New-York tribune., 1907-09-29

The attention of humanitarians IS being attracted
- This moment TO the deplorabe condition OF the
yvornen workers Cf European countries II SeeiiiS
sadly incoYlsruos in beautiful city ana ART centre
like Munich. to behold in the streets women hoo-
carriers and brichlayers, women street cleaners anu
sa1r,,ere In the country round about women and
e,,I miners are found condemned to years OF t'lI
below ground in semi-darFness.
German social economists have this matter IN
hand at present. and It is likely 70 be brought TO
legislative and even imperial notice In Munlch'
wherever a big building is going up you Will see
gong Of Young women old mixing mortar or stag
aering under the load Of bricks carried in cruelty
large wooden hods
Sometimes these feminine hod-carriers have 70
mount ladders to the third and fourth ioor-a
heart breaking back breaking task. And when
they have strength no longer for this kind Of work
they are reIegated 10 the stone piles.
It Is IN Munich, too, that one sees the female
street cleaners Not only do they sweep the roads
and rake the cutters but il is women who load
Up the dump carts and shovel up all the street
filth and refuse. which, be it noted, is work by no
means sought after by the humbest men in
this country.
On the street railroads also women employed
in Bavaria. especially in the position OF track
tenders and 'switchmen." At such labor the poor
creatures work nine hours day for the princely
wage Of so cents.
For years the management Of Prussian railroads
has been employing women in the construction and
maintenance Of the railroad beds. AS you pass
through country districts you will gangs of
stalWart German women on the construction works
leyellinE the ground and shovelling dirt.
IN Belgium the Flemish WaIloon women
| work tremendously hard. and in many cases haul
for the draft dogs that are such a familiar and
Brussels there brick making factories employ
ing hundreds Of women hands in most exhaustfg
the clay with which the bricks are made and
carving away the rough SQUARED blocks to be
dred for the bricks they make. and after an
# the ca " home g to 9e their laree eo1 lucky
Even In England thousands Of women are en-
Ter more particularly the heavy labor of coal
ana ana IN IN miRes Al Camboine in Cornwall there
under the bed for a mile or two, and down in
these dreary caverns many hundreds of women IN
and girls spend the greater part of their lives in
Alaazonian labor with pick and shovel.
poor Arab woman woman harnessed with q donkey or,
case is very iifferent when one encounters i in e eo
called civilized and Christian countries old women
preparing the land for crops by means Of system
@I I labor which any ordinary man would find
Work Of this kind goes very largely in Fin
by cutting down or burning the dense ''' forest
growths and digging the ashes and charred
into the upturned soil OF course. the waste Of
timber every year In This way is most ianentable
vain. tc a stop to the pernicious practice For
these women cultivators are conservative and
to induce them to abandon their old traditions
In Russia and Italv one will see women dragging
poughs. wheeling heavy barrow loads of stone,
working in mines and factories. and carrying
ribly heavy burdens Even in the picturesque rock
villages OF the lovely Italian Riviera is
times shocked TO quite young girls toiling up
the rock cut staircase streets under hig kegs full OF
water weighing eighty or ninety pounds.
In Switzerland there many fair and lovely
mountain regions where the women work hard
they Obliged 10 discard petticoats altogether
and wear trousers. Such topsY-turvy region is
the charming little valley Of Champery. which
passes near between Geneva and St Maurice. by
way Of Bouveret along the south bank of Lake
Geneva.
First of all one comes to the remote valley of
- itp 81 DEc
scenery and powerfully built Little
Champerv itself, the highest village of the valley.
is backed by the 10deD foot Dent du Midi and the
tremendous slopes of Mont Blanc. with the Alpine
chains Of Vallais and Berne, Dauphgny and Pied
mont.
On every hand one beholds queer looking mascu-
line women mainly shepherds cowherds and farm
ers. thst wonders what the be
doing. Truth to tell, If II be the season.