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Waisbrooker, Lois. Letter to Amy Kirby Post.

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Revision as of Oct 23, 2023, 4:41:48 PM, edited by 128.151.124.133

^5^ me to put that grain into the ground, with the groans of that dying family in my ears, but it would be mercy ^better^ to let them starve rather than that a hundred fam- ilies should starve a ^year^ hence. And so of the work of reformers, and so of the means they spend in plaster- ing even the rottenness of the old. A thousand dollars rightly expended ^directly by them^ might save half a dozen of our unfortunate sisters from an outcast's grave, expended in the diffusion of knowledge, in ef- forts for the redemption of wo- man as a sex, in preparing and sending a competent lecturer into the field, thus expended, it would save thousands from be- coming outcasts in the next gen- eration. Which shall we do? But what shall we do for those who would leave such a life if they could? Tell them that help must come from themselves. Tell them that society will not help them till they demand it will not respect them till they force respect. Let those who wish to leave such a life, unite, save the money that they now ex- pend in class, [lay?] [hurled?] of sense of the [nuances?] of trade, ^of^ indus- try and support themselves. One such effort successfully carried out, by the Magdalen herself, would do more toward enfranchise this class of women from the thrall- dom that holds them, than a thousand