The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-30

and holds meetings twice a week, at
which hundreds of the poor women of
Porto Rico come for aid. 1t has now
about 900 work women on its list They
are paid for making clothes, which are
given away to such OF the poor who are
s unable to work. They receive from 18 to
so cents for making dresses, and are very
glad to get work at these wages.
Many of the workwomen are the wild
oWS OF officers who lost their lives dur
Ing the war. Some of them can en-
bro1der beautifully, and the Ladies Aid
society takes orders for embroidery and
drawn work, paying these women what
they receive. with the exception of 10 per
cent for the treasury of the society. This
drawn work is beautiful and exceedingly
cheap, and any of our women who are
benevolently inclined might get beauti-
fully embroidered pillow cases or napkins
and table cloths, handkerchIefs and other
Things by sending money to the Ladies'
AID society of San Juan
the women have already established q
free medical. dispensary. They also give
many of the poor people tickets to the
Y. M. c. A. soup kitchens, where a poor
man can get dinner for cents.
WOMEN's WORK AND WAGES.
Speaking Of the poorer women, there
- 1919 SAle@AACO mere IOr a girl TO mako
her own living. Outside of school teach
ing or acting as governesses there are
no openings whatever. Women are not
employed In the stores. Porto Rico has,
not up to this date a female typewriter
ana the work in the postoffices and tele
graph omces is done by men. 1 see some
women In the dressmaking shops The
most OF them use hand sewing machines,
and l am told that they sew beautifully
with the needle. The wages are such.
however, that the American dressmakar
could not live upon them Sewing women
who come into the house and sew all day
from In the morning until at night
are paid Is cents a day, including their
breakfast and dinner. You can get a fine
oress made for $40, and lady's linen
night dress, including the material tuck
ed at the yoke and trimmed with lace
and insertion, with buttons as desired.
costs only 45 cents. This represents more
than one days work. Linen is very
cheap here, and the American women
who visit Porto Rico fit themselves out
with linen underclothes, getting then,
Tor about one-third the price they pay at
home.
All kinds of servants are very cbean
especially women servants. Maids get
from So to $3.50 month, and for this sum
they will do anything They are willing
to work, and never strike Some of them
are white and some colored. Not a few
come from the neighboring island of ST.
Thomas. Some speak a little English.
and all, as rule, are clean and nice
looking. Ordinary servant girls get from
to pesos month, or from $3.50 to
1920. You can hire f1rst-class cook for
from Sc to 81 a month, and such a cook
will do the marketing.
WASHING AND WAsHERwoMEN.
The cook, however, will not wash and
iron. This, as a rule, is done by profess
sional washerwomen, who carry the
clothes to the streams and wash them in
cold water. There is no such thing as a
clothes line on the island, and nothing
like an American washboard or Washtub
The clothes are dried on the grass or
| hung on cactus bushes or wire fences
| They are sprinkled while drying, and
! usually come back beautifully white. The
| Porto Rtcan washtub is a box made Of
| pine, about yard long, half a yard wide
| and about six inches deep. 1t has slop-
| Ing sides, and the woman puts the clothes
in it, dips it in the water and rubs them
between her hands with soap. Some
| times she tits the tub against a stone
so that half of it is In the water, and
then, kneeling beside 1t on the edge of
the stream, she rubs and scrubs to wash
out the dirt. Frank G. Carpenter.