of these
deserving widows had been reduced were awful. The rich men of my native
city may hang their heads in shame over the recital of sufferings at
their very door. No generous movement had been made by any of them in
mitigation.

One widow, taking out shirts at the arsenal, earned two dollars and
forty cents in two weeks, but was denied permission to take them in when
done, though urgently needing her pay, being told that she would be
making too much money. Another made vests with ten button-holes and
three pockets for fifteen cents, furnishing her own cotton at twenty
cents a spool. A third, whose husband was then in the army, found the
price of infantry-pantaloons reduced from forty-two to twenty-seven
cents,--reduced by the Government itself,--but she made eight pair a
week, took care of five children, and was always on the verge of
starvation. She declared, that, if it were not for her children, she
would gladly lie down and die! A fourth worked for contractors on
overalls at five cents a pair! Having the aid of a sewing-machine, she
made six pair daily, but was the object of insult and abuse from her
employer.

The widow of a brave man who gave up his life at Fredericksburg worked
for the Government, and made eight pair of pantaloons a week, receiving
two dollars and sixteen cents for the uninterrupted labor of six days of
eighteen hours each. Another made thirteen pair of drawers for a dollar,
and by working early and late could sometimes earn two dollars in the
week. The wife of another soldier, still fighting to uphold the flag,
worked on great-coats for the contractors at thirty cents each, and
earned eighty cents a week, keeping herself and three children on that!
A wounded hero came home to die, and did so, after lingering six months
dependent on his wife. With six children, she could earn only two
dollars and a quarter a week, though working incessantly. She did
contrive to feed them, but they went barefoot all winter.

An aged woman worked on tents, making in each tent forty-six
button-holes, sewing on forty-six buttons, then buttoning them together,
then making twenty eyelet-holes,--all for sixteen cents. After working a
whole day without tasting food, she took in her work just five minutes
after the hour for receiving and paying for the week's labor. She was
told there was no more work for her. Then she asked them to pay her for
what she had just delivered, but was refused. She told them she was
w