erwise occupied, my mother also worked at the art of
net-making. At times she was employed in making up clothing for what
some years ago were popularly called the slop-shops, mostly situated in
the lower section of the city. These were shops which kept supplies of
ready-made clothing for sailors and other transient people who harbored
along the wharves. It was coarse work, and was made up as cheaply as
possible. At that time the shipping of the port was much of it
congregated in the lower part of the city, not far from our house.

When a little girl, I have often gone with my mother when she went on
her errands to these shops, doing what I could to help her in carrying
her heavy bundles to and fro; and more than once I heard her rudely
spoken to by the pert young tailor who received her work, and who
examined it as carefully as if the material had been silk or cambric,
instead of the coarse fabric which constitutes the staple of such
establishments. I thus learned, at a very early age, to know something
of the duties of needle-women, as well as of the mortifications and
impositions to which their vocation frequently subjects them.

My mother was a beautiful sewer, and I am sure she never turned in a
garment that had in any way been slighted. She knew how rude and
exacting this class of employers were, and was nice and careful in
consequence, so as to be sure of giving satisfaction. But all this care
availed nothing, in many cases, to prevent rudeness, and sometimes a
refusal to pay the pitiful price she had been promised. Her disposition
was too gentle and yielding for her to resent these impositions; she was
unable to contend and argue with the rough creatures behind the counter;
she therefore submitted in silence, sometimes even in tears. Twice, I
can distinctly remember, when these heartless men compelled her to leave
her work at less than the low price stipulated, I have seen her tears
fall in big drops as she took up the mite thus grudgingly thrown down to
her, and leave the shop, leading me by the hand. I could feel, young as
I was, the hard nature of this treatment. I heard the rough language,
though unable to know how harshly it must have grated on the soft
feelings of the best mother that child was ever blessed with.

But I comprehended nothing beyond what I saw and heard,--nothing of the
merits of the case,--nothing of the nature and bearings of the
business,--nothing of the severe laws of trade which govern