Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-22
Other Occupations Of Women.

Women are found working in the fields
| everywhere. They break stone for ballast
for railways. They serve as switchmen
and fiagmen at railway crossings. In
Poland. Bohemia. Bavaria and other parts
OF Europe they work section hands in
building and repairing tracks.
i have never seen women laying bricks
or cutting stone but many a time have
seen them mixing mortar and carrying
hods filled with bricks up ladders to
bricklayers at work on tope OF the wall.
All of that sort OF work done upon the
latest hotel built at Carlsbad was by
women. They were paid an average Of
33 cents a day.
An American woman tourist stopped a
woman in Munich who had /. hod OF
bricks on her shoulder, and, in sympa-
thetic tones, asked her why she was doing
that kind Of work. The reply was hot
| from the bat. 1t was Il ''come hack" as
a slansful person would say. The SYM
pathetic American woman will ask no
more such questions.
The woman hod carrier answered. in
an indignant voice:
81 work to help support erc educate
| 1t would be very, much better il you
| helped your husband. rather, than come
over here and spend in idleness and DIS
| sipatiOn the money he earns.
| Several unkindly epithets .:ere added
to give full measure to the reply.
Contempt for American Women.
| And that is the way German peasant
| women look at the subject. They regard
the frivolous. fashionable American women
they see in automobiles with contempt.
They will not include them With the co-
| bility of their own countries, to whom
| they are always respectful. because they
| recognize the eternal class distinction.
They would neve. be impertiIent to a
member of the nobility Of their own coun-
| try, because the opportunity would never
be offered them.
| In most OF the European cities the
women clean the streets. In Ho!la I'D
they tow and push canal boats. In Bel
GUM they haul loaded carts and are
often hitched up with dogs.
harness with COW to a heavy cart
loaded with produce. on its way to mar
ket. l have heard people say they have
seen women hitched to plows
| All through Europe women do most OF
the harvesting and all other kinds Of
farm labor.
| Last spring as we were motoring
about Dalmatis the fields were full OF
women planting grain and vegetables
and scattering manure. A woman with a
pitchfork OH top Of a load If manure Is
not an edifying spectacle.
| All along the northern coast the wives
| of the fishermen clean and pack their
catch 1t is considered the province OF
the woman to haul farm products to
| market or carry them in hampers on
their backs. When their loads are dis
posed of. they sling their baskets over
their shoulders and walk home. some
| times five or six miles. In a great hurry,
| so as to he in time to milk
| In Montenegro women walk hfteen
| miles with packs Of vegeta bles on their
5000 feet. and climb up again, making
the journey Of thirty miles two or ...ree
times a week on market days.
Woman Labor Statistics.
| The latest census returns Of Germany
show that more or less women are en-
gagged in every one Of the laborious
occupations. There were 1875 woman
blacksmiths. 80 woman builders and con-
tractors. 43 woman hack drivers.
In the manufacture Of bricks. 20 per
cent of the persons employed are women
1 20 per cent In stone auarries, %. per
per cent in breweries. Is per cent In
| shipping and handling freight. 10 per cent
Of the workmen engaged in the manufac
ture of tin were women. and 8 per cent OF
the employees of the railways.
Eighty-two per cent OF the total numbe,
of persons engaged in cleaning streets
and 81 per cent Of the farm hands are
women.
These conditions are usually explained
on the theory that SO many Of the mar
are in the army. and that is Target,
true. Another reason especially fol
the employment Of women In the field!
is the scarcity Of labor because Of emf
grafton. But beyond and above ali othel
| conSidera tiOn in the desire ana amhitloy