father keeps a lighthouse, but he is very feeble and infirm. They attend
the lights, and often row out, if they see a wreck, and do what they can
to rescue the passengers. We observed this newspaper paragraph a few
years back: "A Mrs. Lydia Smith has been appointed assistant keeper of
the lighthouse at Manitou Island (Michigan) at $250 per annum." "They
have a Grace Darling at Bridgeport, Conn. On the night of the 13th
inst., Miss Moore, an accomplished young lady, the daughter of the
keeper of the lighthouse on Fairweather Island, just below Bridgeport,
heard cries for help at a distance from the shore, and determined that
an effort should be made to rescue whom it might be. It was too dark to
tell the direction or the distance, but, summoning two young men to her
aid, she launched the boat belonging to the lighthouse, and ordered them
to pull out in the direction of the cries, herself holding the tiller.
About two miles out in the Sound, they found a sailboat capsized, and
clinging to it were two men nearly exhausted. One of them was entirely
helpless, and with great difficulty got in the boat; but both were
finally rescued from death by the courage and efforts of this brave
girl, and brought safely to shore. Mr. Moore, the keeper of the
lighthouse, has been for some time afflicted with ill health, and when
unable to see to the details of his office, this daughter assumes the
entire management, and, through the lonely watches of the night, it is
her fair hand that trims and tends the beacon that guides the mariner
safely on his way."
=426. Pawnbrokers.= I suppose this business requires a general knowledge
of the value of goods. Some pawnbrokers profess to make liberal
advances, but a very heavy percentage is usually charged. Indeed, some
pawnbrokers extort an incredible interest on money loaned to the poor.
S., an intelligent Irish pawnbroker, into whose office I went to ask
something of the business, told me he never knew of but one woman in the
business. She was nominally a widow, and employed a young man to stay in
the shop. When women are employed in pawnbrokers' establishments, it is
nearly always as auxiliaries, being the wife, sister, or daughter of the
keeper. He thinks it not a suitable business for a woman, as the class
of people that come require a strong man to deal with them, who can use
their slang language, and drive them away if they become very rude. No
doubt, many go to pawn what they have when under the influence of
liquor, or to pawn their clothes to get liquor. The broker retains what
is pawned for a year, if it is not redeemed in less time. It is then
sold at auction. There is a law that permits it. His shelves were filled
with bundles, on which were pinned numbered papers. Another pawnbroker
told me that the fashion and quality of goods decide the price put on
them, particularly wearing apparel. There may be a difference in the
value estimation of pawnbrokers, just as there is in different
establishments where the same kind of new goods are sold. I saw the name
of a female pawnbroker in a business directory, and called. I did not
see her, but the young man who was employed to assist her in attending
the store said they have most business to do in summer, and that it is a
business requiring experience. They pay on articles taken to them what
they will be likely to sell for at auction. They must make some
allowance for what they may lose on the article. They charge at the rate
of twenty-five per cent. for a year's time, which is as long as anything
pawned is kept. They lose more on clothes than other goods. They allow a
depositor to draw any sum of less amount than the estimated value of an
article; and when the article is redeemed, a percentage is paid on the
amount of the money drawn, and not on the full value of the article.
=427. Postmistresses.= There are (1854) 128 postmistresses in the United
States. They receive the same salaries that postmasters do. The clerks
in post offices sometimes count at the rate of sixty letters a minute.
There are 29,000 post offices in the United States, ninety clerks in
Chicago, and, I think, nearly three hundred in New York. Might not a
large number of these be women? I have read that it is in contemplation
to place in the general post office in London a number of lady clerks. I
called on Mrs. W., who was for nearly two years at the ladies' window in
the general post office, New York. Very few approved of a lady being
there. She found some advantages, but many disadvantages, arising from
her position. In the first place, it yielded her and her child a
support, the salary being $600. She was treated with respect by all the
attachés of the office except two--one of whom was immediately
dismissed, and the other removed. But the class of women who go to the
general post office constantly for letters, are of a kind a respectable
woman would not like to come in contact with. The majority receive
letters under fictitious names. Some of them were very impudent to her.
And sometimes men would come to the window and insist on her getting the
letters of their lady friends for them. Besides, there were about fifty
clerks immediately around her, and altogether in the office between two
hundred and three hundred. They were men of all classes and nations. The
office is one influenced by political motives, and a man has the
advantage as candidate by gaining the votes of his friends. She says she
was kind and courteous, but found it necessary to be very decided, and
keep at a distance from every one. The men in the office did not like
it, because they had to guard their tongues. She remained there from
8.30 A. M. to 4.30 P. M., and was on her feet all the time, with the
exception of a few minutes. There were no conveniences or comforts for a
woman. So she suffered severely from the effects. She thinks the plan of
employing ladies in the post offices of towns and villages might be done
more easily. Even here it might be done more advantageously, if the
office was situated farther up street, the regulations were different,
and a number of ladies were employed instead of but one. A lady could
not well use a ladder to reach down letters from the upper boxes. A
young man did that for her. For a postmistress we might enumerate the
qualifications of quickness of eye, strict integrity, a retentive
memory, and patient industry. "Unmarried females only can hold the
office of postmistress. They are appointed, give bonds, and are
commissioned in the same manner as postmasters, and receive the same
compensation. There is, however, a larger number of females, generally
the wives and daughters of postmasters, employed as assistants; but as
the latter are appointed and paid by the postmasters themselves, to whom
alone they are responsible, their names are not recorded on the
government books."
=428. Sewing-Machine Instructors.= In many of the stores of New York,
where sewing machines are sold, we notice that many of those who give
instructions to buyers of machines are men. Shame on the men that teach
women to sew! When such is the case, to what may not a woman resort for
earning a livelihood? Shame on the man that engages in such an
effeminate employment, save he who is deformed and cannot engage in
harder work! Shame, I say, on the man seen at a sewing machine, or with
a needle in his hand! Surely the muscles and bones and sinews of men
were never given for such a purpose. W. & W. employ five young ladies as
instructors on machines, paying each of them over $6 a week. They have
one to sell thread, and two to go about the city adjusting machines. It
is something difficult to do, as it requires almost the mechanical
talent of a machinist. They have no applications for instructors on
sewing machines out of the city, but have for some in the city. They
employ females because the purchasers of machines are generally ladies.
G. & B. employ a lady for adjusting machines, as they find ladies prefer
one of their own sex for the purpose. I was told at S.'s, by the
bookkeeper, they do not employ female instructors. They used to employ
both young men and young ladies, but they spent so much time talking to
each other, that they found it necessary to dispense with either the one
or the other. So they gave up the girls eighteen months ago, and have
not employed any since. They paid girls $4 a week from the time they
took them, and increased their wages to $5 or $6. Many of the women
earned $6. They worked, on an average, ten hours a day. Ladies are
employed in Boston to sell machines. The ladies of New York (said a
young man selling machines) prefer to buy of a gentleman. (?) Yet, he
thinks the crying sin of civilization is, not furnishing remunerative
employment to women. Simply learning to sew with a machine is by no
means difficult, though the time required depends very much upon the
abilities of the learner. Some become proficient in all its
accomplishments of hemming, tucking, gathering, preparing work for the
machine, &c., in from three to six months, while others do not become
efficient workers in less than a year. The time required to learn
depends very much on the machine used, as some are more complicated than
others; and a thorough knowledge of the machine is desirable for every
good worker. It is more difficult to learn to operate on one kind of
machine after learning on some other kind. By paying $1.50, a person can
receive six lessons on sewing machines at S.'s. At W. & W.'s, and at G.
& B.'s, purchasers and those who cannot pay are taught free of charge.
Some people charge $3 for teaching to operate. L. & W. will teach any
one to operate who buys a machine, but they charge others $2.
=429. Shepherdesses.= Boys who keep sheep in Scotland, knit while so
employed. Girls and women who tend sheep, might perhaps do the same.
Sheep are being raised to considerable extent in Texas, and the raising
of them is on the increase in the Western States, but we do not know
that females have ever been employed in this country to tend sheep.
=430. Toll Collectors.= It is not unusual to see women receiving toll at
the gates, but they are mostly foreigners, or poor widows, or the wives
of the gatekeepers.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THE COMFORT OR AMUSEMENT OF OTHERS.
=431. Bathhouse Attendants.= There are some people that cannot afford to
have bathhouses in their dwellings, and for such it is well there are
houses where, for twenty-five cents, they may enjoy the luxury of a
bath. Particularly is it well for hard-working people, on whom the dust
and perspiration collect, and who are refreshed and rendered more
healthy by frequent baths. Where a bathhouse is used for women
alone--there being no department for men--we think it might be owned and
superintended by a lady, just like any other branch of business.
Females, of course, would be in attendance to wait on those that
frequent the bath rooms. Quite a number are employed at water-cure
establishments, which are open for patients at all seasons of the year.
Not only does cleanliness promote comfort, but it is conducive to
health. Many of the diseases of the poor arise from a want of
cleanliness. Even the morals are improved, and the mind freed as it were
from its cobwebs. Most medicinal baths should be superintended by some
one that has a knowledge of medicine and the human system. And those
employed, if unacquainted with the business, should be particular in
observing directions given. For baths, a person should have means to fit
up rooms neatly, and enough to live on until their establishment becomes
known. I called on the wife of a gentleman who has electro-magnetic
baths administered. He is a physician, and gives medical advice as to
the kind of bath required. He does not give much medicine, thinking the
article that would be prescribed had better be administered externally
in the form of a bath. The baths are $3 for a single one; $10 for four.
More people take the baths in summer than winter. After a vapor bath the
system is stimulated, not relaxed; it is then better prepared for the
reception of medicine. The charge at one establishment I know to be 50
cents a bath, or $5 for twelve. In New York, I saw the People's Washing
and Bathing Establishment, which was put up by some philanthropic
citizens, for the benefit of the poor. A man is employed to take charge
of it; and in summer, several women attend to bathers, and some wash and
iron towels. They pay $3 a week to a bath attendant, and from $3 to
$3.50 to washers and ironers. They have had 1,500 bathers a day, in
summer. For a bath in a small room and one towel, six cents are charged;
for better accommodations, twelve cents. A swimming bath for boys is
attached, and a charge made of three cents a swim of half an hour.
=432. Brace and Truss Makers.= I went to M. & Co.'s, New York, who are
surgical and anatomical mechanicians, inventors, and manufacturers. They
want to employ several good female workers. They will not take any to
learn, because it requires time to teach them; yet a person of moderate
abilities, that can sew neatly, can learn in a few days, or weeks at
most, to do the cutting out and stitching. Part of the stitching is done
by hand, and part by machinery. The workwomen are paid $3 a week, and
work ten hours. At L.'s truss and bandage institute, I learned that he
employs a number at $3 a week. He cannot get as many good hands as he
wants. He drew several hands from his former employer by paying them a
little more. His wife does the fitting for ladies. A truss maker in
Middletown, Conn., pays his women by the piece, and they earn from $3 to
$4 per week. A., Brooklyn, pays a girl that sews neatly, but has never
worked at the business, $3 a week. Any one that can sew well or operate
on a machine, can do the mechanical work. He pays experienced hands over
$3, according to what they do. His girls work but nine hours a day.
Manufacturers of surgical apparatus in Boston write: "We employ women in
sewing exclusively, generally about twenty, and all American. The work
is not more unhealthy than any sewing. We consider any steady sewing,
and the consequent confinement, more or less injurious. Average wages,
perhaps $4 per week--something depends upon capabilities, however. Some
have earned $6 per week, though such cases are exceptions. All our work
is done by the piece. Females are paid about half the price of males.
There appears to be an ample supply of female labor. On this basis,
prices, details, &c., are governed accordingly. That portion of the work
done by males, it takes three years to learn; that done by women, three
months, presuming they were good sewers at the start. Learners are paid
the same as old hands. Of course, they are slower, and accumulate less
until well learned. To be a neat sewer and possess some mechanical skill
will prepare one for this employment. We are seldom idle more than two
weeks in the year. The male portion of our work would be no more adapted
to women than horse shoeing. Our hands work from eight to twelve hours
each day, and have none too much time for the improvement of their
minds, considering they must be occupied more or less upon their own
private sewing in addition to their business." A truss maker in Boston
writes: "I pay by the week, from $4 to$6 to women; to men, from $7 to
$12, because they can do more. They work from nine to ten hours. All are
Americans. It requires from three to six months to learn. Some portions
of the steel work would not be suitable for women. Board, $2 per week."
"W. & F. employ eight women for making braces, bandages, &c. They pay $3
a week to those who are employed by the week. Those that work by the
piece can earn from $4 to $6, and sometimes by overwork $7 a week. Their
work is steady in good times, and they are able to employ their girls
all the year. All sew by hand but one, and she receives but $4 as an
operator. The business is mostly confined to cities."
=433. Chiropodists.= W., of the firm of L. & W., was quite a gentlemanly
man in his manners, conversation, and dress. He mentioned three women,
each in different cities, engaged in this occupation. He thinks his
pursuit preferable to dentistry. Both depend on the class of patients.
To follow the calling professionally requires a knowledge of anatomy and
surgery. There is a great deal of charlatanism practised by some in the
calling. A knowledge of how to extract corns is not sufficient. Bunions,
inverted nails, &c., require scientific treatment. He charges $1 for
removing one corn, fifty cents apiece for two, and proportionately less
for three or more. There are a great many itinerant doctors. If any
individual fits himself properly for the calling, he may, after three or
four years, in a large city, living from hand to mouth during the time,
succeed in establishing a name and gaining respectable practice. The
number of ladies suffering from corns has not decreased, judging from
his experience. Men are more liable to have corns than women, because of
more severe and constant exercise. He thinks it would not do for women
to work at men's feet. I think it would not be more agreeable to a woman
to have a man work at her feet; and as far as propriety goes, one is no
better than the other. He would discourage any lady friend of his from
undertaking the business. I called on Mme. K., a French lady. Her father
is a chiropodist in Paris, and what she knows of the business she
learned from seeing him. She found it unpleasant at first, but now she
does not mind it. She goes to the house of the patient for the same
price as she operates at her own room, namely, fifty cents a corn. She
has as much to do as she wants. She thinks, in other places there are
openings, and a woman that thoroughly understands the business is in
every way as fit and capable as a man. She knows of but one other lady
in the business in this country, and she is quite aged. She thinks, by
three months' study and practice with a skilful operator, one might do
very well to commence for herself. She would as soon operate on a
gentleman's as a lady's foot. It might be well for one commencing to
practice to travel, or get custom in several towns and villages in the
same vicinity. I think she would instruct any one for a satisfactory
compensation. A chiropodist says, as long as people are fools enough to
abuse their feet, the prospect for his employment is good. L. is the
oldest practitioner in the United States, and has practised in New York
for twenty years. He would be willing to instruct pupils, charging $100
for each student. He would give thorough and systematic instruction, and
teach to make the material used. People have not had much confidence in
ladies, because of their deficiency in surgical skill. Incompetent
persons have injured the business. Times do not affect the amount of
practice. There are openings in Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago. Many
ladies come to L. to have their finger nails trimmed, polished, and
tinted. They would no doubt be as willing to have a competent lady.
=434. Cuppers and Leechers.= This business is sometimes connected with
that of a barber. But in cities, some women engage in it, and, no doubt,
are as competent as men. Indeed, for their own sex and children they are
better fitted. Mrs. A., a cupper and leecher, told me the best way to
obtain custom is to form the acquaintance of some of the best
physicians, as they will then recommend you but you must always be ready
to attend their patients, or they forget you. Her father was a
physician, and in that way she learned the treatment of leeches. It is
well to get into the favor of persons that serve as leechers at the
infirmaries--they may be willing to instruct you. The Germans have
killed the business in New York. Some charge but twenty-five cents for
cupping, and proportionately low for leeching. Leeching is sooner
learned than cupping, but there is much less of both done than formerly.
Homoeopathy has interfered with their use. She used to be out all day
and up all night, but now she seldom has a call; and yet she must be
always at home, and ready for a call. She never goes to take a cup of
tea with a friend, and is frequently called out of church. Leeching and
cupping require a steady hand, and ability to use the scarificator. A
person in the business must go into all kinds of sickness, without even
asking what it is. Accidents give considerable custom, and in the sickly
season there is most. It has become common for lads in apothecary shops
to be sent out to apply leeches. When they are to be applied to any
hidden part of a lady, a female leecher, of course, is preferable. Mrs.
A. charges twenty-five cents a leech, if more than one is applied--if
not, thirty-seven cents. For cupping she charges $1. One lady in New
York charges not less than $1 apiece for applying leeches, and in some
cases more. Mrs. L. thinks a lady could not make a living at the
business in New York, because the Germans have killed the trade by
working at half price, and, as might be supposed, do not properly
understand it. A good location should be fixed upon for an office. A
cupper and leecher is expected to go in all weather, and in all hours of
the day and night, and in any kind of sickness. Most of it is done in
fall and winter, because there is then most inflammation. Judgment must
be used in the quantity of blood to be drawn. A leecher should be a good
judge of the quality of leeches, and the proper treatment of them.
Particular attention should be paid to the directions of the doctor in
applying leeches. Mrs. L. says there is an opening for a cupper and
leecher in Albany, N. Y. A friend of hers there had to pay exorbitantly
for the services of a leecher.
=435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers.= In Philadelphia, I was told at the
store where most fishing tackle is sold, that one woman is employed by
them in fastening small hooks, with silk thread, on the end of worm gut.
Large hooks are prepared in the same way for other kinds of fishing. It
would seem that few women know of the existence of that kind of work in
Philadelphia, for when the proprietor advertises for a female hand, he
never has any applicants. It is clean, healthy work, and the materials
can be easily carried home. Fifty cents a day a woman earns at it, but a
man $1. There is but a small demand for fishing tackle in Philadelphia,
but in New York the trade is much more important. C., of New York, says
most engaged in this work are English women. A fast and correct worker
can earn $6 a week at it. They are paid for by the dozen. He finds women
more honest than men, and therefore prefers them. Men will steal some of
the line or some of the hooks. For making flies, a superior hand may
earn $8 a week. Something of a mechanical turn is all that is necessary
to make a good workman. They have more work of that kind done than any
house in New York, and pay a better price to have it well done. Nets pay
very poorly, because all the large nets are now made by machinery, and
the smaller ones are made by infirm people, who do it to keep employed
as much as for the compensation. When the coarse netting is done by
machinery, it can be obtained at 12½ cents a fathom, and a fathom of the
same kind done by hand would require a day. The peculiar system of the
business is that the work is all done in winter, and the goods sold in
summer. It is a luxury, and consequently dispensed with when times are
hard. C. pays for putting hooks on the lines by the gross. The silk
lines are manufactured in England. G. & B. employ four women who work at
home in making fishing tackle and artificial flies. They are made in
winter. An experienced hand can obtain $15 a week, working from six in
the morning till ten at night. He thinks, there are so few in the
business, workers would not give instruction without good pay. A woman
may possibly earn $4 a week making nets. They employ Irishmen to weave
the silk worm gut on the hooks. The three or four large fishing-tackle
establishments in New York could furnish all that is needed for the
United States. Mrs. R., who makes artificial flies and fishing tackle,
says she has now and then earned $9 a week--a difference of $6 in the
report of the clerk. But there is considerable difference in the amount
of work of the different kinds; and as they are paid for by the gross,
some kinds of work pay better than others. There is now considerable
competition in this work, because of the many that are out of
employment. Girls apply at the store, offering to do the work at
forty-two cents a gross. None are prepared South or West--so there may
be openings before long in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, &c. Making
artificial flies is mostly in the hands of Irishmen.