Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-12-17
DaiIu kennebrr JonrnaI.
Unbeftting Work for Women.


Travellers in Europe frequently see
women carrying heavy burdens or drawing
great loads upon the public highway. We
are beginning to observe the same thing
occasionally. in America, such things are
shocking to the American sense OF fitness.
While women, under stress of poverty,
must work tor their livelihood, and while
all honor should be given to those who
cheerfully and bravely accept abnormal
conditions and bend their backs to the
wheel, society should save them from that
kind Of employment which compels them
to assume, in public view. the character
of beasts Of burden. The spectacle that
is tolerated among the European peasant
nv ought not to be suffered in this country.
The fact that the women who are thus
abused make no complaint has nothing to
do with the prophecies OF the matter. In
the streets of the large cities one does not
have 10 wander far before coming upon
a woman scavenger toiling under sack
Of refuse, or a woman CLEANER OF Goals and
sticks bending under the weight Of
picked-up fuel. In the country districts,
now and then, as the train-passenger is
whirled past farms and gardens, he catches
a glimpse OF a woman holding pillow or
welding hoe. The man who contem-
plates the spectacles without regret is out
Of place among true Americans. His ma
ture must be essentially brutal; selfish
ness rules in his heart and his mind is dis
posed to the oppression Of the weak.
Such men have eongenial existence only
where tyrants flourish and where they may
become the willing instruments of subject
grinding despots. :,
The day OF the knight-errant who found
his keenest inspiration in the defense of
his lady-lov has passed. but there is a
present demand for that higher chivalry
which preserves woman from the necessi-
ty for that work which the Indian warrior
assigns 10 his patient, enduring, slave-like
sauaw. The point is sometimes made
against those who are seeking to place the
ballot in the hands Of women, that on ac
cepting such favor they must necessarily
consent, at least by implication, to carry
muskets in time Of war. 1t is an abomi
nable proposition, shameful to those who
suggest it, The question of woman's
suffrage must be decided upon a broader
and better principle than that. The very
tact that such suggestion is made gives
occasion for the admonition that society
take care lest it shall permit the working
woman to be rated according to muscular
capabilty. We don't want to see women
digging. carrying mortar, throwing sledg-
es. pushing wheelbarrows, lifting bales,
and similar work. Great progress has
been made in opening avenues for the
employment of women, but let not the
time come when the sight of woman
working for bread shall become so com
mon that society will neglect to distin-
guish between that which she should do
and that from which she should be saved.
We must not grow used to seeing women
toilng in the streets. We must not grow
used to seeing them struggling under
heavy loads. We must not grow used to
the men who allow their mothers, wives
and daughters to do such work as Nature
never intended Such employment is a
retrogression to the savage state.
1t might be asked, what is the differ
ence between the lot of woman who
scrubs a floor, and that of another who
carries n pack through the streets as a
common laborer An immense difference
to the woman's personality and in moral
effect. Upon these nice distinctions the
tone of society depends. We must not
become so utterly practical that we may
disregard the sentiment of things all to-
gether. When the chivalric quality is
dulled. society drops back towards selfish
ness. Difference To woman is one of the
most conspicuous attributes OF the natur-
nj gentleman. And when a man can re-
gard with indifference or satisfaction. a
woman drawing a wagon upon which her
husband reCines. or hitched with n don
key to n cart as is SO often seen among the
European peas1ntry, or doing any manner
q! work like this, that man has become a
vicious element in American society.
That such spectacles are comparatively
rare in this country. as yet, is an agreed
BILE reflection, but they are not so rare
that protest is uncalled for, If the
women who thus work are of foreign
birth. and take such employment as a
matter of course, society owes ii not the
less to them than to itself to show them
better ways of earning a living.