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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
165
I
do
not
believe
that
any
Lowell
mill-girl
was
ever
absurd
enough
to
wish
to
be
known
as
a
"factory-lady,"
although
most
of
them
knew
that
"factory-girl"
did
not
represent
a
high
type
of
womanhood
in
the
Old
World.
But
they
themselves
belonged
to
the
New
World,
not
to
the
Old;
and
they
were
making
their
own
traditions,
to
hand
down
to
their
Republican
descendants--one
of
which
was
and
is
that
honest
work
has
no
need
to
assert
itself
or
to
humble
itself
in
a
nation
like
ours,
but
simply
to
take
its
place
as
one
of
the
foundation-stones
of
the
Republic.
The
young
women
who
worked
at
Lowell
had
the
advantage
of
living
in
a
community
where
character
alone
commanded
respect.
They
never,
at
their
work
or
away
from
it,
heard
themselves
contemptuously
spoken
of
on
account
of
their
occupation,
except
by
the
ignorant
or
weak-minded,
whose
comments
they
were
of
course
to
sensible
to
heed.
We
may
as
well
acknowledge
that
one
of
the
unworthy
tendencies
of
womankind
is
towards
petty
estimates
of
other
women.
This
classifying
habit
illustrates
the
fact.
If
we
must
classify
our
sisters,
let
us
broaden
ourselves
by
making
large
classifications.
We
might
all
place
ourselves
in
one
of
two
ranks--the
women
who
do
something
and
the
women
who
do
nothing;
the
first
being
of
course
the
only
creditable
place
to
occupy.
And
if
we
would
escape
from
our
pettinesses,
as
we
all
may
and
should,
the
way
to
do
it
is
to
find
the
key
to
other
lives,
and
live
in
their
largeness,
by
sharing
their
outlook
upon
life.
Even
poorer
people's
windows
will
give
us
a
new
horizon,
and
people's
windows
will
give
us
a
new
horizon,
and
often
a
far
broader
one
than
our
own.
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