The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-03-22

reswelcome addition 10 the slender means
of the household.
The introduction Of machinery silenced
the family wheel and loom. IL soon beca ne
CD txlrsvsgaDce to spin, weave, or knit by
hand, The tewipg machine put sn end TO
The business of the family seamstress. with
her Ell dless days over two folds OF c 9th.
Thousands of women kept on needlessly
spiDnirg-that was better than idleness.
ecbcol-ieacbiDg became the great womsn's
look for work in the great factories that
sprung up on every side. The pressure OF
necessity forced them from under the home
roof. but it was slowly and with reluctance
that they went. Even now many women
live lives OF dependence and privation,
broken in spirit and devoid of hope in the
house OF some grudgiDg relative rather than
take Z y the burden, each one, of her own
lie, and go forth bIaYely into the world to
earn her own bread, It is because so many
women have never known the delight of
incepeDC ence that some of them are willing
to fccept the conditions of life under the half
sec rnful liberation shown them by those
upon whom they depend.
The war of Rebellion came. In four years
2COO,CO0 men enlisted in the army or the
North alone. Hundreds OF thousands were
Withdrawn from the farm, the forge and the
mill; the factories, stores and counting
rooms were draw upon. The farmer stood
upuu tue uelQ Oi DdtUc huU 1lS WIG anu
daughters must needs till his fields Of corn.
The country store had behind its counter
the wife Of its owner, who had marched
away with his fellow townsmen. The black
smiths wife found that she could, IL she
must, shoe a horse, and the daughters OF
business men found that they could keep
books and act as clerks in their fathers
Offices, in place OF the young men who were
carrying the musket on unaccustomed
shoulders.
Tie thea tres began to give day psrfor-
mances so that women could enjoy the
play III attended by men. Hotels and rail
ways made provisions for respectable women
travelling alone. The churches began TO look
to their true supporters, hitherto unrecJ g-
nized; the men were at the front" in the
field, and the women came to the front at
home.
This was the school in which American
women learned what tnsy CO aid do.
More thsn half million men were killed
or disabled for work, and at the close of the
war when the cost in money came to be
counted, and the pressure OF hard times was
felt in every family, except those of q few
rich men, labor claimed Its feminine hands
by thousands and hundreds of thousands
and to-day We have in the United States an
array of women bread winners greater than
the whole army of men called up by the
North to put down the Rebellion.
The census of 1880 gives the number of
women and girls working at 'gainful occu'
pstioDsn as 2647 l57.
534 SEQ of these women are agricultural
laboIeIs, $50 s34 being employed in the old
slave States, working in cotton and rice
fields, ar on corn, tobacco, rice and cane
plantations. These agricultural laborers In
the South are all col0red women, and be-
sides them there are 60 Gas colered women
working in Gotten factories, sorghum MILE
tobacco curirg and manufacturing estab-
lisbments and in all stores, warehouses in
the South where heavy manual labor is
needed.
To tho American glance at these dusky
thousands suggests many thousands and
many a bard problem.
in the North there are 5066 women en-
ploytd as agricultural leborers working in
fie DIS and ga dens at farming, beekee ping,
dairy work, fruit and berry raising and vine
yards and hopyarcs.
There are los, 19S laundresses, and as before
stated 93S, $40 domestic servants. The cot
ton, 81 end wooden mills employ 152, 263
women. Boot and shoe factories. 2l COZ.
Clerks sales women and accountants in
stores number SO S3l. Dressmakers aud nil-
liners sre given as numbering 3S4026. Tn
der this head Goubtless many plain
sewing women are counted.
In a great many branches Of mani factur-
ing, women are employed in large numbers.
Thousands work in establishments for max
ing agricultural implements; in book bind.
cries and In printing offices. Thousands
work for carpet makers, cigar-makers, CLOCK
and watch makers, confectioners, c)rset-
makers, glove-makers, harness and saddle
makers. gold and silver workers, hat and
cap II skers. straw workers, and restaurant
keepers.
There are sos sewing machine operators,
$500 shirt cuff End co lar makers.
Women are acting according to the census,
oc ttrx ota MI rd tfoke and
lCck.smiths, as canal boatmen;' AZ paper
dangers iron AMI steel workers and miners
OLe woman, at least, Is the active captain
Of a steamboat running on the Mississippi
River
In nearly all factories the wo-kwomea ere
paid "Dy the piece This makes ths earn
ipes Depend very much upon the worker.
In this country the large mills generally
provide quite light and decently ventilated
quarters for their employees, but not enough
attention is yet PAID TO the health and COM
fort of working HANDS. However, with all
the faults Of shops and factories the condi-
tion of women -ho work N them is far bet
Ter I'll an that of those who take their work
TO their rooms to do. No class of people In
our COL ntry y ork for such small pay, ana
uDcer UGH disc dYantages as the women in
OuI cities who take piece work" home TO
do tn, re. Bad az is the air, limited the space
OF a sewing shop where women are crowded
place is cheerful, compared to the
barren room, cold, untidy, with bed,
CT okiI E stove, or lamp, and all the de-
bris of hurried and careless housekeeping,
scattered abt ut in confusion. in which
the sewing woman lives who takes her work
home
Tie condition OF city needle women is
standing evil and shame. Toe terrible com.
plant in the song OF he SHIRT still sounds
In cur ears. The tinal soluiion Of the diff
Guilty mu b. for women to stop such work
al oesIh-r. Most OF the sewing will be done
by machinery. and manufacturers must
prov de room for workers on the necessary
haI q work of the garments they make aud
ray the few women needed on such work q
de- ent price. The women Who are now
Starving IN our galTets. working for rich
mspuiscturers at 81 or IS cents day, one
can but wish should either siarve ct once or
throw down the needle and so forth into the
world to find the work u at Is waiting for
them-in the factory, the kitchen, the Hurs
cry or family sewing room, on the farm or
in he gaiden, or in many of the trades
where even unskilled labor would be paid
- l. L.