Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-05
WOMEN IN GERMANY.
How they are Oppressed-Their
Poor Wages and Hard Lie.

Everywhere IN continental EUROPE
there is a contempt for and an oppres-
sion of women. Everywhere there is
laid on her the mental drudgery that
must be done, but what men will not
assist in doing, mol for the perform
ance Of which will they provide me-
chanical appliances as. American men
do. Everywhere she is robbed OF a
compensation for her labor.
But Germany, the land of literature,
science. scholarship, music, art, culture
Ito whose universities we send our
sons for thorough mental equipment
the land that boasts oil its advanced
civilization-this Germany leads IN
mean treatment of women, and has a
re-eminence in that kind OF civiliza-
ton which leaves nothing undone to
exalt man, but is content to regard and
treat woman as a sert.
The country was in the perfection
of its midsummer beauty as we Jour
neyed through it. But | could not
enjoy its beauty, for here, as In Vlr-
GINA years and years ago, women are
forced into employments unsulted to
them, degraded to extreme mental
service, and robbed Of all that makes
life worth living to a woman.
Eight-tenths ofall the agricultural
laborers were women. They were
hoeing the immense sugar beet fields,
or, on their hands and knees, were
wedding, where a hoe could not be
safely used. Staggering under heavy
loads of manure, which they brought
from a distant place Of deposit, they
distributed it as it was needed. They
we're moving, rakiDg, pitching the hay
on carts, or loading it asst was pitched.
They were reaping, and stacking the
grain in the fields, or bearing it home
on their heads or shoulders, which
had been so loaded that we scrutinized
long and closely, before we discovered
the motive power Of the peripatetic
grain stacks marching away. In fields
where the first crop had been removed
women were driving the OK or COW
to plow-for we saw no blowing with
a yoke Of oxen-or the OK or COW was
dispensed with, and one woman drew
| the pillow while another held it.
Ii there was extra hard work to be
done, loaded carts to be hauled away,
or heavy wheelbarrow loads removed,
the work was assigned to women, who
bent themselves to the task with pa
tent and persistent energy, while men
looked on, smoking their eternal pipes
without so much as lifting a finger in
help. Scantily dressed, generally bare
headed in the blazing sun, quite as Of
ten bare-footed and bare-legged, they
were bronzed in complexion, thin o.
flesh, bent and inelastic in figure
without joy in their work, or hope in
their faces.
For the work Off day, twelve hours
long, when these women board them.
selves, they are paid an average of q
cents. When they are boarded by
their employers they are paid an aver
age of 10 or II centsa day. Men do
ing the same work, working side by
side with these women, receive twice
as much. Hard rs is this farm work.
women prefer it to house service,
when they have the strength for it
as the great majority of house ser.
wants work for board and clothing,
and very meager board and clothing al
that.
When we went to the German cite,
we saw what was more ~repellant. Wo
men, bare-footed, or wearing moderI
clogs, we're at work everywhere in tht
streets with brooms of rods and stiff
brushes, with hoes and shovels anC
hand carts, directing the foods of the
cutters, clearing them of debris, SHOW.
cling it into carts. and repairing what,
ever damage the foods had wrought
VIZ took Al carly drive through
Munich before SIZE GW had awakened
Early as vas inE hmm, the szl 0uly
Just touching thH 5ps Gf the MA stiC
B1TErik. EgDsn vera Hit1r sTsry-
where T5EB we're wilmHinG the
oE1l ard refuse rum iauHgsaut sagres
sEseV.us yssasr-Ig DIRT from the
streets into pEaz Ehzst c5her Womeu
shoTeled Inio kLnt earrs cleaning tie
tracks Of the tran cars from g5stras.
tons, haTusssed into takers and mix
carts, and distributing their supplies
to their customer serubbing the
floors Of shops moving IN all diFsc-
tons TO prepare Tor the business Of
the day, that men might not only find
their breakfast ready on rising, but
the streets and shops in tidiness and
order.
Wandering among the architectural
wonders Of Vienna, where everything
old and ugly is being displaced by
modern and beautiful structures, we
halted beside a magnificent building
in process of erection, TO study its de-
sign. Immediately we came upon
women mixing mortar, aud far above
us, at a dizzy height, saw other women
climbing ladders, bearing on their
heads and shoulders hOds OF brick,
stone and mortar for the use Of the
masons.
We spent a day in the picture gal
lery at Dresden. stepped out on the
street, and found myself launched il
a stream Of women, all bending under
the loads of the baskets strapped TO
their backs, each of which is made to
carry sixty pounds. Some we're young.
but many were past middle age, aud
some we're white haired, and tottering
under their load, their sad eyes look.
ing into mine YEARLY and hopelessly.
In some Of the towns Of Wurtem.
berg there are brigades Of women
water carriers attached to the fire de-
partments. They buy their own
equipment of FIRE costume and tin
water pail, and at stated times are
drawn up in line before the district
inspector to 60 through a drill and
sham fire, to test their efficiency. In
short, there is no sort of mental work
that is not done by German women
and Austrian women as we'll. 1 have
seen them saving and splitting wood
on the streets, and then carrying il
upon their backs up several stories
into houses. l have seen them mould.
ing brick, unloading freight cars al
depots, building the road beds Of rail
roads, getting stone out Of 1uaries,
yoked with dogs, COWS and oxen, pull
ing heavy loads along the HIGHWAYS