In deciding upon the capabilities of the prisoners Mrs. Supervisor made
herself useful.
Her first care was to find out how long a sentence a woman had. That
determined one qualification for her own service. If the sentence were
for two or three years, and there was to be a vacancy in her own family,
the woman was eligible to a place there, provided she could be trained
into the work required.
This care was taken to save herself and her Housekeeper the trouble of
changing.
To oversee her housekeeping was the Supervisor's pet employment, and it
was fortunate for the Housekeeper that the government super-official had
one pet. Through that partiality, she got two hours and a half more
sleep in the morning than the rest of us.
She was not called till half past six; but I unlocked her women at the
same time that I did the others.
I was glad she could be so favored; but I could not see the justice of
such an arrangement.
I found, in the course of time, that it was a system of mutual favor. I
went in to breakfast one morning, and there was no milk on the table.
Katie, the table girl, went to the refrigerator, that stood in the room,
to get me some. She had just laid her hand upon the bowl when the
Housekeeper, with a quick motion, arrested her.
"I must have that cream for the Master's breakfast!" she whispered.
She took the bowl, removed the cream into one pitcher, poured the
skimmed milk into the one Katie held in her hand, and sent it to me.
I was not particularly anxious to drink skimmed milk in my tea so that
the Master might have cream; but I supposed it was in some way to
contribute to the support of the institution; or that there was an order
of the Board to that effect, so I made no complaint. Indeed it was my
policy not to appear to notice what was going on in such trifling
matters,--trifling to the Supervisor, probably, whatever they might have
been to the inferior officers.
Before I knew the Housekeeper's hour of rising, I went into her kitchen,
on an errand, several times before she was up.
I always found the women working on nice embroidery. They could not
attend to their housework because the Housekeeper had the keys, and was
not up to unlock the stores and give out the things to work with. But
there could be no relaxation of their labor on that account. They must
be up and at work.
One morning, Mary Hartwell asked me to look on the list, and see if her
name were there.
The names of the women who were going out during the month, with the
date of the day that they were to be discharged, was handed to the
Receiving Matron, the first of the month.
The women were very accurate, usually, in keeping account of their own
time, still they were anxious to have their own calculations confirmed
by knowing that their names were entered on the discharge list.
"If you will please look for me, I will do something for you after I go
out."
"Something for me, Mary! O no! I will look for you when I go to the
wash-room to-day."
Her remark called my attention to her work. I saw that she was doing a
beautiful piece of embroidery. When she saw that I noticed it, she held
it up and exhibited it with a great deal of pride.
It was a night-gown yoke, in linen, of an elegant and elaborate pattern.
"Who are you doing this for?" I asked.
"This is for Mrs. Means." That was the Housekeeper.
That is what I call you up two hours and a half before she rises, to do,
I thought.
"How many of you are there that can do such work?" I asked.
"Five of us can do this kind, and we can all do fine stitching, or
crochet, or some kind of fine needlework."
There were ten of them to do the work in the Housekeeper's rooms, and
those of the Supervisor. Quite an array of talent!
"You ought to see Ann Horton's work. She does all kinds beautifully. She
stays up-stairs, and works all of the time. She had a sentence of three
years; it's most out now. It would do your eyes good to see the piles
and piles of nice things she has done for the Master's wife and the
young ladies. The pillow-cases, and the yokes, and bands, and skirts."
"Has she been doing embroidery all of the time for three years?"
"Yes, ma'am, and nice sewing."
I thought three years of hard labor, from five in the morning till eight
at night, must accumulate quite an amount in value, of such work, beside
what was done at intervals of two or three hours at a time, by the other
nine women.
Supervisor might have exercised her thrift in supporting the
institution, very profitably, by selling that embroidery as she proposed
to do the moth-eaten rags. In doing that she might obviate the necessity
of giving the officers skimmed milk in their tea.
I inferred that that three years' labor was a perquisite belonging to
the office of Supervisor. In addition to her salary she was making a
profitable affair of her sinecure situation. Far more advantage would
accrue to her than to the institution in having such an incumbent.
Supervisor of what? Of her own housekeeping. The very best of
employments for a woman if she has a family.