that it may with little difficulty be seen through: 'tis rarely strong enough to catch flies of any considerable magnitude.-Ibid. A wise man poor Is like a Sacred Book that's never read; DEKKER. NATURE VICTORIOUS. Triumphant, ere by rock and grove Victorious Queen! o'er cities humbled, How little from thy breast have won Sweet Victress thou, awake or sleeping, Triumphant still in sculptured stone, Of thee, in all we fain would cherish, From broad-ribbed peak to foamy strand The stateliest pile man's pride commands A moistened grain the seed will nourish Triumphant where decay is rife, WILLIAM DUTHIE. MIRTH AND SADNESS. Merry sings the lark as it soareth wide and high, And, O! merry sings the child on its mother's knee. Brightly shine the stars in the blue and moon-lit sky, And, O! brightly smiles the child on its mother's knee. But bird and bee have flown, and clouds obscure the sky, THE VICTORIA PRESS. FEMALE COMPOSITORS. T. S. One of the most difficult of social problems is that of woman's work. Philanthropists have made the endeavour to solve it their peculiar mission. Suggestions have been considered, schemes propounded, associations constituted, and an incalculable number of failures have followed-the benevolent efforts of influential and earnest missionaries in the cause. Whilst statesmen have been involved in foreign politics, a few good people have been discussing the questions of Social Science. It is always more meritorious to act than to talk. It is likewise better to test in practice than merely to think in theory. We have known very clever men and women most sensible in conversation, and yet most neglectful of practical life-duty. They are ever dreaming of good, which they will assure you must originate from certain specific operations. But it ends in words, since they don't believe in work. Miss Emily Faithful, the proprietress of the Victoria Press, believing that woman should be elevated to the social status of man, has started the Victoria Press, Great Coram Street, London. She has proved that the female compositor can pick up type, if not with the rapidity, at least with the correctness of the male. We have had the pleasure of paying a visit to Miss Faithful's printing-office, and confess that the arrangements are of a character deserving The forms praise. Apart from the consideration of what the success of the Victoria Press may originate in the country, should the master printers generally encourage female labour, we are bound to admit that the young fair ones perform their tasks well. They can either sit or stand, and are subjected to no harsh treatment. are imposed by men. There are fourteen female compositors employed; they vary in age. There is one little deaf and dumb girl, who is advancing in the profession. The most competent compositor is the widow of a Limerick printer. She had been initiated in the craft by her husband. In consequence of his death, having been provided with a letter of introduction from the editor of a Limerick paper, she has sought the office belonging to Miss Faithful, and has been readily employed. We think few male compositors would compose more rapidly than this Limerick printer's widow. It is a novelty in our age of novelties, this Victoria Printing Establishment. Its success cannot be doubted; the work is in every way equal to that turned out in printing-houses where men alone are employed. But we fear there are physical and moral evils in store for future generations, should the nation adopt the scheme proved practical by Miss Faithful. It is better to make printers of females than outcasts it is to the advantage of the female to be in a position to earn her bread by any honest occupation; but philanthropy will not follow the daughters of our children when they go into the market as competitors with our children's sons, It is a serious subject, when we consider how the introduction of women in the labor ranks, under present commercial arrangements, must inevitably deteriorate the money-value of the males. We wish to see woman elevated, but in serious truth cannot but regret the formation of this Victoria Press; not that we see any violation of benevolence or right principle in the Great Coram Street office arrangements, but that we fear the public may be deluded by it to nationalise the scheme, and thus degrade the female, by pressing her into service of a nature which keeps her from her home, and makes her a politicoeconomic tool to work against the male. Every man ought to be enabled to earn sufficient wages to yield support to his wife and family, without the necessity of the wife deserting her home for the workshop. The competition which will follow the accumulation of females in the printing trade must bring down wages, and, consequently, make the social difficulties of life greater than they are already. Let woman hold her legitimate position in society; aid her to gain true elevation; secure her from injustice; give her freedom, not from duty, but from oppression--then, and not till then, can you expect society to become regenerated. Take her from her home, place her in the brunt of commercial strife, make her to change her nature, to put on the robust habits of man, to lose her domesticity, what will result? Why, that the wives of the laboring classes, whose fate it may be to toil in the printing-office or the factory, will either be oppressed with double labor, or their husbands must perform the duties of home for them. There is not at the present time a scarcity of male compositors; if there were, the employment of females in that capacity would be a necessity and a good. The Victoria Press has, doubtless, originated from the purest motives. The way in which it is conducted reflects credit on the lady who started it. The fair ones who perform the task of composing are not over-taxed; they commence operations at nine in the morning, and generally cease at six in the evening; if they work overtime they are paid in proportion. We believe there is the same scale of prices for the women here as exists in offices where mencompositors work. As a rule, single women only are employed. This is an important fact. Thousands of unmarried women are without the means of honest living; to open a channel by which they can rise in the social scale, and maintain a fair degree of independence, is a work worthy the efforts of philanthropy. But there is wisdom as well as philanthropy required. If by over-zealous benevolence we raise the lowly, and by the same process debase the exalted, what practical good is done to society? What, in fact, is wanted, is a field for the employment of young women, which will in no degree throw out of employment young men. The Victoria Press, if conducted in the spirit which evidently animates those who have founded it, will be a blessing to many, especially to young women who have been wrecked on the breakers of poverty. It gives a solution to the problem of women's capacity for the kind of work which has been considered only suitable to men. It presents an argument to the wise men of our age, who, in their great minds, have conceived the idea that woman is mentally inferior to man. The Great Coram Street novelty is undeniably a scheme worthy the attention of Social Reformers. It is not our wish to be dogmatic. We confess our belief that the idea which has given birth to it may give existence to others, which will not recognise the high principles ruling in the establishment of Miss Faithful. But, at the same time, we honor the spirit of sisterly philanthropy which has impelled the lady to do something for her unhappy sisters. She has gone about the work with genuine zest. If she has chosen a right way, the world will honor her; if a wrong way, it has been done in a simple misconception of the proper work for woman. We think there are great evils accruing from congregating young girls and women in workshops, without there be the strictest regard paid to their conduct. The Great Coram Street Printing-office at present gives evidence of health; we trust that it may prove in no way injurious to the true interests of humanity. We trust, also, that the example of real womanly goodness which has been set by Miss Faithful may be emulated by others; if not in the establishing of printing-offices for females, at least in the way of working out the solution of "Woman's Work." |