, 1889-10-25
WIVES WHO WORK OUT.
MARRIED WOMEN TAKING THE PLACES
IN SHOP AND OFFICE.

iers Wear Wedding Rings-An Interest
ing Wage Problem which Labor scien-
lists May he Called Upon to Solve.
do you ride down town in the street
cars in the morning. asked an observant
merchant of a Times mar yesterday.
well, il you do and you nave reached
that age of mature infancy where you
begin to take notice of things, you can't
help having been struck by the fact that
many of the women who happen to be
your fellow passengers wear wedding
rings.
"Of course, very few women come
down own before o o'clock in the morn
ing on shopping expeditions, and you
won't be far wrong in your guess If you
put down those who come cityward at
an earlier hour as workingwomen. They
are such, too. The reason 1 called your
especial attention to the wedding ring
feature Of this particular class of women
is that the ornament indicates that the
weareri is married; SO that the prevalence
OF wedding rings or the hands of the
lady patrons of the early morning street
cars shows that a great many married
women work for a living; that is, outside
the home that is popularity supposed to
be the sole proper province of the maj
ried woman.
AN EMPLOYEES OPINION.
"If you go into the great stores and
shops and offices where women are en-
ployed you will be surprised at the num-
Der of wives and mothers you will find
there working at various v~ocations. In
fact, they are to quite an extent COM
peting with the unmarried female work
ere in the struggle for employment. 1t
seems sad and strange that such should
be the case, but it is q fact that the num-
Der of deserted or neglected wives in this
city is painfully large, and it is increas-
ing.
THUS a new danger to the man who
can not do some special work has arisen.
Not only has he to compete with his own
and other fellows sisters in an endeavor
to obtain work as clerk, bookkeeper or
salesman, but other mems wives now
crowd in n swell the ranks of those
who al do only simple work and who
must have work at any price. The re-
suit is the lowering of wages of this
class of work people"
A visit to some of the places where
many women are employed confirmed
the statements of the observing mer-
chant. The manager of a big State street
dry goods store said;
Eyes, we have n good many married
women here, and we have applications
for places from many more. Indeed, 1t
seems that there are more wives than
maidens now looking for work.
And such women are always more
persistent in their efforts to get work
than their unmarried sisters. Usually
they do not start out to find work in his
way until driven to it by necessity, and
then they are prepared to do anything
and take the smallest wages. Most of
the women who apply here are ladies
whose husbands have either left them or
provide 50 meagerly for their support
that they are compelled to do something
TO support themselves. / am astonished
at the number of p%erfidious husbands
who are or have been in this town. But
one thing l a say, very few of them
are native Chicagoans OIL even Chi
cagoans by virtue of long residence here.
They are usually young men who have
come here with their wives and small
families from other cities or country
towns, and finding the burden of caring
for a family in a big city rather heavy
cowardly fly and leave the poor woman
to do the best she a
YOUNG HUSBANDS DON'T LIK IT.
But deserted wives are not the only
married women who work down town.
Hundreds of women, both young and
old, think they can aid the common ex-
chequer better by outside work than by
housekeeping, and SO they find employ
ment in some kind of business and they
and their husbands board"
Most of this class of out working wives
are young women who before their mar
rage were engaged in occupations of
this kind. School teachers, clerks, Ste
nographers, typewriters and saleswomen,
who have lever done any domestic work,
find themselves untitled for it and unable
TO do it. Besides, it is disagreeable to
them. They marry and are anxious to
help their husbands. They had good
positions and pay before marriage, and
naturally they go back to the kind of
work they know best and at which they
can make the most money.
II young husband generally objects.
He had a vague, indefinite idea when he
| u u ONllb pliQS hllllSeh lll1I pretty
typewriter girls and so on were very
much inclined to flirt, and he had rather
hazy notions about them till he met his
charmer. OF course she was different
from all the others, but just the same he
doesn't like the idea of his wife being
thought about and talked about by other
men as he used to think and talk about
the typewriters and shop girls. Some
times his objections are lasting and
strong enough to keep his wife at home,
but very often he not unwillingly gives
In, especially if no family has come to
tie the wife to her home.
Meanwhile the number of married
women who hold places in offices or
shops is large and the list of applicants
is increasing daily. One can hear Mrs"
almost as often as Miss" now when an
employer addresses his clerk or amanu-
ensis.
Whether it is an evil or a blessing is
n question for the political and social
economists to consider, but the fact re-
mains that the advent of the married
woman in the field OF labor is not tend