"If she has no authority, but is meddling to make mischief, will you
please see that she does it no longer. I know it is not the Deputy's
business to be settling these little disagreements among the Matrons;
but I have no one else to go to. We have no one to regulate these
matters for us but you. You call them small matters; so they may be to
one who looks on; but our life, every day, is made up of them. And if
you take them home, and make them your own, you will not think them so
very small. Neither you nor I would consider it a small matter to go
dirty and ragged. Would you allow one of your male officers to keep the
men who are under another officer dirty and ragged, out of sheer malice,
or for any reason?"
"They could not do it,--I should not allow it."
"And you are there to see it, and have the authority to prevent it. And
as you have undertaken to do the duty of the Head Officer on this side,
I see no other way but to appeal to you in these cases of ours. I have
no authority to prevent the mischievous interference of Mrs. Hardhack;
and to aggravate, in return, I cannot. She has the advantage of me in
the disposition and ability to do so. She has ample opportunity to
meddle with the affairs of the other Matrons, because they are sent to
her for instruction; and also to give her interpretation of the Rules.
Mrs. Hardhack is not so much to blame for what she does. She is only
following the bent of her own disposition, as the opportunity to do so
is given her. The Head Matron comes to me, and says,--'Control your own
place. Mrs. Hardhack has nothing to do with it. If she makes trouble
with another Matron, she shall surely be discharged. She has been
discharged three times, and begged herself back; but if we say to her,
go again, she will surely go.' Then she goes to Mrs. Hardhack, and
says,--'You go over to the wash-room and tell the Receiving Matron about
her place. You know all about the Rules and things better than I do. I
don't know what I should do without you.' That pleases Mrs. Hardhack,
and she meddles with everything, and makes trouble all around."
"I will do all I can to help you."
"I know; but I am tired. The care is altogether too much, and the
mismanagement of the place makes it intolerable. Explain to the
Receiving Matron, if you please, that she is under obligation to wash
and mend the clothes of my women the same that she does the others, and
give them out another dress when one fails."
"I will do that."
That night I was speaking of the severe labor required of the officers
in the institution to Mrs. Hardhack. She turned to me, and said
roughly,--
"I find it easy enough."
It was just the right moment for me to tell her why she found it so much
easier than the rest of us.
"You may well find it so, in comparison with the rest of us. You have an
hour more of rest in the morning than I, and an hour more at night,
making nine hours of rest from labor in the twenty-four, instead of the
seven that I have. During those nine hours you are entirely free from
care, and sleep in a quiet room in the house. During the fifteen that
you are on duty you have the entire help of the only Relief Matron in
the institution, which ought to be divided among us all, so that you can
go out when you please."
"Perhaps, when you have been in the institution as long as I, you will
get as many favors."
"I could not take them, if I got them by robbery. I could not enjoy my
liberty if the work which belonged to me were imposed upon another,
making her burden double, for me to have it."
A smart rap was all the woman could feel. I really grew in her esteem by
cutting her up with my sharpness, and she attempted to ingratiate
herself into my favor. I will relate how, and how I discovered it.
The next night I was called to lock a woman in solitary. She walked into
her cell in silence, and I as silently turned the key upon her. I did
not ask the Deputy why she was put there. She was brought up from the
shop, and I supposed some miserable tale was appended to her
incarceration which I did not care to know.
The next morning, when I went to give her bread and water, she asked
me,--
"Do you know what I am in here for?"
"No; I haven't heard them say."
"It was for mocking you. I know it was wrong; but the others did it, and
I did it too, and I got caught."
"Who caught you?"
"Mrs. Hardhack. I know it was wrong, I was foolish, but I'll never do it
again. The others did it, and so I did it, too."
"And you hadn't courage to do right when others were doing wrong. You
are a brave girl! Do you know that there must be order kept in this
place, and that there must be rules in order to keep order, and that you
must treat those who have the rules in charge with respect?"
"Yes, ma'am; and I never will do it again. Will you get me out?"
"I'll try; but you must always treat me with respect, and all of the
other officers in the same way. I shall never intercede for you again."
"I will never give you any reason to."