Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1865-06-07
Degradation Of Women in England.

song writers NAV carol n bout the maids
of merry England, their beauty and their
happiness, hut there is a dark side TO the
picture which rarely finds its way into
song or story. Whatever may be the con-
dition of women in the middle and unper
classes OF English society, their lot in
the lower classes is frequently pitiable
enough. The righr to work, which is SO
strenueusly insisted on by woman ''re-
formers here, is freely accorded to the
women of En"land, provided that the work
is degrading and repugnant to the general
idea of what-it due to the sex Excluded
from the professions ard many of the
lighter descriptions of labor. they are well
come to use the shovel and the dung fork,
MISCELLANEOUS, and drawcarts In the
mining regions at the west of England
women are employed to do much of the
/ surface work of the mines, vie ding
the hammer, the pick, and the shovel, side
by SIDE with the men and bovs In the
agricultural counties thev do large share
OF the field work, and are frequently seen
with the muck -fork" distributing manure
over che soil In the manufacturing c0un-
ties they are employed in all kinds of
menlal pursuits OF course such n state
OF things Is terribly demoralizng, and the
women at the poorer orders who are thus
employed have but little delicacy or moral
restraint
A recent report made by one of the in
sspectors OF factories, appointed by the
british bovcrnment to ascertain the C. n
ditlon OF the work people, contains the
i"llowlng dark picture of the state of af-
fairs among the brick workers in the fire
brick yards Of South Staffordshire At
ter stating that children of Eve wears old
are employed in these wards from morning
till night, carrying weights of clav. and
others Of ripper years are compel ed to
carry heavy loads and walk long distances,
he says:
81 have also seen females, of all ages.
nineteen or twentv together some Of them
mothers of families undistinguishahle
from men, excepting by the occasional
peepInr out OF an earring, sparsely clad
up to the bare knees in clay splashes, and
e identity without vestiae of womanlv
dellcacv, thus employed. until it makes
one feel for the honor IF the country that
there should be such condition Of hu~
man labor existing in It, | questioned
one such group in 4 brick ward in South
| Stattnrdshire, as to how many of them
could read and found that only one out
| oi twenty was so qualified and out Of
the whole number, she only had been to
Il place OF worship OIL the Sunday pre-
viouslv, the whole of them being partiat>
! " employed on Sundays as well : S week
days As rule not one in twenty of the
women and children have been ta1@ht to
read and write. nor have above one half
of this shall proportion ever entered Il
school
In their poverty and need their parents
have sent out these little tinv hands t.
carry clav and set down bricks all dav
long, from 4. NJ to 5 P ". all the week
| through pIoddinr with clav-loaded heads
and arms to and fro. over hot drvinr
stones, harefooted and ra@red Imnrovi-
denre, drunkenness and Incidence. and
| last bet not least Of these terrible evils.
| trade strikes and lOckouts, each contri-
butcs its sad quota of recruits Such
parents are the first to send their little
children ont TO work in brick wards. when
they ought to be learning something use
ful at school. Ignorant. untaught and
unheedfu' Of education thew pass through
life, looking on the few 'schoiards among
them with an almost heather awe I must
not forgot tho dpmoraIizinr results acc~u-
in- from tho mixed emnlovment Of the
sexes A fip~ancy and familiarity Of
manners with bows and men grows daily
on the vonnr girls Then the want Of re-
snect and delicarv towards females exhih-
its itself in every act, word or look; for
the lads crow so rrccocious ard the girls
so coarse in .heir language ani manners
from close companionship while Mt work
that in most cases the modestv Of female
life "radnallv becomes a hveword instead
Of n reality. and thev sing unhlushinglv
before all while ut work, the most dis
custing songs. ii oftfimes stopped short
hv the entrance of the master or the fore
man"