River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-11-05
WOMEN IN CHILL.
They Keep the shops, saloons, Hotels and
Do All the DrudRorX.


DO All the Drudgerv.
In this country there is no objection
to "wonsn's rights"-that is, for wom-
en- of the Roto class-so far as the right
TO labor IN any avenue is concerned,
writes Fannie b. Ward, from Chilli
They are not only employed as street
car conductors, but they do the street
cleaning, and gangs of them with short
willow brooms sweep the dirt into the
bitches long before sunrise. Outside
the cities they keep the shops, the
hotels and the drinking places, besides
doing all the garden work. They oc-
cupy the markets almost exclusively,
selling meats as well as vegetables
The Roto's wife will carry a basket of
fruit around all day on her head, ped
ding from door TO door, or will seat
herself somewhere in the sun and
patiently await customers, content with
the profit of a few pennies between
dawn and dark.
TO buy anything of her a lengthy ne
gotiation is inevitable. If she expects
TO get fifty cents for basket of peaches
her first price will be two or three dol
lars. Then she will haggle and chatter
and plead and demonstrate with you;
and, if you start away, will abandon
other customers to follow you; until
she finally splits the last straw of diff
ference and goes back smiling at her
own business ability.
If the husband is a ranchero the wife
or daughter must drive for him the yoke
of oxen. hitched by the head to lum-
boring cart, and sell the farm products
or wood cut for burning The poor la
vendera (wash woman) seems to have
the hardest time of it, With dresses
pinned high around the waist, they
stand all day knee deep in the river,
pounding the dirt from other peo-
pies clothes. In Chill water is
never heated for washing pur-
poses, neither is soap extensively
used. nor fabric destroying bleachers,
and tubs and washboards are unknown.
The lavendera. with a bundle of soiled
clothes on her head, seeks some favor
lite spot on the banks of running
stream, where is projecting rock. and
there, standing in water which is al
most ice cold during half the year. she
moistens the garments one at time,
L duus lIk iuCln lIt IOCht DOuhuo
the dirt out of them with club or
wooden paddle. | never saw whittier
linen, but it requires three or four days
| to do a washing, every piece being wet,
pounded, and bleached, over and over
again, until white as snow. / have
watched these poor women during the
winter months, when chilly, penetrat-
ing rains would drench their garments
and ] shivered in furs and flannels-
standing with bare legs in the
cold stream, six or seven hours
a day, every day, in the week.
In Santiago and Valparaiso, where a
river or public fountain is not at hand
and the people are more learned in the
ways of the wicked world, the laven-
deras wash in shallow wooden trays,
kneeling upon the ground near their
own doors, and use acids which quickly
rot the clothes.
In Chilli everything is wonderfully
expensive but muscle. and that is of
comparatively little value. a lady's
bonnet costs from thirty dollars to one
hundred dollars; dress silk from six
dollars to twenty dollars the yard and
the modiste will charge you from thir-
ty dollars to fifty dollars for making
it In Santiago | paid twelve dollars
the dozen for linen handkerchiefs of
small size and ordinary quality, and
eighteen dollars for pair of button
shoes which at home would have cost
| about four dollars and a half. | am
informed that a gentleman's suit of
common clothes cost from sixty dollars
to one hundred dollars, and pair of
patent-leather shoes from fifteen dol
lars to thirty dollars, and silk hat
not less than twenty-five dollars.
| Breadstuffs are correspondingly high
and far beyond the reach of the poor
| Rotos.
But there is one luxury in which the
| poorest Gillian woman will indulge,
whatever else may be wanting. and
that is a stifly-starched white petticoat.
Though her dress may be ragged, her
feet and head bare, she would no more
! do without il than Nantucket skipper
would dispense with his pipe. | have
seen them splattering around in the
mud, displaying acknowledgements
/ skirts trimmed with hand embroidery
or crocheted lace quarter of yard
| deep. The first essentials of dress for
Roto woman, young or old, are a
| voluminous white petticoat, black
manta, cigarette and box of musk
! gown, shoes and other toggery being
mere Chicago Tribune.