"I'm sorry one of your girls couldn't eat her breakfast; you know it is
impossible for me to get anything aside from the Master's orders, and
what the rest have. I'll see if I can find her something."
"We have got so much contract work to get done to-night, and, if the
women faint away, they can't do it."
"I should be glad to provide them a good, substantial breakfast to work
on; but I can't have my way about it. It is very cruel to feed them as
they are fed here; and then, to work them as they are worked."
I thought, as I went to look up something for her to take to the poor
girl, of the remark John Randolph made to his lady neighbor, when he
entered her house and found her at work for the Greeks, "The Greeks are
at your door." He had entered the house through a little army of naked,
ignorant servants.
Do not the ladies of the United States need to be reminded that the
Greeks are at their door? Are they not in every prison in the land?
I went into the pantry. There was a skillet pan standing on the shelf
with a bone in it. I took it out and inquired,--
"Whose bone is this?"
"It is mine," said Lissett.
"Will you give it to the woman in the shop who fainted this morning
because she had no breakfast?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Bring a slice of bread, and quart of coffee to go with it."
Handing it to Mrs. Hardhack, I dispatched her as quickly as possible. I
was glad when she departed. Her visits to the kitchen were very
disagreeable. She always managed to use the "irritating language,"
forbidden by the Board in their "Rules and Regulations," which stirred
up the angry feelings of my women, and it took time and argument to get
them settled down into calmness and quiet again.
"If it hadn't been for you, I should have been in solitary again," said
O'Brien, after she left. "How I hate that woman!"
"And so do I, and so do I!" was echoed round the room.
"If you hate such ways never copy them!"
"What's the use in scolding us! She knows we can't help the victuals. If
she wants to scold anybody she'd better scold the Master."
"He'd sauce her back again; and then, both of 'em would get locked up.
Wouldn't you like to see 'em both locked up?" said Lissett.
"Yes, that I should!" was echoed all around.
"I'd like to cut the bread for 'em," said O'Brien. "The slices would be
thin."
"I would draw small quarts of water," said Lissett.
"Hush, girls! Don't you know that you are now indulging in the very
temper that looks so hateful to you when you see it in others."
Scarcely was I relieved of Mrs. Hardhack's anti-benign influence, when
the Receiving Matron made her appearance, and asked, although in a very
different manner,--
"Why didn't the women bring over their clothes?"
"What clothes?"
"Their sheets to be washed. This is their day. They take them from their
beds when they get up, and carry them to the wash-house as they go down
to the shop. My women, and the four who were sent up from the shop to
help them, have lost an hour by the delay. I don't mind about mine; but
the shop women will be late back; and then, I shall be complained of
that I did not drive them hard enough, and get the work out of them
sooner."
"I didn't know anything about it. If you had told me last night I would
have attended to it. Some of the women asked me if they should take out
their sheets; but I didn't know what they meant, and told them I would
see. I will send the sweeps to gather them up immediately, and send them
over."
"I forgot to tell you last night. They won't blame you but me; there is
the trouble. I hate to have the Master come around, and find fault."
"Are you afraid of him?"
"No! I'm not a prisoner; but I always feel uncomfortable where he is,
don't you?"
"I have only seen him once or twice; and then I was very much inclined
to laugh at the pompous airs he put on; but a sense of propriety
restrained me."
"I had a great deal rather not see him, especially, when he comes to
find fault."
"He ought not to find fault with you in this instance. You are under no
obligation to teach me the duties of my department. If you attend to the
work in your own you do your duty."
"I know that, but I can't help myself. He says I am here to do whatever
he orders me, and that I must do it if I stay. I am a widow, and have a
boy to support, so I try to do all I can."
"He knows that?"
"Yes, they all know it."
"And he takes advantage of it to compel you to do his wife's work while
he gets the pay for it."
"That is the plain English of the whole thing."
"But you can get more pay outside for less work than you do here."
"Perhaps so, if I knew how to find it; but I never have been so
fortunate as to find it before."
I had gone out into the prison as I was talking with her, and stood at
the door a moment after she had passed out; but there was no chance for
rest during my watch. There came the sound of scolding and contention
after me, and recalled me to the kitchen. I hurried back. The fear that
some of them would get into a quarrel, beyond my reach to control,
always haunted me.
"What is the matter?" I called out at the door.
"The cook is so slow we shall never get this swill out, and I am trying
to hurry her," said the sink woman. "She hinders me so I shall never get
my work done."
"I can't do no faster than I can," called back the sink woman. "It is no
use hurrying me."
"Stop! both of you! Lissett, you know Jennie is slow, and you must have
patience with her. Do I not have patience with you? You only make
matters worse by fretting. Jennie, you are slow. When you carry swill
with Lissett, go as fast as you can, so as not to hinder her; then rest
when you get through."
"Do come along!" fretted Lissett, "You are enough to fret a saint."
"That can't be you, Lissett. Haven't I told you, many a time, that you
ought to help each other along, instead of scolding and fretting at each
other."
"It is hard work to drag her, and the swill tub too."
"Then go a little slower, and give her a chance to do her part. There is
one thing that I wish to do myself, and that is the scolding, and I
don't wish to have you take it out of my hands."
"If you do it all there won't get much of it done."
"There will be enough. I do not need help. And I can suit myself much
better in doing it than any one else can suit me. In future, Lissett,
you and Annie O'Brien will carry the swill together. Then you can both
work as fast as you please. Jennie, you and Allen may carry together;
you can be as slow as you please. I wish to hear no more trouble over
the swill."
I intended to arrange their work so as to avoid all collision; but I
sometimes failed. When I had put those, whom I thought to be the best of
friends, at work together, some little difference would arise and
separate them.
Directly I had a call in the prison. Berry could not get on with her
white-washing, because Maggie had not done her sweeping, and came to me
with a complaint,--
"Maggie won't sweep, and that keeps me waiting. Won't you tell her to
sweep so I can white-wash?"
"Maggie, why don't you sweep so that Berry can white-wash?"
"I am, ma'am, as fast as I can. I have got all of the rooms to do before
I do the floor."
"You need not wait, Berry. Take a broom and help her."
That was something that Berry did not calculate upon.
"If Maggie would get up in season she could get her work done herself;
she loves her bed too well."
"I have told you of a way to get your work done if you do not wish to
wait."
"You favor Maggie too much, and the other Matrons all say so. You ought
to get her up in the morning, they all say."
"Take a broom and sweep that platform! Don't bring any tales to me from
the other Matrons! When I wish you to teach me how to treat the women, I
will ask you."
Berry chose to consider herself a very much injured woman, and began to
snivel and grumble.
"I am going down to the shop to work. Maggie is so saucy I can't get
along with her." She dared not express her disaffection towards me.
"Well, Berry, when you find yourself so much your own mistress as to go
where you please, I will give you 'a character,' and you may go to the
shop to work."
"What kind of a character?" asked O'Brien, who happened along at that
moment.
"A good one. You are a pretty good woman, Berry. There is one fault
which I think might be corrected by going to the shop. You are very much
disposed to tattle, and that sometimes makes mischief. If you go to the
shop, where you are not allowed to speak at all, you can't do that kind
of mischief. That would save me, if it did not yourself, a great deal of
trouble."