As We Are and As We May Be | Page 2

the author's message. The lapse of time
will also account for the apparent inaccuracy of a few statements, and
for the fact that some of the occurrences alluded to in the future tense
were accomplished during Sir Walter Besant's lifetime. 'As We Are and
As We May Be' is the exposition of a practical philanthropist's creed,
and of his hopes for the progress of his fellow-countrymen. Some of
these hopes may never be realized; some he had the great happiness to
see bear fruit. And for the realization of all he spared no pains. The
personal service of humanity, that in these pages he urges repeatedly
on others, he was himself ever the first to give.
CONTENTS

PAGE
THE ENDOWMENT OF THE DAUGHTER 1
FROM THIRTEEN TO SEVENTEEN 24
THE PEOPLE'S PALACE 50
SUNDAY MORNING IN THE CITY 67
A RIVERSIDE PARISH 106
ST. KATHERINE'S BY THE TOWER 137
THE UPWARD PRESSURE 166
THE LAND OF ROMANCE 203
THE LAND OF REALITY 224
ART AND THE PEOPLE 246
THE AMUSEMENTS OF THE PEOPLE 271
THE ASSOCIATED LIFE 296

AS WE ARE AND AS WE MAY BE
THE ENDOWMENT OF THE DAUGHTER.
Those who begin to consider the subject of the working woman
discover presently that there is a vast field of inquiry lying quite within
their reach, without any trouble of going into slums or inquiring of
sweaters. This is the field occupied by the gentlewoman who works for
a livelihood. She is not always, perhaps, gentle in quite the old sense,
but she is gentle in that new and better sense which means culture,
education, and refinement. There are now thousands of these working
gentlewomen, and the number is daily increasing. A few among

them--a very few--are working happily and successfully; some are
working contentedly, others with murmuring and discontent at the
hardness of the work and the poorness of the pay. Others, again, are
always trying, and for the most part vainly, to get work--any kind of
work--which will bring in money--any small sum of money. This is a
dreadful spectacle, to any who have eyes to see, of gentlewomen
struggling, snatching, importuning, begging for work. No one knows,
who has not looked into the field, how crowded it is, and how sad a
sight it presents.
For my own part I think it is a shame that a lady should ever have to
stand in the labour market for hire like a milkmaid at a statute fair. I
think that the rush of women into the labour market is a most
lamentable thing. Labour, and especially labour which is without
organization or union, has to wage an incessant battle--always getting
beaten--against greed and injustice: the natural enemy of labour is the
employer, especially the impecunious employer; in the struggle women
always get worsted. Again, in whatever trade or calling they attempt,
the great majority of women are hopelessly incompetent. As in the
lower occupations, so in the higher, the greatest obstacle to success is
incompetence. How should gentlewomen be anything but incompetent?
They have not been taught anything special, they have not been 'put
through the mill'; mostly, they are fit only for those employments
which require the single quality that everybody can claim--general
intelligence. Hopeless indeed is the position of that woman who brings
into the intellectual labour market nothing but general intelligence. She
is exactly like the labourer who knows no trade, and has nothing but his
strong frame and his pair of hands. To that man falls the hardest work
and the smallest wage. To the woman with general intelligence is
assigned the lowest drudgery of intellectual labour. And yet there are so
many clamouring for this, or for anything. A few months ago a certain
weekly magazine stated that I, the writer, had started an Association for
Providing Ladies with Copying Work--all in capitals. The number of
letters which came to me by every post in consequence of that
statement was incredible. The writers implored me to give them a share
of that copying work; they told terrible, heart-rending stories of
suffering. Of course, there was no such Association. There is, now that

typewriting is fairly established, no copying work left to speak of. Even
now the letters have not quite ceased to arrive.
The existence of this army of necessitous gentlewomen is a new thing
in the land. That is to say, there have always been ladies who have
'come down in the world'--not a seaside lodging-housekeeper but has
known better days. There have always been girls who never expected to
be poor; always suffered to live in a fool's paradise who ought to have
been taught some way of earning their livelihood. Never till now,
however, has this army of gentlewomen been so great, or its distress so
acute. One reason--it is one