The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-10-23
FEMALE LABORERS.
European Women Engaged in Agricu1tul
and Other Manual Labor.

European women Engaged In Agriculture
and other Manual Labor.
Whether it be the existence of enor-
nous standing armies, the havoc of
centuries of war, the absence of practi-
cal educational facilities or the lowness
OF laborers' wages, that compels so
many women on the continent of Eu-
rope to seek to gain living in occupa-
tions which we deem fit only for the
strongest and rudest of men, certain it
is that one of the commonest and. to
American eyes, the strangest sights
there is the number of women engaged
in agricultural and other severe manual
labor. In France women are still oc-
cupied in the mines, dragging or push
ing the heavy trucks of coal through
the narrow tunnels that run from the
seams to the shaft. Of course, in such
work they adopt the ordinary costume
of the working miners, and at the first
glance are not to be distinguished from
the men by whose side they are work
ing. Some of the entries in the French
census as to the laboring population
are strange enough. In Paris there are
nine female boat-builders, and 245
''wheelwrights, farriers and saddlers,"
eight sawyers. forty-six carpenters and
joIners, eight masons and one plumber.
1t is, however, in Austria that we find
the greatest proportion of women en-
gagged in heavy physical labor, not mere
ly in agriculture or the mines. but in
paving and cleaning the streets or in
carrying huge trays of mortar or hods
of bricks up to the workmen on the
scaffolding of buildings in the course of
erection. These women do not seem to
complain of their lot; they have been
bred up to hard work from infancy and
are used to nothing better; their
language and manners are as course as
those of the male laborers, whom in
figure they resemble -high-chested,
broad -shouldcred, no trace of waist.
and possessed of great strength. To
such stout daughters of the plow" tits
an easy task to pull street-sprinkler or
pull about hand-cart laden with milk.
as may be seen any day in Antwerp,
where the milk-woman, with her
neat white cap and 'kerchief and her
assistant dog, is striking street pict-
ure. In Prussia about 5000 women are
workers in mines, guarries and
foundries, and about 1000 are classified
as "drivers, postillions and railway
laborers," and about 1000 as .ships'
crews, sailors, boatmen and ferrymen;'
in this last category will come women
employed in towing canal boats II
has been asked why do not women
adopt callings more adapted to fem.
mime handsp The reason seems to be
the industrial condition of a great part
of the European continent, which af.
fords to them no better means of earn.
ing living, and the fact that these oc.
cupations. which are SO utter unfem.
mime, are just those in which un-
skilled labor can be employed A
change, however, is slowly com.
portant industries in every country.
The factory system has been found
in Germany to have strong tendency
to improve the condition, not only Of
the women Immediately employed in
them, but of those working in the coun'
try around. A large employer at Frei
Durg, after thirty years. experience
said: 1.-The condition of the agricultural
laborers is not a satisfactory one. There
IS much misery among them, especially
n oral misery. When mothers apply tc
us for work for strong, healthy girls We
tell them such girls are more fit fol
labo. in the fields. but too frequently
receive an account of the hard and i'm
moral life assoc ated with such service
The scene changes when a well-manageG
factory comes into the village. The
poor girls must then either receive het
ter treatment and better wages or they
60 into the factory. The moral benefit
of a well-ordered factory is still greater
1t affects the whole village. "-Harper's
Bazdr.