The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-10-21
Women as Printers.
We copy as follows from the New Yorl
World Of the goth:

| w fi0 OF tne 10Th:
From the beginning to the end OF on
experiment perhaps one hundred girl
were employed ct the case. OF these les
than half dozen could set type when the,
were 6rst received. Some OF them became
t0lersble compositors and now are maxim,
fair wages at book-work. The majority o
them. with every opportunity to learn, snt
with better payment on the whole Tor al
they did than our men received for simila
work never reached an equal skill, no,
earned SO much as they. The moment
they were tried by the simple test of &C
much pay for 90 much composition, which
all male compositon undergo, their earn
ings fell far below the average of the earn
ings Of the men. They were required 70,
the most part to work only ia the day
time only once or twice were their servi.
ces required at night They worked a.
many days in the week a. men, bat could
none OF them work - many hours q day.
Seven or eight hours were more than anti.
Gent to tax their strength. Z, s'''' =
Clean composition was next TO an i'm.
possibility with Ill Of them in the FIRST in
stance, and the correction OF their matter"
they shirked, If possible, and did bodly
when it could not be shirked. Yet thev
we're generally favored With the most leei.
BILE copy" and were under little stress n
to time. To the setting Of areprint." that
is, printed copy, these remarks also apply.
Illegible manuscript they were utterly in
capable to decipher. The majority Of per
sons write more or less illegibly; bat the
majority OF that majority write with uoi-
formity that is, their manuscript 10 Oh.
scure in the same manner with the same
letters or combination of letters. The
same pen-tracks do service always in con.
veyiDg the same syilables. Rufus Choate
had . chirography VIGOROUSLY bad and
iliegible. It differed from clear and lepible
manuscript more widely than almost any
other mans Of bis time. But it differed
unitormly-the same differences in the
same woids. Therefore one had only to
learn his system, and his MANUSCRIPT be-
came ~ leeible as the better system from
which We oil depart more or less: All good
compositors learn to read illegble manu-.
script, and they learn it BY discerning these
uniformities, assisted BY the subject, tIie
etc. The woman ne have employ
Cd never made any progress in this direc-
AIoSiUs0 uSouuSCIbpt 70 t00m fem010.
ed illegible. From the context and the
subject they got no assistance-perhaps
because they were the "disffanchise& class"
Punctuation, also, somehow seemdd a bad
% them ~ ''Beven times nine" to Mariory
Fleming. II was more than human ua4ure
could endure. At any rate, they never
punctuated; end their justification must
have been By faith. since they never 'justi- |
led" BY spacing" we'll. /
Such wns the incapacity ofthe four or |
I've score women we have employed as |
ype-setsefs, and such It's Kind and degree.
Their hands travelled tolerably well and |
witty from the case to the stick, when
he boxes had been learned, not 90 we'll |
rom the stick to the case, In "distributing;" |
ut oil the competitors art beyond that
'arely n,echanieai part they rocked little Of.
reanains only to add that they were oil
aithfui 70 the extent. OF their abilities,
eat and decent in their dress and we'll
ehaved, and that most Of them had an or
mary common school education.