Broadside ballad entitled 'Labouring Woman'

Transcription

    LABOURING

      WOMAN

You married men and women give ear unto my song,
I'll tell you of a circumstance that will not keep you long;
I heard a man the other day, and he was savage as a Turk,
He was grumbling at his wife, saying she would never work.

So men don't grumble at your wives, for I'm sure there's none of you
Can tell the daily labour that a woman has to do.

Says he you lazy hussey now I must confess,
I am weary of keeping you all in your idleness ;
Indeed the wife made answer I work as hard as you,
So I will just run through the list what a woman has to do;

At six o'clock each morning when you to work do,
I have to rise and light the fire and the bellows for to blow,
I have to set the tea things and get the kettle boiled,
Besides you know I have to wash and dress the youngest child.

When breakfast it is over, you know I make it a rule,
To get the children ready and send them off to School ;-
I have to shake and make the beds and sweep the room also,
And then I clean the window's and empty the chamber po.

Three times a day I have to cook your wants for to supply,
I have to boil the porridge the milk go and buy,
I hardly get a moments rest I have to run here and there,
Then I have to scrub the tables down likewise the stools & chairs.

I have to wash the sheets and blankets, the pinbefores and frocks,
Gowns, petticoats, pillow-slips, shirts, handkerchiefs and smocks,
I have to nurse the infant rnd wash the napkins too,
There's no man can imanine what a woman has to do.

A woman's work is never done, 'et her do her best and try,
From morning until bed time I'm sure you can't deny ;
So men if you would happy be don't rail at women so,
But think of your poor mother how she put up with you.

Some men will curse their their wives, and kick them it is true,
But a man without a woman whatever would he do ;
So men if you would happy be don't treat your wives to shame,
But when a woman does her best she cannot be blame.

Sold by JAMES LINDSAY, Printer and Wholesale Sta-
tioner, &e., 9 King Street, (off Trongate,) Glasgow.
Upwards of 5000 sorts always on hand; also, a great
variety of Picture-Books, Song-Books, Histories, &c.
Shops and Hawkers supplied on Liberal Terms.      

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