The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-09-25
FEMALE NAY+yIEs.
How Some European Women
Slave Their Lives Out.
Squads OF Them ut Work in Pompoii--
Hltchcd TO Cart with n DoE-cnr-
rying Holds Up UiEh buildings
Irborint, In Fields.

An American can not help noticing as
no travels through tho various con-
tirental countries tho universal treat
'ment accorded women by tho malo Dor
tion of tho inhabitants. Woman seems
either mado for pleasure or for work.
Sho is eithor dressed in fine linen and
accorded every luxury to mako her
moro attractive to mans eye, or sho is
clothed In rags and dirt, and mado to
work far harder than tho cattle OF her
lord and master.
Italy seems to lead in this respcct-in
tho labor portion-for tho men arc lazy
and the women do tho work; not only
tho outdoor labor, but the household
duties also, besides having n great deal
of their lives taken up in bearing chill
dren and raising thcm in squalor and
Ignorance. In Naples and Romo you
see women Of all agos with babies in
their arms, and children of six and seven
years in droves about tho streets and
houses. But tho way women work is
tho thing that startlos the average tour
list. In Pompoii ono can SEQ gang OF
female laborors. 1t is on excavations
that they work-squnds OF five and ten
digging aass- filling great baskets full of
lifted these great weights on to their
heads and walked off with them as I'M
concerncdly as if they had just put on a
new bonnet. Their skill would have
done credit to man.
Where arc tho men?
Why, standing by directing the opera
tions and having the terribly hard time
to SEQ that no relics arc dug up and cart
ed off
1t was on my way from Rome to Flor
cnco that L saw numerous squads of
women making railway, says y writer.
Poor creaturcs-haif-cloth dirty and
worn out, they dug the holes for tho
crosstics, carried tho iron rails and re-
moved the soil in tho baskets. 1t seems
as If in Italy only women and convicts
do the hard labor. In Romc, whcro
there is an immense amount OF new
building and work being done, tho
women find as much employment as tho
men.
Tho conyicts arc taken by squads Of
soldiers to places, and there, in their
red clothcs-thc Italian prisoners all
wear red-thcy arc made to work at tho
muzzlc of gun. Speaking Of soldiers,
this gives nc an explanation why women
have to work SO much. Tho flower and
youth OF tho Italian, rs we'll as tho Ger
man male population, is gobblcd up by
tho Government and made to servo it as
soldiers, thus keeping its great body of
capable working material in professional
idlencss. While tho men in Germany
lnro drilling, and bcing made into SOL
dicrS, tho women work.
In Munich | saw eight or ten female
hod-carricrs. a great house was in
course OF construction, and bricks wero
needed on tho fourth floor. Women
carried them up. Men stood on tho
ground, piled tho bricks into tho funny
shaped hods and placed them on tho
backs o. tho women, and away tho
femals "cnt up tho long ladders with
their ncavy weights. Female wood
sawycrs in Munich arc worry common.
Tho women did tho saving, the men
stood by and split tho wood-after it
was sawcd-or piled it into the rack for
the women to carry to the collar.
Female field laborers, both in Italy
and Germany, arc SO common that they
excite little attention aftor ono has boen
there month or 50. In tho folds in
Germany the women cut the grain with
scythes and bind it, whilo tho mon, per-
ihaps, help them in tho latter work and
pile it OH the carts. In Italy tho men
take it easy in tho fields; they wear
loose white trousers and that is all.
The women, however, arc moro partic-
ular, and their heavy but short skirts
and head-drcss mako contrast to the
light costumes Of tho men.
In Austria you SEQ nearly tho Same
sights, only moro SO. On tho Danube
'the beautiful blue Danubc"-which
happens to be of slaty gray color-I
noticed that women acted as wharf
hands, and hauled on and off tho gang
plank and oven carried freight to tho
steamers. In the streets here dogs arc
used for hauling instead Of donkcys or
horses. In Linz saw large, fine dog
harncssed to a good-sizcd cart. lie was
on one side OF the polo, and on tho other
was woman! In Vienna tho women
either work very hard or live very easily
In the daytime the women arc soon
drudging through the streets either
with tho dogs and carts or carrying
great bundles or boxes. BY dark these
Woodworking women disappear and the
butterflies Of fashion como upon tho
scene.
Novel Water Pitcher.