Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1867-06-22
Whnt American Women do.

Mrs. Caroline Fl. Dali, Of Boston, has
written brilliant and eloquent book, with
the title: "The College; the Market and the
Court; or, Woman's Relation to Education,
Labor and law" of which the following is
IN extract: sf .lu#raI
"In Ohio, last year, about thirty girls went
from farm to farm, ,hoeing, ploughing and tho
like, for sixty-two and o half cents day.
at Media in Pennsylvania, two girls named
Miller carry on a farm of three hundred
acres, raising hay and grain, hiring labor,
but working mostly themselves. These wo!
men are not ignorant they at one time
made meteorological observations for an as
sociation auxiliary to the Smithsonian Insti-
tute. But labor attracts them, as it would
many women if they were not oppressed by
public opinion. ..r . nf-yi0s
"Let us close this branch of our subject
with picture homely but attractive. tAc-
cording to thy request writes Quaket
friend from Wilmington, Del, 4 send thee
some facts concerning Sarah Ann Scoheld.
Some fifteen years since, her father became
very much involved in debt. He owed some
ten or twelve hundred dollars having lost
largely by working for cotton and woollen
mills. His business was making spindles
and fliers. His daughter, then just sixteen,
proposed to 60 into her fathers shop and
assist him, she being the oldest of seven
children. He accepted her offer, and told
me bimself, that, in twelve months, she
could finish more work, and do it better,
than any man he had ever train for eighteen.
She earned fifteen dollars q week Gt the rate
he then paid other hands.
" Her father died. Her two oldest bfoE
theirs learned the trade of her, and went
away. She has now two younger sisters in
apprenticeship, and brother fourteen
years of age, all working under her; turn
ing, polishing, filing and fitting all kinds of
machinery. went out to see her last week.
She was then making water-rams to force
streams into barns and houses. She is also
beginning to make many kinds of carriage
axles. She is her own draughtsman, and
occasionally does her own forging. To use
her own words-What any man can do,
can but try at. She has q steam-engine,
every part of which she understands and
l know that her work gives entire satisfac-
ton. When they have steady employment,
they clear sixty dollars week and she
says she would rather work at it for her
bread, than at sewing for ten times the mo-
ney. The truth is, it is o business she is
fond Of
SIN New Haven clock factory seven
women are employed among seventy men,
on half wages and the manufacturer takes
great credit to himself for his liberality. At
Waltham, also, watch fatory has been
lately started, in which many women are
employed. For the first two months the
women earn two dollars and fifty cents q
week; for the third three dollars and after
that four dollars. The men earn from five
shillings to two dollars o day. 1t seems
that no special skill is required in the wo-
men, while the men in few departments
are still paid according to their ability The
steam engine, it appears, has not yet learned
how to cook dials ! In this case the opera
tor must hold the dial, l,turning it evenly, as
if he were smoke jack, which requires
judgment and 'facultyp
'In 1850 there were engaged in shoema-
king in the town of Lynn 3,729 males and
6,4l2 females-pearly twice as many women
as men yet, in The monthly payment of
wages, only half as much money was paid
to women as to men. The three thousand
men received seveuty-fve thousand dollars
o month and the six thousand women,
thirty-seven thousand dollars that is, the
women's wages were, on the average, only
one-qusrter as much as those of the men.
"Plenty of employments are open to
them; but all are underpald. They will
never be better paid till women of rank be-
gin to work for money, and so create re-
spect for woman's labor"