The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-21

keeper" tsWanted-by respectable young glEl;
a situation as lady's maid1-or do washing
and ironing" OF, Ito cooku or do house-wor y
or s'pain sewing 2 or 'to take charge Of children.
Another result is that in consequence of the excess
Of supply over demand, female labor is never paid
more than one-half Of the wages which are earned
is justice no one can pretend. What the remedy
may be, is a question for philosophers and states
men. The simplest, easiest, and most obvious,
would be to enlarge the number of feminine en-
Payments. Women can write and cypher. Why
may not women be advantageously employed as
book-keepers and accountants, as clerks and
eopyists, in fact, in all those indoor and less
laborous duties of the Office and the counting
room, where now only men are seen? Is there
ANYTHING in the occupation of quill-drving which
renders it unsuitable for women? So in stores
and shops, why should not women be employed
as freely and extensively as men? Women are
sometimes permitted to stand behind the counter
and sell buttons, and ribbons, and laces, by
the dozen or the yard. If by retail, why not
by wholesale? If by the dozen, why not by
the package or the gross? If by the yard,
why not by the piece or bale? IT articles OF
millinery and dry goods why not books and
jewelry2 If bon6ons and ices, why not sugars
and teas? In one word, why should women DE
employed in certain shops and not in others? Why,
above all, should they be made to give place 10
men in the very departments of business where we
should naturally expect to find women, and only
women employed. We wish that we could call 10
our aid the pencil of the caricatuist, in order
thoroughly to illustrate the absurdiy of the scene
presented every morning in twenty fashionable
| shops on Baltimore street. Tall WHISPERED fellows
with scissors dangling from their necks, or y d
stick in hand waiting behind the counters, ready
to snip off, or measure off, pattern of 'exqusite
bareg1 OR piece of E'dvne' point-lace, or wax 9
eloquent over the merits of an embroidered cheasi-
sete patent new hoop 1t is true, tits sometimes
said that women are to blame for the exclusion OF
women from situations in these places of fashion,
able female resort, and that prudent shop-keeper
regards good-looking young salesman quite as
necessary for the attractive display of his
plate-gass window. To all these employments,
therefore, and to many more, which we might emu
merate women ought to be admitted on footing
of perfect equality with men. There are those, we
believe, who would restrict women altogether to
what is called her domestic Sphere and think
that in stepping across the threshold of the edo
nestle CIRCLE woman necessarily unsexes herself
and loses all her native delicacy and refinement
of character. They forget that this every day
world of ours is working world; that in society
there rich and there poor and that the
of poverty, and the necessity for toll, know dis
tinction of sex. We may define the boundaries OF
woman's ''sphere," and we may prescribe her
mission TO please ourselves; but we cannot secure
to every the position in life necessary TO en-
able her to occupy that 'sphere" discharge that
mission" 1t is not woman who unsexes herself
by mingling with men in the daily walks of life,
and engaging actively in its industrial pursuits
It is the hard condition of her fate which has de-
MED 10 her the possession ola home and husband,
with the sweet experience of domestic cares and
joys, and has subjected her to the necessity of earn
ing her daily bread, as best she may and where
and how she can. But besides these solitary work
ers, unhappy daughters of penury and want, there
are widows left dependent with young children 20
feed and rear, and wives with husbands, bed-ridden
or incorporate with large families to support
These must all find employment, because they must
find bread. Their s'sphere'' is labor, and Their
Emission is to toll Is it justice to SUCH to close
against them all the avocatons of life which could
yield them comfortable support, and under pre-
tence of preserving their womanly refinement and
delicacy to forbid them to earn their daily bread
except in one or other of certain ill-paid and Iabo-
! rous employments which men cannot fill, and,
therefore, have not monopolized? The question is
one worthy to be pondered, for, with each year s
growth in the population of our cities its practical
Importance increases. We do not pretend to have
done more to-day than briefly indicate some of the
points of inquiry. The question has too many
bearings and too large scope, to he more than
merely opened in q single article.