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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
172
On
account
of
our
belonging
there,
our
contributions
were
given
to
the
"Operatives'
Magazine,"
the
first
periodical
for
which
I
ever
wrote,
issued
by
the
literary
society
of
which
our
minister
took
charge.
He
met
us
on
regular
evenings,
read
aloud
our
poems
and
sketches,
and
made
such
critical
suggestions
as
he
thought
desirable.
This
magazine
was
edited
by
two
young
women,
both
of
whom
had
been
employed
in
the
mills,
although
at
that
time
the
were
teachers
in
the
public
schools--a
change
which
was
often
made
by
mill-girls
after
a
few
months'
residence
at
Lowell.
A
great
many
of
them
were
district-school
teachers
at
their
homes
in
the
summer,
spending
only
the
winters
at
their
work.
The
two
magazines
went
on
side
by
side
for
a
year
or
two,
and
then
were
united
in
the
"Lowell
Offering"
which
had
made
the
first
experiment
of
the
kind
by
publishing
a
trial
number
or
two
at
irregular
intervals.
My
sister
had
sent
some
verses
of
mine,
on
request,
to
be
published
in
one
of
those
specimen
numbers.
But
we
were
not
acquainted
with
the
editor
of
the
"Offering,"
and
we
knew
only
a
few
of
its
contributors.
The
Universalist
Church,
in
the
vestry
of
which
they
met,
was
in
a
distant
part
of
the
city.
Socially,
the
place
where
we
worshiped
was
the
place
where
we
naturally
came
together
in
other
ways.
The
churches
were
all
filled
to
overflowing,
so
that
the
grouping
together
of
the
girls
by
their
denominational
preferences
was
almost
unavoidable.
It
was
in
some
such
way
as
this
that
two
magazines
were
started
instead
of
one.
If
the
girls
who
enjoyed
writing
had
not
been
so
many
and
so
scattered,
they
might
have
made
the
better
arrangement
of
joining
their
forces
from
the
beginning.
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