The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-16
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
SKETCHES OF THE MOST INDEPEN
DENT WOMEN IN THE LAND.

Girls of Lowell have LOU ElenJy Oh
Descendants.
BosToN, July 14-"Say, Miss Endicott,
wait on me minute, can't you"
The speaker is a small, dark-complex
toned woman who runs down the steps of
spick and span, story and half cottage
painted white and overhung by gigantic
apple tree. She has reached the gate and
hangs over it bareheaded.
II want you to tell Matt Learoyd that |
shan't bet the shop this morning, but she
mustn't let anybody else have my white tag
to stitch, because I'll be there sure this after
noon"
''Why, Mrs Jacobs, this is the first time
you've been out day this summer, isn't
itn
Eyes, and I shouldn't be out now, only
my sisters got touch of rheumatic, and
I've got to fix her up comfortable. Talkim
of being at the shop, there amt
do. It's pretty hard, pretty hard
work all the time Here have been up at
$50 in the morning; SOS to get Joes
breakfast for him to be at the shop by I.
Then | have to wash my dishes, and slick
up the house and be there myself before
7:30 Then | come home ten minutes ahead
of Joe at noon and hurry up dinner, and
| wash more dishes, ana get back again
few minutes after lo'Clock and stay enough
after 6 to make up for lost time at night
Then there's supper, and likes not there's
bread to bake in the evening. Every Mon
day there's washing to do at night, 'nloSS
Pm up 10 do it at 3 in the morning; and
mex day there's all tho ironing. What
with tuat and the sweeping and sewing |
do get beat out But, hand sakes, all shoe
makers wives work in the shop sooner or
later, sometime or other. There's Mary
Goss married Jack Martin last month, sho
says to me she shan't never go in the shop
] felt kind O stung, so | told her ] needn't
either if | wasn't mind to, but knew
Just as well she'd come to it too inside of
couple of years. But there faint nothing
for me like it is for women that have "A
houseful of children and work i'll the shop
besides. Sometimes I'm glad I've got no
young ones | don't know what I'd do
with them if | did haveo
And yet the trim figure, small foot, small
hand swapping black eye, heavy dark hair
sallow skin, good natured mouth contra
dieting the little frown between tho eyes,
look like those of a woman fairly well able
to carry her own burdens Miss Mary
Able Endicott, who turns from the gate
with the message, is New Highlander of
blue eyes, well defined, regular features,
clear pallid comp' s.ion and curly light
brown hair, she belongs to one of the old colo
NAL families, while Mary Jacobs is a Nova
Scotan. Miss Endicott is a graduate of a
New England academy, an ommvorous
reader, and has seen her name appended to
sketches of one sort and another in the
Contributors club of the Atlantic. Her
brother is lawyer in good practice and she
has her own place in the best society of the
town, her position being attested by her an
nual reelection to the pre- idercy of the
Woman's club, the chief literary organiza-
ton of the village. She runs the next ma
chine to Mary Jacobs in the "stitch ROOM
of the largest shoe shop of the place.
1t is in some of the smaller Massachusetts,
shoe towns that one finds women as inter
esting as any in the country. The stitcher
in village factory has little of the spirit
and dash of the western ranchwoman or
woman pioneer, little of the SGUOir fdire of
the New York woman doctor or dentist or
typewriter, little even of the intensity of
Boston school ma'am or leader of isms but
if circumstances are favorable, that is, if
the town has not grown too rapidly, she has
pushed sef-reliance to an extreme hardly
to be met with elsewhere, and, if of school
going stock. has repeated the type of the
mill girls who once made Lowell famous, a
type which in these days of changed labor
conditions is popularity supposed to be ex-
tinct, though meeting one still in certain To-
calities at every hour.
Mary Jacobs can hardly remember that
she was ever sent to school. She is a quick,
clever woman, who has lived in the shoe
towns of eastern Massachusetts since she
was a child of 10, and has worked in the
shoe factories since she was IL. She is the
best stItcher in her shop, and as such en-
titled to the white tagn or best grade
shoes, the payfor which is 81 per set, when
any are being made. When times are good
she earns $40, or even $13, per week When
work is slack and the lasters below stairs
in no hurry, she earns 81 and IS; and has
leisure between sets" to practice such
branches of the. divine art of fancy work as
may happen to be popular in the stitch
room" and as will not be marred beyond
PREPARATION by Smutty fingers and an occa-
sional dash of machine Oil She had IA very
intricate knitted quilt on exhibition in the
last country cattle show. She used to have
a tidy bank account, which she has recently
applied to the purchase of the comfortable.
green-blinded little house in which she and
her husband live
This husband, Handsome Joe" Jacobs,
as the girls call him, is "A capable laster in
the same factory. He earns $l4 or SIS a
week and holds himself responsible for his
own expenses and for the provision bills.
He used to pay the rent, but since his wife
has bought the house she pays the taxes
herself. She owns the furniture, having
bought it piece by piece, from the bright
ingram carpet to the brighter marine view
of girl with disheveIed hair clinging to q
wave beaten cross. He has never been at n
dollars expense for his wfe's clothing or
pocket money, for the two, though per
fectly amicable couple, are as separate rs
regards their pocketbookS, aside from Ger
tain definite agreements, rs if they were un-
married. Each Is self supporting and OK
poets to remain so. Every blu coming to
him, is made ont in his name: every bill.
belonging by understanding to her. is made
out in her name. Ii she wants lace cur
talns,or he wants q weeks vacation for a
fishing trip down the bay, there are no
financial preliminaries 10 arrange. The
western woman enters quarter section of
land and relies on hers elf TO hold il down
The eastern woman, even if married in
such a community as the one of which |
am speaking, is apt TO hold down her claim
alone still She is independent, though
married, a different thing from being in.
dependent while unmarried,
Follow Miss Endicott TO the big wooden
shoe factory, where the heavy machines
run by steam power make a humming
noise audible for rods down the village
street, and you will not find her by anytI
means the only one of her kind. The foreman
of the roomful of sUtchers, irreverently
known as Matt Learoyd, was the valedic-
dozen years ago, woman of quick tongue
at,I .,..f. 4. l..