number of girls in weighing and putting up quinine, calomel, &c., to
send away. The girls work eight hours in winter and nine in summer, and
receive from $3 to $9 a week. The employment is thought not to be
healthy. It changes the fairest complexion to a sallow, just as the
taking of the medicine would. The air of the room where we sat, and
where the girls were corking, sealing, enveloping, and labelling, was
strongly impregnated with the quinine. It was so offensive that I could
not rid myself of the taste for several hours after I left the room. In
one apartment a man and woman were weighing the article. The woman wore
a bandage over her mouth and a muslin cap on her head, and spectacles
with large, dark, convex frames, to prevent the quinine from getting in
her eyes, as it turns the white of the eye yellow. The women had each
their own apartment of labor. They looked as healthy as you generally
see, but I do not know how they may have looked when they commenced
working there. The lady who accompanied me, said her friend had fallen
off very much and lost the beauty of her complexion while working there
during the last two years.
=416. Salt.= "In certain cities, especially at Dieppe, France, women
have the business of carrying salt; it is a monopoly which has belonged
to them from time immemorial. They form a corporation, have a syndic,
and salt in the sack cannot, in this city, be transported from the
vessel to the depots or warehouses by any but them." According to the
statistics of the salt manufacture in 1850, there were 2,699 males
employed and 87 females in the United States. Water from the ocean,
lakes, and salt springs, I suppose, could be boiled by women. A
rock-salt manufacturer writes: "Women might do some of our work better
than a man; but one man can tend the hopper and tie as fast as another
can fill. The best salt for dairy purposes is imported, and therefore a
seaport is the best place for our business." A manufacturer in
Barnstable, Mass., writes: "Women are not employed in my branch of
industry, as far as my knowledge extends, _in making salt_; but, when it
is ground for table use, women are sometimes employed _in making the
bags_ to put the salt in. They formerly made good wages in this
business; but, since sewing machines have come into almost general use,
the price of labor has fallen, and I am not posted as to the price now
paid, as most of the ground salt and the bags are manufactured in
Boston. Working with salt is very healthy. We manufacture our salt
between the 1st of April and the last of October, by solar evaporation;
but very little if any salt can be made in this way after the latter
month, as the sun runs too low for salt making. Our works are provided
with covers, which require too hard labor for women to shove on as rain
approaches, and to be opened every fair day. Women can, and occasionally
do lend a hand in this business; but it is too laborious. Then, the salt
has to be taken out by men with shovels, and this is too hard labor for
women. They might assist in drawing the water from one room to another,
by simply taking out and putting in plugs; but under a hot summer's sun,
we think our business entirely unsuitable for them. In the winter, we
manufacture epsom salts; but even this work we consider too laborious
for women." A salt manufacturer in South Yarmouth, Maine, writes: "I
believe women are employed in the mills in Boston for grinding salt, in
making the bags, putting it up, &c., for table use. Otherwise, the
service is too hard." Manufacturers in Syracuse, N. Y., say "they have
but a limited number of women employed in making sacks. The most of
their sacks are furnished by the manufacturing establishments." Salt
clarifiers in Burlington, Vt., write: "We employ one woman, because it
is cheaper to do so. We pay her $4 per week--a man we would have to pay
$6. The work is healthy, and women's part soon learned. Spring and
summer are the best seasons. The prospect for work in this line is good.
Board, $1.70 per week." A gentleman in the salt business at Geddes, N.
Y., writes: "There used to be employed far more women than now in making
bags to hold dairy or bag salt. Now, sewing machines have entirely
superseded them in this branch of our business. During the summer
season, formerly, there were from one hundred to three hundred women at
bag making. There are now, say one hundred or more women engaged in
packing and filling the barrels with salt. They are all foreigners. It
is dirty, heavy, and laborious work, and not suitable for women, but is
extremely healthy. No difference is made in the price paid men and
women, all being paid by the piece, and earning from 75 cents to $1 per
day. A strong woman can learn very soon. The amount of work, probably,
will not change much in future. The work is done only in the summer
season. A large proportion of all the salt made in this country is made
here. The annual product of our salt springs is about seven million
bushels salt, produced at an expense for _labor_ of not less than ten
cents per bushel. Nearly all is paid to men, Irish and Dutch getting the
most of it. A very small part of the work, if any, is adapted to women.
Most of our women workers are the wives or mothers of men and boys who
fasten hoops on barrels. Most of the salt at Syracuse, N. Y., is made by
boiling down the water that springs from artesian wells. At Turk's
Island, salt is made by simply digging vats in the meadow and throwing
the water into them. As it rarely rains there for a number of months,
they require no covering to their works, and have only to take out the
salt and stack it up when it is made."
=417. Soda.= I find that in factories of this kind, girls are not
employed in this country, except for putting the article in papers. They
are paid from twelve to sixteen cents per hundred, according to the
size. At a factory I saw many at work. They looked very neat. All wore
clean calico dresses, and snow-white handkerchiefs over their heads, to
prevent the soda from lodging in their hair. They must inhale
considerable of it, as the atmosphere was strongly impregnated. One of
the workers told me they are paid eighteen cents per hundred packages,
which were rather large. A box contained sixty packages. Some are able
to put up as many as seven hundred packages a day. The proprietor and
one of the girls said it was not unhealthy work; but it is my impression
that it is, if worked at constantly. It requires but a week to get in
the way of doing it, and expertness is gained by practice. They work all
the year, but sometimes there is not much to do. They are most busy in
spring and fall. Some of the hands live near; so, in slack times, if the
proprietor receives an order to be filled, he sends immediately for his
girls. At another factory, I was told September and October are the most
busy months for their hands. They cannot send much away in winter,
because the rivers are closed and railroad freight is high. Soda, I was
told, is more used in the South than saleratus. Some of their girls are
paid by the week, and some by the box. They earn from $3 to $4. The
gentleman said the dust was disagreeable, but not unhealthy. Their girls
stand while at work.
=418. Starch.= A large number of plants and vegetable substances contain
starch. Wheat, potatoes, rice, and maize are the principal. It is also
found in the seeds and stems of plants. It is not soluble in cold water,
consequently may be easily washed out of any vegetable substance. For
those from which it cannot be so removed chemical decomposition may be
employed. Manufacturers write us: "The making of starch is hard and
unsuitable work for females; but girls are employed to put up the starch
in papers and label it, receiving from thirty-seven to seventy-five
cents a day, according to what the worker accomplishes." The following
intelligence we received from the Oswego factory: "We employ from
fifteen to twenty women, because we find them more attentive than boys.
They paste labels on packages of starch, and receive thirty-seven and a
half cents per day, of from eight to ten hours. A smart girl can learn
in a few hours. The prospect of employment in future is good. They are
paid the same that boys would be, and have work the year round. There
are no parts suitable for women, in which they are not engaged. Board,
$1.25 to $1.50."
=419. White Lead.= At the store of a white lead manufacturer, I was told
they employ a number of girls, when busy, to label the tin cans. The
making of white lead is unhealthy, and, I suppose, very disagreeable
work. Women are employed in England in the manufacture of white lead.
=420. Whiting.= This article is used for cleaning silver, and one
preparation of it for the face. There are not more than from twelve to
twenty women at the work in the United States. B. used to employ women,
and paid by the pound. The women earned about $3 a week, of ten hours.
They were employed merely in putting up the article.
COMMUNICATING MEDIUMS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND OTHERS.
=421. Assistants in Public and Benevolent Institutions.= There is a wide
field of usefulness open to ladies, as matrons in charitable
institutions. Blessed is the influence a woman exerts as a matron, if
she is a kind, good woman. Her responsibilities are great, but a
consciousness of the vast amount of good she may accomplish should
reconcile her to them. The discharge of her duties will often cast her
in the society of visitors, many of whom are refined and educated
people. In _reformatory institutions for children_, a matron may do
incalculable good. _The female department of almshouses, lunatic
asylums, hospitals, prisons, workhouses, and all other public and
charitable institutions_, should be in the hands of women. They can
exert a better influence. They know better the wants of their sister
women. They can enter into their feelings. They can check familiarities
with the male inmates, and exert more influence when temptation is
offered. In short, they are women, and know a woman's heart. _Orphan,
and deaf and dumb asylums, houses of refuge, eye and ear infirmaries,
schools for imbecile children, and all such places_, should be managed
by women, as far as practicable. The managers of the home department of
such institutions should be firm and efficient, yet kind hearted. Nor
should merely the filling of these offices be given to women, but there
should be a number of lady visitors to coöperate with the managers. They
can often suggest many improvements for the comfort and health of the
inmates, that would escape the notice of men. I was told by a friend,
now deceased, who took an active part in establishing and advancing
benevolent institutions, that she found it very difficult to obtain
matrons, seamstresses, and tailoresses, willing and competent to
instruct the inmates of the institutions in their various branches of
labor. She thought it would be well to instruct women so thoroughly in
their business that they might efficiently impart a knowledge of it to
others. She thought there should be a house where women and girls could
be properly prepared to perform the duties of cooks, nurses, and house
servants. A lady friend suggested that many of the situations in the
public institutions of New York might be filled by some of the women who
are now keeping boarding houses, and so, the pressure in that quarter
being removed, there would be fairer and fuller play to those that are
left in the occupation. A principal reason of the order and cleanliness
of the workhouses in Holland, is the attention and humanity of the
governesses; for each house has four, who take charge of the inspection,
and have their names painted in the room. For the moral management of
convicts, men are systematically trained in some countries of Europe. In
the hospitals, prisons, and reformatory institutions of England,
supported by the government, women are employed. They are even eligible
as overseers of the poor. The President of the Board of Public
Institutions in New York city furnished me with answers to questions in
regard to the women employed therein, as follows: "Women are employed as
matrons, nurses, and laborers in this city, and on Blackwell's and
Randall's islands. They receive from $5 per month to $430 per annum, and
are paid by the month. The labor performed, properly belongs to women,
although we employ some men for part of the same labor, but their pay is
about the same. There is no need of an apprenticeship to become familiar
with their employments, and the only special qualifications are health
and strength. There is no difference as to seasons with us. They work
only as many hours as are necessary. The demand for those occupying this
position grows out of the number of the destitute and criminal thrown on
our hands. About twenty-five per cent. employed are Americans. We employ
women in all work for which they are suited. The more intelligent are
selected for the most responsible positions. If so disposed, they have
ample time for mental and moral culture. They live where they labor, and
their places of residence are comfortable." Each of the janitresses of
the public schools of New York receives a salary of from $100 to $400
per annum. At the Tombs of New York, a woman has charge of the
department where the female convicts are. At a meeting of ladies in
Dublin, for the employment of women, Mr. McFarlane said that "for the
last twenty-five years, the Grangegorman Penitentiary had been under the
management of a lady, and it had been most admirably conducted."
=422. Commissioners of Deeds.= There are about two hundred in the city
of New York, and, with a moderate run of custom, each can make several
hundred dollars per annum. Their duties are very light, and, I have been
told, could as well be performed by women as men.
=423. Housekeepers.= A kind, yet decided manner, will more effectually
govern a household than fretting and scolding. A portion of time should
be regularly set aside for servants to feel as their own. It will often
prove a matter of economy to those who exact work of them. Those of
principle will work more diligently. Everybody needs some rest. Gain the
good will and confidence of servants, and they will reward you in the
labor of their stronger muscles. But avoid familiarity, by all means.
Much of the long, wearing toil of servants might be avoided by
consideration and management on the part of a housekeeper. Domestics
labor hard, and much of the comfort of a family depends on them. Do not
accuse on suspicion those in your employ of doing or having done wrong.
Be careful of the reputation of others, particularly dependent females.
A man of standing, to whom I expressed the desire that more occupations
should be opened to women, expressed the wish that our domestics should
be Americans, and of a more intelligent class. An effort should be made
to elevate the standard of servants, he said, to induce more respectable
and intelligent women to enter domestic service. Those engaged in it, he
thought, should find something else to do, and will be pushed out as a
more competent class enter. I would prefer to see our present class of
servants fit themselves better for the discharge of their duties, and
American girls enter occupations of a more refined and exalted nature.
The same gentleman referred to, stated that his servants each receive $2
a week, dress handsomely, and lay by money. (?) They do better for
themselves, he remarked, than the girls in his bookbindery. In some of
the convents of France, the sisters go through a course of training to
prepare them for the duties of housekeepers, and are then sent to take
charge of religious and charitable institutions connected with their
church. Why might not some such plan be pursued by Protestants? Says an
English review: "In Germany, the employment of women in the offices of
house-steward, maitre d'hotel, butler or lackey, sanctioned by universal
custom, is not considered so incompatible as it would be with us, with
the other branches of a first-rate establishment."
=424. Keepers of Intelligence Offices.= Intelligence offices are
established for the purpose of giving information to or respecting
persons seeking employment. They are individual enterprises. From fifty
cents to $1 is paid by an applicant for information of persons desiring
one of such capacity as they seek to fill. The same price is paid by the
person seeking an assistant or domestic. Most offices are limited to
supplying domestics; but one or more might be established for the supply
of seamstresses, saleswomen, milliners, dress makers, &c. Girls often
find it an advantage to apply at an office, if they have not friends to
interest themselves and secure them situations. But they should be
particular to know the character of the office they patronize. A lady
remarked to me, if a girl was willing to spend a year in a family where
she could be well instructed for her work, she could then be sure of a
good home and fair wages. Servant girls are universally complained of at
the North. Many of them are very exacting. Most are raw Irish girls, who
think, when they come to this country, everybody is equal. Consequently,
they do not know their places as they do in the old country, where there
are distinct grades in society. Another thing that makes some so
trifling is that such swarms come, and they are so ignorant, and many of
them so corrupt, that they instigate each other. I was told, by the
keeper of an intelligence office, that girls and women always ask more
than they expect to get. Some cooks get as high as $20 a month. They are
mostly French and German. Now and then he has a good American. He has a
lady in attendance that can speak French and German. His terms are fifty
cents a month from the employer, and the same from the employée. It
gives the privileges of the office for one or two months. Few are
willing to go to the country. Many girls come from the country that do
not know where to board. The keeper of the office sends them to a cheap
but respectable house. His office is open from eight to five. To
employers he sends a blank certificate of character, to be filled when
the servant leaves. There is a Protestant office in Philadelphia, and
one or more in New York. At an intelligence office on Grand street,
where girls pay fifty cents and the employer fifty cents, the girl has
the privilege of being supplied with places for two months, if she
remains on trial the time specified by agreement with her various
employers. If not, she forfeits the privilege. This office had a
servants' home connected with it, that is, a boarding house for servants
out of employ. The girls paid $2 a week. A training school was connected
with this, in which the servants received instructions in cooking and
the various details of housekeeping. The cooking of the boarding house
was done by some of the number. He failed in his enterprise, he said,
from want of capital. One has been in operation in England for eight
years very successfully, connected with which is a training school. They
have few Americans to apply for places; for Americans like lighter work,
as nursing, sewing, being lady's maid, &c. In summer there is a scarcity
of girls, for they go to the country and watering places to cook and do
housework. In the fall they flock to the city, and there are more
applicants than situations. At some offices the privilege is accorded
for three months, and at some only one month. A lady who keeps an office
in Williamsburg told me, when the girls come to her, she takes their
names and qualifications. She receives the calls of ladies wanting
girls, and also records their wants. After five o'clock, and on Saturday
after two o'clock, the office is closed, and she then compares the wants
of employers and employées, and makes out a corresponding list. Next day
she sends girls to their places. I could have got a lady's maid for $5 a
month with board and lodging. I saw a lady securing a nurse for her
child at the same price. Fifty cents is the fee for the privilege of her
office for three months. She furnishes girls during that time until the
mistress is satisfied; and the girl pays the same, and is furnished with
places for three months until she is satisfied. She does not require
references from her girls, but sends the lady to the last employer of
the girl. I called at Mrs. Y.'s office, New York. Girls, she says, get
different prices in different States. In wealthy States, as
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Southern States, they get good
prices. In Cincinnati, and the States of Wisconsin and New Jersey, poor
prices. She sends many from the city to every part of the United States.
People write to her, inclosing the money for the girl's passage. She
then buys her a ticket and provisions, and sends her on; but the
arrangement is always for a year or six months, as people are not
willing to incur the expense of paying the passage of a girl for less
time. She could get many more places for girls, if they would go to the
country; but they do not wish to go, and, if dissatisfied, be at the
expense of returning. The girl may be deceived, by finding there are
twice as many in the family as represented, or the work is much harder.
Mrs. Y. learns the character of a girl that applies to her, and then
registers it in her book. So ladies applying for a girl have from her
the true character. She has no difficulty in finding places for her
girls. She is always busy but on a rainy day. People object to having an
intelligence office near them, as the girls are inclined to stand about
the door. It is said that the majority of the keepers of intelligence
offices furnish the best places to those by whom they are bribed. A few
years ago, the number of white female servants in New York city was
estimated at 100,000, that of Boston 50,000, Philadelphia 30,000, and
Baltimore 20,000. There is a lady in Boston who goes around among her
friends and secures to them good domestics, receiving some compensation
for her services--I think, fifty cents a domestic. When the influence of
servants over children is considered, I think parents cannot be too
careful in the selection of their servants; and to obtain good ones,
they should be willing to pay a fair price. There is a waste of time to
girls sitting in offices, and a risk run of being sent, by a person of
whose moral character they know nothing, to a house that may prove the
wreck of their virtue. At a boarding house and intelligence office for
workwomen, the lady told me they charge $2 a week for board, allowing
the privilege of the wash room, and of sitting in the parlor in the
evening, which is warmed and contains a piano. To those who cannot pay
as much as this, they charge from $1 to $1.25, giving them rooms in the
attic. They have been applied to often for persons of a higher class
than usually frequent intelligence offices, but only until since the
times have been so hard have they had such applicants. I was told, at
another office, they seldom have American girls apply for places, except
as house girls, and they are mostly girls who have worked in factories.
They send girls to California and all parts of the United States, and
they have some who travel through Europe in the capacity of ladies'
maids. Their office is open from nine to five o'clock. When a girl is
sent for from another place, the money is sent by express and a receipt
taken, or by mail, and a receipt taken at the post office. One of a high
order for cultivated women, who desire places as bookkeepers, copyists,
secretaries, &c., is quite necessary. We would suggest the establishment
of such an office for furnishing female workers to different parts of
the United States, where they are wanted in the higher branches of
woman's labor. It would confer a blessing on virtuous and industrious
women, and be an accommodation to employers. A paper devoted to the same
interests might do much good also; but we think it doubtful whether it
would pay its way.