New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-06-21
FOR BUSINESS VONEN.


women, especially if at all young OF good
looking, encounter in the cities when trying 10
earn their living by any business that brings
them into contact with men. We are told that
respectable ladies who have gone out to solicit
advertisements have been obliged to give up the
work, having been so frequently insulted, even
by merchants and professional men OF hlgh
standing. One young lady has found her bright,
sparkling eyes a curse, from constantly drawing
toward her improper advances. Her expert
"ence leads her to suppose that men think any
"woman of her class likely to be lacking In
"morality. She once lost all control OF herself
land slapped mans face before all of his
CLERKS for making an indecent proposal to
"her.n A member of SOrosis (or rather her
busband) complains that she is " constantly in
receipt of letters, sometimes signed, contain
cling the most infamous proposals." An
other lady was in the habit of sending her
little girl to newspaper offices with MSS. until
the child was grossly insuted in the Office OF
a morning daily journal. And 50 the hst
goes on.
| We have no reason to doubt the truth OF
these statements, but, knowing nothing OF the
| details and peculiar circumstances, we DO not
| feel inclined to base any opinion upon them
| Certainly not that which they would at hlst
suggest, that men, as we ordinarily meet them,
are so bestal in their habits and inclinatiOns
that pure woman absolutely cannot come in
contact with them without danger of outrage
We prefer to decide the question of the prac-
ticability of these outdoor kinds of work for
modest women by the simple rules which
| han W those
| exceptional cases. Here are the facts: There
is now in New-YOrl an unprecedented amount
of vice. Lewdness is not confined to brOthels;
the faint, or at least the apparent signs OF 1t,
| can be detected in every class of society 1t
| is not to be denied that many men, modest
and refined in manner while with their pure
| wives and their associates, are gross enough
when in contact with this other lower class; and
are Just now doubly suspicious and watchful
of their presence in unlikely places. Nor is it
to be denied that q large class OF educated
women in this and other cities are driven to
choice between unusual modes of bread
getting or starvation. Now, are the characters
of such women in any danger of being mis-
taken by these men, simply because of their
occupationf We answer promptly, No. There
told. But tho rule is almost absolute
that pure woman, provided always that her
dignity and quiet manner express her purity
needs no lion to protect her, wherever she may
go. The old fable of Una has not lost its
truth to-day. Counting rooms and Offices in
New-York are surely not peOpled by more bru-
tai ruffians than the dens of Newgate, through
which Elizabeth Fry passed alone and unde-
Tended. We have seen young, attractive
girl employed as painter in a japanning factory
with three hundred workmen, from whom she
received the respect due to queen. The
danger of evil which women do run, however,
in these occupations, is that which they do to
themselves. 1t is quite possible for a middle
aged woman to pursue them without alteration
in her former habits Of thought or manners; but
every rational man will agree with us that no
child of twelve or young girl of eighteen
could spend her daily life in hawking about
advertisements or MSS. from shop to shop,
and retain the delicacy and wOmanly charm
which O home life would have given her. Una
herself would have grown pert and brazen in
such an ordeal. The graces and tenderness of
manner which make young girl enchanting
by her fathers hearth would be out of place in q
dozen successive Offices; arch espieglerie, fine
coquetry, pleading softness, beft her there, as
glowing colors and mellow song do the bird
in Spring; but when exhibited, however I'M
consciously, to dapper young clerks and portly
merchants ON Change would soon be named,
and deserve to be named, by grosser terms
"A Are women then to starveP 7" we are asked.
BY no means. THE TRIBUNE broke ground
upon this subject twenty years ago, demanding
new and wider careers in which women could
find bodily and mental food. 1t occupies pre-
cisely the same position now, only requiring of
them that they shall meet their difficulties with
ordinary common sense instead of rhodOmon-
tade of sentiment, and that in order to get
bread they shall not needlessly throw away
the mOdesty and gentleness wherein lies their
chief strength. Common sense suggests that,
as it is not likely nor desirable that young
girl going out as an advertising agent
would deport herself with the gravity
of a woman of forty, such dangerous situa-
tions be left for the older women. There are
other ways, which we have pointed out time
and again, by which young woman can sup
port herself and live secluded and secure, not
only chaste, but modest in manner Innumer-
able hand-crafts, designing, nursing the sick,
the higher kinds of domestic service (Which
require as much culture and are quite as
respectable as "advertising'D are all practi-
cable in the city. Outside of it, the same
modes of money-getting are attainable added
to horticulture in all its branches There, too,
there is no danger of insult or outrage.
"a willing horse" says the Yorkshire PROV
erb, "need not be shown the road twice"
The French Monarchist newspapers, it is
said, fear the union of the Republican jour