The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-23

" AAANG fNOllEil uIlQ ttllDlONluEAL II NlL1N
Of brfckmaking. Sailing up the Scheldt
from Antwerp toward France. where
the great river has its source, we no
ticed, on the left hand, village after
village; each a little patch of redness
stretched along the shore, the brick
houses. with their ruddy. tiled roofs
making dasheS of brightness against
the green of the far-reaching fields At
the village of Cruybeke we found our
way to an excavation where men were
seen with bare legs and feet digging
down the black earth with wooden
spakeS and piling it up in heaps. then
smoothing il over by dipping the
spades in water and patting it as wO-
men make butter. Farther on a man
was seen standing by a rough. wooden
table and from a box filled with dust
nearby, he took a rude, wooden form,
in the shape of a regulation brick and
put the mud into it. which had just
been dragged in a little cart by horse
from the place of excavation II lay
banked on the table before him, so the
process of pressing it down with
wooden implement, which looks like a
fiatiron was, comparatively, an easy
one Girls, who were working together
with boys. took uD the brick-shaped
black forms of mud and placed them in
the sun to dry. Ten thousand of these
are made in this primitive way in one
day. After a certain length of time, the
forms are placed in The long, red-tlled
sheds until they become dryer At last.
they are put into kiln. with a layer or
pulverized coal between each one, the
fire is started and the air is supplied
from a tall. neighbOring chimney and
the OblOng. black mud-fOrInS come forth
as bricks, brilliantly red and ready for
use In an adjoining yard, after the
crude cars are filed with the clay, they
are drawn to a house by machinery,
the earth IS mixed with sand and then
thrown into a receiver, which turns it
out in slabs below, where men and
grown girls stand and apply a rough,
iron cutter which divides the clay into
shapes, like bricks, and then they are
placed by the girls on a car to be taken
to some other red-tiled sheds TO dry,
and from there to the kiln to be fired
as in the first case After the cars or
wagonetteS carry the wet bricks into
the sheds, the special work of the
young women stationed there is to
take them from the vehicle and pile
them on the shelves in the sheds
Average Wages Two Francs Per Day.
The girls and women who labor as
brickmakerS are usually paid accord
ing to the work they do, but the aver
age wage amounts TO francs. day
the same that the women lacemakers
receive. Boys and men get fro Az TO D
francs a day. They looked happy at
their dirty tasks, clothed in their bright
dresses and gathering about in their
little wooden shoes, dreamless of the
untried possibilities Of a higher nature
which lay sealed to their finger tips
Women at the Docks.
Hundreds of Flemish women work at
the docks on the Scheldt at Antwerp
When the great vessels come in from
South America, the cattle hides which
are packed in salt in the holds have
ropes put about them, are drawn up,
placed on wheelbarrOWS and thrown
he dnnl-e There of
men pull them apart. shake them and,
taking strong brOoms made of tWigs
tied to a wooden handle, vigorously
sweep off the salt from them Then
the skins are tied up in square pack
ages and sent to the bOurSe TO be
sold, and, at last, they land at the
tanneries in Antwerp and elsewhere.
The horns form n vast industry They
are made into buttons and immune era bic
other articles. One boat, by whose side
we stood watching the unloading, came
from Fray-BentOS, near BuenOS AyreS,
with freight of $500 skins and $4,000
horns. Just behind that vessel lay
another with IS 900 skins. The harbOr
was crowded with ships waiting to get
to the docks. Every yN~S Where are
100000 cattle hides brought to Ant
Werp. 1t can easily be imagined what
numbers of women have to be en-
pIOyed to clean them. When the work
ers begin to grow Old they take their
daughters into the employment. if the
latter desire it; if not. they enter d
more respectable avocation.
Laborers Belong to Corporation.
Both the men and women who work
at the docks belong to a corporation,
and would not be accepted unless they
did; but this does not debar them from
working for other companies. The cor
pOratiOn is for the purpose of securing
labor Coming singly, as individuals,
a man or woman would be helpless
when the immense grain boats sweep
in from northern Africa, Spain, Rus
STA. America and other countries and
the cranes have drawn the precious
products from their holds and placed
them on the docks. men are
stationed there with long concave
knives to rip up the sacks and smell
the contents to discover if they are
In good condition. By their side stand
women who do the same thing. Every
bag IS cut open, fresh ones are ready,
a man shOveis the grain into the new
sacks, and the women. who are armed
with long coarse needles. thread and
scissors, as well as knives, sew up
the mouths of the bags. In the event
of the grain being spoiled. the old
sacks are not exchanged for fresh ones
and the women only darn the holes in
them or sew them up. At the scales.
women are stationed with men to
imports. At one point women have
huge sifters and separate the grain
from nuts that have become mixed in
the voyage over from Bombay
The business Of the dock women gen
orally is handed down from genera
ton to generation, the employers pre-
ferTing to hire the daughters of trained
workers rather than go to untried Ia
borers. At the ferry of the ScheIdt
the ticket Office is open only five min
utes before the boats leave. Women
get the tickets and sell them upon the
streets, making profit by the enter
prise.
Women as Canal Boat PropeIIers.
Belgium has the largest and finest
canal system in Europe. 1t is a pic
ture to see the many boats laziIy mox-
ing down the narrow waterways be-
tween rows Of tall trees whose lower
branches have been cut off. as in
France, and from these openings TO
catch charming glimpses of the fields
and farmhouses beyond. or views of lit
tie villages with their cramped
streets. or groups of sheep and cattle
browsing in the tall grass. Standing
at the tiller of each canal boat there
is always woman On the embank-
ment. with the canvas strapped about
their chests, to which is attached the
rope leading to the masthead and