The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-08-07
AMAZONS OF THE FORGE,
The Vigorous Female Blacksmiths
Employed in England.

women and girls in the business OF
making nails, spikes and chains. 1t
has been said that female employ
ment In this direction was Of compul-
sion. not of choice. Philanthropists
have pictured the dingy smithy, with
its lurid glare OF leaping sparks, its
sonorous chime of the falling hammer.
and the British with the
biceps of an athlete, pounding the red
hot metal. Eve waiting on Vulcan
has invoked the pity and caress OF
humanity and furnished the text for
many a political TRADE against the
government and civilization that
made such conditions a necessity In
industrial life.
We have nothing to say against
this crusade for female emancipation,
though if the truth be told the
amazons OF the black country, with
its countless furnaces and its smoke
darkened sky, are by no means the
serfs they seem TO be. and are so far
exempt from the Winchesters that
have been conspicuous in some labors
troubles this side the Atlantic.
We do not believe in female employ
ment in such a muscular business as
making spikes and chains. The forge
is no place for a woman, but IL h
chooses to swing a hammer. who can
prevent it? 1t may be an abnormal
prediction, and by M means coin.
cident with the parlor and piano idea
OF the modern Eve, but in an age
when women are captains OF ships
and running the municipal govern
ment of cities, no law can annul the
right of the gentle sex to make h
shoe or pound the anvil
That there are two sides OF this
question of female blacksmiths can
no longer be doubted, since a delega-
ton of woman ironworkers waited on
the home secretary to protest against
interference with their rights. There
was nothing savoring of sickness,
atrophy, or nervousness in this anna
zonian deputation. III dry goods
were but poorly represented, force
and flesh were here in robust con-
ditions. One of the speakers had
reached the modest age of fifty-seven
years, of which quite fifty had been
spent hammering iron, with oc-
casional relapses, during which she
had bequeathed fourteen children to
her husbands care and the census of
the nation.
A lass of sixteen years, who welded
a hammer weighing eighteen pounds,
pleaded her Improvement in health as
a reason why the law should not in
terfere with her business. Appear
ances justified her logic, for she had
the nerve of a lioness and the shout
ders of an athlete.-Ihe Age Of Steel.
How Women Sleep.
A German physician says:-'The
act is pine require a larger amount
of sleep than men. The rvo ex-
citability of the female constitution is
generally greater than is the case
with the stronger sex, and a woman's
sleep is consequently lighter. Her
dreams are more vivid and leave a
more lasting impression on the MEM
ory. Women addicted to dreaming
usually sleep an hour longer than
those who do not dream, for dreams
induce WEAKNESS. Any n who
sleeps without dreaming rises on the
morrow refreshed from his couch,
which is otherwise not the case. -
Neucd ReUiSta.
Glass Distinctions in America.
No one will ever pretend to deny
that certain individuals are superior
to certain other indi viduals in ac-
quirement, in intellect, in goodness;
but when it comes to planting VIII ole
classes upon platforms and stages of
eminence, the idea is constantly to be
reprobated, and no American mother
a allow her children TO make such
distinctions, uncorrected. Such class
ification Of our citizens into upper and
middle and lower tiers, once well es-
tablished in the popular mind, would
help TO make 1t easy for the next step
"A monarchy upheld among these
classes by the oppression and taxation
and restriction and resulting igno-
rance of the people. The children
of the ordinary mother in
America may in such an order
of things by possibility be found
near the throne; they may, by more
| probability, be found with the peas
antry. or with the armies that will
keep the peasantry crushed SO close
to earth as TO be no more than clods-
anywhere but where they can share
or help the progress of humanity up
ward; as today, it is to be hoped, hay
ing a chance to do so, they do. And
in a country founded upon the doc
trine OF equality in rights, a country
whose institutions have raised to
personal sovereignty those who
would be serfs and peasants had
their grandfathers of or two re-
moves remained in the old lands, a
ountr whose institutions have
lifted women to an altitude that is al
lowing her to display and use the best
there is in her, it i'll becomes any
woman to speak of any OF her eoun-
trymen or countrywomen as of the
middle class.-HdTpeT'S BazGT.
Making Your Guest Your Slave.
No one possessed of his sense:
would invite a person to his country
house for the purpose of making him
unhappy. At least so one would
say at first thought. But it is al
obvious fact, according 10 Mrs. Sher
wood. who is authority on manners
and social usages that very many
guests are invited TO the countr,
houses of their friends and are mad
extremely miserable while there
They have to rise at unusual hours
eat when they are not hungry, driv'
or walk or play tennis when the,
would prefer doing anything else, ant
they are Obliged to give up thos
hours which are precious to them fol
other duties or pleasures; so tina
nf4o. an 49, n. d,