"POLLY PLUM" IN MELBOUBNE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1958, 14 April 1875, Page 2

"POLLY PLUM" IN MELBOUBNE.

The following from the Australasian of the 27th ultimo would appear to indicate that Polly Plum's philanthropic mission in Melbourne does not meet with the approval of that journal:—" The philanthropy of the irrepressible Mrs Colclough is very apt to take a highly mischievous form. The self-appointed vindicator of women's rights has lately been writing some sensational nonsense about 'destitute ladies.' We are told, on the authority of Mrs Colclough, that • ladies elegant, refined, educated, are in this city daily reduced to the verge of self-destruc-tion for want of the means to buy bread.' After drawing a highly fanciful picture of the fearful alternatives to which these mythical persons are reduced, and the choice of' death to dishonour,' which they invariably make, the writer exclaims, ' Blame them not. Think of a girl reduced, for weeks, to supporting herself on one shilling per week. This kind of writing would doubtless be very well suited to the pages of 'penny dreadfuls/ and the exciting novels which impart a pungent spice to the lowest class of magazines. But when it is given as an appeal for help towards a practical object it is quite fair to demand on what evidence all these lurid statements are made. How many cases of this kind have come under Mrs Colclough's knowledge ? Bare instances of the sort which escape the notice of all charitable agencies for their relief may, perhaps, ,exist in all large communities, tut what are the causes which product them here in such large numbers as Mrs Colclough observes them P To all ex-

travagant misrepresentation of this description there is one answer. In Melbourne women need never be reduced to the choice of * death before dishonour' unless they prefer either to work. This talk has really no meaning, unless the • dishonour' alluded to is the acceptance of work as a domestic-riervant at very high wages. It is mer<£yionsense to argue , that culture and rejfidpment, while fitting r one for higher worft, at the same timeTrenders one absolutely unfit for the lower..*-:' And if it does not, on what groundt;iire'V we asked to weep over the melodramatic , * misery of this lady's protegees, when they,,' can escape them "at once by the simple $ means of undertaking the work which is always present in such abundance."