their nature is requisite to an attendant in a drug store. The business
is light, and, to some, a pleasant one. In a large drug store, one of
the clerks might be a young man, to attend to night prescriptions. The
day business could easily be carried on by ladies, if they were
qualified. Many articles sold by druggists require a chemical or
mechanical combination. Schools for giving instruction in the art of
preparing medicines are established in New York and Philadelphia. If
enough ladies would unite to form a class, we have no doubt that
separate instruction would be given them by the professors of pharmacy.
We hope these schools will tend to prevent abuses in the prosecution of
the drug business, as those persons will be most patronized who are
known as graduates of these schools. Dyestuffs, paint, hair oils, &c.,
are sold by most druggists, besides the materials directly used in their
business. The apothecary's business is more confined to the mixing and
putting up of medicines, as prescribed by physicians. Girls that put up
drugs are paid by the package, and earn from $2 to $5 per week. Most
country physicians prepare and sell their own medicines. Censors in
Great Britain visit the stores of druggists, and are required by law to
destroy any medicines they consider not fit for use. In France the
regulations are equally strict. In some parts of France and Germany,
sisters of charity are employed to compound medicines, and some to
administer them. Mrs. Jameson, in her "Communion of Labor," describes
her visits to several hospitals in Europe, in charge of sisters of
charity, where some of their number were employed to fill prescriptions,
both homoeopathic and allopathic. I find that in most Roman Catholic
institutions in this country, some sisters are set apart to perform the
duties of druggists. In 1776, when Howard visited Lyons, he found "there
were sisters who made up, as well as administered, all the medicines
prescribed, for which purpose there were a laboratory and apothecary's
shop, the neatest and most elegantly fitted up that can be conceived."
Lord Brougham, in a speech at York, about two years ago, after
eulogizing the Protestant sisters of charity as nurses, said: "They are
the persons who make up, who distribute, who administer all the
medicines; they are, as I can answer from my own knowledge practically
in the matter, as well acquainted with the chemical preparations as the
professional men themselves." In the preparation of fine chemicals in
laboratories, women are sometimes employed. A druggist told me that a
person in his business need never be idle. When not otherwise employed,
he can be making tinctures, compounds, &c. It requires four or five
years to become a competent druggist. The business is one on which hang
the lives of its patrons. Some druggists put up their goods very neatly,
and make them look beautiful; but often sacrifice, to do so, their
medicinal properties. The standard of druggists is higher in
Philadelphia than New York. In Philadelphia, many young men receive
nothing for their services, while learning; but in New York, boys over
fifteen are generally paid $100 the first year, and more afterward. Many
of the best druggists will not make or sell patent medicines. In some
new parts of the Western country, druggists unite their calling with
something else; and are often but a poor excuse for druggists, deriving
their profits mostly from nostrums. One in the business needs a
retentive memory. In the census of Great Britain, three hundred and ten
females are returned as druggists. Dr. Brandreth has his pills made at
Sing Sing. He employs twelve females, and pays an average of $5 per week
to each one. The widow of a deceased druggist and chemist told me that
the receipts left by her husband she could easily dispose of for a
thousand dollars. We have seen it stated that the average hours per day
of a drug clerk are thirteen, and his wages $9. The neatness of women,
their delicacy and attention to details, qualify them admirably for the
drug business. At the Woman's Infirmary, New York, the apothecary's
department is entirely in the hands of ladies. At St. Luke's, a lady of
education and refinement (a sister of the Order of the Holy Communion)
gives her services to the measuring out and dispensing of medicines. At
Smith's homoeopathic pharmacy, the lady in attendance told me nearly the
whole in their department of business is in the hands of females. They
employ men, to press the plants and make tinctures; but the distilling
of water and alcohol, the pulverizing, triturating and diluting,
cleaning vials, corking, labelling, and stamping, are done by women. It
requires neatness, exactness, and quickness, to succeed in putting up
medicines. The girls, while at work, wear clothes that will not suffer
from their labor, which is not the cleanest in the world. The proprietor
of the establishment wrote me: "We employ six ladies, and prefer them to
men, as their work is neater. We pay them from $3 to $6 per week, and
they work from nine to ten hours. There is no difference in the seasons,
as regards our employment. We pay women from the first; and they may
learn the part done by them in from three to six months. As their work
is essentially different from men's, we cannot make a comparison in the
prices paid." At another homoeopathic pharmacy, I was told they employ a
few girls to wash bottles, to put on labels, and place them in the
boxes. They are paid from $3 to $3.50 a week. At a wholesale drug store,
one of the proprietors told me they "employ a number of women, and pay
by the piece, the workers earning from $3.50 to $6 per week. Different
kinds of work have different prices. They pay from the first. Those who
put up perfumery earn most. The greater part of the duties in a drug
store can be performed by well qualified ladies as efficiently as by
men." So few ladies are employed in that way, that they might feel timid
about assuming the responsibilities of a drug store in a city. Yet,
after they had spent two or three years in a store of others, where they
were properly instructed, why need they feel any more responsibility in
a drug store of their own? I was told that no drug broker and no retail
druggist employs women. When employed, it is by those in the wholesale
business. I called on a German widow keeping a retail drug store, but
who employed a young man to attend the store. She regrets that she did
not learn to compound of her husband. She can sell simple medicines, and
buys all her own medicines. She had heard of one lady druggist, in
Switzerland, that performed all the duties of a druggist, and one in
Germany; but it is not common to see women in the business there. H. &
R., druggists, employ women to put up patent medicines, and pay $4 or $5
per week. Mr. M., maker of patent medicines, employs some girls all the
time. When busy, they pay from $6 to $8 a week, but at other times $3.
It requires some experience to put up pills. The pills are mixed,
rolled, and cut by men, as it is heavy work when done extensively. Their
girls get $2.50 the first week of their work, and their wages are
increased in proportion to their skill and abilities. Messrs. K. & K.,
wholesale druggists, employ a woman to put up Seidlitz powders,
furnishing all the materials, and paying by the quantity. They pay her
about $250 a year, but suppose she is assisted by some of her sisters at
home. Mr. H. employs a woman to put up Seidlitz powders, paid for by the
gross. A smart woman can earn from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. A measure is
used, containing the right quantity for filling the papers. A house that
makes extract of ginger, in Philadelphia, formerly employed women to put
it up; but they now employ men and boys in preference, because of the
work they can do at intervals, that women cannot do. I called at Mrs.
S.'s drug store. The youth that stood behind the counter said drug
stores kept by ladies, or where they are employed to dispense, would not
be patronized by physicians. He said, if any trouble should occur, from
want of knowledge or skill in putting up medicines, and the case was
brought into court, the man that employed female dispensers would be
punished. Many persons, he says, come to druggists for medical and
surgical advice, that could not, and would not think of consulting a
lady, even if she were competent to give advice. It would be as
unsuitable as for women to shave men, as they do in Germany. I sent for
the lady, though the clerk urged that she had a sick child, and could
not leave it. I told her the object of my call. She very kindly talked
with me, and gave me information, of which I will give a synopsis. She
boarded for several years after she was married, and as she had nothing
to occupy her time, she spent much of it in the drug store with her
husband. Seven years ago he died, and she, by the advice of friends,
continued the store. She has employed a young man only part of the time.
She says it involves great responsibility, but she is, and feels just as
responsible as a man, and would be held so in court; but is not any more
liable to indictment, or prosecution, than a man. It is something that
requires exactness. It will not do to trust entirely to the memory. She
generally refers to the book for directions. A youth of good abilities
can, in from six months to one year, put up prescriptions, and a boy,
when taken into a drug store, is paid from $1.50 to $2 a week for six
months. A druggist of New York writes: "There is but one college of
pharmacy in the city of New York, where instruction would be given
equally to ladies, if they desired it; although, as yet, none have ever
presented themselves. Ladies have never been employed, to my knowledge,
as druggists' clerks in this city, or elsewhere in the United States,
nor, as I am of opinion, in Europe. In one instance, it was attempted in
Philadelphia a few years since, by a leading druggist, with a view of
economy, I believe; and although he professed to have engaged the ladies
merely as saleswomen in the fancy goods department, they nevertheless
were allowed to dispense medicines. It so happened that one of these
made a mistake, in giving the wrong medicine, which resulted in the
death of the patient, a lady of wealth and wide acquaintance, and the
consequence was the ruin and destruction of the whole business of the
druggist. This put an end to the experiment in Philadelphia." (This we
extremely regret, but know that such accidents have occurred from the
incompetency and carelessness of some young men and boys, with less
disastrous results to the proprietor.) "The business," the writer adds,
"is, in some respects, quite unsuited to females. It requires much real
manual labor, its hours are long, and its constant, close confinement
wears upon the strongest constitutions. I have myself lost my health at
it, and I know of numerous others who have done the same." A lady
physician writes: "I do not know whether women are anywhere employed as
druggists' clerks. They are not either in France or England, where
special education and license are required. I am not aware of any
druggist here who would take a pupil, but I have no doubt one could be
found."
=105. Keepers of Fancy Stores.= A fancy store pays well when a good
connection is established, but it takes time for that. Business is
moving up street in New York, and of course fancy stores with it. Some
unite millinery with the sale of fancy goods. The prices paid to those
who stand in such stores, vary greatly. They are given under the head of
Saleswomen.
=106. Gentlemen's Furnishing Stores.= A great many women are employed in
this business, and many more might be. The making of gentlemen's robes
furnishes in itself quite a business in cities; also the making of
cravats, collars, hemming handkerchiefs, and odd work to be done. Mrs.
M. told me she has a girl that assists in the house, and stays in the
store when not so occupied, and receives for her services $6 a month and
her board. Madame P. pays $3 to each of her operators (ten hours a day),
and to one superior operator $4. She pays $3.50 a week to a button-hole
maker. That is made a separate branch of sewing. Fourteen is the usual
number of button holes in a shirt, and some employers pay one cent
apiece; some, one and a half; and for large ones, in which studs or
sleeve buttons are worn, two cents apiece. Some men are very particular
about the make and fit of their shirts. Madame P. gets $2.50 a dozen for
shirts from a store down street, and $4.50 for shirts from a store up
street. Ordered work pays best. Her great trouble is that she does not
get constant employment. For awhile she sunk in her business from $4 to
$5 a week. Mr. P. says, whenever business is dull in New York city, it
is, of course, wherever work is done to supply the city. He takes
learners in busy times. Mr. D., who employs 2,000 hands in his factory
at New Haven, has discharged them all; also Mr. H., who employs 1,000;
and Messrs. M. & H., who employ as many. He thinks, when business
revives, there will be work enough for all in this line, and even more.
Shirts are such an essential part of a man's wardrobe, that as long as
men exist, shirts must be made. With the many improvements in sewing
machines, Mr. P. has shirts, when cut out, given to the operator, and
turned from the machine complete, with the exception of buttons and
button holes. No basters are employed. All the felling is done by a
feller, and all the hemming by a hemmer. He furnishes his operators with
machines. He employs men to cut, because they do it faster than women.
They cut with a knife twenty-four thicknesses of cloth. All factories
furnish machines and needles. Troy is the great place for making shirt
collars. The girls are paid by the piece in these factories, and the
employers will not permit them to work more than eight hours a day, as
they do not wish them to lose their health. A girl is not retained in
these collar factories that cannot earn $7 a week--eight hours a day.
The machines are moved by steam.
=107. Furniture Sellers.= A French woman that keeps a new furniture
store told me that her husband does most of the work, employing some men
to help him. She only attends store in his absence. The lifting,
repairing, and varnishing, she thought could not be done by women.
Called in the store of a woman--a German Jew. Her husband is away most
of the time. She has furniture made to fill orders, and, of course,
employs several men to make the furniture. I think she sells on credit.
I think women are better adapted to the keeping of house-furnishing than
of house-furniture stores. I was told in a furniture store by a
saleswoman, that she takes entire charge of the store, cuts and gives
out damask for making furniture, orders the men, and keeps the books;
for which she has a comfortable home with her employer, a widow lady,
and $5 a week. She says it requires one to be amiable and obliging, to
possess health and energy, and to be a good judge of human nature, to
succeed in business; but thinks good conduct and sobriety will insure
success in almost anything. The spring she finds best for selling
furniture. Small profits and quick sales is her motto. She never
credits. She regulates her prices according to circumstances, allowing
herself what she considers a fair profit, and yet doing justice to the
buyer. She goes into the store at seven in the morning, and remains
until ten at night. Only a strong, well-built woman, can move furniture.
A lady that keeps a furniture store told me she sold a great deal before
the holidays, but will not sell much again until spring. On making
inquiry of a lady that keeps a furniture store, about the business, she
uttered these practical remarks: "Never credit in the furniture
business, or your money and furniture are both gone. You may succeed, if
you have an honest, reliable man to attend to the business for you. It
is a money-paying business. You should have a man that can attend
auction, and buy furniture, and repair and varnish it. Besides, you need
a carman, to lift and move furniture in the store, and carry it home."
We would state that a woman can just as well attend the sales of house
furniture in New York, at residences, as men, and a carman can at any
time be hired to move furniture.
=108. Grocers.= The retail grocery business is one that many women can
and do carry on. It is very common to see the wives of grocers in their
stores. The store is generally connected with or beneath their
dwelling--so that it is very convenient for the man, and the woman is
saved from exposure to the weather, passing back and forth from the
dwelling to the store. The business is light and generally profitable.
Much depends upon selecting a stand. A good stand is not likely to be
idle long. The fall, I was told, was a bad season for a retail grocery
in New York. Many small groceries in New York are owned by men, whose
wives attend the stores while they are at work. I saw a nice little
grocer, whose husband is a tailor, and who works at his trade in a room
back of the grocery. This seemed to be reversing the general order of
things. The husbands of some grocer women keep stalls in the markets,
and furnish the groceries of their wives with vegetables. I called in a
neat grocery store and bought some apples. The lady in attendance says
she never sells liquor, but all the groceries around there do. She goes
to market at four in the morning to buy potatoes and apples for her
grocery. The baker leaves her bread, and she goes every evening to a
baker's and buys cakes. Bundles of kindling wood are sent her from the
wood yard, and the milkman leaves her milk. She goes to Washington
market for her meat, and to Vesey street for her tea. So she manages.
She said, not a cent in the store had been gained dishonestly. A grocer
woman told me that peddlers interfere seriously with her business.
Besides, the baker next door had gone to selling milk and butter, from
which she has always derived most profit. She has least sale after
families have laid in their groceries in the fall. Rich people and those
in moderate circumstances generally purchase their groceries in large
quantities, it being more convenient and economical to do so; hence we
find but few groceries in the best portions of a city. Of course a
grocer woman must be much on her feet. Most groceries are open until ten
o'clock at night. Mrs. A. says it is impossible for grocer women to make
more than a living now, paying $6 and $7 a week for rent, and sometimes
not clearing more than $3 a week. She opens at five in the morning, and
closes at nine at night. She makes most in summer, because then she does
not have to burn fuel, and can do with less candle light. What lifting
is necessary, her son does when he comes to see her. There are too many
small groceries in New York for any to thrive. I have been told that in
the majority (even when attended by women) liquor is sold. What a crime,
to make ferocious beasts of those who are stupid enough to buy ardent
spirits!
=109. Junk Dealers.= Junkmen go about New York with small wagons, across
which is a rod. Over the rod are strung several cowbells of different
sizes, and from it fly a number of various-colored strips. Junkmen are
not the same as the rag gatherers, or dealers, but a blending of the
two, as they buy on a very small scale, and sell again. Part of their
rags they sell to shoddy manufacturers. A. B., a female junk-dealer,
keeps a shop, where she buys and sells old metals and rags. The first
she sells to a man who comes to the door and buys them; the others she
sells at a store where rags are bought for making paper. She has no
system in buying and selling--buying at the lowest prices she can, and
selling at the highest. Another woman told me she buys white rags at
three and a half cents per pound, and sells at four. She pays so much a
pound for old metals, and sells at an advance. Other articles, as
bottles, glass, bones, cold victuals, and grease, are disposed of by
junkwomen. The damaged cotton picked up by old women is sold to junk
dealers.
=110. Music Sellers.= Mr. W. does not know of any ladies engaged in
selling sheet music, but thinks there may be some in small towns. He
thinks it would be a very suitable employment for them. I called in a
music store, B--, where a lady was in attendance, and, in the course of
conversation, learned she was the wife of the proprietor. According to
her report, "it is an arduous business, and one that requires brains and
musical talent. People will seldom purchase a piece of music until they
hear it, and she must try the pianos before a person will purchase or
hire. The business requires great patience. She and her husband keep
their store open until ten o'clock at night. They do not sell so much
when the weather is bad, nor in summer, when the people are out of the
city. A lady so employed must be able to keep accounts, and, when she
sells, must require good security, if she does not sell for cash. She
must also be able to distinguish bad from good money." She says,
"keepers of music stores will not employ women, however great their
capabilities," but no reason could I obtain for it. I think it is
something, where an opening offers, that would pay a woman well. I
called at another music store in the same city, kept by a lady. She
said: "She and her sister would not keep a music store, if they had not
brothers in the business, for she did not consider it any more
appropriate for a lady to keep pianos to sell than to keep a cabinet
wareroom. The pianos sometimes need to be repaired and tuned, and no one
can attend to that without knowing how a piano is constructed. (?) The
mere selling of sheet music, she thought, might do well enough, but
selling books would be better. She says it would not do well for a woman
to tune pianos, as it requires considerable practice to make one
competent." Why might not women acquire that practice? Her selfishness
and fear of competition were very evident. It is desirable for a music
seller to understand Italian, French, and German, as many of the songs
used in our country are in those languages. Many pieces of music have
two or three titles. It requires some time to learn to rightly perform
the duties of a music seller. The selling of sheet music and the selling
of pianos are separate branches, and a person in one may be totally
ignorant of the other. The wholesale and retail departments are entirely
distinct in large establishments. Clerks that attend in the piano
department are expected to be able to play. A lady is now employed in a
large piano store in New York to try the instruments for purchasers. A
lady in New York stays in the store when her brother, Mr. D., is absent.
He paid a boy $1.50 a week for some months while learning, then more. A
person of ability could learn the business in six months' time, or less.
Music is always arranged alphabetically on the shelves. A boy should be
kept to climb the ladder. An extensive music seller in Boston writes:
"In our direct employ is only one female--a cashier. Repeated losses of
money, and cash continually over or above, induced us four years ago to
adopt the plan of employing a female to receive the proceeds of sales.
It has saved us a great deal of money, and lessened the temptation to
the young men in the store. We would gladly employ more women, but the
height of our shelves, and the unsuitableness of female apparel,
prevent." Another music seller writes me: "Women are employed in our
business, in Germany and France, and are there paid at the same rate as
men. We do not employ ladies in our store, because those of their own
sex will not buy from them."
=111. Sellers of Artists' Materials.= The sale of paintings, engravings,
and artists' materials, form of themselves a branch of business in large
cities. I know of such a store in Philadelphia, kept by a lady. It must
be a light and pleasant employment. In London there are seventy-nine
print sellers.
=112. Sellers of Seeds, Roots, and Herbs.= In agricultural and
horticultural communities, there is always a demand for roots and seeds.
A large number of seeds are raised and put in papers for sale by the
Shakers. In stores for the sale of roots and seeds, growing plants in
jars might be offered for sale, and evergreens, with their roots in
dirt, enveloped by linen or sacking. Orders might be given, and filled,
for forest and fruit trees. Bouquets, also, might be kept for sale. A
man in New York hires a room about Christmas, and devotes himself
exclusively to the sale of evergreens for Christmas trees. As field
seeds are usually sold by the measure, and not put up in papers, women
have no employment in that line. The proprietor of an agricultural
warehouse and seed store writes: "Our seed and grain are put up by men
and boys in the winter months. It is work that might be done by women."
A lady botanic druggist told me, "there are families in the West that
make a comfortable support by gathering herbs; but even the smallest
children assist." Those plants that bear flowers she has gathered when
they begin to bloom. Those engaged in gathering commence early in life,
and gather those growing in their yards and the fields of the
neighborhood. Another seller of botanic medicine says there are spring
and fall herbs, and, of course, they must be gathered in their seasons.
She has a man and his wife gathering herbs, who support their family of
five children by it, and two girls of another family, who earn a
livelihood by it. Ladies in the occupation of root, seed, and flower
selling, would do well to keep garden tools for sale.
=113. Sellers of Small Wares.= In England, the word "haberdasher" is
applied to those who engage in the sale of cord, tape, pins, and such
articles. In America there is no synonymous word--so we use the
expression heading this article, which we have seen occasionally
employed in the same way. The number of women in this business is
legion. With many it is a suitable and successful employment. Those
whose means will not permit them to engage in any more extensive
business--who have a room well located in town, and not too much
competition--can, with a small capital, commence a safe and light
business. It requires but little effort, and, with enough customers,
will well repay time and capital. Many a poor woman, unable to purchase
the articles required, has obtained them to sell on commission, and, by
industry and economy, earned sufficient, in the course of time, to
purchase a stock of her own. I called on a lady that keeps a variety
store. She sells gloves, handkerchiefs, suspenders, and such articles to
gentlemen, and tape, buttons, &c., to ladies. She would rather sell to
gentlemen. She has been keeping store thirty-five years. Her store is
near the river, and she sells much to people coming from the ferry and
off the boats. She thinks in the South and West there would be many good
openings for such stores. Spring and fall, and during the holidays, are
her best times for selling. I called in a small store: I was told by the
lady that she did not much more than make a living. She depends much on
her friends and acquaintances for custom. As they increase in number,
which they do from year to year, her custom increases. She finds herself
very closely confined at home by the business. She does not regulate her
profits entirely by the value of the articles, for cheap goods sell best
where she is, and she puts on a large profit.
=114. Sellers of Snuff, Tobacco, and Cigars.= A lady, keeping a cigar
store, said she makes only one third profit on her sales. Most people
make one half, which, she says, is the usual profit on all goods. Snuff
gives her the headache, when dealing it out, but she thinks she may get
accustomed to it. She sells most from six o'clock in the morning until
nine or ten; and then again in the evening. To know what manufactures of
tobacco, snuff, and cigars are most popular, is important. Having
acquaintances assists much, and they are the first patrons to one
commencing business. A cigar store generally pays well in large cities,
and, if well located, is sure to succeed. Fall and winter are the best
seasons for selling cigars; in very warm weather no one cares to smoke.