The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-10-18
Women as RlacksmIths-

L came here to inquire for myself how much it
would cost to deliver 100 tons Of coal month by
the Rowley Colliery Company at two or three
given localities within a distance of ten miles :;
and, having satisfied msyelf on that point, much
70 my pleasure L continued my walk from the
coal-pit up through the field to Rowley old
church L came TO a place called Bell ED,
which is apparently a new part of the old village.
Through a small window | observed a female
head bObbing up and down soon L heard the
sound Of a hammer and, never having seen any
riVet-making done by human hands, | threaded
my way through some brick passages until L
came to the little smitby where 80 Alice " was at
work. This was the name by which her father
called her, whom 1 met on my way, and to whom
| am indebted for the following remarkable
piece of knowledge. Alice l may say, was a
young wife engaged in blowing bellows, heating
pieces of iron in a . gleed " forge, and producing
rivets from an anvil at the rate of 5000 a day.
For this manual labor Alice, her father proceed
ed to tell me in her presence. gets Is 4d., cut OF
which she has to pay for wear and tear OF tools
Id, carriage Id. and a like sum for gleeds, a kind
Of small coke made expressly for nail and rivet
FORCES. On Monday she does her washing, on
Saturday her cleaning up, so that she only
works at rivets four days in the week, and her
gross earnings, therefore, amount to As. Sd. Tor
forging II, 1000 rivets. / have said nothing of
rent which Alice would pay, and which might
amount to one shilling a week. She was a Sc
date young woman, well spoken, with very fair
hair and a low, sweet voice. John Price (Alce's
father) then, at my request, took me to see his
neighbors, Edward and Phyllis Tromans, who
lived and worked at making nails close by.
Phyllis is a handsome woman. with beautiful
white teeth and abundance of flesh, which Ru-
bens might have painted 1t is so plentiful and
rosy. This woman was forging large nails !; and
the manner in which she made a nail with a
point, and a bead an inch and a half inch in cir
conference Fly of a piece Of hot iron, was mar
vicious to behold. She works from 8 o'clock IN
the morning until 9 at night, and in four days
will forge As pounds weight Of clOut nails, for
which she will receive the wOndrous price of IS.
3d.. out OF which she has to pay fvepence for
gleeds and t~wopence for tools. Her husband
works " as hard as he can drive - from 6 o'clock
in the morning until III at night and his weeks
wages amount to l2s., from which tenpence for
gleed and fourpence for tools will have to be de-
ducted-to say nothing Of rent. Edward Tro-
mans was only 43 years old, but looked much
nearer 20. Two other young women were ham
mering away at riyets in company with Phyllis
and never go long as 1 live shall l forget that lit
tie black smithy. l once travelled many miles to
see " Vulcan's Forge by Velasquez but there
was IN that famous picture no figure equal to
that Of Phyllis Tromans, and | shall remember
Phyllis to the day of my death. That such a
woman should be shaving In soOt-blOwing bel
lows, now with her left, and then welding a
hammer with her right hand-iorging clout
nails for IL hours a days, in order to earn less
than 40 pence a week, is a phenomenon that =
would never have believed as being possible in
if had not seen it.-LGncdShire Letter
in London Gazette.