Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-11

in, and that there are farm districts where
the ordinary hand gets only 10 cents day.
Throughout Prussia 80 cents is good price
for farm work, and in some sections the
wages are 40 cents for men and % cents
for women.
A great deal of farm work is done by the
women They spade and hoe, weed and do
other back-breaking work. They common
ly follow the pillow and scatter the manure,
working side by side with the men.
Some farmers hire married couples. rent
ing them small houses on their estates and
taking the rent out Of the wages. Such A
tenant agrees to give all his work to the
owner of the estate and to take 30 cents a
day for it in the winter and 80 cents per
day in the summer. The mans wife may
get 20 cents day in the winter and %
in the summer At such wages, If one has
a good healthy wife, he may possibly earn
as much as 5000 during the year.
The Workwomen Of Berlin.
Women in Germany are everywhere poor
ly paid. 1 have already given the wages
in the big stores, where as nicely dressed
and as intelligent girls as you will find In
any Of our department stores Of the United
States get from s. to s12 a month and
board themselves. The average wages Of
female clerks are from % to so cents day,
and it must be very good clerk indeed
who gets the latter. Some time ago an
investigation Of womens wages in Berlin
showed that there were $1,000 women VINO
averaged from 81. 80 to $2.75 per week, and
that there were thousands who got less.
Such girls who do not live with their par
ents must have some outside support, fol
they must dress well and look well in the
stores.
In the Sweat Shops of Berlin.
Berlin is filled with sweat shops. 1t is
one Of the manufacturing centers Of Eu-
rope, and it has tens of thousands Of sew
ing girls engaged IN making nantes,
cloaks mems and womens clothing, jack
cts and infants wear. Many of these
sweat shops are In the cellars and some III
the attics. The houses look well on tle
out side, but within You find scores work
ing away in little rooms, and not a few
working and sleeping in the same room.
The police regulations require that the
rooms be of a certain size, but today there
are thousands of men, women and children
who live in cellars in this most beautiful
city of Germany. There are other thou
sands in rooms which cannot be heated,
and many of which lack ventilation and
light.
Nearly all the sweat shops pay their en-
ployes by the piece, and that at such
a rate that only the best sewers can make
as much as 30 or 60 cents day. There ts
a fine for every mistake, and trumped-up
fines reduce the receipts below the amount
agreed upon. / am told that few sewing
girls earn as much as 81 per week. Girls
make jackets for ~ cents apiece and shirt
waists for % cents. You can get a girl to
come to your house and sew for less than
90 cents a day, and you can hire dress
maker who will cut, fit and make a plain
dress for you in two days, charging you so
cents per day for her work, and perhaps ~
cents per day for the girl who helps her.
Factory Girls Get SO Week.
Music teachers are paid as little as 70
cents a lesson. and singing teachers the
same. Girls in some factories receive less
than 81 a week. In others they get 50, while
forewomen receive from SO to $40. Some
figures taken by the government not long
ago showed that cloak makers were earn
ing 81 week and that girls ,on under
clothes received from 81 % to So. IS, the lat
ter being paid for skilled hands and over
seers. Think of making collars for from
to cents apiece and cuffs for 20 cents a
dozen and you have an idea how some
women work in Berlin. / have heard OF
places where buttonholes are made by hand
for cent hole; and where, if the place
to work and the thread and needles are
furnished by the employer, a reduction OF
% cents per head is made.
The percentage OF women workers in Ger
many has rapidly increased Of late years