New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1845-09-13
THE TRIBUNE.
LABOR NEW-Y DIRK:
ITS CONDITIONS cIRcumsrANcEs AND REWARDS.
No. XIII....The Hucksfer-WOrnen.

No one who is in the habit of visiting our CITY
Markets have failed to be interested In the APP
pearance Of the Hucks,er women or feeling curious
as 10 their history, mode Of life. profits DC &c
Being struck with the appearance OF these women,
10 uncomfortable looking and apparently removed
from oil other interests in the world. we have often
stopped to converse with them. Some are commu-
NEGATIVE and good naiured, while others gave us
short answers the moment they found we didn't
want to buy any cabbages. We learn generally In
regard TO them that most Of them not quite 80
badly of as they seem: some who may be seen Oh
cold mornings in Winter. thinly clad, covering over
foot stove and blue and shivering with cold, have
hundreds and even thousands Of dollars laid up in
old stockings and broken china or else deposited in
Savings Bank We know one instance where an
old Hucks,er woman loaned Church several thou
sand dollars 10 aid them in erecting a new building,
where il is still invested. Whether she holds a
mortgage on the pew cushions and chandeliers we
know not but is very certain that although life has
been cold, comforiless thing TO her, she has accu
INFLATED snug little property to leave behind her
thus illustrating the almost universal truth that it
takes a, least two generations to enjoy life-one to
earn and the next 10 spend it.
Many Of the more extensively engaged Huckster
women live in the country and spend all their time in
tending, gathering and selling their market vegeta
bles On Monday morning. mounted on top Of their
wagon load of 'saas' they hurry to town with the
daylight aud take their accustomed stand in market
Here they remain living by chance and sleeping
we really do not know how, lat the water side
lodging houses through the week. On Saturday
night they return home with the spoils of their
weeks speculation, and another member Of the
family or perhaps a neghbor, takes her turn of go
ing 10 market They have great advantage over
the City Hucksters they bring every thing fresh
and have their regular customers, in any other
branch of business. Some times the same family
carry on through their different members, various
branches of marketing. One sells eggs, another
fruit another cabbage beets urnips and other vege
tables These women make pretty large sales, re
alizing about one third clear profit all they sell
Their profits average from slc to $40 per week
Several of them have told that they making a
poor business Of it if they do not clear the latter
sum When we reflect upon the way of life of
these women-how completely their occupation
breaks up the circle and enioyments ofhome-stim-
ulates avarice and and deprives their
children of most of the maternal care we are ready
10 agree with them tia, $40 a week is little enough
But the City Hucksers, who buy at second hand
and have to deal mostly with the poorer sort of Gus
toners do not fare so well as their country neigh
bors They trade with poor mechanics and labor
ers wives, with whom every cent is as precious as
No much hearts blood and who must beat down every
thing they buy TO the lowest possible point This OF
course leads species of fraud on the part of the
seller. and bad articles mixed with the wholesome,
false measures and weights. lies without number.
mutual deception. hypocrisy and cheating are too
often the consequence. so. simple ch9tering for a
hrehhood creates IA its Accomplishments avarlce,
ialsehood and dishonesty. and feeds poor laborers
and their family on old, wed and poisonous vegeta
bles stale eggs and tainted poultry.
This latter class of Huckster women do not make
more than three four and five dollars week on the
average. They are a majority Of them Irish, and
they live in most wretched stye-more wretched
than perhaps would absolutely necessary if they
had ever been taught to aspire to neatness comfort
and responsibility To this state of things there are
Of course exceptions but the general features OF
the case are truly sketched.
We have not been able TO estimate very accu-
rately the number Of women engaged in hucksler.
ing There are thirteen markets in New York, and
probably as many hundred Hucks,er-w women alto