Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-08-08
WOMEN WHO WORK
N THE MARKET GARDENS OF THE
 SUBURBS.
Chicago Gardeners Furnish Employment to 1000 Poles. Bohemians. and Ger maEs-Physieal and Mental Charae-
 teristies Hope of the Future.
Chicago Newsl

] IFNIE uOEllDE HUH tue ut-l1ulu. OL | seed time until frost comes and all the | green things droop their heads and die. ' fully l.0UJ women go out to work in the market gardens in the immediate vicinity of Chicago. some of these women are
 aged. some in middle life, and few are still girls. The majority. however. are wives who have husbands unqualified to support their families, or. as is the case
 so Oftel among the ranks of ignorant
 people. tOO dissolute or lazy Co do so.
 They Gre without exception fOreignerS-
 some BohemIans. some Poles. and others
 Germans They have been reared in the
 land Of their birth to farm labor. and
 know scarcely anything else Their
 knowledge of housekeeping is limited. for
 the ho Ises they have lived in from in
 fancy have zen but shelters little better
 than those given to cattle. and their means
 for hOme-making of the rudest kind
 They can make a greasy soup of pork
 and bit of mutton or veal, prepare milk
 porridge. or boil pot of strong. coarse
 coffee. but there their skill in cookery
 ends They cannot so much as bake a loaf of black bread. They know, as a rule. no more Of the ordinary simple de-
 tails of housekeeping and home making
 than does the squaw whose home is a tee
 pee, or the gypsy who roams eightmOnths
 of the year about the country in a covered
 wagon Many of them do not know how
 to cleanse their garments. When they indulge m the process called washing.
 it is q. mere wetting that bears no resem-
 blance to the genuine removal of dirt In the winter time many of these women. especially the Poles. would be glad dur ing the long. cold months to do any kind of rough hOusewOrk, but know not how it is done. Gan you not scrub the fOory' asked the writer of a Polish woman in midwinter. who stood in the small, low. tireless room, and wrung her hands in misery at the starvation which had Overtaken her and her two little girls Scrub the floor. answered she in her strong native gutterals. stretch ing put her sinewy brown hands with gesture of despair. Il can do nothing but dig in the earth and feed the pigs
 This is the story of seven-tenths of all the women who work in the market gar dens. The Bohemians. and especially the Germans. are on the average nor intelli- gent in their ideas of thrift than the Poles Those who have no avOcation in the win. ter manage 10 lay a triile by over and above the payment of the debts contracted in the winter and the summers expense NAAA NuANur " A-AA NA and such assistance as they obtain from the county. they maintain an existence through the year. \ few can sew, and have learned the rudiments of tailor work These make pants during the winter. All of them can knit. and the stout. coarse. wOOleB hose reaching about two thirds of the way 10 the knee. which they wear when they cover feet or ankles with anything. are their own handiwork.
 The young unmarried foreigners who come to this country usually obtain do mestic work and soon learn enough to make their condition far better tran it ever could be in the old world But the woman who comes here with husband and children. who has had opportunity 10 learn only what the fields could teach, has scarcely a brighter outlook in life than she had at home. She goes early tO her work and remains till o'clock. All G1y long she is in the field. it matters not whether the rain falls or the hot suns rays beat down upon her head. Sometimes three or four women will make their way across the field and back. again and again. on their knees. pulling up small weeds They work thus for hours without once lifting their bodies from their cramped position. They VIII GNAAANAN t&Nh1ukG n NVAu AAtAAA- while. for they are not loquacious. Long years of exposure. hard labor, and want have made them for the most part stupid. taciiurn, and stolid Sometimes they use the hoe. sometimes they SOW seeds or put small plants. that have been started under glass. in the ground A portion of the women clean and bunch the vegetables ready for market.
 None of them are beautiful or have the slightest claim to grace or what is known as good looks Without exception they are square and il lshapcd. and move with heavy. numbering motion. Their faces are bronzcd. and scanned with many lines Their eyes seldom wear any expression. not even that of sorrow, nor yet of C: pect- ancv For themselves they live almost in the immediate present and neither hope nor dread Of so little feeling do they seem possessed that one is moved tO won der why they should have sought life in the new world no better apparently than the one in the old should the question be put 10 a dozen of these hard featured, women, as they bend over their work, if they were not quite as well of al home as they are here they will al mos, with one accord. after they have stared at the qUestioner steadily for a mo ment reply. We may not be better of, but bye and bye our children will The answer seldom varies.
 The market gardens stretch to the south. west and north of the city. Cab bage is grown extensively to the south and southwestward. and its cultivation gives employment to a large number of women Lettuce. radishes. onions. cU- cumbers. spinach. andive and celery com prise the greater part of the garden crop grown close to the city. The larger veg eiables are 4Aised farther in the country. Several crops of each of the smaller veg etables are grown excessively while sum mer lasts. The first crop of spinach. let tuce and radishes gre grown under glass. spinach being put in in the autumn Thus some of the garden women here work the entire year. These workers have been trained. and their services rre more valuable than those of an ordinary field labOre-.
 Four Years Ahead.