The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-29
What it is to be a Woman.
By uoS. 4. r. 1veg.


1t must be big thing to be a woman;
Women have such nice times, and
never any trouble. Why, there are
women I'M this city who get ten cents for
making an unbasted linen coat, and II
they are smart, with long experience,
they can tun off nine n day, thus re-
ceiving from their philanthropic en-
plOyers the munificient sum of ninety
cents day Ninety cents a day is bet
ter than nothing: and if the woman l.
healthy and can work six days every
week, and can always get ali the work
she can do, she is sure OF an income OF
five dollars and forty cents week. II
She is single, and can afford to I've on
little better than swill food she can
board for s. 50a week, and haveS 80 lelt
for clothes, shoes, car-fare ana pleasure.
But woiik can't always be had, nor l.
ii reasonable TO suppose that woih-
en- are always well. Occasionally snow
is on the ground; now and then eXces-
size heat blinds the strongest; once IN a
while clothes need washing; sometimes
a piercing headache lays one up; now
and then a violent cold lays another
down; and strange to relate some OF
/ these creatures actually get married, ana
when their husbands die they are Wld-
Ows, Just the same as any other woman,
and if they chance to have two or three
little ones, which they generally do,
/ then, indeed. they are 10 be enVicd. !
think the happiest person in the round
world must be a widow with three ba-
bies, without money, lodging in a tene-
ment house, and dependent on y. i.
/ Stewart or some other philanthropisl
! for three dollars week, or at the out
side five, to keep the wolf, not tonly from
I the door, but from her very heart O
hearts. 1t must be jolly to be such
woman, particularly if the eldest chile
is four, the next two, and the baby ;
| Saby. These children, you know, have
such pretty knack of getting the mea
sles, falling on the stove upsetting hO
water ON their bodies, falling dow
stains, catching cold, having diarhpa
and all sorts of ridiculous things, ant
beyond all, with an aptitude that i
positively alarming, they cry with hun
ger, literally crying great, big gcnuin
cTys for something to eat Merry
Why, it seems to me u woman VIII
can't be merry under such circum
! stances must be Il lunaticl To see
two-year-Old child, thin with hungc
! and exhausted by crying, is great stim
, ulant. Why, any one would work f.
such Il child WHAT'S easier? All tn
mother has to do is to tie the baby i
the cradle, tie the sick one on the CO
. and tie the tOur-year-Older To chai
! They may cry their eyes out while she
: gone, but that's nothing Their lit
heads may grow dizzy with weary wol
; derings about their mamma, and Il
J. thousand and one accidents to which i
: children are liable may come alOng-b
: this the mother knows rs wells as W
= so after she has locked the door, Il
l hurries To the shop and to work. 81
= works all day long, never stopping
y eat, drink, or be merry. Why shOu
: she? She makes one dozen shirts, al
. is credited with either five or ten shi
: lings-either siXty-three cents or a d'
: lar, according to the price of the shir
She gets no money, but at six O'clO
: hurries home Perhaps all is well, n
y the three hungry little chaps have cri
- themselves TO sleep; bat hungry chic
; don't sleep very well, and they all wa
but one. The baby died about moo
having cried itself into fits, and tn
: struggled into gloom alone.
J, On the whole, I'll drop this cuTtai
= but while Imagination pictures VIII
= follows, and reflection reveals that su
y incidents are the everyday life of o
= OverwOrked and under-paid masses, l.
u quite sure everybody Will agree wi
: me, that it must be a rip-staving, hig
:. iunks thing to be woman.-N
- .Nf0r