The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-05-05
WORK FOR WOMEN.
Some Good suggestions ON the
Sub1ecG.
'In No Employment Will Women Succeed
Until They Cease to be Amateurs"

the labor market Necessity has take
the matter beyond the reach of controye,
81 Thousands of ladies are to be foun,
without any male relations who can sun
port them. They have to choose betwee,
starvation, dependence upon charity
and honorable work Surely the Las
Is not so very much to be dreaded
Charity Is too often accepted "a If !
were the rightful reward of Iaziness am
Incompetence. Too often il IA oiver
on those terms. There are several rea
sons why the number of women WIN
ought to make money is daily increasing
The same income which enabled mid
dle-class family to live in comfort TWEEN
ty years ago will not do so now. This i,
partly because of the rise in prices, but
chiefly because many things which used
to come under the head of Injuries NJ
life have now become necessaries. Pro
fessional men, except in the front rank
can generally do little more than make
ends meet. They cannot Law bv for.
tunes to their daughters, or paw yery
heavy insurance premiums Then, too.
business has assumed a more speculative
] character, so that the merchant. rich 70.
day, may be ruined tomorrow. and his
ENORMOUSLY brought-up children find
themselves left penniless. Young men
do not marry so early as they did fifty
years ago. A greater number of them
seek their fortune away from home.
whilst few single women above the rank
OF servants emigrate All these causes
CONT lned, leave many thousands of wo-
men who are known as ladies in posi-
ton which obliges them to become self
supporting. There is plenty of room for
all II they VIII consent to give a good
days work for a good DAYS wages, but
not otherwise. They must take the
same position as men in the labor mar
ket, and be able to offer market value in
the shape of skilled work before they ask
10 be paid for it. There is, however. a
growing and most encouraging desire
amongst young girls to be taught to
earn their own livelihood. They begin to
understand that there is no degradation in
being paid for work, provided the work
done is worth the money, but that there is
degradation in being dependent on rela-
tons or friends, and that the life of busy
idleness which most girls lead is simply
beneath contempt. Some ambitions be-
sides those of being fashionably dressed
or getting pair of new earrings are ari-
sing in their breasts. Those who have
no home duties want their share in the
worlds work and in the prosperity which
they see earned by hard working men.
Even in family where the parents in
come is sufficient to provide necessary
things for the children, the girls may
like to be able to earn some pocket mon
ev The love of art and Of pretty things
which is becoming so universal makes !
them wish for picture to hang in their
own room, or perhaps a pair of new cur
tains or a cover for their writing table
They want an expensive book or some
special subject, or rare plant for their
flower garden. They feel that they cam
not ask their parents for these unneces-
sary things, and long to earn money to
buy them. Every girl might be so
brought up as to acquire sufficient pro-
ficiencv in some one thing to be able to
make money by it. There are other
cases where the power of adding a little /
to a small income would enable two
Young people to marry instead of being
engaged for years.
When women suddenly find themselves
the difficulty of course arises as to what /
they can do. The first thing that natu-
rally occurs to them is to turn governess
DR. companion. They are told at all the
agencies that the market is overstocked |
with people who think teaching is a sort I
IF thing which comes by nature, but |
who in fact know nothing whatever about |
il, as they have had no proper training,
and probably have not mastered one SIN
rle subject sufficiently well to teach it in
telligibly. But there are more applica-
lions for certifcated governesses than all
the agencies can possibly meet. The
School Boards do not know where to turn
for competent female teachers. The
new education, code already demands
like fifteen thousand school
mistresses. Women have only begun to
learn that there is no market for I'M
skilled labor, so they are not ready to
Sill these vacancies. In needlework,
an employment which naturally belongs
to the weaker class, the same want of
proper training as in every other branch
If ladies' work will be found to exist.
1t is becoming every day more rare TO
find a girl who can darn and mend neat
". who can cut out and cleverly fit chintZ
covers for furniture, who can rearrange
he breadths of carpet and mend it so
as to escape detection. Not long ago
adv much interested in the subject OF
EMPLOYMENT for poor ladies was allowed
to give an order for large and costly
rousseau. She bought patterns of en-
oroidered under-clothing in Paris, and
look them to one of the London Societies
for the sale of poor ladies' work. The
manager rather ruefully explained to her
that she had only one person on her books
who could execute satin stitch embrold-
sry similar to the patterns, and only
very few who could make up the gar
ments after they were embroidered.
Some simpler articles were taken to an
other establishment, but with a similar
result. so the end was that nearly all the
trousseau, which these Work Societies
might have had, was procured from the
,hops in the usual way. The head of
another of these establishments said
few DAYS ago that she had only three
rood plain sewers amongst her numerous
9nplicants for employment Dressma-
zinc. too. does not seem to have been tried
~ ladies with any signal success. This
! strange. as enormous fortunes are made
~ fashionable milliners. Mrs. Crawshay
boasts that her late ''lady" maid, who
has left her to become companion,
could make dresses which were mistaken
,or those of Messrs Marshal q Snelgrove.
Now this is precisely the sort of dress
making from which we might have hoped
aides would save US. Dresses made IN
imitation of some ungraceful, inconve-
1ient. third-rate French fashion can be
bought by the hundred at all shops for
articles. What ladies OF