Pity poor Congress

摘要

In May 1995, The Spectator, an English magazine, republished a short piece from its issue of May 18,1895: On Wednesday a meeting of the Women's Employment Defence [sic] Association was held at Mrs. Courtney's to discuss the bearing of the new Factory Act on the condition of working women. The discussion, which was opened by Mrs. Flora Shaw, was a very useful one, and showed that under the present Bill there would be the most serious risk of excluding women from many trades in which they now find employment. The results, moral and economic, of thus making it harder for women to earn their own living need not be emphasized. In the course of a very able speech, Mrs. Fawcett told a truly excellent story. She once accompanied some female chainworkers on a deputation to Mr. Matthews, then Home Secretary. In the course of the interview, Mr. Matthews had to constantly stop and ask the meaning of the technical terms freely used by the chain-workers. As the deputation was going downstairs, Mrs. Fawcett heard one of the women say to another, not in contempt, but in a tone of the kindest pity, "Poor gentleman! It be hard for him to have to make the law without nothin' about it."