The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-08
xHE AMUSEMENT OF WOMAN.
A Sad Story of the Degradation of WOman's
Labor in Observation-Disclosures Hold Carriers.

Sad Story of the Degradation of WOman's
Labor in Observation-Disclosures Hold Carriers.
Robert p. Porter, in Philadelphia Press
But with bricklayers and plasterers Astounding
in the summer months at $4 and So per week,
instead Of being scarce at as many dollars day,
building IN Stockholm must be an occupation
calculated to thrill with Joy the heart of free
trader. To com plete the ecstacy OF those who
believe in the degradation Of human labor need
say that at Stockholm the debasement OF woman
is, perhaps, more thorough and complete than in
any city in northern Europe2 She here p1ac
tcally supplants the beasts of burden. And |
am not altogether unfamiliar with woman S
work in Europe l have seen her around the
pit mouth, at the forge and bare footed in the
brickyardS of "Merrle England" filing blast
furnaces aud tending coke ovens in sunny
France" l have sadly watched her bearing
the heat and burden of the day in the fields of
the "Fatheriand," and in Austria Hungary doing
the work of man and beast on the farm and in
the NINE | have seen women emerge from the
coal pits of busy Belgium" where little girls
and young women graduate under ground as
hewers of coal and drawers of carts, for it is no
uncommon thing in Europe to hitch women and
dogs together that manufacturing may be done
cheaply. Aged. bent and sunburned, l have
seen women, with rope over shoulder, toilng on
the banks of canals and dykes in picturesque
Holland. Having Witnessed all this, | was yet
surprised to find in city so beautiful and seem
lngly so rich and prosperous as Stockholm,
women still more debased In Stockholm she is
almost exclusively employed as nod carrier
and brick layers assistant. She carries
bricks, IN xeS morter, and, in short does all the
heavy work about the building. At the dinner
hour you groups of women sitting on the
piles of wood ana stone eating their frugal
past. They wear short gown coming a trife be-
low the knees. with home knitted WOODEN
stockings and wooden shoes. Over their heads a
kerchief IS tightly tied. Those engaged in mixing
mortar and tending plasterers wear aprons They
are paid for a day of hard work Of this toll,
lasting twelve hours, the munihcent sum of one
kroner equivalent to 268 centsl Women
sweep the streets, haul the rubbish drag hand
carts up the hills and over cobble stones unload
bricks at the quays, attend to the parks, do the
gardening and row the numerous ferries which
abound at Sockhom n. The entire dairy business
of the city Is in their hands, and here they take
the place of horses and dogs carrying on their
shoulders the heavy cans of milk from door to
door.
When American women are thus abased. and
not until then, shall We be able TO build and to
manufacture as cheaply as Europe, and by
Europe make no distinction between protective
Sweden or free trade England. 1t Is the labor
Of Europe, with European environments, that
the United States cannot admit into the country
without industrial ruin, nor the labor of any one
European country, nor of Europeans who come
to our shores with the honest intention of becom-
ing part of our body polite and Of sustaining
American institutions
While woman thus slaves in Stockholm, man
parades. You Will see him IN sort OF uniform
in the market place, lounginS all day ''for hire"
to run or errands or to do light porterage When
ever any light work that pays fairly well is to be
done there is the genus man. On dress parade
you see him as a soldier, staggering about beer
gardens, loatng in the barrack yard. fishing
on the outskirts of the town. TITS a pity some
of the scattering soldiers of these little European
powers could not be crystallzed into expert hod-
carriers or skillful mortar mixers instead of
weighing women down under the yoke of a
double burden, namely the hardest toll and
motherhood. But why preach?