Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1888-10-04
SURPLUS WOMEN.

SURPLUS WOMEN.
Working widows In New England-How
the Excess of Female Population Is Gre
ated In Various Parts of the Union--An
Industrious Glass.
Goethe says that in order to cause q
thing to be believed, it is only necessary
to keep saying it over and over until
the public ear gets thoroughly used to
it. 1t is only in this way that one can
explain the curious manner in which
certain preposterous exaggerations
come to be accepted, and with constant
enlargement. The excess of women in
our older States, for instance, keeps
growing larger and larger in the news
papers. This is not so strange, but
when we find an educated Boston physi7
clan, in what purports to be a serious
work-vouched for, moreover, by a
New York physician and Boston cler-
gyman-putting the excess OF women in
Massachusetts at 100, 900, it shakes ones
confidence in the common-sense of the
community. AS a matter of fact, the
actual excess of women in Massachu-
sets, by the census of 1880, was not
much more than half this number, be-
ing 66,205 The total number of the
male population of that State, as then
recorded, was S5S, 440, and of the female
population 924,645. Compendium of
Census, p. 81
1t has been shown by the returns of
the Massachusetts census that this ex-
cess of women does not largely consist,
as was once supposed, of the unmar-
ried, nor yet of the unmarried or the
divorced, but that it consists almost
wholly of widows. BY the State census
of 1875, when the excess of women was
GO, LAG, it appears that the excess of
widows over widowers in Massachusetts
was 50, 903, thus accounting for nearly
the whole excess of women over men.
Compendium of Massachusetts Cen
sus, p. 39.) This large number of
widows is explained in manufacturing
towns by the fact that they seek sup
port for themselves and their children
in the mills; in seaport towns, by the
large mortality among sailors and fish
ermen, SO that a single gale on the Banks
may leave fifty widows; and in the State
as whole by the fact that it is one of
the older States from which MANY
young men have gone westward, and
that in the event of their death
their widows and children are very apt
TO return to the old nest. To this may
be added the influence of the schools
and colleges of Massachusetts, which
bring many women there to educate
their children. In a street with which
the writer is familiar, in that State,
there are seventeen houses, of which
eight are occupied by widows; and foul
of these ladies have come into Massa'
chusetts within few years, either fol-
the education of their children or to as
sist in the education of the children o
other people. If this is the case in one
short street of a suburban city, it vii
not take long to make up suchinstance'
to many thousands. Under these cir
cumstances some of the surplus womel
of State must certainly be counted Il
its credit; they create the presumption
that it is community which attract
those who have families of children t,
be educated on moderate means.
In general the presence of many sur
plus women shows a State to posses
manufacturing industries. OF the 9th
or New England States, Connection
has ,131 surplus women, Rhode Is
land 10,471, New Hampshire $3.50. Al
these are manufacturing States; but i
Maine, where there are fewer manufac
lures, the sexes are almost equally ba
anced, there being but $50 more on tn
female side of the account; while |
Vermont, which is essentially an ayr
cultural State, there are /, 4SS NOR
men than women. In New York Stat
tlle 6ACtSS Vi NOlucu IL EIttttci- tiishh
Massachusetts,, and amounts to Y, 22i
while in New Jersey it is 1922, and
Pennsylvania but 1851. There is ais
an excess of female population in Marl
land, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgi;
Alabama, Tennessee, and the District
Columbia; but not in any of the Nortl
western or Pacific States, or in the TIE
ritories. As the local census of the'
States have rarely been taken |
thoroughly as in Massachusetts,. it
difficult to tell whether the same pr
portion holds as to widows and sing
women. But probably the same fac
TO employment would prevail throuE
the various States; and whom We see
large excess of women in any commu
: ity we can be pretty sure that most
them have gravitated thither in scar
of employment. or for the opportuni