Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-10
WOMEN WORKERS WOES.
THE HARD LOT OF MANY SISTERS
THAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED.


s1Oh, girls! am 50 tired. wish 1 were
deadI' 1t was Saturday night and the
speaker one of bevy Of young women pour
ing out Of one of those manufacturing estab-
lishments where women's souls are stitched
into mems coats for few paltry shillings a
day. A glance into the speakers face con-
WINGED us that she was not one of that pumer-
Gus class Of women who are so perpetualy
signing for death that it Is source Of won
der to their friends that they are not making
more definite preparations for that event.
The face Of the speaker, though still young,
bore ell the record of laborious days spent in
badly ventilated rooms and. without whole
some food for body or soul; n brief, the story
Of soul-a woman's soul-struggling to
wrest from a tight listed world the barest
subsistence for herself and others. Ali the
pent up WEAKNESS and Encouragement of the
week, and a hungry longing, too for sonse-
thing better, were expressed In the words
and tone as well as In the tensely drawn mus
cles Of the worn and weary face. Involun-
tarily our heart echoed the words Of Ruskin
"Woe unto the nation that maketh its daugh-
tiers tiredin
EFFECT OF HIGH PRESSURE LABOR
Speed and not safety is the watchword Of
American labor, from a Vanderbilt to the
smallest manufacturer of one mans brain
and soul into another mans comfort
Truly we are not so utopian as to believe
that all this social machinery can be sudden
~ stopped and set ia motion again in the
right way and at the proper speed. But who
ever reflects upon this characteristic tenden-
cy of American life cannot fail to see that
fho milf TO off ha rlbx nd
spiritual degeneration.
In a basement without any means Of venti-
lation, and the air of which was poisoned by
rancid oil, we saw young women working
with flying fingers, every thought and muscle
concentrated on the definite set Of motions
that occupied them ten hours Of every day.
Thousands of women are each day employed
in a similar way. Work they must; that is
a necessity, duty. But how many of them
ever think that it is duty to demand better
conditions for work, and how many of them
realize that rest is necessity in order to do
the best worki
There Is this important difference between
men and women as workers: When men
leave their shops and offices they seek recre-
alton or relaxation Of body and mind. Their
evenings are spent in rest or pleasure, or
both. As rule the working woman does
another days work after 6 o'clock Starva-
ton wages compels her not only to make her
own clothing, but perhaps to aid in making
the clothing Of the family. Sometimes the
family washing and ironing and baking must
be done after the days work Is done or before
it is begun. And when the Sabbath comes
the working woman finds herself too tired to
rest even, and IL she be a conscientious church
attendant her exhausted body refuses even to
let her soul find rest in the service In the
case of the labortng classes at least, the les
sened attendance upon the Sabbath service is
largely due to this habitual overwork, rather
than lax morals or loss of spirituality.
THE WRONGS OF WORKING WOMEN.
It is easy to point out evils; it is more diff
cult to suggest practicable remedies. If,
however, there is one thing which more than
another distinguishes what is known as the
woman movement, it Is the fact that intelli-
gent women are keenly alive to the wrongs
Of working women. 1t Is too late for press or
pulpit to tell thoughtful women that they
ought to have no thought beyond their bread
or babies, while their sisters are seeking
refuge from starvation In disbonor or suicide.
They are not going to pass by the sister who
has fallen among thieves. But righteously
indignant they are turning to the political
economists with an emphatic why to the
question Of unequal wages for equal work,
and they will not accept In reply evasion or
sophism or anything short Of justice.
Best and most effective Of all, women are
beginning to have more confidence in women
There was a time when the American work
ing woman felt that her well-to-do and intel
igent sisters had more interest in the women
Of Canton or Calcutta than in their despair
ing sisters at home. Missions have now a
broader meaning. They ere synonymous with
humanity. Whoever suffers or is oppressed
or is kept in moral or spiritual darkness,
whether in Canton or Chicago, the same is
my neighbor That is the spirit Of modern
missions, and not SO modern, either, since it
was the spirit Of the sublimest missionary
sermon ever preached to man.
Emerson marked a wide difference between
the thinking man and the man thinking 1t
is the woman thinking who goes to find her
sisters in the crowded manufacturing rooms
and marks the effects of the foul air, filed
with the poisonous breath Of men stepped in
whisky and tobacco 1t is woman thinking
who foresees the Inevitable results upon our
national character Of this incessant, nervous
strain to which working women are sub
jected. 1t IS woman thinking who notes the
fact that the majority of working women are
not only dependent upon themselves for sup
port but also have others dependent upon
them, and, knowing this, it is woman think
ing who turns to Carroll d. Wrights ex-
haustive report on labor statistics and reads
there long lines Of average wages paid for
the same work TO male" and female"
workers.
1t is woman thinking who knows that we
cannot look TO state or church for the correc-
ton Of these evils The working worlaa
must know that beneath even silken robes
are beating sister hearts keenly alive 70 every
wrong that crfpples and destroys the lives Of
sister women. The brotherhood Of man has
its true, effective complement In the sister
hood Of woman. Wherever women work
other women must know the conditions tn
der which they work; and wherever there |.
a wrong 70 be righted or an evil 20 be de-
stroyed let women remember that the wall. !
of more than ono Jericho have fallen 70 the |
sound of many voices irnpassioned for purity |
and iustice.-Rsna &. Michsels in Chicago |
News
OBSERVATIONS ON WHIST.
There Are Two Ways to Play the Game |