women may occasionally be seen selling meat. They are generally the
wives or the daughters of butchers. They no doubt assist in cleaning
tripe, and making sausage and souse. On the streets of London are nearly
one thousand sellers of dogs' and cats' meat. Most of them are men. This
meat is the flesh of old worn out horses, which are bought, killed, cut
up, boiled, and sold by those who make it a business. Mrs. M. told me of
a woman that sells meat in the New York market. She has made a fortune
by it. She stands in market, and sells, and orders her hired men to cut
it up as desired. Mr. W. told me that women are employed at the pork
houses in Louisville, in putting up hogs' feet, to send to New Orleans.
Less meat is sold in summer than winter. I have been told that curing
meat is too heavy work for women, on account of the lifting. Besides,
they would get wet from the brine used; but some German and English
women do pickle meat, and some even buy and sell stock. The late census
of Great Britain reports twenty-six thousand butcheresses.
=147. Milk Dealers.= Kindness to animals always indicates something good
in the heart. Life, in its every form, should be precious to us. Cows
yield much less milk, and of an inferior quality, on the eastern than
western continent. In Canada and some countries of Europe, the milk of
goats is sold, and considerably used. In some parts of Rome it is
customary for dairymen to drive their cows in every morning, and around
to the houses of their customers, when the milkman draws from the cow
into the vessel the desired quantity. In Belgium it is not uncommon to
see milkmaids following their little wagons, containing vessels of milk,
and drawn by dogs. Mayhew stated, in 1852, that in St. James's Park,
London, eight cows were kept in summer to supply warm milk to
purchasers; four in winter, and the number of street women engaged in
the sale of curds, was one hundred. A lady called with me in a milk
depot. The man has his milk brought in on the cars. Milkmen pay their
women from $6 to $7 a month. They begin to milk about five in the
morning, and the same hour in the afternoon, so that it may cool before
being placed in the cans. Those hired to milk do house work or kitchen
work in the intervals. When milking is done in the afternoon, the men
that work on the farm, and the proprietor himself, assist. In some
places where butter is made for market, the churning is done by horses
and dogs. A milk dealer told me he sold to those who wished to sell
again at cost price, four cents a quart; to other customers his price is
six cents. At one depot, Williamsburg, the dealer was counting over an
immense pile of pennies. His milk comes from New Jersey, seventy miles
from New York. He crosses two rivers every night at twelve o'clock, to
receive his milk at the Jersey depot. He sells at six cents a quart. To
those who buy to sell again, his price is five cents a quart. He told me
a separate freight agent is employed on some trains to take charge of
the milk sent on the cars. Milk does not often sour while being brought
in. Cream is brought in cans placed in large tubs of ice. He pays for
freight, forty cents a can. Cream usually sells at twenty-five cents per
quart. He sells twice as much milk in summer as in winter--he supposes,
because it sours so easily. At shops, milk is usually sold at five
cents; when delivered, at six cents. Milk is less rich in winter than
summer. A milkman told me that in dairies in and near the city, men
mostly milk. He mentioned one quite near a distillery. Women that take
milk about in buckets to sell, have a cow of their own, and feed her on
swill from the distillery, and slops from kitchens. The milk they sell
is not healthy. Some of them buy a little good milk and mix with theirs.
If a dairy woman's time is not entirely occupied with her business, she
might in some places find it profitable to have an ice house, and send
ice around with the same horse, wagon, and driver used for the sale of
milk. Borden's condensed milk is boiled at a temperature of 112°, I
think, and prepared in Connecticut. The American Solidified Milk
Company, in New York, employ some girls in rolling, packing, and
labelling. The superintendent writes: "The employment is healthy. Women
receive from $7 to $8 per month, and their board. They spend twelve
hours per day, including meal times, in the establishment. An
intelligent person may learn in a week. There is a prospect of more
being employed. All the girls we employ are Americans, except one. It is
a very comfortable occupation. I find little difference between male and
female labor. When I have hired men or youths, I have found them to be
more habitually attentive, and less irritable; but women are usually
neater. The women all board at a house, subject to the control of the
Company. The price is $2.25 per week, washing included, and is paid for
by the Company. The character of the house is unexceptionable, and the
table is much better provided than that of most farmers living here."
=148. Mince Meat and Apple Butter.= The preparation of mince meat might
be performed by women. And it might be sold by them in stores where
poultry, eggs, and butter are disposed of, or in clean, well-kept
groceries. With a machine for cutting the meat, and another for paring
the apples, it could be easily accomplished. Apple butter is an article
that meets with ready sale in market. People that are very particular
about their food only buy of those they know to be cleanly in their
cooking. Stewing apple butter is laborious work. If a farmer has a cider
press and an apple parer, much labor is saved in preparing the
materials. In some places, apple butter is kept for sale in groceries,
and in establishments for the sale of the products of the dairy. The
apples that are partly decayed, and those picked off the ground, furnish
an abundance from large orchards. And from orchards not accessible to
market where defective fruit can be sold, there will be no want of a
supply. It is sold by the pint or quart, or put up in jars holding more.
=149. Mustard Packers.= Most of the mustard in this country has been
imported, but some planters are now turning their time and attention to
it. Mustard is cultivated to some extent for the oil pressed from its
seed. Some factories exist in the United States. I have heard of a man
in New York that used to be engaged extensively in grinding mustard with
vinegar, and employed women to put it in jars, paying $3 a week. In some
dry mustard factories women are employed to put the mustard in papers. A
manufacturer of mustard writes: "Women are employed at some large
establishments. The business is severe on persons with weak lungs, as a
large quantity of steam or dust arises from packing. The work is paid
for by the quantity, not the day. Women of good judgment would soon
become mistresses of their work--in six months they would become good
workwomen. They would probably spoil as much as their wages were worth
for the first few days. When cholera and yellow fever are about, is the
best time for the sale of mustard. Ten hours is the usual time for work,
but in busy seasons the hands work longer."
=150. Oyster Sellers.= I called on a woman who makes a living for
herself and five little children by selling oysters. She sells most
about tea time, and on until twelve o'clock. She thinks oysters are
wholesome all the year. Physicians recommend them for their patients,
and many can eat them when they cannot eat anything else. Of course a
real oyster saloon can only be kept in places where fresh oysters can be
had. Oysters are rather hard for a woman to open. In summer nothing is
done. The room, vender, and oysters should be clean, to draw decent
customers. It pays well; but too often, in small concerns, the profits
are derived from the sale of liquor. At a little oyster shop the woman
told me she barely made a living. She keeps boys to open the oysters.
She supplies families with fresh oysters, and when she receives an
order, prepares them for families and sends them to the house.
=151. Pie Bakers.= "Many of the young Swabian girls of thirteen or
fourteen years old are sent to Stuttgart to acquire music, or other
branches of education, among which, household duties are generally
included. A matron, who keeps a large establishment there, gives the
instruction, which they voluntarily seek. They may often be seen
returning from the bakeries, with a tray full of cakes and pies of their
own making; and sometimes young gentlemen, for the sake of fun, stop
them to buy samples of their cookery." The foundation of Miss Leslie's
culinary knowledge was laid at a school of cookery in Philadelphia. In
England, women make pastry for confectioneries. At the W. pie bakery I
was told they employ women to prepare the fruit. They used to employ
them to roll the dough; but they are not such fast workers as men. One
man remarked, the shoulders ache from rolling by the time evening comes.
The women are paid fifty cents a day, and board themselves. One woman
boards with them, and receives $1.50 a week, with her board. M. & Co.
pay their women five cents an hour, for preparing the fruit and making
pies. They sell most to retail stores and hotels--consequently sell most
in the spring and fall, when the largest number of strangers are in the
city. They keep three wagons running part of the time, which start at
six in summer, and, in busy seasons, sometimes do not get in to remain
till twelve at night. When it rains or snows they do not sell so much,
as those who sell at stands on the street are not out. The drivers come
back several times during the day for pies, when very busy, and they
mention how many are ordered. So the manager knows how many to have
baked. They always sell most on Saturday, and I think sell least on
Wednesdays and Thursdays. When the women work over ten hours, they are
paid extra at the same rate, five cents an hour. C. and wife pay their
best woman $9 a month with board and washing. It is her duty to roll out
pastry, put the fruit in, and put the covers on. They employ some girls
for $6 a month, to wash dishes, cook fruit, chop apples, pick dried
fruit, &c. The work requires more strength than skill. There are only
four large pie bakeries in New York. Madame L., who sells French pastry
and confectionery, says very few women are employed in Paris, in making
pastry, except for families. It requires too much strength and too long
labor, to do so for a saloon. The saloons are usually open until twelve
o'clock at night. At a bread bakery an attendant told me she prepares
the fruit for pies, but the bakers prepare the crust, make and bake
them. She says their men do that in the morning, when not otherwise
employed, and it would not pay to have a woman for that purpose alone.
Mrs. H. employs fifteen women. She pays $3.50 a month, with board and
lodging, to those that slice apples and carry pies to and from the oven.
Men place them in the oven and take them out. She pays $6.50 to those
that roll out pastry and wash dishes, &c. She has three thousand pies
made sometimes in one day. It requires more care to bake pies than
bread. At another pie bakery, the lady told me she has the fruit
prepared for pies in her kitchen and taken to the bakehouse, where they
are made up by men, to save the women from working where the men are.
She pays a woman for preparing fruit $5 a month and her board. In a pie
bakery in New York, one of the attendants said in the old country women
learn to bake pies and cakes for confectioners. They pay £30 for
instruction, and spend two years' apprenticeship. They learn the whole
process, including the stewing of fruit and preparing mince meat. In
this country that is followed as a separate branch, and mostly done by
women for bakers. She said in the bakery where she stood, girls were
required, not only to wait on customers, but wash the counters, shelves,
and windows of the store. The other attendant told me she found the
smell of the pastry, and being so constantly on her feet, very
injurious. They each receive $8 a month, and their board and washing. To
succeed, a person should be quick in her motions and calculations, and a
good judge of money. They are in the shop fifteen hours. In some
bakeries the girls spend eighteen hours in the shop. The time could be
shortened, if all the establishments of the kind would unite and make
regulations to that effect; but it could not be done by one or two
stores on account of the competition in the business. Such a store would
lose its patronage. The majority of girls board with the bakers'
families, on account of rising early to be in store. Summer is the
poorest season on Broadway, as most of their customers are out of the
city at that season; but in localities where the working classes are
supplied, the summer is the best season, as most of them do not go to
the expense of making up a fire to bake their bread and pastry.
=152. Picklers of Oysters.= An oysterwoman told me that girls and women
are employed at most places where oysters are put in cans to send away.
They are paid by the gallon for opening the shells; and near New Haven,
some girls make $4 a day. On the Great South Bay, they do not earn so
much, as the oysters are smaller and rougher. It requires considerable
practice to become expert, but not much physical strength. The business
is considered healthy, and women are paid at the same rate as men. Miss
B. told me that at Fair Haven some women are paid for opening oysters
two and a half cents a quart.
=153. Poulterers.= Much attention has been paid in this country, during
the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding of poultry. All that
read this will remember the hen fever that spread through our country a
few years ago. Chinese chickens sold at from $40 to $100 a pair; and the
usual price of one egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off
poultry will be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready
sale. Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels,
steamboats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and
tightly made. When there is a variety of poultry, each kind should be
separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, gravel, living
plants and loose soil are the principal things to render poultry
comfortable. The worms and insects obtained from the loose soil furnish
them animal food, and sand or gravel is necessary to promote digestion.
It is best not to draw poultry when preparing it for market, as it keeps
longer when the air is excluded. In winter some farmers let their
poultry freeze, and pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to
market. They will keep so for two or three months. I was told of an old
lady, back of New Albany, Ia., that has made several thousand dollars by
the sale of poultry. The egg trade is a very extensive one. It requires
a knowledge of the state of the market, and promptness in supplying its
demand at the right time. Several establishments in Cincinnati entered
largely into the business some years ago, and, we suppose, still
continue it. Eggs are often shipped from Cincinnati to New Orleans and
New York. "In France and England 6,000,000 eggs are used annually in
preparing leather for gloves." In New York the poultry sold in market is
mostly purchased from the wholesale commission merchants, who have
stands in some parts of the market, or stores near the market. Poultry
is there sold by the pound: chickens, 9 and 10 cents, and turkeys from
10 to 12 cents. It requires experience to learn the quality of poultry,
but those in the business can judge of it by seeing the poultry when
alive. The best time for selling is through the fall up to February.
Some market women sell poultry in winter, and flowers in summer. Those
who engage in raising poultry, could unite with it the raising of
rabbits, pigeons, &c. About a hundred persons (mostly women) are
employed in a henery near Paris, where thousands of chickens are
annually hatched out by keeping eggs in rooms, heated by steam to a
uniform temperature.
=154. Restaurant Keepers.= In London and Paris, young and pretty women
are employed in the best class of tobacco stores and in restaurants.
This should not be so on account of the number, and often the character,
of the men that resort to these shops. Indeed, we think it best not to
employ them in any stores that men only frequent. Besides, the
unseasonable hours that restaurants are kept open, make it objectionable
for women. They are often not closed until midnight or after. In Great
Britain girls and women are frequently employed as bar maids at inns.
=155. Sealed Provisions, Pickles, and Sauces.= The plan is now almost
universally adopted in the United States, of putting up fruit and
vegetables in cans from which the air is excluded. It is one of the
greatest inventions of the age for housekeepers. It saves labor and
expense; and if well put up, the fruit and vegetables are as fresh and
taste as natural as we have them in the growing season. Quite a number
of large houses are engaged in the business in New York, and a few in
Philadelphia. E. Philadelphia employs women to put pickles and preserved
fruit in jars, sealing and labelling them. They can earn from $2.50 to
$3 a week. They sit while at work. The season begins in July, and is
over in October. K. & Co., New York, employ about a hundred females
during the fruit season. The occupation consists in preparing the
articles to be preserved; that is, peeling, seeding, washing, &c.,
labelling bottles, and painting cans. Those they employ are mostly
Irish, and not capable of any very elevated position of labor. The fruit
season lasts six months, after which only about thirty remain the rest
of the year. The hours of labor are ten, and the compensation from $2.50
to $3 per week. In another establishment they employ only small girls,
to whom they pay $2 per week, and occasionally $2.50. Mrs. Dall suggests
that farmers' daughters put up candied fruits like those imported from
France, which bear a good price and yield a handsome profit. Some women
engage in making pickles on their own responsibility. Owners of gardens
not convenient to market would find it profitable to put up fruits and
vegetables, and to make pickles and sauces. The spices they would have
to purchase; but if they had an orchard, they could make good vinegar.
They could either sell the articles in the nearest large city, or pay a
commission for the sale of them. Mr. D., in one of the New York markets,
employs women for putting pickles in jars--gives $8 a month and board.
The number of hours they are employed depends on the quantity of work
they have on hand. B., New York, employs for six months from six to
eight women; for four months, some twenty-five; and the remaining two
months, from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five. B. has always had
his work done in the city, but contemplates having it done hereafter in
the country, as the articles will then be on the ground, and save the
trouble of transportation. They send South. He thinks the South must for
a long time be dependent on the North for pickles. They even furnish
some of the pickle houses in Baltimore. They fear they will lose much
because they have now no demand for pickles from the South, and they are
likely to spoil by keeping. They are most busy in summer and fall. They
keep some steady hands all the year. They find it difficult to get good
hands, and pay learners from the first. Many girls go from New York in
the summer, to the country, to put up pickles, gather berries, and weed
gardens; and it pays them pretty well. B. pays his women fifty cents a
day of ten hours. It is not unhealthy, and requires but a little time to
learn. In this, as in most other mechanical work, practice makes
perfect; consequently, experienced hands receive the preference. At most
places men attend to fruit while it is being cooked. The preserving is
mostly done in large kettles, around which pass pipes containing steam,
encased by larger vessels. Lifting the kettles would be too heavy for
women, when they contain, as in some cases, thirty-five gallons of
fruit. And the steam used would require some one that knew a little of
such matters, yet a smart woman could soon learn. M. & M. have their
work done in the house, paying from $2.25 to $4. They can always get
hands. W. & P. have their pickles, preserves, and sauces put up in the
country. Their girls get from $3 to $6 a week. They employ two hundred
girls, and take most of them from the city in the busy season from June
to October. G. pays $3 a week. Any one that can use their hands can do
it, and become expert in two or three months. Another pickler pays $2
per week. His wife does most of the work. Mrs. M. lives near Washington
market. She employs some women to preserve, and some to put up pickles.
Most of her preserves are put up by an old lady who does it at her own
home. She pays her women from $2.50 to $4 a week. It requires long
experience to become proficient. Nearly all the work is done in her
house, and of course is done only in the summer. Her custom is mostly
confined to the city. If she is preserving a very large quantity of
fruit, she has a man to stir it. He spends most of his time taking
purchased articles home. She uses only the best articles. She can always
get enough hands. An extensive pickle manufacturer writes: "I employ
women in packing pickles and all goods of the kind into
glass--labelling, corking, making jellies, jams, &c., packing, labelling
catsups, bottling syrups, &c. Women are so employed wherever these goods
are manufactured. The employment is _healthy_--so much so that I have
known invalids gain their health. I pay $3 per week--men $6 to $10; all
work ten hours a day. Women can learn in from three to twelve months.
Some learners receive $2, and some $2.50 per week. Quickness, neatness,
and skill are required. Summer and fall are the busy seasons. The
females are mostly young Irish, born in the United States. Women are
superior in handiness, inferior in strength." A gentleman in the
business writes from Newburyport: "I employ usually from eight to ten
women. I pay eight cents per hour, and they work from four to seven
hours. The men's work is worth more than women's, and entirely different
from it. The prospect for this kind of work is good. There is no work in
winter or early spring. Seaports are the best localities for the
business. My women pay from $1.50 to $1.75 for respectable board."
=156. Sugar Makers.= When the part of the sugar cane to be pressed, is
cut, it is tied in bundles and drawn to the mill in wagons. It is
deposited in heaps outside, and negro girls carry the bundles on their
heads to the mill door. After the cane has been subjected to pressure by
cylinders, to obtain the juice, it falls through an opening in the mill
walls, and is carried off by negro women and spread in the sun, to dry
for fuel. The work in sugar mills is very warm and heavy. The work in
sugar refineries is very laborious, and requires the workers to be
subjected to great heat. Several refiners have informed me that the
business does not admit of the employment of women in any department.
The business is said to be very trying on the constitution, and produces
an unhealthy increase of flesh. It is said to be good for consumptives
on account of the great nutriment in sugar. A sugar refiner died not
long ago, whose salary received from the company amounted, I was told,
to $25,000 per annum. I have thought there is one part of the work a
woman might do--it is enveloping the sugar in paper cases. At a sugar
refinery a man told us, some women are employed to make bags for
containing char, _i. e._, burnt bones, and earn several dollars a week.
The sewing is done by hand; making the bags requires but a short time,
though it is heavy work. Most refiners buy theirs at bag factories, or
have their men to make them.