The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-29
LIFE IN EUROPE.
WOMEN FOLLOWING VOcATIONS FIT
ONLY FOR THE STRONGEST MEN.

Work in the Mines of Fraucc-Ncayy
Physical Labor in Austria - Stoat
Daughters of the Plow" - Factory
System Of Germany.
Whether it be the existence Of enormous
standing armies, Cfe havoc Of centuries OF
war, the absence of practical educational fa-
cilities, or the low1ess Of laborers wages that
compcls go many women on tho continent Of
Europe to seek to gain living in occupations
which we deem ft only for the strongest and
rudest of men, certain it is that ono of tic
commonest and, to American eyes, tho
strangcst 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 pushing the
]icavy trucks of Goals through the narrow
tunnels that run from the seams to the shaft
OF course, il such work they adopt the ordi
nary costume of working miners, and at the
first glance are not to be distinguished from
the men, by whose si;le they are working.
Some of the entries in the French census ~
to the laboring population are strange enough.
In Paris there are 8 female boatbuilders and
245 "wheelwrightS, farriers and saddlcrs," s
sawyers, 4G carpenters and joiners, masons
and 1 plumber 1t is, however, in Austria
that we find the gre test proportion Of women
engaged in heavy physical labor, not merely
in agriculture or tho mines, but in paving Or
cleaning the streets, or in carrying huge trays
of mortar or hods Of bricks up to the work
men OIL the scatfolding 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 their infancy, and
are used to nothing better; their language
and manners are as coarse as those Of the
male laborers, whom in figure they resemble
high chested, broad shouldered, no trace of
waist, and possessed of great strength. To
such stout daughters of the plow" it is an
easy task to wheel q 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 picture.
WORKERS IN THE MINES.
In Prussia about 5000 women are workers
In mines, quarries, and foundries, and about
1000 are classified as drivers, positions, and
railway laborerS," and about 900 as Ships
crews, sailors, boatmen and ferrymen'; in
this last category will come women employed
IN towing canal boats. 1t has been asked,
why do not women adopt callings moro
adapted to feminine hands? The reason seems
to be the industrial condition Of great part
of the European continent, which affords to
them no better means Of earning living,
and the fact that these occupations which
are so utterly unfeminine, are just those In
which ullSkillcd labor can be employed. A
change, however, is slowly coming about by
the growth of important industries in every
country. The factory system has been found
in Germany to have a strong tendency to
improve the condition not only of.thc women
Immediately employed i'll them, but IF those
working III the country around.
A large employer at Freiburg, after thirty
years experience, said: The condition of tho
agricultural laborcIS is not q satisfactory one.
There is much misery among them, especially
moral misery When mothers apply to lis
for work for strong, healthy girls, we tell
them such girls are more fit for labor in the
fields, but too frequently receive an account
of tho hard and immoral life associated with
such service The scene changes when well
managed factory comes into the village. The
poor girls must then either receive better
treatment and better wages or. they 80 into
the factory. The moral lcnefit of Il we'll
ordered factory is still greater; it affects the
whole village. ."-Harper's Bazaar.