Year: 1877




man as man, or perhaps we should say as mas
culine man, has met with the most mOrtifying
snub Notwithstanding the Declaration of In
dependence and the Personal Liberty Laws and
the Constitutional Amendments, it now appears
that whatever other immunities may be con-
ceded to him, he is not to be permitted 10 iron
shirts in Newark, n. j. Woman, lovely, laun-
drying woman, the pOlsher of the snowy fronts
and the enameller of collars and OF cuffs, saw
with a natural and yet most unnatural rage,
four male irOners introduced to a large shirt
manufactOry on Market-st. 1t is true that these
innovat0rs were put in a room by Themselves
in the cockloft of the factory, but sagacious wo-
man found them ont and demanded their expul-
sion. This boon being ungallantly refused thirty
five women Indignantly threw down thirty
hat-rons, and marched away from the prem
ises, leaving the proprietors with thousands OF
shirts in a rough state upon their hands, while
the irons grew cold and the fires went out, and
the starch became stiff and unmanageable.
There was, however, no violence. No attempt
was made to break the heads of the four poor
helpless men industriously polishing away In
the upper regions. though we tremble to thlnK
what fearful fate would have been theirs II
the thirtv-ive fair rebels, fat-irons in hand,
could have got at them. We suppose that
there is nothing specially allurng in ironing
shirts to the manly mind; but when, through
impecuniosity and want of employment any
virie person mot a Heather Chinee) has
stopped to such business, it must be felt aS
n great indignity not to be permitted to DO it
without let or hindrance. But the fated four
in Newark were thus hardly entreated.


An employer, with nobody knows how many
shirts on hand waiting to be polished, cannot
stop TO unravel the intricacies OF the man
question: The benevolent Creator may or may
not have meant that the bearded mOiety of the
human race should do its own ironing, and
there may be some great Immutable funda-
mental and natural law against such an innO-
walton in the department of human energy, to
which the getting up of linen is specially as
signed. But with two thousand dozen of
white shirts waiting to receive their last
touches, there was no time for philosophical or
physiological speculation Wherefore the quar-
tette of sad-browed and painfully polishing
men were elected, and the thrty-iive protect
ors in petticoats were Teinstaued. Once more
their well-rounded arms guided the ponderous
goose, and once more the snowy linen grew
bright and beautiful under the feryid pressure


But what of the four men9 Willing TO iron,
glad to iron, seeing bread in ironing and starya-
ton in not ironing, remorseessly cut of fIom
ironing. What is to become of them COnii-
IDENTITY and Indignantly we ask, Who Is the
tyrant now2 IL there were few more OF
these unhappy creatures they might hold a
mass meeting in some park, and solace them
selves by making short or long speeches and
passing little sheaf of resolutions But
mass-meeting of four, we fear, would not be
so impressive as to make the public hold its
breath; and the number of men who love to
iron in the abstract would be too few to fur
nish much supernumerary cheering. What
impresses us most is the gross sefshness of
human nature i'll general, and without regard
to sex. There have been occasional complaints
that woman is cut off by the tyrant man from
her fair share in the employments which bring
bread but we have never seen it demon
strated that woman herself, if there were a
total reversal of the situation, would be any
more generous. Certainly not, if she lived in
Newark and ironed shirts.