Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-01
WnERg WoMEN Muar woRk.
Hardships and Drudeery That "tho
Weaker sex' Undergocs in Europe

Hardships and Drudeery That "tho
Weaker Sex" Undergocs In Europe.
When one gets into Switzerland the ap-
pellation of weaker sex as applied to wom-
en- seems TO be a nlisnomer In point Of
endurance and often even Of muscular
strength, the peasant women OF the re
moter 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 fields; one
Aeldom secs in the European peasant, man
Or woman, any pronounced signs Of emula-
ton They do not work with any appear
ance of haste or conscious outflow OF en-
ergy, but in slow, plodding untring
fashion they work hour after hour, begin
ming by $3.50 in the morning and turning
homeward when daylight fails.
To see the storing Of hay in the Alpine
chalets is to get new idea Of the muscu-
lar prowe5s of women. The crops Of the
upper slope are packed in back loads to Che
little red brown log structures that dot the
mountains as high as the cattle can find
pasturage, and the weight that a woman
will lift on the wooden frame that is adjust
ed to her shoulders and with which she
will climb, or which often is harder. will
descend to the nearest chalet, dropping
her burden through a hole in the roof,
Yfom which the shingles and the heavy
(stones that hold them in place have been
Tremoved is a source of perpetual wonder.
10, hou ,nv. oil l.,
are back baskets of manure TO carry to fit
the ground for winter crops, and even the
little girls not yet in their teens climb like
cats carrying their own little back baskets
well loaded
On the Lake of Lucerne the boat women
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. | have counted
three women keeping stroke with dozen
men, and again the proportions reversed
almost exactly. In the heat of the day the
men strip to their waists and the women
nnlace their bodices and work with bare
arms. Occasionally ono sees women por
tiers, who pack portmanteaus and luggage
Nj all sorts up and down the mule paths
FOR the influx of summer visitors
In Germany one can nowhere escape the
sight of the outdoor labor Of woman.
Along the fat valley Of the middle Rhine
the vineyards, the grain patches and the
tobacco fields are full of them. In m after
moons ride the proportion of women get
ting 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 paraHeled
In the folds which stretch between the
huddled villages one sees whole families
busy
At one end of the corn strip, uader a tree
or clump of bushes, stands q bnby wagon.
It's occupant has learned to take life philo-
sophically, and croous mt 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
Mibject of the kaiser is passed with the
black bread from hand to hand.
The loading Of the great German hay
wagons is always interesting You win
see brown woman, her head tied up in
scarlet 'llerchief on top OF the load distri-
buting the forkluls as they are passed up
to her. If one woman loads for one man
her work is easier though requiring more
skill. But when as one often sees, one
woman loads for three or four men she has
by far the hardest position. There are few
evidences, indeed, of any division Of work
between man and woman as to the strong
err and weaker animal. The physical capa-
city of the woman is counted ON, and to
nll appearance with good reason-Cor
Pittsburg Leader.