Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-14
WOMAN
HER woRK-sER EMPEoYMENrs AND
WAGES
Some Words About the Opportunities and
Rewards Of Laboring Women
Servants.

some words About the Opportunities and
Rewards Of Laboring Women
Servants.
Correspondence of the RECORD USIoS.l
SAN Francisco, August 9, 1882.
never knew more than one woman
whose deliberate choice was country
life. She made periodical visits to the
city, and during those visits had every
thing that heart could wish-dresses,
jewels, attention and gaieties. Yet when
she returned to her isolated house she
stretched her srms and exclaimed sob,
how glad l am to come back :" She said
In the city no one performed service out
OF good will. 1t was expected TO be paid
for Whereas at home every mans kind
heartednesa was spontaneous and enforced.
And that one woman, by the chance of
politics, IS likely yet to have her home in
the city, while the hundreds who desire
such a life viii never have il. Man is a
gregarious animal, and he naturally tends
toward the mass, accepting the few draw
backs OF such an existence for the sake of
its many benefits.
BUSINESS Is THE STRUGGLE
To get the better of your neighbor," said
a business man the other day with cruel
plainness, and added, with the eeotism
characteristic of successful effort, 'If
man can get ahead OF me he is welcome to. :"
Another said, "No man rises except by
stepping on other men :" another replied,
significantly, "The tricks Of the trade :"
and still another replied, pointedly, "Sur.
vival Of the fttest." Perhaps these an.
swers might all be Gifted down to one
word-self For life is such a cold. blooded
struggle, and each man is SO necessary to
himself, that he must fight unless he would
sink into that laziness which is moral sui
eide more surely than pronounced success
at the expense of another man. But il
may be done without cheat, without fraud.
without cruelty; it may be by manage
ment, by foresight, by circumstances seized
on the instant, and the successful man has
his sentiments, affections, passions. and.
among the latter. his griefs, which bring
HIM near 20 and make him one with the
man who is like him in everything but his
failure. Each of ne, then, it is tacitly ac.
knowledged, is trying for the four-bit.
piece in another pocket, and if we can get
it fairly and by giving an honest equiva-
lent for ii, the getting of it is all right,
isn't it!
THE FACT Is
We must have that four-bit piece or starve,
and somebody else must have it from us
or starve. It is as possible for woman to
starve as for man. Whatever the cause,
woman of late years becomes stubborn
factor iu economics at large. The late war
created widows and orphans to enter per.
sonally into the struggle /; other women
have Weakened to ambition mothers who
have tasted the sweets of independence
bring daughters up to the standard. The
percentage as well as the number of active
women is greater than it used to be, and
they have forced open the avenues of EN-.
ployment. Naturally such employments
SIS they first turn their hands to are found
In the city, and in San Francisco there are
hundreds and hundreds Of women and
girls at work. The daughters of the labor.
ing class begin young to earn living be-
cause they must. They rarely have
chance for much education, leaving some.
times the primary school, but oftener drop.
ping out of the third or fourth grad: of the
grammar department. They cansl cad and
write, but they are yet in the very begin
nings OF other study. Some of them are of
bright, quick mind, some have unusual
taste for music, some undoubted talent for
designing, some are keen at matt ematics,
some could, with further culture, be apt in
conversation and ready with the pen but
THE TASTES AND THE TALESTs
That in other girls are treasured and cult.
Xated In these runs to waste Nov and
then one rises through energy and ability,
but she never can be much of anybody
without decent education. A man may,
but woman may not. / looked in at
large shoe factory to day. The girl nearest
me was but child. Her hair hung in a
braid down her back, and she vas small
and slender. A long table ran th,s length
OF the room, at which sat row 81 women
aud girls, their heads bent over their work.
This child was the smallest, but perhaps
the rest were as young at the mginning.
The whirr of machines smote the ear, the
grease and smell of leather met the, nostril.
and the bare room, with its piles of shoe
uppers and its working people, 6lled the
gaze. 1t was one way of making meager
living The milinefs and dressmakers all
take apprentices. The little girl begins
with sweeping and busting, going efrands,
sewing on straw, picking out hastings.
When she grows and can handle her needle
well enough to obey directions, if with
dressmaker she is paid dollar day. She
can get the same by doing plain sewing in
a family by the day. You Gun get good
dressmaker TO come to the house for two
dollars day. You can now 60 to MILL.
merry store, buy your untrimmed hat, your
feathers or flowers, then take it
home and trim it yourself, or have it
trimmed there for six bits. Plain sewing,
embroidery, crochet work is poor pay to
THE WOMEN EMPLOYED.
Button-holes are worked by hand for
thirty cents per dozen. A woman visited
made child's short muslin dress, with fine
tucks and insertion front and back,
tucked ruffle and embroidery at the bot.
tom and tucked sleeves, for six bits. "But
l amt going to work no more" she said
know, and she's going to take care of me
now" The daughter is a California girl.
gone East and married, and engaged with
Annie Pixley's "M'liss" combination for
the coming season. 1t is her first rise. and
she has sent for her old mother to throw
aside her needle at last and come on to
New York, the Mecca of the profession.
The walls of the small, poor room were
hung with photographs of the daughter
taken in different positions and costumes
As for the women employed at sewing by
the stores, their earnings may be guessed
at, when long, hand-embroidered night.
gown may be bought for 81 80, tucked
chemise for four bits, tucked and ruffied
skirt for dollar, child's dress, tucked
front and back, ruffled and embroidered,
for 81 25.
THE LIFE OF A SHOP GIRL
Is hard one. The pay is sometimes ten
dollars per week, oftener less than that,
down to almost anything, and in some
cases little more. But the hands are
has a chance to see the world as
it drifts in and out of the shop or past the
door, and she learns style in dressing her
hair and arranging her dress. Osher girls
take to the tbeater, hard life, wearing
life, and life not to be recommended to
any. Father died and mother was sick"
a young girl told me, SO I had to do
something. had never been brought up
to anything, and I didn't know where to
turn. One of the theauers advertised for
number of young ladies, and applied. l
didn't know how to dance, but neither did
the others, and they trained US all. The
first night OF the play the lights and the
audience crazed me and just turned round
and round till one of the others helped me
through. At the end of the week was
sick with the excitement. They paid me