Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-01-28
T A POPULAR ERROR.
MASSACHUSETTS, SSUPERFLUOUSW Wo-
MEN WIDOWS, NOT sPINsTr ).

|
Gently enacted employers liability law In
Massachusetts throw new light on the pre-
ponderance of women in this state. An In
vestigation of all the facts bearing on this
social phenomenon reveals a tragedy which
may be told in statistics Who are these sur
plus women? Unmarried women7 So it has
been supposed, erroneously.
1t has been assumed that they were the I'M
married; the maidens and spinsters cleft" in
the struggle for matrimonial prizes, and
therefore presumably not the "fttest" But
an investigation made shows that they are
neither young maidens nor spinsters, but they
were. not long ago, the "fttest," the brightest
OF their sex, who early won the love and sup
port of brave young fellows, and are now
widows. 1t takes very few figures to tell this
tact in the tragedy. The total excess Of fe-
males in the state is 76, ,373, and of this num-
Der 65,O04, or more than IS per cent. are
widows, the total number of widowed men in
the state being 50, 154 and Of widowed women
N,15a
It is not among women of advanced years,
or even among those in middle life, that tho
great excess is found. More than half arc
not yet 40, and 29:0O4 are Of ages between 20
and 30. They had but tasted of the happi-
|
were made "superfous." A great number Of
these women are the widows of the men whose
dreadful deaths bya thousand forms of mutt
lation we read of in our newspapers night and
morning-the young wage earners killed in
the dangerous occupations
The perils of the fisheries are familiar
tale. Since earliest colonial days the coast
population has derived its support mainly
Frcv,
salary is no longer paid in cod and mackerel
by weight or count, it is none the less paid
with cod and mackerel in another way. The
fisherman sees but little of his home. His
quest takes him $50 to 1000 or
more miles from Gloucester. He enters
the little dory, and, casting off from the ves-
sci, exposes himself to the full force of the
| Atlantic With the best of luck, his suffer-
ings are severe. and it is often that the worst
Of luck overtakes him. Lost in the Jog, he
| dies in the agonies of starvation and thirst,
and "Last seen on the Georges" is the only
word that gets back to the desolate home at
Gloucester. From 90 to 100 lives a year are
lost from fishing vessels hailing from that
single port of Gloucester. Last year the num-
: ber was lis.
Not so concentrated in one locality and
aggregate, is the loss of life in the inland in
dustrles. The network of railroads that
covers the state is the great minotaur. The
average number of fatal accidents to railroad
employees during the ten years, 1875 10 1856.
was 81. per year. The average number Of
accidents not fatal was $50, and large pro
portion of these, it should be remembered,
result ultimately in premature death. The
average number of persons not employees
killed while walking Or lying ON the track
was J79 per year. An analysis of the latter
number shows that tie popular notion that
track walkers are usually drunken men or
tramps is as mistaken as popular notions in
general. The majority Of them are lahorers,
going to and from work by the railroad
track because it is more direct than the high
way.
The fatalities among men who meet death
while actually engaged in the duties of their
calling make up painful record. Here is
one case from many in my note book. John
Gaylord was freight brakeman. He was
zone Of the boys" but warm hearted fellow,
with plenty Of good sense. Annie Day was q
comely. atfectionate girl, whose father was
all engineer on the same road. When John
was promoted to q regular post on the plat
form OF passenger car of a mixed train, and
told that ii he kept straight he would be
baggage master in a few months, he said lie
would keep straight and marry Annie. He
kept Lis word in both particulars; but the
railroad officers did not keep theirs John
was still on the platform of his passenger car
when there were three little Gaylords in
Annie's neat kitchen. One day John was In
especially good spirits as he started off, and
he looked back and waved his dinner pail to
Annie and the three little faces in the door
way. The next day the train had covered
two-thir,ls OF the return trip when the signal
sounded for brakes. John sprang to his
post. The brakeman on the freight car Just
forward saw the passenger car topple to one
side, saw John straining at the brake, and
turned away his eyes. The passengers
crawled out, not one badly injured, and the
trainmen looked about for John. They
found him under the wreck, his hands clutch
Ing the broken brake-white, dead.
1t was nearly tea time, and nearly time for
John, when Annie heard the newsboys cry
Ing, Last edition-all about the accident"
a familiar cry that always filed her with .
dreadful fear. In a moment she had the
paper. In the blur of headlines that swan
before her eyes she saw only the words.
"John Gaylord. of this city, killed" Annie
IS now one of the ''super1uous" women Of
Massachusetts,.
Now multiply this case Of Annie Day by
almost the number of weeks in the year.
change the scenes and incidents in every |
case, and you begin to have dim idea OF
the tragedy Of railroad employment i'll this
one little state so full of roads. Multiply by
more than the number of days in the year,
and remember the occupations of the fire
man, the miner. the quarryman, the roofer,
the painter, the dyer. the grinder OF cutlery,
and many more, and you begin to see the |
extent Of this suffering and struggle. 1t !
rightly called tragedy. 1t is no mere vul- |
gar melodrama of sensational accident. It |
is the inevitable consequence of character.
Those manly traits that lii;iSe actions strong
In defense, impel men also to face danger in |
support of their families, and of the exten-
sion aid development of industry and trade. |
-Bosttu Cor. Cleveland Leader.