The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-08-07
Women as Blacksmiths.

A correspondent Of the Pail Mall Ga
-ette, writing from Rowley Regis-a
Lancaster village-thus describes one OF
the strange sights Of that strange dis
triet:
/ came here to inquire for myself how
much it would cost To deliver one humid
red tons Of coal a month by the ROwley
COlliery Company at two or three given
localities within distance of ten miles;
aud, having satisfied myself on that
point, much to my pleasure, continued
my walk from the eOal-pit up through
the fields to ROwley old church. | came
10 place called Bell End, which is ap-
parently a new part of the old village
Through a small window / observed a
female head bObbiBg up and down; soon
| heard the sound of hammer; aud,
never having seen any rivet-makiug
done 10y man hands, threaded my way
through some brick passages until
came TO the little smithy where "Alicen
was at work. This was the name by
which her father called her, whom I
met on the way, and to whom am in-
debted for the following remarkable
piece Of knowledge. Alice, | may say,
was a young wife engaged in blowing
bellows, heating pieces of iron in a
"gleed" forge, aud producing rivets from
an anvil at the rate of 5000 day For
this manual labor, Alice, her father pro-
ceeded to tell me in her presence, gets
from the warehouse Is. ID, out Of
which she has to pay for wear and tear
Of tools Id, carriage Id, and like sum
for gleeds, a kind of small coke made
expressly for nail and rivet fOrges. On
Monday she does her washing, on Sat
urday her cleaning up, so that she only
works at rivets four days in the week,
and her gross earnings, therefore,
amount to Is. 81, for forging Il, 600 riv-
cts. have said nothing of rent which
Alice would pay, and which might
amount TO one shilling a week She was
sedate young woman, well spoken,
with very fair hair and a low, sweet
voice. john Price (Alice's father then,
at my request, took me to see his neigh
bOrs, Edward and Phyllis TrOmans, who
lived aud worked at making nails close
/ by. Phyllis is a handsome woman, with
/ beautiful white teeth and an abundance
of flesh, which Reubeus might have
| painted, it is 80 plentiful and rosy. This
woman was forging large nails; aud the
manner IN which she made a nail with
point, and head an inch and hall
in circumference, fly of a piece of hot
iron was marvellous TO behold. She
works from eight o'clock in the morn
ing until nine at night, and in four days
will forge fifty-fOur pound weight of
clOut nails, for which she will receive
the wOndTOus price of 3s. Sd, out OF
which she has to paw sd. for gleeds and
ID. for tools. Her husband works "as
hard as he can driven from six o'clock
in the morning until eleven at night
and his weeks wages amount to l2s.,
from which l0d. for gleeds aud 4d. for
tools will have to be deducted, to saw
nothing Of rent. Edward Tromans was
only fOrty-three years old, but looked
much nearer seventy. Two other young
women were hammeriug away at rivets
in company with Phyllis; aud never as
long as | live shall forget that little
Dlacksmitby. | once travelled many
miles to see "Nulcan's Forge" By Valas-
queZ, but there was in that famous pie
ture DO figure equal to that of Phyllis
Tromans, and | shall remember Phyllis
till the day Of my death That such a
woman should be enslaved in SCOT
blowing bellows, now with her left, aud
then welding hammer with her right
hand-forging clOut nails for twelve
hours a day, In order to earn less than
forty pence IN week, is phenomenon
that | would never have believed as be-
ing possible in England if l had not
seen It.