Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-20
WHAT TO DO WITH SINGLE W0.
MEN.

Miss Emily Faithful expresses in the
Fireside Companion the following opin-
ion OF the disadvantages to women who
seek to earn livelihood here and in
England:
If any one could give a satisfactory
answer to this question, he would de-
serve well Of the whole human race. In
England-or, | should say, Great Britain
we have 9l3, l62 women who can never
by any possibility find husbands at home.
These women must, therefore, become
selfsupporting. | am not as well ac'
uuainted with The disproportion of the
sexes in the United States; but although
there is an excess of men, have al
ready learnt from what / have seen in
America that there is the same necessity
for enabling women to earn money here
as in the old country; though to some
extent it seems to me that they have
already better chance OF doing so. For
instance, while we count our female doc
tors on the fingers of one hand, | find
several with established reputation in
every one of your principal cities, and
while few female writers in England
are occasional contributors to our daily
and weekly papers, ] find them in New
York recognized members of the staff.
Gradually, however, even in conserva-
tive England, the old assertions are being
abandoned-tha woman's claim to fair
chances of livelihood is n morbid and an
exaggerated one, and that young men
struggle with equal difficulties. People
are beginning, though slowly, to ac-
knowledge that efforts made to enable
women TO take large share in the in
;Iustrial pursuits of their male relatives
are not made with view of removing
them from their proper sphere and
natural duties, but in order to save them
from positions into which they are now
actually thrown, TO the destruction of
their highest instincts and their physl-
cal health and development There has
never been any dislike in England to
the employment of women in the lowest
branches of industrial callingsl the OBJ
lection is their introduction into places
Of responsibility and trust. Until my
friend the Earl of Shaftesbury brought
the matter before Parliament, women
were allowed to work in mines IN Stat
fordshire; they prepare, to this very
hour. the clay which is to be converted
into porcelain. Only three mCnths be-
fore left England spent day IN our
potteries, and there we're women and
girls turning heavy wheels and hit,
ing enormous weights, their phyHcal
strength was drawn upon ad hbitum,
but they were carefully excluded from
the lighter branches Of the BUSINESS
they we're freely used as beasts OF bur
den, but no encouragement was gwen
them to undertake any skilled labor.
And yet, by the way, we are told that
women cannot serve in haberdashers
shops, because they are too weak to Int
the bales of goods. In Liverpool and
Dublin women earn sixpenee day by
carving immense loads of sandi nearly
90 600 haul fish, fruit and hardware
through the streets of London, their
average earnings varying from fifty cents
10 one dollar week.
Mum bers throughout the country
weed, dig and hoe potatoes, PICK stones
y Mt of the soil, spread the manure, reap
Jnripe harvest, and load the wagons IN
oil weathers aud seasons. Women are
90 he found in the lowest and worst-pGid
of oar chemical works,
,idss houses, rope works, paper mills,
i;I1s III gIue works and nail factories,
Ill a. in our brick fields and nHr-
sarv gardens. In hundreds OF facto-
res where women are employed there
IL work going on of a less unsuitable klnq
than what they are actually doing. i
was once going over factory Oh TINS uel
scription, and leaving NUMBER oi
women employed in work OF the eoarses'
sort, / emerged into a clearer atmos-
phere, to find men engaged IN Hhas AZ
seemed to me quite feminine hranch OF
tbe manufacture. "Is not this work
women could do2' I asked.
"Certainly," replied the foreman, but
We apprentice to that.
"And would you apprentice girlsf l
1--WE have never done so, was the re-
ply. .;..h;.f
NJ skilled work can be done without ap-
nrenticeship. II is not customary 70
girls. and 50 It Is taken l9r %.
granted that they cannot DO skiiiea No5A. l.5I--
An English factory woman laoors unoer
adverse influences. The men Of her own .i
rank are jealous Of her composition win
them. The overseers and higher work
men are jealous less. in any department
she rise to their place; and Il Is the EN-
Movers interest TO keep down her wages
Buf / still think that these difficulties
arise from want Of thought, rather than
u-ant Of beart. ] cannot persuade my
selfthat men would deliberately oppress
women through aHy selfish fears; at the
came time I must admit the determined
..,-,..,.itior, Of the ribbon Weavers, a.