Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-11-07
WHERE WOMEN MUST WORK.
Hardships and Drudgery That 'sthe
Weaker Sex" Underyoes in Europe.

Weaker Sex" Undergoes in Europe.
When one gets into Switzerland the appella-
ton OF weaker sex as applied to women seems
to be misnomer, says a correspondent of the
Pittsburg Leader. In point Of endurance and
often even of muscular strength the peasant
women Of the remoter valley appear quite the
equals Of the men. One sees them
moving on those green, beautiful
slopes over which the snow peaks tower and a
party of girls swinging the antique Swiss
scythes, with their straight snaths, that
bend the figure so cruelty. cut broad. even
swaths with the regularity of veterans.
They do not keep pace with each other
across the felds-one seldom sees in the
European peasant, man or woman. any pro-
nounced signs Of emulation. They do not work
with any appearance OF haste conscious out
flow OF energy, but in slow, plodding, untiring
fashion they work hour after hour, beginning
by $50 in the morning and turning homeward
only when daylight fails.
To see the storing Of hay in the Alpine
chalets Is to get new idea Of the muscular
proves OF women. The crops Of the upper
slope are packed in back loads to the little
red-brown log structures that dot the noun
tains as high as the cattlo can find pasturage,
and the weight that woman will lift
on the wooden frame that is adjusted
to her shoulders and with which she
will climb, or. which often is harder, will de-
den through hole in the roof. from which the
shingles and the heavy stones that hold them
In place have been removed is a source of per-
petual wonder. When the harvest has been
gathered there are back baskets of manure to
carry to fit the ground for winter crops aud
even the little girls not yet in their teens climb
like cats carrying theiS own little back baskets
well loaded.
On the Lake Of Lucerne the boatwomen are
Characteristic figures. The long, low, black
freight barges are pulled from port to port by
mixed crews of men and women, from ten to
twenty to a boat who work the heavy sweeps
standing. l have counted three women
keeping stroke with dozen men,
and again the proportions reversed al
most exactly. In the heat OF the day the
men strip to their waists and the women I'M
lace their bodices and work with baro arms
and in the white peasant chemises. Oc-
casionally one sees women porters, who pack
portmanteaus and luggage of all sorts up and
down the mule paths for the influx OF sum-
mer visitors.
In Germany one can nowhere escape the
sight of the outdoor labor of women. Along
the fiat valley of the middle Rhine the Vine
yards. the grain patches and the tobacco
fields are full of them. In an afternoons
ride the proportion OF women getting in
the harvest often seems as three to two
men. In these fertile lands there is a
social, companionable side to the work
which one might go far to find
paraleled. In the fields which stretch between
the hudled villages one sees whole families
busy. At one end of the corn strip, under a
tree or clump Of bushes, stands a baby wagon
Its occupant has learned to take life pnilo-
sophcally, and croons at the blue sky or the
green leaves. At the noon hour the midday
meal is eaten picnic fashion, with the baby
wagon for a center, and the young subject Of
the kaiser IS passed with the black bread from
hand to hsntI
The loading Of the great German hay wagons
is always interesting. You will see a brown
womans her head tied up in scarlet kerr
chief. on top OF the load distributing the fork
fuls rs they are passed up to her. If one
woman loads for one man her work is
the easier, though requiring more skill.
But when, as one often Sees one woman loads
for three or four men, she has by far the hard
est position. There are few evidences, indeed,
Of any division of work between man and
woman as to the stronger and weaker animal
The physical capacity of the woman is counted
on, aud to all appearance with good reason.