and unscrupulousness, the fruit not of honest labor but of pure
speculation, is a burning disgrace to its owner, a plague-spot in
civilization, shall we be able to convince girl or woman that labor is
honorable, and better gains possible than any involved in merely getting
on. Never till this furious fight for success, this system of
competition which kills all regard for the individual, demanding only a
machine capable of so much net product,--never till these and all
methods of like nature have ceased to have place, or right to existence,
can we count ourselves civilized or hope to better the conditions that
now baffle us. No church, no mission, no improved home, no guild or any
other form of mitigation means anything till the whole system of thought
is reconstructed, and we come to some sense of what the eternal verities
really are.
It is easy for a woman to be kind and long-suffering, but the women who
can be just to themselves, as well as to others, we can count on our
fingers. Yet justice is the one demand in this life of to-day, and not
one of us who shrinks and shudders at the thought of what women-workers
are enduring but has it in her power to lessen the great sum of
wretchedness; to begin for some one the work of education into just
thinking and just living. Sweeping changes may not be possible. But
beginning is always possible; and not a woman capable of thinking but
has power by the simple force of example to lay the corner-stone of the
new temple, fairer than any yet known to mortal eyes. If there is doubt
for this generation of working-women toiling in blindest ignorance, it
rests with us to lessen the doubt for the next, and to make it
impossible in that better day for which we labor. Not one of us but can
ask, "What is the source of the income which gives me ease? Is it
possible for me to reconstruct my own life in such fashion that it shall
mean more direct and personal relation to the worker? How can I bring
more simplicity, less conventionality, more truth and right living into
home and every relation of life?"
I write these final words with all deference to the noble women whose
lives have been given to good work, and many of whom long ago settled
these questions practically for themselves. But for many of us there has
been simply passive acceptance of all present conditions, without a
question as to how or why they have come. It is because I believe that
with us is the power to remedy every one if we will, that I appeal to
women to-day. I write not as anarchist; not as declaimer against the
rights of property, but as believer in the full right to ownership of
all legitimately acquired property. I believe it the order of life, of
any life that would hold good work of whatever nature, that enough
should be acquired to make sharp want or eating care and perplexity
impossible. But it is certain that even for the most unselfish of us
there is an exaggerated estimate of the value of money,--an involuntary
and inevitable truckling to the one who has most,--and that, no matter
what our teaching may be, the force of every act and tendency makes
against it. And there can be no retracing of steps that have for
generations turned in the wrong direction. The very breath we draw on
this American soil is poisoned by the foulness about us, and about us by
our own act and choice. We have degraded labor till there is no lower
depth, and not one but many generations must pass before these masses
over whose condition we puzzle can find their feet in the path that
means any real progress.
Ask first, then, not what shall we do for these women, but what shall we
do for ourselves? How shall we learn to know what are the real things?
How shall we come to love them and cleave to them, and hold no life
worth living that admits sham or compromise, or believes the mad luxury
of this generation anything but blighting curse and surest destruction?
Till we know this we have learned nothing, and are forever not helpers,
but hinderers, in the great march that our blunders and stupidities only
check for the time. For the word is forever onward, and even the
blindest soul must one day see that if he will not walk by free choice
in the path of God, he will be driven into it with whips of scorpions,
made thus to know what part was given him to fill, and what judgment
waits him who has chosen blindness.
University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.
MRS. CAMPBELL'S BOOKS.
THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB. A Story for Girls. 16mo. $1.50.
MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME. A Novel. 16mo. $1.50.
MISS MELINDA'S OPPORTUNITY. A Story for Girls. 16mo. $1.00. (Paper, 50
cents.)
PRISONERS OF POVERTY. Women Wage-workers, their Trades and their Lives.
12mo. $1.00. (Paper, 50 cents.)
PRISONERS OF POVERTY ABROAD. 16mo. $1.00. (Paper, 50 cents.)
ROGER BERKELEY'S PROBATION. A Story. 12mo. $1.00. (Paper, 50 cents.)
WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS. Their Past, their Present, and their Future. 16mo.
$1.00.
THE EASIEST WAY IN HOUSEKEEPING AND COOKING. Adapted to Domestic Use or
Study in Classes. A new revised edition. 16mo. $1.00.
IN FOREIGN KITCHENS. With Choice Recipes from England, France, Germany,
Italy, and the North. 50 cents.
SOME PASSAGES IN THE PRACTICE OF DR. MARTHA SCARBOROUGH. 16mo. $1.00.
_These books will be mailed, post-paid, on receipt of the price by the
Publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY,
254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
_Terms for quantities, or for class use, will be sent on application._
MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME. A NOVEL.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL. AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB."
One volume. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50.
"Confirmed novel-readers who have regarded fiction as created for
amusement and luxury alone, lay down this book with a new and serious
purpose in life. The social scientist reads it, and finds the solution
of many a tangled problem; the philanthropist finds in it direction and
counsel. A novel written with a purpose, of which never for an instant
does the author lose sight, it is yet absorbing in its interest. It
reveals the narrow motives and the intrinsic selfishness of certain
grades of social life; the corruption of business methods; the 'false,
fairy gold,' of fashionable charities, and 'advanced' thought. Margaret
Wentworth is a typical New England girl, reflective, absorbed, full of
passionate and repressed intensity under a quiet and apparently cold
exterior. The events that group themselves about her life are the
natural result of such a character brought into contact with real life.
The book cannot be too widely read."--_Boston Traveller._
"If the 'What-to-do Club' was clever, this is decidedly more so. It is a
powerful story, and is evidently written in some degree, we cannot quite
say how great a degree, from fact. The personages of the story are very
well drawn,--indeed, 'Amanda Briggs' is as good as anything American
fiction has produced. We fancy we could pencil on the margin the real
names of at least half the characters. It is a book for the wealthy to
read that they may know something that is required of them, because it
does not ignore the difficulties in their way, and especially does not
overlook the differences which social standing puts between class and
class. It is a deeply interesting story considered as mere fiction, one
of the best which has lately appeared. We hope the authoress will go on
in a path where she has shown herself so capable."--_The Churchman._
"In Mrs. Campbell's novel we have a work that is not to be judged by
ordinary standards. The story holds the reader's interest by its
realistic pictures of the local life around us, by its constant and
progressive action, and by the striking dramatic quality of scenes and
incidents, described in a style clear, connected, and harmonious. The
novel-reader who is not taken up and made to share the author's
enthusiasm before getting half-way through the book must possess a taste
satiated and depraved by indulgence in exciting and sensational fiction.
The earnestness of the author's presentation of essentially great
purposes lends intensity to her narrative. Succeeding as she does in
impressing us strongly with her convictions, there is nothing of
dogmatism in their preaching. But the suggestiveness of every chapter is
backed by pictures of real life."--_New York World._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
MISS MELINDA'S OPPORTUNITY.
A STORY.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL,
AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB," "MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," "PRISONERS OF
POVERTY."
16mo. Cloth, price, $1.00; paper covers, 50 cents.
"Mrs. Helen Campbell has written 'Miss Melinda's Opportunity' with a
definite purpose in view, and this purpose will reveal itself to the
eyes of all of its philanthropic readers. The true aim of the story is
to make life more real and pleasant to the young girls who spend the
greater part of the day toiling in the busy stores of New York. Just as
in the 'What-to-do Club' the social level of village life was lifted
several grades higher, so are the little friendly circles of shop-girls
made to enlarge and form clubs in 'Miss Melinda's
Opportunity.'"--_Boston Herald._
"'Miss Melinda's Opportunity,' a story by Helen Campbell, is in a
somewhat lighter vein than are the earlier books of this clever author;
but it is none the less interesting and none the less realistic. The
plot is unpretentious, and deals with the simplest and most conventional
of themes: but the character-drawing is uncommonly strong, especially
that of Miss Melinda, which is a remarkably vigorous and interesting
transcript from real life, and highly finished to the slightest details.
There is much quiet humor in the book, and it is handled with skill and
reserve. Those who have been attracted to Mrs. Campbell's other works
will welcome the latest of them with pleasure and
satisfaction."--_Saturday Gazette._
"The best book that Helen Campbell has yet produced is her latest story,
'Miss Melinda's Opportunity,' which is especially strong in
character-drawing, and its life sketches are realistic and full of
vigor, with a rich vein of humor running through them. Miss Melinda is a
dear lady of middle life, who has finally found her opportunity to do a
great amount of good with her ample pecuniary means by helping those who
have the disposition to help themselves. The story of how some bright
and energetic girls who had gone to New York to earn their living put a
portion of their earnings into a common treasury, and provided
themselves with a comfortable home and good fare for a very small sum
per week, is not only of lively interest, but furnishes hints for other
girls in similar circumstances that may prove of great value. An
unpretentious but well-sustained plot runs through the book, with a
happy ending, in which Miss Melinda figures as the angel that she
is."--_Home Journal._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB.
A STORY FOR GIRLS.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.
16mo. Cloth. Price $1.50.
"'The What-to-do Club' is an unpretending story. It introduces us to a
dozen or more village girls of varying ranks. One has had superior
opportunities; another exceptional training; two or three have been
'away to school;' some are farmers' daughters; there is a teacher, two
or three poor self-supporters,--in fact, about such an assemblage as any
town between New York and Chicago might give us. But while there is a
large enough company to furnish a delightful coterie, there is
absolutely no social life among them.... Town and country need more
improving, enthusiastic work to redeem them from barrenness and
indolence. Our girls need a chance to do independent work, to study
practical business, to fill their minds with other thoughts than the
petty doings of neighbors. A What-to-do Club is one step toward higher
village life. It is one step toward disinfecting a neighborhood of the
poisonous gossip which floats like a pestilence around localities which
ought to furnish the most desirable homes in our country."--_The
Chautauquan._
"'The What-to-do Club' is a delightful story for girls, especially for
New England girls, by Helen Campbell. The heroine of the story is Sybil
Waite, the beautiful, resolute, and devoted daughter of a broken-down
but highly educated Vermont lawyer. The story shows how much it is
possible for a well-trained and determined young woman to accomplish
when she sets out to earn her own living, or help others. Sybil begins
with odd jobs of carpentering, and becomes an artist in woodwork. She is
first jeered at, then admired, and finally loved by a worthy man. The
book closes pleasantly with John claiming Sybil as his own. The labors
of Sybil and her friends and of the New Jersey 'Busy Bodies,' which are
said to be actual facts, ought to encourage many young women to more
successful competition in the battles of life."--_Golden Rule._
"In the form of a story, this book suggests ways in which young women
may make money at home, with practical directions for so doing. Stories
with a moral are not usually interesting, but this one is an exception
to the rule. The narrative is lively, the incidents probable and
amusing, the characters well-drawn, and the dialects various and
characteristic. Mrs. Campbell is a natural story-teller, and has the
gift of making a tale interesting. Even the recipes for pickles and
preserves, evaporating fruits, raising poultry, and keeping bees, are
made poetic and invested with a certain ideal glamour, and we are
thrilled and absorbed by an array of figures of receipts and
expenditures, equally with the changeful incidents of flirtation,
courtship, and matrimony. Fun and pathos, sense and sentiment, are
mingled throughout, and the combination has resulted in one of the
brightest stories of the season."--_Woman's Journal._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, by publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
SOME PASSAGES IN THE PRACTICE OF DR. MARTHA SCARBOROUGH.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.
_16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00._
Besides being equal to Mrs. Campbell's best work in the past, it is
strikingly original in presenting the ethics of the body as imperiously
claiming recognition in the radical cure of inebriety. It forces
attention to the physical and spiritual value of foods, and weaves
precedent and precept into one of the most beguiling stories of recent
date.
It is the gospel of good food, with the added influence of fresh air,
sunlight, cleanliness, and physical exercise that occupy profitably the
attention of Helen Campbell. Martha is a baby when the story begins,
and a child not yet in her teens when the narrative comes to an end,
but she has a salutary power over many lives. Her father is a wise
country physician, who makes his chaise, in his daily progress about
the hills, serve as his little daughter's cradle and kindergarten.
When she gets old enough to understand he expounds to her his views
of the sins committed against hygiene, and his lessons sink into an
appreciative mind. When he encounters particularly hard cases she
applies his principles with unfailing logic, and is able to suggest
helpful means of cure. The old doctor is delightfully sagacious in
demonstrating how the confirmed pie-eater marries the tea inebriate,
with the result in doughnut-devouring, dyspeptic, and consumptive
offspring. "What did they die of?" asked little Martha, in the village
graveyard; and her father answers solemnly, "Intemperance." So Martha
declares that she will be a "food doctor," and later on she helps her
father in saving several victims of strong drink. The book is one that
should find hosts of earnest readers, for its admonitions are sadly
needed, not in the country alone, but in the city, where, if better
ideas of diet prevail, people have yet as a rule a long way to go
before they attain the path of wisdom. Meanwhile it remains true, as
Mrs. Campbell makes Dr. Scarborough declare, that the cabbage soup and
black bread of the poorest French peasants are really better suited to
the sustenance of healthy life than the "messes" that pass for food in
many parts of rural New England.--_The Beacon._
_Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
ROGER BERKELEY'S PROBATION.
A Story.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL,
_Author of "Prisoners of Poverty," "Mrs. Herndon's Income," "Miss
Melinda's Opportunity," "The What-to-do Club," etc._
16mo, cloth, price, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
This story is on the scale of a cabinet picture. It presents interesting
figures, natural situations, and warm colors. Written in a quiet key, it
is yet moving, and the letter from Bolton describing the fortunate sale
of Roger's painting of "The Factory Bell" sends a tear of sympathetic
joy to the reader's eye. Roger Berkeley was a young American art student
in Paris, called home by the mortal sickness of his mother, and detained
at home by the spendthriftness of his father and the embarrassment that
had overtaken the family affairs through the latter cause. A concealed
mortgage on the old homestead, the mysterious disappearance of a package
of bonds intended for Roger's student use, and the paralytic incapacity
of the father to give the information which his conscience prompted him
to give, have a share in the development of the story. Roger is obliged
for the time to abandon his art work, and takes a situation in a mill;
and this trying diversion from his purpose is his "probation." How he
profits by this loss is shown in the result. The mill-life gives Mrs.
Campbell opportunity to express herself characteristically in behalf of
down-trodden "labor." The whole story is simple, natural, sweet, and
tender; and the figures of Connie, poor little cripple, and Miss Medora
Flint, angular and snappish domestic, lend picturesqueness to its group
of characters.--_Literary World._
_Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the
Publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
PRISONERS OF POVERTY ABROAD
By HELEN CAMPBELL,
AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO-CLUB," "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "ROGER
BERKELEY'S PROBATION," ETC.
_16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00; paper, 50 cents._
Mrs. Helen Campbell, an occasional and valued contributor to this
journal, and the author of "Prisoners of Poverty," and other studies of
social questions in this country, has offered in this book conclusions
drawn from investigations on the same themes made abroad, principally in
England or France. She has devoted personal attention and labor to the
work, and, although much of what she describes has been depicted before
by others, she tells her story with a freshness and an earnestness which
give it exceptional interest and value. Her volume is one of testimony.
She does not often attempt to philosophize, but to state facts as they
are, so that they may plead their own cause. She puts before the reader
a series of pictures, vividly drawn, but carefully guarded from
exaggeration or distortion, that he may form his own
opinions.--_Congregationalist._
Can life be worth living to the hordes of miserable women who have to
work from fifteen to eighteen hours a day for a wage of from twenty-five
to thirty-five or forty cents? And what have all the study of political
economy, all the writing of treatises about labor, all the Parliamentary
debates, all the blue books, all the philanthropic organizations, all
the appeals to a common humanity, done, in half a century, for these
victims of what is called modern civilization? Mrs. Campbell is by no
means a sentimentalist. We know of no one who examines facts more coolly
and practically, or who labors more earnestly to find the real causes
for the continued depression of the labor market, as this horrible state
of things is euphemistically termed. The conclusions she reaches are
therefore sober and trustworthy.--_New York Tribune._
No work of fiction, however imaginative, could present more startling
pictures than does this little book, which is sympathetic, but not
sentimental, the result of personal investigation, and a most valuable
contribution to the literature of the labor question.--_Philadelphia
Record._
Mrs. Helen Campbell's "Prisoners of Poverty," a study of the condition
of some of the lower strata of the laboring classes, particularly the
working-women in the great cities of the United States, is supplemented
with another volume, "Prisoners of Poverty Abroad," in which the life of
working-women of European cities, chiefly London and Paris, is depicted
with equally graphic and terrible truthfulness.
They are the result of fifteen months of travel and study, and are
examples of Mrs. Campbell's well-known methods of examination and
description. They paint a horrible picture, but a truthful one, and no
person of even ordinary sensibilities can read these books without
experiencing a strong desire to do something to abate the monstrous
injustice which they describe.--_Good Housekeeping._
_Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of the price, by
the Publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
_In Foreign Kitchens._
WITH CHOICE RECIPES FROM ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, AND THE NORTH.
By HELEN CAMPBELL,
_Author of "The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking," "Prisoners of
Poverty," "The What-To-Do Club," etc._
16MO. CLOTH. PRICE, 50 CENTS.
While foreign cookbooks are accessible to all readers of foreign
languages, and American ones have borrowed from them for what we know as
"French cookery," it is difficult often to judge the real value of a
dish, or decide if experiment in new directions is worth while. The
recipes in the following chapters, prepared originally for _The
Epicure_, of Boston, were gathered slowly, as the author found them in
use, and are most of them taken from family recipe-books, as valued
abroad as at home. So many requests have come for them in some more
convenient form than that offered in the magazine, that the present
shape has been determined upon; and it is hoped they may be a welcome
addition to the housekeeper's private store of rules for varying the
monotony of the ordinary menu.
_Sold by all Booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of the price by
the Publishers_,
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY, BOSTON.
Women Wage-Earners. Their Past, their Present, and their Future. By
HELEN CAMPBELL. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.
The writer describes employments in the factory and home, compares the
condition of women workers here and abroad, dwells upon the evils and
abuses in factory life and in general trades, and points out remedies
and gives suggestions. The book is an expansion of a prize monograph for
the American Economic Association, for which a reward was given in 1891,
expanded to nearly double its original size. An introduction to it is
contributed by Prof. Richard T. Ely. Nowhere else could one get so much
information on this subject in so small a space as in this book.--_The
School Journal._
It includes such topics as factory labor, rise and growth of trades,
labor bureaus, wage rates, and general conditions for women workers in
England, on the Continent, and in the United States.
The importance of this subject with which Mrs. Campbell deals is not
easily overestimated. The present age is the era of woman, since
whatever affects her receives a consideration never before given. For a
long time the agitation in favor of woman was to remove barriers and
open the way for her. The way has been opened and woman has entered
scores of fields previously closed to her. The questions which now arise
are as to her remuneration for her work in these fields, and the
influence of women wage-earning on the family, the home, and society.
These are questions not yet settled. Mrs. Campbell approaches their
discussion in a spirit of fairness, and what she says is suggestive and
helpful, if not conclusive. Her volume is a valuable contribution to the
literature of social science.--_Boston Advertiser._
Such a work could never have been compiled for women except by a woman.
It is itself a demonstration of the fact that women can handle the woman
question as men alone cannot do, and that women can be raised and
elevated from their present depressed condition only by organizations
and trades unions of their own. Every woman should read this book
carefully. She will gain from its perusal a breadth and depth of
knowledge which will be of lasting value to her, and it will show her
how great a work exists for women to do, in order to "make the world
better."--_Woman's Journal._