Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-11-25
xEamen mi WORK.


hood, the better will it be for toiling WO
man and for society, we may say for the
world itself. We lndths following article
in the New Yerk Tribune, and though
somewhat lcng, it is none too long for the
Importance Of the subject it discusses. 1t
enbodies views, facts, statements and sug-
gestiOns worthy of the most thoughtful at
tention:
The approach Of the inolement season
brings freshly to mind the privations and
sufferinEs Of tens of thousands Of needy
women in this aud every great city. Those
who were in summer barely able to exist
find their inevitable expenses for fuel,
clothing, SC increase, with no correspond
ing augmentation Of their always scsnty
earnings. Their woes are real, and should
excite the widest sympathy; the remedies
proposed are often worse than uselesJ.
Let us consider.
We dissent cmphatically from the dog
trine that those who employ female labor
sre hsbitually or usually extortioners.
Some Of them are scoundrels, who on one
pretext or another, evade the payment Of
the stipulated wages for these, the State
Prison is too good. But the fact that q
woman works hard and long every day for
pittance inadequate to keep her in health
and comfort by no means proves her en-
ployer q brute or a robber. The necessity
which presses so hard on her may bear
heavily upon him also. He cannot psy
twice as much as his rivals in trade for
% IN he
sale Of their kindred products. Will those
who buy shirts, for instance, give twenty
four dollars per dozen for those that the
makers have received fair price for, when
others as good may be had next door for
eighteen One in a hundred may cheer
fully do this one in ten certainly will
not. And only those who do SO will have
any right to reprosch the employer of fe-
male labor who buys it at the market price
But women are not paid as they should
be. So much is clear. How is the evil to
be remtdied? ? We answer:
By educating our girls good deal bet
ter and more practically than hitherto.
Mournful is the spectacle everywhere pre-
sented Of girls growing up to womanhood
with no decided training 10 or apli ude for
any vocation essential to human well-be-
ing taught, perhaps, to dress and dance
and play, but utterly untitled to earn an
honest livelihood in any useful vocation.
Some Of them can teach music or drawing,
or some other accomplishment but, the
demand for these is at best limited, and, in
limes Of trouble, convulsion, distress, fails
altogether. Some will get married, and
mistakenly suppose that the end of their
need Of industrial capacity; when it is
rather the beginning. Not one man in ten
il or even can be able to support his wife
in idleness II he does so for q season, it
is at the expense Of his creditors, and uli.
maitly Of his integrity and solvency. In
few years, he fails, and takes to drink, or
becomes hopeless and int ficient or he dies
and leaves q widow with three or four
young children to live on the charity Of
relatives, or by the degrading shifts Of
more or less genteel pauperism. NoyOung
woman, however wealthy, ought ever to
marry before she has acquired thorough
knowledge Of some art or vocation where.
by she may, at all events, earn a decent
die, and 3 hslpless and destitute widow,
with q brood OF young children about her,
We insist that imperfect, deficient, rsdi-
cslly false education is at the base of fe-
male destitution and wretchedness. Every
man knows that bis sons must be trained
to efficiency in some PfOduetiVe vocation;
how many consider this equally nesessa-
ssry for Women9 Your great merchant
with his brown stone 'front.' and his block
Of stores, knows that his sons should be
trained TO habits Of, and aptitude for, n
dustry and businessi Why pot his daugh-
ters alseP Thirty years hence; some of
these daughters will be selling apples or
matches in the streets and shiVerinE at
night in bare garret, because he did not
realize that present wealth is no prolec-
tion against future RsnLHnless it inheres
In the brain and fingers Of the pcssessor.
We must train our girls to skill in some
industrial pursuit, not necessarily that
they may follow it In after life, but that
they nsy have sure resource against the
Day Of adVersiiy. And if they WeTs so
trained, the complaints or inadequate re.
somrenss for womRn's industry weuld be
sensibly sbsted.
II to-day ten thousand Of the Virluous
self respected women Of our city were first.
rate coOks-not such raw bunglers and
1otohes as are too generally, for gaat Of |
better, employed in the preparation Of |
'Ood, but thoroughly versed in the science
md practice Of ofcookery, knowing not only |
he how but the why OF every process
hey would all soon end employment at |
air wages, and where they would live as
veil as could be desired. Most Of US en-
lure bad cookery because we can get no
'etter; we swallow dyspepsia and cholera
norbus because We cant help ourselves
and ifWomen Of good education, eminent
iaPaeity and refined manners would apply
themselves mot condescend) to cookery,
hey would soon render II respected and |
vocation.
As to sewing, the truth may seem uu-
ceiling, but it is always wholesome; and
he solemn fact is that many women are
My Sesmstresses beosuse they are nothing
lse, just as the old laE-books classed eE-
~ girl who was not something elss as q
spinster." Every girl presumes that, If
he can do nothing else, she can, at all
vents, sew; which is often q mistake.
We believe there are FIVE thousand families
q our city to-day who would gladly hire
affair wages for the next two
T three months il they could be sure Of
citing good one. They have learned By
sd experience that many who offer as
are wofnlly ignorant Of the
se Of the needle.
But sll women cannot live by cooking I
nd sewing especially in q city like this
here females are largely in excess Of
Iales. We must have . wider and freer
lnge Of employmentg for women. lie who
svises q new pursuit, wherein girls may =