Untitled - Rhode Island Historical Society

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Blackstone Stocking Company, circa 1890.
RIHS Collection (RHi X3 8098).
1'22 "\7AS SHE CLOTHED \X/ITH THE RENTS PAID FOR THESE WRETCHED ROO\I5:
But Annie's condition grows worse, and rheodora returns to the squalid tenement
to nurse the dying young operative later that night. As life ebbs from
Annie's ruined body, Theodora's own hitherto "useless" life begins to gain
meaning and purpose. Ruminating
on the "factory people, who
seemed to have some claim upon
her, which hitherto she had not
recognized," she realizes that "it
would not be hard to labor for
them, because she would love
them." The baby, possibly overdrugged
by an "ignorant" grandmother,
joins Annie in death that
same night. As Theodora views
mother and child "lying peacefully
together, her heart swelled
within her, and she turned away
quickly to hide her tears."6s
Wyman explored the world of
factory operatives in other stories
during this time, but none carried
the personal passion of "And
Joe." "Bridget's Storyr" which
appeared in the June 1883 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, had a different tone
entireiy.5e In this piece \fyman created a monologue by an Irish working-class
woman who has come to the United States from Lancaster, England. Bridget
tells the story of her factory-worker friend Ellen McKiernan, the mother of
seven children, who quarreled with her husband about their twenty-year-old
son's drinking and wild behavior. In this touching and humorous love story
there is nothing of the bleak desperation of "And Joe," and while it does highlight
the hardships experienced by women operatives,T. it seeks to entertain
rather than to illuminate or move ro acrion. By artfully crafting a monologue
with a painstakingly recreated lrish-Lancaster accent, s7yman tried to enter into
the world of the operatives rather than viewing it through the distancing lens of
the upper-class factory woman. Lacing her story with humor, she attempted to
create multidimensional characters rather than the rather flat victims of the
industrial system that appear in "And Joe."
After a three-year period in which she wrote columns for the woman suffrage
newspaper woman's Journdl but published no fiction, 'wyman published the
short story "Valentine's Chance" in the June 1886 Atlantic Monthly.r, The
protagonist of this story, John Valentine, is a young doctor who has taken up
residence in a New England factory village. Drawn to the beautiful and vital
Rose, a young French canadian factory operative, the "well-bred" valentine
wrestles with his feelings, for though intrigued by the exotic working-class
French canadian culture, he is repelled by the "coarseness" of working-class
life. His interpreter and guide into the ways of the "other" is Miss Jeffrey, the
daughter of the local millowner. Although she is a more "appropriate" match
for the young physician, Miss Jeffrey pales beside the vitality and sensuousness
of the French canadian girl, and valentine ultimately rejects the more "suitable"
choice and elopes with Rose.