Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-01-14

FEMALE LABOR IN GERMANY.-A foreign cor
respondent of the Philadelphia Bulletin, under
date ofLeibach, writes as follows
Our journey for whole day lay generally along
most delightful valley, richly cultivated and Of
course very fruitful Some of the old towns
through which we passed seemed to have walked up
at the sound of the whistle of the locomotive, and
to have beenlmoyed to extention of limits Bat
tie fields were pointed out and palaces shown but
we not in situation to examine closely.-
We here saw women at work in the fields as in
Italy, but much more continually, and on more
laborous parts of the work not only were women
raking hay and hoeing corn in the fields, but we
saw girls from seventeen to Twenty-Five shovelling
earth IN railroad excavations, and in some ms
tances engaged as hod and brick carriers to the
masons. This however is less in Austria than in
Prussia and the Duchies of Germany, where women
seem to be either degraded to the most exposing
and mental of all employments, or elevated to the
dignity of her kind by being made the producer
1t is not my intention here, or elsewhere in my
letters, to institute any comparisons that would
lead to discussion of unpleasant questions, but
may say, to the dIscredit Of Europe, especially
Western or Central Europe, that have seen
young women employed: there in a way that
would have been deemed degrading to a slave at
the Southern part ofthe United States. Three or
four women are sometimes seen dragging small
pillow while man is guiding it; and have seen
woman assisting jackass, or ackass assisting
woman to draw loads of articles through the
sueets. women ana large dogs are harnessed to
small carts, and poor Tower looks as if he
would willingly do the whole if he could.
The effect of the constant mingling of males
and females in outdoor labor, of driving women
to that kind of toll which in our country we deem
too severe for their Frame and in general the as
sociations which circumstances render necessary,
! have not been able to ascertain. In moral point
of view it is supposed in our country that it is
most injurious thus to CONFUSE" the sexes Yet
l did not learn that any result of this kind was
directly referable to such circumstances, though
] could not find that any one had considered the
subject in that light Indeed when came to
put the inquiries to those who could feel the most
for these women and look closely to the good or
bad influences of any habits to customs upon "a
portion Of their sex, I did not find that sympathy
which had expected. These laboring wNnen
were slaboring women y These persons thus
exposed wers liable to exposure those poor wo-
men were poor. The truth. is, caste is so strong
SO deeply fixed in parts Of Europe, that it is diff
cult for persons of the best feelings and good in
formation to diyest themselves of the impression
that these daughters oftoil must toll, and that
any evil consequence to them, from the peculiari-
ty OF their circumstances, is less to be regarded
and consequently less to be provided against
than similar evils Of females in another condition
of life.
My inquiries as to the effect of the mixed labor
upon the morals of the females did not lead me to
any conclusion that the poor young women of
Germany were less pure than those of other con-
ditions there, than those of the same condition
elsewhere.