The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-12


variably comes: ''They serve me as well, or bet
| ter, than men, and they work more cheaply." /
| find women largely in all the factories, and en-
| ployers give me the same reason for employing
| them instead of men. In many factories where
| fine, improved machinery is used, women and
children do the bulk of the work. do not
| find women among the skilled hand workers;
where 1t takes years of apprentcing to manage
| trade, women utterly fail, but when II requires
| delicacy and quickness of perception and move
ment in working machine find women adopts
| l find among the lace-makers of Nottingham
that men do the designing and weaving women
do the cutting, mending, weighing and measur-
| ing l saw no women at the complicated
| jacquard looms, for, said my escort through
| the works, 1T takes the patience and close APP
| plication of man to do this work properly"
| There is great depression IN this business, and
many hundreds are suffering for the want of
work, and must still suffer until Dame Fashion
wears more lace. Lace-making seems like a
womanly employment, but, like all factory life
| for women, it has it's distressing side / find
women and girls largely employed in the hosiery
| works at Leicester. In one factory where 1000
| are employed, about two-thirds women and
| girls The head of this firm, a gentleman of
wide culture, lending strong helping hand to
| great philanthropes--a man having the welfare
| of his workers much at heart-assured me that
| he deprecated the condition of trade and society
| that compelled him to employ women and chill
| dren; but" said he I'VE cannot afford to en-
| poy men with this modern machinery; women
| can wait upon these machines quite well as
men. We get them much cheaper, and as long
as people will use shoddy instead of real goods,
as long as cheapnesS is the war-cry of trades, we
| must employ women and children or go to the
| wall" These women average from ST. 25 to So per
| week. Ii is rare. indeed, when the last named
! amount is earned. Out of this they must live
| The rooms In which these work are comfortable,
well-aired and wsll-lighted and as clearly as the
work will allow l find women largely en-
| ployed as molders and burnishers by silver
| Smiths but they do not attain to the skill of
engrayers designers. work that might be
done at home and for which they could COM
mand high wages. These women earn from SO
to S. per week. Their labor requires physical
| strength, and is more fitted for men than wom-
en-. In about the same grade of work and wages
as those heretofore mentioned are the thousands
employed in the manufacture OF pins. needles.
| pens, PAPER -mache and cottons. Nine hours
constitute days work.
| 1t is in the employment of women in iron
works. colieries, brick-yards and chain-making
| of the BLACK Country" that find the great
| disgrace of England, and that she should
hasten to wipe out or stand condemned among
| the so-caled Christian nations of the earth. In
miter, bolt screw, nut and nail works, with their
| noise. smut and grease, associated with the
coarsest of men, find thousands of women and
| girls among whom refinement, or common de-
cerAy even, is the exception rather than the
| rule. / was reliably informed that when these
women turn out of these places at the hour of
| quitting work no self-respecting man woman
| wants to be in hearing distance of their billings
| gate. Here again l am told that the 700 women
| and girls whom saw attending 700 machines in
| one factory were employed because they would
| work for lower wages than men would work for
Imagine long. low shed, with dirt floor, un-
| der which run hot drying pipes. and you have
| the working place of hundreds of women brick
makers of the BLACK Country" in England.
| Near at hand is the mud out of which the bricks
are nodded. At rough board stand, about as
high as low table, four women work. They
are covered with mud from head to foot. their
eyes peeping out from behind splotches of
mud piece of cotton cloth is
| tied over the hair. Three of these
women run to the mud heap. throw
about twenty pounds of mud upon their heads
| with one single motion of the arms, and with an
other motion gather in their arms another
| twenty pounds, run to the table, and with sim
| gle motion of the body and the arms unload
both heaps. This dripping mess is thrown into
the mold by one pair of hands, 10y another dipped
| In the water and thrown down by the side of the
| frightening of tidy, shapely brick. every
| one of which adds to the wages of these women,
who work 'by the piece" These workers are in the
| hands of what we, in America. call the sweat
| err" A takes the contrac: to furnish so
many brick at certain price This man en-
| ploys the cheapest workers he can find and
| these are women and girls. woman nearly
| fifty years of age stood at one of these tables,
and pleasantly impaired to me her history in her
peculiar dialect, which quite difficult to I'M
derstand. She had been put at brick making
when but six years DID, and had been at it ever
since. She had never learned to read and write.
In this time she had been 'wooed and won."
and has been the mother of FIVE children and
was about to become a mother again The
most this woman can earn per week Is 81 80, but
her average wages after years of constant
work. are but SD per week. / asked her if she
considered her lot hard one, and with
heavy sigh she replied: Hard enough mum;
but what are we to do2 We must work or starve
when our men drink at the public house and
won't work. l wish there was an easier way for
women here, but it is hard place for 'uns."
In a still worse condition are the women
chain makers of this section l was told that it
was not safe for me to go among these women,
because of their total depravty; but l went,
and more women ought to go as I did l was
| most kindly treated, and was shown their work
shops and their homes. l was quite as great
curiosity to them as they were to me, and they
asked me as many questions about the way
women are treated in America l asked them
about their affairs. Notwithstanding the hard
| lot of these women, the spark of "'womanliness"
is not entirely extinguished These workers are
incident to that evolution in labor and trade
that must needs come in the adjustment of af-
fairs between hand and machine made goods
For generations the foreparents of these people
have followed chain akng at their simple
FORCES, and their descendants know no other
handicraft A family has low. one-story, red
brick house. huddled among many more houses
just like it. The first room, which is usually
about fifteen feet square, is used for all family
purposes, no matter how many there are in a
family Be it said to the credit of these people,
their homes were cleanly as circumstances
would permit In the back room will be
one. two or three brick FORCES, as the
number of workers may be, a block,
vessel of water, a small bin of screened
COAL bellows and hammer constitute the me-
chanica outfit. In one of these family work
shops stood an old father blowing the bellows
with his foot, while from the straight rod which
he took from the bundle of rods near by he
formed the link that lens thened the chain that
supported and heightened his life; at another
was the son-in-law at another the young wife
and mother. with her infant child sitting on the
side of the forge in the scattered coal, with
sparks flying all about it. burning holes in It's al
ready tattered pinafore. This woman is expect
| ed to work as many hours the men, besides
doing the work of cook and nurse. AS as
a girl arrives at the age of thirteen. the legal