Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-25

way match IN France, and came TO grici
and New York in time, Is now the head
| Of the suit and costume department OF a
large city house, and does the firms
buying abroad, making two trips q
year.
Nine. Connolly, che drcssmaker, used
10 be seamstress from house to house,
and is now said TO be worth half a mild
lion, all made by business tact and en-.
ergy.
Miss M. G. Humphreys, whose work
in various ways for the advancement of
working women, has made her we'll
known, was asked by a Sun reporter
what chance there was for q woman 10
make her own living in this city,
There is less chance in New York, I
really believe, than in any other place
in the country, and IL is bad enough
anywhere. No n who has not searched
the matter out for themselves can know
anything about the dreadful competition
for work there is among women in New
York. In every occupation in which
they can engage there are O dozen APP
plicants for every opportunity for en-
ployment. OF course this pushes the
wages continually downward, until they
get to the lowest point at which q
woman can live. They have 20
quit thero, or the woman would
| 10 Noi hihS W hObhlhS DClOTo lOHRs
''It doesn' I seem to make much differ
ence what line of work a woman tries,
how skillful she is, the wages get down
to about the same point in time. OF
course this applies literally only to the
sorts OF work open to those without any
special training. Higher wages are
paid for those whose education or train
ing fits them for employment Of q differ
ent sort. but the final result Is about the
same, after all for the better employ
ment necessities more expensive liv-
ing. A school teacher can't live in q
cheap tenement, you know, and an
a~manuensis or typewriter can't wear a
factory girls clothes to her work, and
in the end the women workers, no mat
ter in what rank, who ear more han
enough to sustain themselves are the
exceptions.
LET me tell you about a woman
writer-you'd recognize her name quick
| ly enough, if | told it, whose poems have
| given her considerable fame, and good
fame, too, and who has employment, be-
sides, on one of the big magazines. She
can earn so little with her pen that she
has to live in a $4-a-week boarding
house, where four women occupy one
room, to saw expenses.
among the school teachers those in
public schools are the best paid, but
there is little chance to q place there,
and the women are paid much Less than
men for the same work. There are i'm
equalities, too, in the salaries of the
women themselves. Regular teachers
of long experience may get $50 or $50
a month, while a special teacher of
sewing, put on in the new manual train
ing department, gets $l0a week for that
alone, but a public school-teacher gets
her pay by the year, and is sure OF it.
The greatest hardship on teachers Of
private pupils and of women in many
other similar lines of work is that they
never know what income they can de-
pend upon. They get SO many pupils
or SO much other work, and make their
years arrangement upon that basis.
Then the patron suddenly concluder to
spend some months abroad, or to go to
Florida for the winter, or to do some-
thing else that breaks up the poor
woman's work and she loses just so much
of her income, with little chance Of
soon finding the means of replacing It,.
Fancy work is worse than nothing
for women nowadays. It is absolutely
impossible TO make q living at it. or
course in painting and similar art work
there is always a chance that q woman
may develop genius that will make her
successful, but the earnings of all, if
averaged, would be p%itiful. A young
girl, from Colorado, I think, has been
struggling along here in New York q
good while, believing that she would
some time succeed as an artist. She
stuck to it in spite of every discourage
ment, and a little while ago she painted
a narrow strip of flowers three feet
long. and ealled It a Xard ct Rcsssss
It got into an exhibition, struck Andrew
Carnegie's fancy, and he bought 1t, and
at once gave the artist another order,
Now, of course that girl is all right,
but there are so many that can't paint
yards OF roses or attract the attention Of
Carnegies!
SIN the workers in trades and similar
vacations organization will do much.
The only workingmen in New York
to-day who are getting any approach to
fair wages are those who are organized,
such as the shirt makers and shoe fit
ters,and organisation is always followed
by better wages and improved conditions
of work. But those who most need
help, the very poor women and the
women who have seen better days,
don't get into the organizations. Or
ganization shoots over the white slave
Of the tenement and under the woman
whose education and training keeps her
out OF shop or factory work.
Now let me tell you something Curl
oao INV Jco y HuN MY tSo thso
the woman suffrage movement was adj
vancing most rapidly among the work.
ing girls and women? 1t is true though,
and the reason is entirely a business
one. The women don't care anything
about the suffrage for itself, and haven't
any longing for politics or the ballot;
but they believe that their equality
with man in the working world would
be recognized if they had the suffrage.
They want the same Day that men get
for the same work, and they believe
that the suffrage would help them
greatly to get it. They reason it all
out, too, and talk about it intelligently
at their MEETINGS. If the woman suf-
frage movement aver gets practically
under way it will find its chief strength
among the workingmen, and Pm not at
all sure but it will be more intelligently
and ably used by them than by classes
of women from whom more might be
expected. You see, these girls have a
practical training that develops their
insight into human nature wonderfully,
and they are more independent and
self-reliant than other women, too. II