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Title: The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work

Author: Virginia Penny

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Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN: A CYCLOPÆDIA OF WOMAN'S
WORK ***

THE
EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN:
A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work.
BY
V I R G I N I A P E N N Y.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY WALKER, WISE, & COMPANY,
245 WASHINGTON STREET.

1863.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
V I R G I N I A P E N N Y,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

TO
WORTHY AND INDUSTRIOUS WOMEN
IN THE UNITED STATES,
STRIVING TO EARN A LIVELIHOOD,
This Book
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

It is very easy to obtain book after book on "The Sphere of Woman,"
"The Mission of Woman," and "The Influence of Woman." But to a
practical mind it must be evident that good advice is not sufficient. That is
very well, provided the reader is supplied with the comforts of life. But
plans need to be devised, pursuits require to be opened, by which women
can earn a respectable livelihood. It is the great want of the day. It is in
order to meet that want that this work has been prepared. The few
employments that have been open to women are more than full. To
withdraw a number from the few markets of female labor already crowded
to excess, by directing them to avenues where they are wanted, would
thereby benefit both parties.
At no time in our country's history have so many women been thrown
upon their own exertions. A million of men are on the battle field, and
thousands of women, formerly dependent on them, have lost or may lose
their only support. Some of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of
soldiers, may take the vacancies created in business by their absence—
others must seek new channels of labor.
An exact estimate of woman as she has been, and now is, furnishes a
problem difficult to solve. Biographies and histories merely furnish a clue
to what she has been. Prejudice has exaggerated these portraitures. Woman
as she now is, save in fiction and society, is scarcely known. The future
position of woman is a matter of conjecture only. No mathematical nicety
can be brought to bear upon the subject, for it is one not capable of data.
More particularly is it difficult to define what her future condition in a
business capacity will be. Man will have much to do with it, but woman
more. I know of no work giving a true history of woman's condition in a
business capacity. Socially, morally, mentally, and religiously, she is written

about; but not as a working, every-day reality, in any other capacity than
that pertaining to home life. It has been to me a matter of surprise that some
one has not presented the subject in a practical way, that would serve as an
index to the opening of new occupations, and present the feasibility of
women engaging in many from which they are now debarred. It is strange
there is no book on the subject, in any language, for it is a world-wide
subject. Its roots are in the very basis of society—its ramifications as
numerous as the nations of the earth—yes, as the individual members of the
human family. The welfare of every man, woman, and child is involved in
the subject. For who is entirely free from female influence—who is devoid
of interest in the sex—who exists free from relationship, or any connection
with woman? There is no man that is not involved in what affects woman,
and the reverse is also true. It should therefore be a subject of paramount
interest to all. Particularly does the subject appeal to the heart of woman. If
she does not need to make a practical use of information on the subject, she
will find its possession no disadvantage. It may assist her, from motives of
friendship, or benevolent feelings, to advise and direct others. Is there any
woman, not entirely devoid of all sensibility, but desires an amelioration in
the condition of the working class of her sex—those who earn a mere
pittance, scarce enough to keep body and soul together?
The work of single women has never been very clearly defined. Those
that are without means are often without any to guide them; and the limited
avenues of employment open to women, and the fear of becoming a burden
on others, have poisoned some of their best hours, and paralyzed some of
their strongest powers. There is a large amount of female talent in the
United States lying dormant for the want of cultivation, and there has been
a large amount cultivated that is not brought into exercise for the want of
definite plans and opportunities of making it available. It exists like an
icicle, and requires the warmth of energy, thought, and independence to
render it useful. It shrinks from forcing itself into notice, like the sensitive
plant, and may live and die unseen and unknown. Widen, then, the theatre
of action and enterprise to woman. Throw open productive fields of labor,
and let her enter.
Of those who speak so bitterly of women engaging in some pursuits now
conducted by men, we would inquire, What would you have destitute single
women and widows do, by which to earn their bread? You surely would not

have women steal, that cannot obtain employment. What, then, can they do?
Why may they not have free access to callings that will insure them a
support? Those that oppose them, generally do so from selfish motives.
Many men would banish women from the editor's and author's table, from
the store, the manufactory, the workshop, the telegraph office, the printing
case, and every other place, except the school room, sewing table, and
kitchen. The false opinion that exists in regard to the occupations suitable
for women must be changed ere women have free access to all those in
which they may engage. Yet I would love to see thrown open to women the
door of every trade and profession in which they are capable of working.
"Women have not devoted their time and talents to mechanical arts,
except to a very limited extent, and only within fifty years. How then could
they be expected to equal men in proficiency, who have from the creation of
the world been so employed, and who have had the advantage not only of
their own exertions, but the experience of their fathers and forefathers to
profit by? The superior mechanical talent of the United States is becoming
known throughout the civilized world, and some of the work dictated by
that talent is executed by women.
Some persons complain that women would become more material—less
spiritual—if engaged in manual labor. We think not, if it is of a kind suited
to their nature. Contact with the world does not always wear out the
fineness and delicacy that we love in woman. She does not necessarily lose
that softness and gentleness that render her so lovely.
A few women may by nature have a fondness for masculine pursuits; but
the number of men that have from training and circumstances a partiality
for feminine pursuits, is much greater. It has been estimated that there are
95,000 females earning a livelihood in New York city and its vicinity, by
their labor, aside from those engaged in domestic pursuits; and I am
confident there are at least 100,000 men in the same city engaged in
pursuits well adapted to women.
As women become more generally educated, their energies will be
increased—their limits of thought expanded. They will seek employments
consistent with honor and delicacy. They will desire the elevation of their
sex, and do what they can to bring it about, regardless of the shafts of
ridicule sent by selfish men and heartless women.

"By elevating the standard and augmenting the compensation of woman's
labor," a complete revolution would be wrought in the social and political
standing of woman. Let woman once surmount the difficulties that now
oppose her, and take her stand with dignified reserve, laboring and claiming
what is her right as much as men—free labor and fair wages—and liberal
men will applaud and admire her.
As a friend of my sex, I have made investigations, and obtained statistics
that show the business position of woman at present in the United States. I
present such employments as have been, are, or may be pursued by them,
and give what information I can obtain of each one. I may have omitted a
few, and there may be some that are not yet recognized as a distinct
business. I have made the study a speciality for three years, and spent an
almost incredible amount of labor and money in doing so. I have visited
factories, workshops, offices, and stores, for the purpose of seeing women
at their vocations. I have gone through wind and snow, cold and rain. If I
could have had the time and opportunity, I would have endeavored to see,
also, something of their home-life.
Much of the verbal information I give is impartial, as it has been given by
those with whom I talked in a casual way, they not knowing I had any
object in view; and frequently it was done in a respectful, yet off-hand way,
when making purchases. I have often bought articles merely for an excuse
to talk with people, and gain information on their occupations.
I desire to present to those interested a clear and succinct view of the
condition of business in the United States, the openings for entering into
business, the vacancies women may fill and the crowded marts they may
avoid, the qualifications needed for a selected pursuit, and the pursuits to
which they are best adapted; also the probable result pecuniarily of each
calling honorably pursued: in short, it is intended as a business manual for
women. I wish to make it a practical work—useful, not ornamental. It is
more a bringing together of facts, than a presentation of ideas—more a
book of research than reflection. Yet the statements given are important, not
merely as facts, but as being suggestive of things essential to or connected
with occupations. The limits of each subject must necessarily be short, as I
wish to form a volume to come within the reach of every one that would
desire a copy.

Any female who has in view the learning of any occupation mentioned in
this book, would do well to go and see the process before making
arrangements to that effect. And she should exercise her own judgment in
making a practical use of that information. Many pursuits are now followed
by women for which it was once thought they were incapable.
My book is not sectional in its feelings. It is intended to benefit women
of the North, South, East, and West of this vast Republic. In the large cities
of the North, most working women are acquainted with others engaged in
different occupations, and so may learn of places to be filled in them. In the
South, a smaller number of women have been dependent on their own
exertions, owing to the existence of slave-labor, and the comparative
smallness of immigration.
I strongly advocate the plan of every female having a practical
knowledge of some occupation by which to earn a livelihood. How do men
fare that are raised without being fitted for any trade or profession,
particularly those in the humbler walks of life? They become our most
common and ill-paid laborers. So it is with woman's work. If a female is not
taught some regular occupation by which to earn a living, what can she do,
when friends die, and she is without means? Even the labor that offers to
men, situated as she is, is not at her disposal.
No reproach should be cast upon any honest employment. The dignity
and value of labor in the most menial occupation is superior to idleness or
dependence upon others for the requirements of life. What destitute but
industrious woman would not be glad to earn for herself a snug little
cottage, to which she may resort in her old age, from the cares and conflicts
of life; to enjoy the independence of a competency, earned by remunerative
and well-applied labor?
I will not be responsible for all the opinions advanced by those who have
furnished me with information. The reader will often have to form her own
deductions from the statements made. My work may not accomplish, by a
great deal, the end proposed, but I hope it may be the means of securing, by
honest industry, a livelihood to many now dependent and desponding. If it
does not in itself accomplish any visible good, it may be the means of
bringing forward some better method by which the desired end may be
effected. It may perhaps impart information by which the philanthropic may

best employ their time and means in advancing the welfare of others, by
pointing out the wants of dependent women, and how best to meet those
wants. It may open the way of usefulness to women of leisure and talents. If
it saves any of my sex from an aimless and profitless life, I will feel that
something has been done. In that way some may be kept from despair and
sin. And it is certainly better to prevent evil than to cure it. Some have
means, and if a plan were presented to them, they would engage in its
execution.
Connected with this subject is a fervent desire on the part of the writer to
see houses of protection and comfort provided in our cities for respectable
and industrious women when out of employment. Wealthy, benevolent
people might build them, and appropriations be granted by the cities in
which they are planted. Such a structure in each of our cities and towns
would be a refuge to the weary, a home to the oppressed, a sanctuary to the
stranger in a strange land.
When the place of gaining information is not mentioned in this work, it
will be understood that New York city was the place. It will be remembered
that most of the information was obtained from October, 1859, to February,
1861.
I hope much anxiety of mind, and uncertainty in the selection of a
pursuit, will be prevented by my book, and many precious hours thereby
saved for active, cheerful employment. If there should seem to be a want of
practicability in any of the subjects I have treated upon, I think, after some
reflection, it will disappear. Some of the employments presented may not
find encouragement and proper compensation until our country becomes
older, and calls for more variety in labor. I hope I may not hold out any
unreasonable expectations of employment, or excite any hope that may not
be realized. My ideas may appear vague and indefinite to some, but even
such may perhaps pick out a few grains from the pile of chaff. But we must
be doing, not saying—moving, not sitting—accomplishing something, not
folding our hands in indolent ease. The active, restless spirit that pervades
our people calls for action. It will not do to rest passive and let events take
their own course. The progress of the age calls for earnest labor.

INTRODUCTION.
The great, urgent, universal wants of mankind, in all classes of society,
are food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. After these come the comforts and
luxuries pertaining to the condition of those in easy circumstances. Above
and beyond these animal wants, but of nearly equal importance, are those
relating to the mind—written and printed matter, oral instructions, as
lectures and sermons, and the handiwork of the fine arts. These, in addition
to health, freedom, and friends, comprise the greatest blessings man enjoys.
I would add that the means of transit are necessary to make him entirely
independent. Nearly all honest occupations are founded on these wants; but
they have been divided and subdivided until their name is legion.
The contents of this volume might be arranged in the same way that the
articles exhibited in the Crystal Palace of London were, under the heads—
Producer, Importer, Manufacturer, Designer, Inventor, and Proprietor. But
we think the arrangement pursued, though rather irregular, may be quite as
convenient. So great is the variety of subjects treated, that it is difficult to
condense the contents in a smaller compass.
The general difference in character and habits of those engaged in
various occupations—their comparative morality and intelligence, the
effects of a decline in wages, the effects of trades-unions, are all, more or
less, involved in this subject of employments; also the opinions of the
working classes on machinery and its results. Employments that have for
their object the health, comfort, and protection of mankind—those that
produce the necessaries and the luxuries of life—those for amusement and
capable of being dispensed with—are all treated of to some extent.
Numbers of women have been lost to society from the want of a
systematic organization for their employment, and by a deficiency in the
number of remunerative pursuits open to them. The destinies of thousands
are daily perilled, mentally, morally, and physically, by the same cause. The
disease has raised a great and turbulent cry; but, strange to say, few means,
and they limited and inefficient, have been used as a cure. Indeed, a remedy
has scarcely been devised. To open new and suitable occupations to women,

and secure for them fair wages, would, I believe, be an effectual mode of
relief. But to bring about a favorable change, not only must more
occupations be opened to women, but, as Mr. Walker says, "employments
of an equally indispensable character with those of the other sex." Many
persons would be surprised to find the large number of people employed in
such occupations as pertain only to civilized life—such as could be
dispensed with in an emergency; and the small number employed in such
occupations as really furnish us with the necessaries of life. In the first
class, aside from those engaged in domestic duties and labors, the majority
of women are employed.
In the selection of a pursuit, it would be well to take into consideration
what occupations are most likely to increase in this country. Those
absolutely necessary for the preservation of life are permanent. Those
essential to the health and comfort of mankind must be pursued by some.
The steadiness of employment the year round should also be considered.
Another item is the danger attending a trade, and the effects of the
occupation on the health of the individual. A better compensation should be
given to those prosecuting either a dangerous or unhealthy pursuit. There is
at present more danger of women suffering from either an excess of work,
or the entire want of it, than from any peculiarity pertaining to an
occupation. A matter of some importance is the ability of an individual to
furnish herself with the implements of a trade, goods for merchandizing, or
the appurtenances of a profession, if she intends to conduct business on her
own responsibility and at her own expense. If she has friends to advance her
the money, she might perhaps make an arrangement to refund as she
advances in business.
It is a matter of doubt with us whether the labors of women are on an
average less laborious than those of men. That they are generally performed
indoors, is not saying anything in their favor as regards health. If we include
domestic employments, we cannot say they are neater on an average. They
may be better adapted to the constitution of the female sex, but the question
arises, Are those in which women now engage, except domestic duties,
more congenial to their taste, more acceptable to their feelings, more likely
to develop their mental powers, and rightly direct their moral nature, than
many others in which they might engage?

We find that the class of workers, both men and women, having the most
steady employments, are the most steady and reliable people.
There are some employments in which it is well for a man and his wife to
unite, as bankers, picture restorers, house painters, &c.
There is probably as much diversity in the abilities of individual men to
acquire a trade, as in those of women. We doubt not but women, generally,
are as capable of acquiring a knowledge of any vocation as men, if they
spend as much time and application in doing so. Could not women learn
those occupations quite as thoroughly that require of men an apprenticeship
of three, five, or seven years, if they could give the same time? We are
confident the majority of women could, particularly those who have had
equal advantages in the way of education and society with men engaged in
the same pursuit.
We think the time spent in acquiring a knowledge of different
occupations is not at all proportioned to the variety of work and the skill
required for proficiency in each. For instance, an occupation that could be
learned in six months, must have three years' labor given; while an
occupation that it requires twenty years to excel in, has the usual
apprenticeship of three years. By the way, could not the most of those
pursuits now requiring three years' time of serving be mastered in a shorter
period?
Supply and demand must ever regulate, to a great extent, the wages of
women as well as men. We think, in the different departments of woman's
labor, both physical and mental, there exists a want of harmony of labor
done and the compensation; also, between the time given and the
occupation. For instance, a gilder in a bookbindery gets $6 a week, or $1 a
day of ten hours, which is equal to ten cents an hour. A girl, at most
mechanical employments, receives, for her sixty hours' labor, $3 a week,
which is equal to five cents an hour. A cook, who requires as much
preparation as either, for ninety hours' labor will receive her board and
washing, say $2, and $2 a week as wages, $4, equal to four and a half cents
an hour. Confectioners' girls, in some of the best establishments in New
York, spend seventeen, and some even eighteen hours, attending to their
duties, and receive only $2, and board and washing, $4.50, equal to two and

a half cents an hour. Some seamstresses sew fifteen hours a day, and earn
but thirty cents, equal to two cents an hour, without board.
Where there are discrepancies about the seasons for any particular kind
of work, as given by different parties, it will usually be found to arise from
some of the number being engaged in the wholesale business, selling to
people from the South and West; others selling to city traders, or retail
merchants selling to city customers.
When there is a repetition of statements on the same subject, it will be
observed that it arises from the information being given by different
individuals.
I have used the words girl and woman indiscriminately, except when
mention is made of the age of the girls.
I would take this opportunity of returning my thanks to all who have been
so kind as to furnish me with any information, or directed me how to obtain
it.
Some errors will no doubt be observed by persons in their special
branches of labor. By writing to the author, attention will hereafter be paid
to the correction of such errors.

NATURE OF THE CONTENTS.
This work contains five hundred and thirty-three articles, more than five
hundred of which are descriptions of the occupations in which women are,
or may be engaged—the effect of each on the health—the rate of wages
paid for those carried on in the United States—a comparison in the prices of
male and female labor of the same kind—the length of time required to
learn the business fully, and the time required to learn the part done by
women—whether women are paid while learning—the qualifications
needed—the prospect of future employment in each branch—the seasons
best for work, and if in any season the women are thrown entirely out of
work—the usual number of hours employed, and, if the working time
exceeds ten hours, whether it could be shortened without serious loss of
profit—and the comparative superiority or inferiority of women to men in
each branch. Also, openings in the Southern States for certain branches of
business—the prices of board for workwomen, and the remarks of
employers—with a list of the occupations suitable for the afflicted. In
addition are articles on unusual employments in the United States, England,
France, and other countries—minor employments in the United States,
England, and France. Also, a notice of the occupations in which no women
are engaged in any country—those in which none are engaged in this
country—those in which very few are engaged.

HEADS OF SUBJECTS.
Professional Women. Artists. Those in Mercantile Pursuits.
Employments pertaining to Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables.
Raisers, Makers, Preparers, and Disposers of Articles of Food. Textile
Manufacturers—Cotton, Linen, Woollen, Silk, Lace. Metal Manufacturers
—Iron, Brass, Steel, Copper, Tin, Britannia, Silver, Silver Plating, Bronze,
Gold. Miscellaneous Workers on Indian Goods, Inkstands, Lithoconia,
Marble, Mineral Door-Knobs, Paper Cutting, Papier Maché, Pipes,
Porcelain, Pottery, Stucco Work, Terra Cotta, and Transferring on Wood.
Glass Manufacturers. China Decorators. Leather Manufacturers. Whalebone
Workers. Brush Manufacturers. Ivory Cutters. Pearl Workers. Tortoise-Shell
Workers. Gum-Elastic Manufacturers. Gutta-Percha Manufacturers. Hair
Workers. Willow Ware. Wood Work. Agents. Manufacturers, and Colorers
of Ladies' Apparel. Fitters, Cutters, and Sewers of Ladies' and Children's
Wear. Upholsterers. Manufacturers of Books, Ink, Paper, and Pencils.
Chemicals. Those who serve as a Communicating Medium between
Employers and others. Those that contribute to the Comfort or Amusement
of others. Mistresses and Domestics. Miscellaneous Occupations.
Employments for the Afflicted. Unusual Employments. Minor
Employments. Occupations in which no Women are engaged, &c. Openings
in the South for certain branches of business. Prices of Board for
Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers. Number of Work Hours. Extracts
from the Census Report of 1860. Industrial Statistics of Paris.

CONTENTS.
PAGE
Professional Women.
1. Amanuenses, 1
2. Astronomers, 1
3. Authors, 2
4. Bankers and Clerks, 7
5. Bible Readers, 5
6. Brokers, 8
7. Colonizationists, 9
8. Colportors, 9
9. Copyists, 10
10. Deaconesses, 11
11. Dentists, 14
12. Editresses, 14
13. Government Clerks, 16
14. Lawyers, 17
15. Lecturers, 18
16. Librarians, 19
17. Magazine Contributors, 21
18. Missionaries, 22
19. Medical Missionaries, 23
20. Physicians, 24
21. Preachers, 30
22. Proof Readers, 30
23. Publishers, 31
24. Readers to the Working Classes, 32
25. Reporters, 33
26. Reviewers, 34

27. Teachers, 36
28. Bookkeeping, 39
29. Calisthenics and Dancing, 41
30. Drawing and Painting, 41
31. Fancy Work, 42
32. Horsemanship, 42
33. Infant Schools, 43
34. Languages, 44
35. Music, 44
36. Navigation, 45
37. Swimming, 45
38. Translators, 45

Artists.
39. Actresses, 47
40. Aquaria Makers, 50
41. Architects, 51
42. Cameo Cutters, 52
43. Copperplate Engravers, 53
44. Daguerreans, 53
45. Design, Schools of, 55
46. Designers (Miscellaneous), 59
47. Calico Prints, 60
48. Wall Paper, 61
49. Draughtswomen, 61
50. Employés in the United States Mint, 61
51. Engravers and Chasers of Gold and Silver, 62
52. Equestrians and Gymnasts, 64
53. Etchers and Stamp Cutters, 65
54. Herbarium Makers, 65
55. Lapidaries, 66
56. Landscape Gardeners, 67

57. Lithographers, 68
58. Map Makers, 71
59. Medallists, 73
60. Modellers, 73
61. Modellers of Wax Figures, 74
62. Mineral Labellers, 75
63. Musicians, 75
64. Music Engravers, 77
65. Opera Performers, 77
66. Painters, 79
67. Animals, 81
68. Banners, 81
69. Crayon and Pastel, 81
70. Flowers and Fruit, 82
71. Fresco, 82
72. Historical, 82
73. Landscape, 82
74. Marine, 83
75. Miniature, 83
76. Panorama, 84
77. Portrait, 84
78. Water Colors, 85
79. Painters of Dial Plates, 85
80. Picture Restorers, 85
81. Piano Tuners, 86
82. Plaster Statuary, 87
83. Painters of Plates for Books, 88
84. Photographers, 90
85. Preparers of Scientific Plates, 94
86. Seal Engravers, 94
87. Sculptors, 94
88. Steel and other Engravers, 96

89. Bank Note, 97
90. Card, 98
91. Door Plate, 98
92. Map, 98
93. Pictorial and Heraldry, 99
94. Telegraph Operators, 100
95. Vocalists, 102
96. Wax Work, 102
97. Wood Engravers, 103

Mercantile Pursuits.
98. Merchants, 104
99. Bookkeepers, 106
100. Book Merchants, 108
101. China Merchants, 109
102. Clothiers, 110
103. Curiosity Dealers, 115
104. Druggists and Clerks, 115
105. Keepers of Fancy Stores, 119
106. Gentlemen's Furnishing Stores, 119
107. Furniture Sellers, 120
108. Grocers, 121
109. Junk Dealers, 122
110. Music Sellers, 122
111. Sellers of Artists' Materials, 123
112. Seeds, Roots, and Herbs, 124
113. Small Wares, 124
114. Tobacco, Snuff, and Cigars, 125
115. Saleswomen, 125
116. Street Sellers, 131
117. Toy Merchants, 134
118. Wall Paper, 134

119. Worn Clothes, 134
120. Variety Shops, 136

Employments pertaining to Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, and
Vegetables.
121. Agriculturists, 136
122. Bee Dealers, 137
123. Bird Importers and Raisers, 137
124. Bird and Animal Preservers, 138
125. Florists, 140
126. Flower Girls, 142
127. Fruit Growers, 142
128. Fruit Venders, 143
129. Gardeners, 144
130. Makers of Cordial, &c., 144
131. Root, Bark, and Seed Sellers, 145
132. Seed Envelopers and Herb Packers, 145
133. Sellers of Pets, 147
134. Wine Manufacturers and Grape Growers, 147

Raisers, Makers, Preparers, and Disposers of Articles of Food.
135. Bakers (Bread), 148
136. Brewers, 150
137. Candy Manufacturers, 150
138. Cheese Makers, 152
139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers, 153
140. Cracker Bakers, 154
141. Fancy Confectionery, 154
142. Fish women, 158
143. Macaroni, 159
144. Maple Sugar, 159
145. Market Women, 159

146. Meat Sellers, 161
147. Milk Sellers and Dairy Women, 162
148. Mince Meat, Apple Butter, &c., 163
149. Mustard Packers, 164
150. Oyster Sellers, 164
151. Pie Bakers, 164
152. Picklers of Oysters, 166
153. Poulterers, 166
154. Restaurant Keepers, 167
155. Sealed Provisions, 168
156. Sugar Boilers, 170
157. Tea Packers, 170
158. Vermicelli, 171
159. Vinegar, 171
160. Yeast, 172

Textile Manufactures.
161. Cotton Manufacture, 172
162. Batting and Wadding, 175
163. Calicoes, 175
164. Canton Flannel, 176
165. Carpet Chains, 176
166. Cord, 177
167. Dyers, 177
168. Factory Operatives, 180
169. Gingham, 183
170. Hose, 184
171. Men's Wear, 186
172. Print Works, 186
173. Spinners, 189
174. Spool Cotton, 189
175. Tape, 190

176. Weavers, 190
177. Linen Manufacture, 191
178. Thread, 193
179. Woollen Manufacture, 194
180. Blankets, 195
181. Carpets, 195
182. Carpet Bags, 196
183. Cassimeres, 197
184. Cloths, 198
185. Coverlets, 201
186. Dry-Goods Refinishers, 201
187. Flannels, 201
188. Gloves, 203
Woollen, 205
189. Linseys, 205
190. Shawls, 207
191. Shoddy, 207
192. Yarn, 207
193. Silk Manufacture, 208
194. Ribbons, 209
195. Sewing Silk, 210
196. Lace Manufacture, 211
197. " Menders, 212
198. Hair Cloth Manufacture, 213

Metal Manufactures.
199. Iron Manufacture, 214
200. Files, 215
201. Guns, 215
202. Hinges, 215

203. Locks, 216
204. Nails, 217
205. Rivets, 217
206. Screws, 217
207. Skates, 218
208. Shovels, 218
209. Wire Workers, 218
Brass Manufacture, 219
210. Candlesticks, 219
211. Hooks and Eyes, 220
212. Lamps, 221
213. Pins, 221
214. Rings, 223
215. Scales, 223
216. Stair Rods, 224
217. Steel Manufacture, 224
218. Buckles, 224
219. Edge Tools, 225
220. Electrical Machines, 226
221. Fire Arms, 226
222. Knives and Forks, 226
223. Needles, 227
224. Pens, 228
225. Philosophical Apparatus, 229
226. Saws, 230
227. Scissors, 230
228. Spectacles, 230
229. Surgical Instruments, 232
230. Telescopes, 232
231. Thermometers, 232
232. Copper Manufacture, 232

233. Tin Manufacture, 233
234. Lanterns, 233
235. Britannia Ware, 234
236. Silver Manufacture, 234
237. Burnishers, 234
238. Thimbles, 236
239. Silver Plating, 237
240. Bronze Manufacture, 237
241. Gold Manufacture, 237
242. Assayers, 238
243. Enamellers, 238
244. Gold and Silver Leaf, 239
245. Jewellers' Findings, 240
246. Pencils, 241
247. Pens, 241
248. Watches, 242
249. Watch-Case Polishers, 244
250. Watch Chains, 246
251. Watch Jewels, 248

Miscellaneous Works. 248
252. Indian Goods, 248
253. Inkstands, 248
254. Lithoconia, 249
255. Marble Workers, 249
256. Mineral Door-Knobs, 250
257. Paper Cutters, 250
258. Papier-Maché Finishers, 250
259. Pipes, 251
260. Porcelain, 251

261. Pottery, 252
262. Stucco Work, 253
263. Terra Cotta, 253
264. Transferrers on Wood, 253

265. Glass Manufacture. 253
266. Blowers, 255
267. Beads, 255
268. Cutters, 256
269. Embossers, 256
270. Enamellers, 256
271. Engravers, 257
272. Painters, 257
273. Stainers, 258
274. Watch Crystals, 259

275. China Decorators and Burnishers. 260

276. Leather. 261
277. Currying, 262
278. Harnesses, 262
279. Jewel and Instrument Cases, 263
280. Morocco Sewers, 263
281. Pocket Books, 264
282. Saddle Seats, 265
283. Tanning, 265
284. Trunks, 266
285. Whips, 266

286. Whalebone Workers. 267

287. Brush Manufacturers. 268

288. Ivory Cutters and Workers. 269
289. Combs, 271
290. Piano Keys, 271
291. Rulers (Paper), 272

292. Pearl Workers. 273

293. Tortoise-Shell Workers. 273

294. Gum-Elastic Manufacture. 274
295. Men's Clothing, 276
296. Shoes, 276
297. Toys, 276

298. Gutta Percha Manufacture. 277

299. Hair Workers. 277
299. Artists, 277
300. Dressers, 278
301. Dyers, 280
302. Growers, 281
303. Manufacturers, 281
304. Merchants, 281

305. Willow Ware. 282

Wood Work.
306. Carvers, 284
307. Kindling Wood, 285
308. Pattern Makers, 286
309. Rattan Splitters, 286
310. Cigar Boxes, 286
311. Turners, 287

Agents.
312. Express and other Conveyances, 287
313. General, 288
314. Literary, Book, and Newspaper, 289
315. Mercantile, 291
316. Pens, 291
317. Sewing Machines, 291
318. School, 292
319. Telegraph Instruments, 292
320. Washing Machines, 292

Manufacturers and Colorers of Ladies' Apparel.
321. Artificial Flowers, 292
322. Belts, 295
323. Bonnet Ruches, 295
324. Dress Trimmings, 296
325. Embroidery, 298
326. Feathers, 300
327. Hoop Skirts, 301
328. Muslin Sets, 304
329. Parasols and Umbrellas, 305
330. Sempstresses, 308
331. Sewing Machine Operatives, 310

Fur Workers.
332. Dyers, 312
333. Sewers, 312

Fitters, Cutters, and Sewers of Ladies' and Children's Wear.
334. Bonnets, 314
335. Bonnet Frames, 319
336. Bonnet Wire, 320

337. Children's Clothes, 321
338. Cloaks and Mantillas, 321
339. Costumes, 323
340. Dresses, 324
341. Dress Caps and Headdresses, 326
342. Fans, 328
343. Ladies' Under Wear, 329
344. Over Gaiters, 330
345. Patterns of Ladies' and Children's Clothes, 330
346. Shoes, 331
347. Stays, 334

Straw Workers.
348. Bleachers and Pressers, 335
349. Braiders, 336
350. Sewers, 337

Renovators.
351. Gentlemen's Wear, 339
352. Ladies' Wear, 340

Gentlemen's Clothing.
353. Army and Navy Uniform, 340
354. Buttons, 340
355. Canes, 342
356. Caps, 342
357. Coats, 345
358. Cravats, 345
359. Hats (Hat Braiders, 349), 345
360. Oil Clothing, 350
361. Pantaloons, 350
362. Regalias, 350

363. Shirts, 350
364. Suspenders, 354
365. Tailoresses, 355
366. Vests, 356

367. Upholsterers. 357
368. Beds, 358
369. Carpets, 358
370. Curled Hair Pullers, 359
371. Curtain Trimmings, 359
372. Furniture Goods, 360
373. Mattresses, 360
374. Venetian Blinds, 361
375. Window Shades, 361

Manufacturers of Books, Ink, Paper, and Pencils.
376. Book Folders, 363
377. Book Sewers, 365
378. Card Makers, 367
379. Card Stencillers, 369
380. Cover and Edge Gilders, 370
381. Electrotypers, 370
382. Envelope Makers, 370
383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers, 372
384. Ink, 373
385. Label Cutters, 373
386. Lead Pencils, 374
387. Operatives in Paper Factories, 374
388. Paper Bag Makers, 376
389. Box Makers, 376
390. Marblers, 379
391. Rulers, 379

392. Press Feeders, 380
393. Printers, 380
394. Sealing-Wax Makers, 385
395. Stereotypers, 385
396. Type Rubbers and Setters, 386
397. Wall-Paper Gilders, 387

398. Chemicals. 389
399. Baking Powder, 390
400. Bar Soap, 390
401. Blacking, 390
402. Candles, 391
403. Chalk, 392
404. Emery Paper, 392
405. Fancy Soap, 392
406. Fire Works, 392
407. Flavoring Extracts, 393
408. Glue, 394
409. Gunpowder, 394
410. Oils, 394
411. Paints, 394
412. Patent Medicines, 395
413. Pearlash, 395
414. Perfumery, 395
415. Quinine, 397
416. Salt, 397
417. Soda, 399
418. Starch, 399
419. White Lead, 400
420. Whiting, 400

Communicating Mediums between Employers and Others.

421. Assistants in Benevolent Institutions, 400
422. Commissioners of Deeds, 402
423. Housekeepers, 402
424. Keepers of Intelligence Offices, 403
425. Lighthouse Keepers, 405
426. Pawnbrokers, 406
427. Postmistresses, 407
428. Sewing-Machine Instructors, 408
429. Shepherdesses, 409
430. Toll Collectors, 409

Contributors to the Comfort or Amusement of Others.
431. Bathhouse Attendants, 409
432. Brace and Truss Makers, 410
433. Chiropodists, 411
434. Cuppers and Leechers, 413
435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers, 413
436. Fortune Tellers, 415
437. Guides and Door Attendants, 415
438. Lodging and Boarding House Keepers, 415
439. Makers of Artificial Eyes, 416
440. Limbs, 418
441. Teeth, 418
442. Nurses for the Sick, 419
443. Steamboat and Railroad Newsvenders, 421
444. Street Musicians, 421
445. Tavern Keepers, 422
446. Travelling Companions, 423

Mistresses and Domestics.
447. Mistresses, 423
448. Domestics, 424

449. Chambermaids, 426
450. Cooks, 428
451. Dining-Room Waiters, 429
452. Ladies' Maids, 430
453. Nurses for Children, 430
454. Saloon Attendants, 431
455. Washers, Ironers, and Manglers, 431

Miscellaneous Occupations, and Workers therein.
456. Backgammon-Board Finishers, 433
457. Balloon Makers, 433
458. Billiard-Table Finishers, 434
459. Bill Posters, 434
460. Block Cutters, 434
461. Boatwomen, 435
462. Bone Collectors, 435
463. Bottlers and Labellers, 435
465. Broom Makers, 436
464. Bronzers, 436
466. Canvas and Cotton Bag Makers, 437
467. Car and Carriage Painters, 438
468. Carriage Trimmers, 489
469. Chair Seaters, 440
470. China Menders, 441
471. Cigar Makers, 442
472. Cigar-End Finders, 444
473. Cinder Gatherers, 444
474. Clear Starchers, 444
475. Clock Makers, 444
476. Clothes-Pin Makers, 445
477. Clothes Repairers, 445
478. Cork Assorters and Sole Stitchers, 445

479. Daguerreotype Apparatus, 446
480. Feather Dressers, 447
481. Flag Makers, 447
482. Furniture Painters, 448
483. Gilders of Mirror Frames, 449
484. Globe Makers, 450
485. Hobby-Horse Finishers, 450
486. Horse Coverings, 451
487. House Painters, 452
488. Japanners, 452
489. Knitters, 454
490. Lace Bleachers, 457
491. Lacquerers, 458
492. Life Preservers, 458
493. Lucifer Matches, 458
494. Mat Makers, 460
495. Manufacturers of Musical Instruments, 460
Melodeons and Organs, 461
Pianos, 462
Seraphines, 463
496. Musical-String Makers, 463
497. Netters, 464
498. Oakum Pickers, 464
499. Paper Hangers, 465
500. Polishers, 465
501. Pin Finders, 465
502. Rag Cutters, 465
503. Rag Gatherers, 466
504. Rope and Twine Makers, 468
505. Sail and Awning Makers, 470
506. Shoe-Peg Makers, 470
507. Shroud Makers, 470

508. Sign Painters, 471
509. Snuff Packers, 472
510. Stencil Makers, 473
511. Street Sweepers, 473
512. Tip Gilders, 473
513. Tobacco Strippers, 474
514. Toy Makers, 475
515. Varnishers and Varnish Makers, 476
516. Water Carriers, 476

Employments for the Afflicted.
517. Blind Women, 477
518. Deaf Mutes, 477
519. The Lame, 477

Unusual Employments.
520. United States, 477
521. England, 478
522. France, 481
523. Other Countries, 482

Minor Employments.
524. United States, 484
525. England, 484
526. France, 485

527. Occupations in which no Women are Engaged. 486
528. None in the United States, 486
529. Very few, 486
530. Openings in the South for certain branches of business, 487
531. Price of Board for Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers, 488
532. Number of Work Hours, 489

532. Extracts from Census Report of 1860, in advance of 490
publication,

Industrial Statistics of Paris.
France, in 1848, 492

THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN.

PROFESSIONAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC
PURSUITS.

1. Amanuenses.

Amanuenses are employed to write from dictation, generally by authors.
Prescott, who was nearly blind for several years, employed one or more.
Editors whose papers have an extensive circulation, sometimes require the
services of an amanuensis. Female secretaries, or writers out of books, were
not unusual in Rome. "Origen," says Eusebius, "had not only young men,
but young women to transcribe his works, which they did with peculiar
neatness." Some persons in London (whose employment, perhaps, scarcely
brings them under this title, yet we know not where else to place them)
make it a business to write letters for beggars, for which they are paid a
small sum by each applicant. Amanuenses are usually employed by the
week, month, or year. Some education is of course necessary, and will
doubtless influence their pay. Experience increases their value still more;
and those who have to exercise their brains, are of course best paid. I have
been told by competent authority, that amanuenses are usually paid
according to agreement; that authors of distinction can afford to pay a good
price, and that the most common salary is $600.

2. Astronomers.

Maria Cunitz is mentioned as an astronomer of the seventeenth century in
Germany. Miss Caroline Herschel discovered two moons and several
comets. Miss Maria Mitchell, of Nantucket, Mass., discovered a new planet,
and received, in consequence, a medal from the King of Denmark. She
formerly observed for the Coast Survey, but was not officially recognized.
She computes for the Nautical Almanac. She writes: "I know of no lady
astronomers who are practical observers. Very good works have been

written on the subject by women. An observing room is never warmed by a
fire; and as a small part, at least, of the roof must be opened to the air, the
exposure is according to the weather, as the observations must be made in
clear evenings. I do not consider the danger to the health great. I know of no
way in which astronomical observations can be made to pay women. They
could, without doubt, make better observers than men, with the same
amount of practice. The same delicacy of touch and of perception that
makes them good at the needle, would make them efficient in the delicate
manipulations of the micrometer. But I know of no man well paid as an
observer only. There are always volunteer candidates in this department of
an observatory. Women can make as good computations as men, and do
their work more neatly; but here, also, the field is occupied by men,
although, I think, never as volunteers without pay. I have no doubt many of
the computations professedly made by men, are really the work of women
employed as assistants. This has always been the case in the long and
tedious computations made for astronomical objects in the early efforts of
the science. My own observatory is wholly a private affair, and supported
entirely by my own means, which are my daily earnings as computer to the
Nautical Almanac. I employ no assistant." I am happy to say Miss Mitchell
receives the same salary for the observations and reckonings of the Nautical
Almanac that would be given to a man. In 1856, at the Smithsonian
Institute, a paper was read by Professor Foote, on the heat of the sun's rays;
after which a paper by Mrs. Foote was read by Professor Henry, giving an
account of experiments made by herself on the same subject. Miss Harriet
Bouvier (now Mrs. Peterson) has written a very good work on astronomy
for schools. Mrs. Somerville, a distinguished astronomer of England, has
added much information to the science by her discoveries. "Miss Anne
Sheepshanks, sister to the late astronomer, has been elected a fellow of the
Astronomical Society."

3. Authors.

Many superior works of fiction have been written by ladies of America,
some of which have been translated into the languages of Europe and
introduced into those countries. Many of our fair countrywomen have

distinguished themselves by their poetical effusions, and quite a number
have published their poems in book form. Mrs. Everett Green, author of the
"Lives of the Princesses of England," is now employed by the English
Government upon state papers. Research into historical data, and the nice,
careful arrangement of details, are well fitted to the patience of woman.
Several years ago, Queen Victoria granted to Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Jamieson
each $1,000 a year as pensions. These are not by any means the only
instances of her liberality to literary women. During the year ending
January, 1860, she granted pensions to thirteen ladies, either for literary
merit of their own or that of some relative. The French Academy awarded to
Madame Louisa Collet, in 1851, the prize of $1,000 for poetry; also one to
Mlle. Ernestine Druet, a governess in a school at Paris. Mlle. Royer
received the prize, a short time ago, from the University of Lausanne, for a
philosophical essay. The labor of authors is not rewarded as well as other
kinds of intellectual labor of the same extent: for instance, a physician or
lawyer, with the same abilities, amount of learning, and application, would
derive a greater reward pecuniarily. In the United States an author can retain
the profits of his work a certain number of years, being at liberty to make
any arrangement with his publisher he sees proper. In France and Russia he
possesses the profits arising from the sale of his work during his life, and
his heirs receive them during twenty years. The following is an extract from
H. C. Carey's article on the Rewards of Authorship: "Mr. Irving stands, I
imagine, at the head of living authors for the amount received for his books.
The sums paid to the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously
great; but what has been their extent, I have no means of ascertaining. Mr.
Mitchell, the geographer, has realized a handsome fortune from his school
books. Professor Davies is understood to have received more than $50,000
from the series published by him. The Abbotts, Emerson, and numerous
other authors engaged in the preparation of books for young persons and
schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, has received
more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French series of Mr.
Bolmar has yielded him upward of $20,000. The school geography of Mr.
Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to its author. A single
medical book, of one octavo volume, is understood to have produced its
authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given its author
probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books must have been

very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already yielded her
from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps as much more. Mr. Headley is stated
to have received about $40,000; and the few books of Ik Marvel have
yielded him about $20,000. A single one, 'The Reveries of a Bachelor,'
produced $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has been very largely
paid. Miss Leslie's cookery and recipe books have paid her $12,000. Dr.
Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for the copyright of his
religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received not less than $6,000 for
the duodecimo volume published but six months since. Mr. Prescott was
stated, several years since, to have received $90,000 from his books, and I
have never seen it contradicted. According to the rate of compensation
generally understood to be received by Mr. Bancroft, the present sale of
each volume yields him more than $15,000, and he has the long period of
forty-two years for future sale. Judge Story died, as has been stated, in the
annual receipt of more than $8,000, and the amount has not, as it is
understood, diminished. Mr. Webster's works in three years can scarcely
have paid less than $25,000. Kent's 'Commentaries' are understood to have
yielded to their author and his heirs more than $120,000; and if we add to
this, for the remainder of the period, only one half of this sum, we shall
obtain $180,000, or $45,000 as the compensation for a single octavo
volume—a reward for literary labor unexampled in history." It is necessary
that the reader, in considering the figures given, remember that the
reputation of an author has much to do with the price paid by a publisher for
manuscripts. The number of women authors is much greater than one
unacquainted with the statistics in regard to the subject would suppose. "In
1847 Count Leopold Feni died at Padua, leaving a library entirely
composed of works written by women in various languages, the number of
volumes amounting to nearly thirty-two thousand. Whether the English and
American lady writers were included in his list we do not know, but we
wish some woman of taste and fortune, in our country, would make a
similar collection." It is said that two thirds of the writers in Chambers'
Edinburgh Journal are women. Some of the writers of our best periodicals
are women. The success of women in works of fiction is unquestioned. This
class of books requires less time, less study, and less money, and rewards
the authors pecuniarily better than any other kind of work, considering, of
course, the comparatively small amount of application required. As the

females of our land become more generally educated, and have more leisure
for the cultivation of their minds, no doubt more attention will be devoted
to literary effort. The easy, natural manner of female authors is a marked
feature. Different motives prompt to authorship—love of fame, wealth,
influence, and a desire to do good. Persons are generally prompted to write
by feeling that they know more of some particular subject than most people,
or something entirely unknown or unthought of by any one save
themselves. Some collect and arrange information obtained from books,
observation, or experience, or all combined. E. Hazen says: "The
indispensable qualifications to make a writer are—a talent for literary
composition, an accurate knowledge of language, and an acquaintance with
the subject to be treated." Good health and freedom from care are necessary
for one who would give him or herself up to the severities of mental labor.
Dr. Wynne says: "With him whose occupation is either intellectual or
sedentary, or both, the nervous energy necessary to digest food is already
abstracted by the operations of the mind; and the meal taken under the
circumstances is but partially digested and appropriated to the use of the
body. The remainder acts as an irritant, and, if the practice be persevered in,
terminates in dyspepsia, followed by that Protean train of nervous diseases
which destroys the equanimity of mind, and finally terminates the life of so
many of our most efficient and worthy business men, at the very time when
their services are most valuable to their families and the community. The
cares of business should be dismissed with the termination of the hours
devoted to their pursuits, and their place supplied by those exercises or
amusements which bring with them cheerfulness and exhilaration." Of all
studies, the quiet and contemplative kind are most favorable to long life.
Those of an exciting nature produce a reaction, sometimes, of the physical
as well as intellectual powers.

5. Bible Readers.

An incalculable amount of good has been accomplished by this class of
persons. The originator is Mrs. Raynard, the L. N. R. of the "Missing Link,"
"The Book and its Story," &c., who lived in London. "One hundred ladies
have joined her as managers and superintendents. The ladies each select

from among the uneducated class the best women they can find, and send
them out to read Bibles and sell them to their own class. They have now
two hundred such Bible women in England, Ireland, Scotland, and France,
and they are meeting with unheard-of success. Mrs. Raynard told me they
made soup for the poor in winter, and sold it to them very low, and in such a
way that the poorest could have his bowlful for some trifling service; and
while one is serving the soup, others serve them with portions of God's
word. Then the lady superintendents have tea meetings without number, and
sewing meetings, and clothing meetings. Beside, the ladies must first
instruct their readers every week or day in the Scriptures, in teaching, in
meekness, in manner, in helping the sick, and sympathizing with all
suffering, and, above all, teach them to lean only on God. They must also
pay the Bible women, who give up their time to this work, and keep an
account with each one. These lady readers or superintendents in England
publish a monthly of their own, conducted by dear Mrs. Raynard, so that
they can all communicate with one another; and God sends them funds to
the amount of $35,000 the year." A lady of Baltimore writes me: "The
Maryland Bible Society employs three paid Bible readers—all women—at
eight dollars per month each. These are purposely selected from the poorest
class of pious women, because it is thought that persons of that class have
readier access to the homes and hearts of the poor, beside the aid it affords
to honest poverty. Independently of this Bible effort, another has originated
from the London charity, unfolded in the 'Missing Link.'" The lady of
Baltimore (Miss W.) wrote from the Maryland Bible, &c., through the Word
Witness: "Just one year ago, I engaged a pious poor woman, at two dollars
per week, to labor among the destitute, vicious poor—a class that could not
be reached by ordinary methods of voluntary effort, dwelling in localities
that ladies might not safely visit. The work was to humanize these people;
to wash and clothe the children, and put them in Sabbath and public
schools; to read and pray, and teach their mothers; and to relieve personal
suffering. She has done a good work. Another woman has been employed in
South Baltimore, in the same calling. Recently, the ladies of the First
Presbyterian Church have formed a union, and raised the salary of one of
these female colportors, and thus the experiment promises to expand itself
into a permanent benevolent organization. I may say that the plan adopted,
if vigorously and efficiently carried out, would rid our crowded alleys of

half the suffering and nearly all the vices and impositions that now render
them intolerable to the refined. On Christmas, I assisted to serve up a
supper, provided by a good lady for the poorest of the poor. It was given in
the district, and at the house of a widow, and under the care of our
colportors. There were forty-eight women and children present, not ragged
and hopeless, as they were one year ago, but tidy and bright, looking
hopefully to the future, as though they felt there is kindness in the world. It
was a pleasant sight to witness." The New York Female Auxiliary Bible
Society now employs thirteen Bible readers. A brief but interesting account
is given of them in the last report of that society, from which we copy:
"From the reports of the Bible readers for only a part of the year, we find
that they have paid more than seven thousand visits, gathered more than
two hundred children into the Sunday school, sold and distributed Bibles,
induced many to attend church, ministered to the wants of the destitute,
established sewing schools, and, in more ways than we can enumerate, have
gone about doing good." A Bible reader is now employed in Philadelphia by
the Pennsylvania Bible Society.

4. Bankers and Bankers' Clerks.

Before the existence of savings banks, the poor had no safe place of deposit,
where they could receive interest, and whence they could withdraw their
deposits at pleasure. If they loaned their money, there was no certainty of
recovering it. If they tried to accumulate by saving what they had, it was not
always secure from depredation. Consequently they were tempted to spend
any surplus money they had, and often no forethought of the future could
save them from anxiety and misery. Now, by industry and perseverance,
they are enabled to accumulate something for contingencies—to provide
against want, sickness, old age, and slackness of employment. The idea of a
savings bank was originated by a woman—Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield. It is a
most worthy institution, and deserving of support and patronage. Holding
office in a bank is a very responsible situation. The numerous men
defaulters that have disgraced themselves in the last few years, are
sufficient proof that the temptation to appropriate unjustly is very great. It
requires men and women of fixed principle, whose honor is dearer to them
than life itself. We think women could very well manage savings banks.
They could at any rate attend in the female department, and in some parts of
Europe do. We find in the census of Great Britain two female bankers
reported. In the Englishwoman's Journal we read: "At St. Malo, a few years
ago, the wife of a rich banker, during his absence, took her place at his desk
amid the numerous clerks, received checks, and gave to the writer of this
article French money in return. They are frequently found in offices, and
often mainly conduct a husband's or a father's business." One of the Mrs.
Rothschild, I have been told, even now spends two or three hours every day
in her husband's banking house. Mrs. Mary Somerville says: "Three of the
most beneficial systems of modern times are due to the benevolence of
English ladies—the improvement of prison discipline, savings banks, and
banks for lending small sums to the poor." Not many years ago a banking
house was conducted by a lady in Nashville, Tenn. She was a widow, but
had during her first husband's life attended to some of the duties of the
bank, and accompanied her husband when he visited New York on business.
She is now the wife of one of the late candidates for the highest office in

this nation—that of chief magistrate. A lady was employed in a savings
bank in Boston a few years back. A gentleman who has been cashier in a
bank for many years writes me: "I have no doubt that women might be
qualified for bank and brokers' clerks as well as men. In the offices of
cashier and teller, they would have to come in contact with so many rough
characters, I doubt whether it would do. I do not know the salaries paid in
Europe, either in stores, shops, banks, or brokers' offices, but suppose it
varies as it does in this country, according to the size of the city, the bank or
broker's capital, the qualifications and character, and the situations the
persons occupy. The cashier receives more than the teller; the teller often
more than the clerk, and the clerks are graded. In large banks in the city of
New York, the cashiers get from $4,000 to $6,000 per annum, while in the
country banks they scarcely get half that amount. In the city their situations
are very laborious, and very responsible, and many of them have been
twenty-five or thirty years in the business before they got to be cashiers.
Tellers receive in large cities from $2,500 to $3,000, and in small places
from $1,200 to $2,000. Clerks get in New York banks from $600 to $3,000,
taking the whole range from boys of seventeen to men of sixty with families
and great experience. In smaller towns they receive from $300 to $2,500,
taking the same range, many of them getting not more than $1,500 at any
time during their lives. In stores and shops the salaries are much less, say
not much over one half in very many instances; but persons in stores and
shops have this advantage over bank clerks: when they learn the business,
they are often taken into partnership with the proprietor, or they may set up
in a similar business for themselves. But bank clerks have no such prospects
before them. There may be salaries, in a few instances, over those
mentioned, but very seldom; and on the other hand, some young men are
placed in business sometimes without any remuneration for the first year. I
would also state that the situation of bank clerk, although very much sought
for, is certainly not desirable, as $1,200 or $1,500 will not support a family
in any city of the United States, without the most rigid economy; and then
they have little or nothing to lay up for a rainy day. Many bank clerks in this
city are no better off now than they were twenty years ago, though they
have lived poorly and economized all the time. So, in some respects, the
store clerk or salesman has the advantage. One reason why young men
prefer becoming bank clerks to mercantile clerks is, that they have more

time for themselves. Say, they commence by seven o'clock in a store, and
nine at bank; they get through by two or three o'clock in bank, and they
have to work until night in a store.'

6. Brokers.

This is a business in which very few, if any, women engage without the aid
of the other sex. We are not aware that any women are stock brokers,
exchange brokers, or insurance brokers. We suppose women could not very
well conduct the business without having to mix promiscuously with men
on the street, and stop and talk with them in the most public places; and the
delicacy of woman would forbid that. But the wife, the sister, or daughter of
a broker might perhaps conduct the indoor business of the house, or keep
the books at least. In Paris, where women are extensively employed in
various departments of business, it would, perhaps, be more practicable for
a woman to carry on the business than in this country. There are respects in
which women of well-disciplined minds would be well suited for the
vocation: they are their observance of order and method, and their close
attention to details.

7. Colonizationists.

This is a business that would never have entered our minds for women to
engage in, had it not been for the course pursued by Caroline Chisholm.
Says the author of "Women and Work:" "Ask the emigrants who went out to
Australia year after year, under the careful and wise system of Caroline
Chisholm's colonization, how women can organize, and what professions
they should fill. I think they would answer: As organizers of colonies,
promoters of emigration, secretaries to colonies, &c." Many a husband and
wife may thank her for the comforts of home life. Some years ago, Mrs.
Farnum proposed taking from New York a shipload of women to California.
The matter was laughed at and passed by; but if we may believe the reports
that came from California of miners wanting wives, perhaps it would not
have been a bad plan to have taken out a supply (in case they could have
been had). In the early history of Virginia, women were brought over from

England as wives for the men. "A society exists in England for the
promotion of female emigration to Australia. Under the auspices of this
society, about eleven hundred women, mostly distressed needlewomen, of
respectable character, have been sent to Australia, where they find
employment, and, we presume, the most of them, husbands."

8. Colportors.

"This is an important field of missionary labor in our own land, where
women might be employed to great advantage—namely, as colportors, or
distributors of tracts and books. The Boards of Publication now employ
men only, whose services must be paid at a much higher rate than women
would require. There are widows who need this employment for support,
and single women who need employment for health, and many women
would like this way of doing good. In every place, women would be found
suitable and willing to undertake this profession. It is one exactly suited to
them. It enters into their domestic circle of feelings and pursuits; and
honorable women, not a few, would be found ready to engage in the work.
A number of men would be needed to penetrate the wild places of our land;
but throughout all the settled portions, women would be found the most
effective agents. By this arrangement, a double gain would be secured. The
talents of pious women, now allowed to be wasted on trifles, would be
employed in the cause of moral improvement; and those men who now give
up their time, often at a great pecuniary sacrifice, to the colportor's duty,
would be at liberty to enter into other pursuits more beneficial to
themselves and to society." Are there none among the gentler sex
consecrated to the work of promoting the glory of God and the good of their
fellow beings? Are none of those that owe all their privileges and blessings
to the Bible, willing to make a sacrifice for its extension? Are all so selfish,
that the desire of personal gratification is the ruling, the only object for
which they live? a display in dress and style of living, the acquisition of
property, or notoriety? Are these the only objects of woman's exertions? No:
most women are too conscientious and unselfish to live for such a purpose.
There are many that would gladly do what they could, but they have no
definite plan in view. They know not exactly how to shape their course. If

they were once started, they would neither lag nor faint in the race. Let such
become colportors, deaconesses, physicians, painters, engravers, whatever
best accords with their inclinations and abilities. Let them go forward. The
mist will gradually disappear, the way be made clear, and they followed by
others. It is best for one of strength and vigor to engage in the labors of a
colportor. Walking from house to house all day is very fatiguing to persons
not accustomed to being much on their feet. It requires a person that has at
heart the good of her fellow beings, and is willing to converse with all
classes and ages. It calls for a person of piety, and one of tact and judgment.

9. Copyists.

Law copying is done by young women in charge of the society in London
for promoting the employment of women. Miss Rye, who is superintendent
of the class, says: "Of course it took the writers some weeks to unlearn the
usual feminine spider-legged fashion of inditing; some weeks more to
decipher the solicitors' signs, contractions, and technical terms. We dare not
pretend, in defending the opening of this trade to women, that there is here,
as in printing, a deficiency of workers, a cry among the masters for more; or
that woman's work here, as in the telegraph offices, is intrinsically more
valuable than that of the other sex." In France, lawyers often employ
women to copy for them, and a number of women are employed by the
French Government to write. At Washington, ladies have been employed to
copy, not only for congressmen as individuals, but to copy government
documents; and received the same salaries as men. A friend told me many
ladies are thus employed at Washington. She knows two who each receive
salaries of $1,200 per annum. Miss N. says some ladies in Washington
make from $500 to $600 a winter, copying speeches and other documents
for members of Congress. She knew a lady who wrote all the year at a
salary of $1,200. "In Cincinnati, some lawyers employ women as copyists,
when the work can be sent from the office." Ladies employed by lawyers
must write a very clear, round, legible hand; if any mistake is made, the
writer must copy the manuscript anew. A young lady told me she used to
write for a lawyer, and received three cents for every hundred words. One
day she earned two dollars and a half. She wrote in the office of the lawyer.

Many ladies, she says, are so employed in New York. Mrs. N., copyist,
charges twelve and a half cents a page of foolscap, for copying, estimating
her time at nine cents an hour. She writes mostly letters in English for
foreigners, and receives twenty-five cents a letter, usually of one page and a
half. She is very careful, she says, never to divulge the business of the
individual for whom she writes—a something very essential. Mrs. Blunt
used to earn in Washington $700 or $800 a year for copying. One copyist
charged $5 per week if she wrote at home, and $6 if away from home. I find
that in the Western cities the prices for copying vary from eight cents to
thirty-one cents a page. Ladies are occasionally employed at the
Smithsonian Institute for copying, and are paid 5 cents per 100 words. I
believe in New York a very common price for copying is 4 cents per 100
words. Miss W., an English lady, copied music about three years ago, and
sent it to London to be sold. She often earned $12 a week.

10. Deaconesses.

The order of deaconess was instituted at the same time as that of deacon,
and corresponds in duty with that office. We read of deaconesses in the last
chapter of Romans, Phœbe, Priscilla, Aquila, &c. The establishment of
institutions for deaconesses affords a home to the unmarried women of our
land, and widows without children, and furnishes them with such work as
their health and previous employments fit them for. It carries out the
principle, "Unity is strength." It is founded on that true spring of success—
sympathy arising from similarity of circumstances and sameness of
employment. Ministering to the sick and poor is so well adapted to women,
that their time might be pleasantly as well as profitably spent. The desire in
women to be employed is thus gratified, and the good of others as well as
themselves thereby promoted. Those received as members would find it
most harmonious to be of the same religion, and they should be willing to
come under the regulations of the institution. Such an institution would
have to be conducted by a person of discretion, piety, and wisdom. The
members usually dress in uniform. Comfortable clothing is always
furnished, boarding of course being provided in the establishment. The
duties of deaconess in Protestant institutions are the same as those of sisters

of charity in nunneries and convents. The institutions are usually
commenced by public or private contributions, and some by both. When
once firmly established, the members might receive a fair compensation for
their services from the sick that are able and willing to pay. It might go to
the support of the institution, and those who saw proper to devote
themselves to teaching might throw their profits into the general fund. But
such institutions should be secured on such a firm basis that those women
who joined the order would ever be certain of a home, and of a kind and
careful attendance in sickness and old age. If institutions are established in
various parts of the United States, an inmate of one, if tired of remaining at
that, might, by request, and after consideration by the principal, or a board
of trustees, be permitted to remove to another. There are a number of
institutions in Europe for preparing women for the duties of deaconess. The
first institution of modern times was established by Pastor Fliedner, at
Kaiserwerth, Germany. "It has for its object the training of deaconesses—
that is, female students to take charge of the sick and the poor, and
superintend hospitals, infant and industrial schools, and, in short, to be the
educators and preservers of humanity." An association has lately been
formed in London of this order. Its object "is the diffusion of sanitary
knowledge and promotion of physical training." "In Russia, the system for
the practical training of deaconesses has spread in all directions. In Paris,
Strasbourg, Echallens (in Switzerland), Utrecht, and England, the institution
exists." Kings have not thought it beneath them to assist in the support of
such institutions. Miss Bremer mentions several going to Jerusalem to take
charge of a hospital, which the King of Prussia founded at an expense of
$50,000. We find two or three such institutions exist in the United States—
one in New York, another in Pittsburg, and one in an incipient state in
Baltimore. The one in New York is conducted by Sisters of the Holy
Communion (Episcopalians). Five of them make their home at St. Luke's
Hospital. One or two of the number are engaged in a parochial school
connected with Dr. Muhlenberg's church. Those of the hospital nurse the
sick during the day. They employ nurses to do the night nursing, except in
very serious cases that require especial attention. Their dress is simple,
black, with white collars and undersleeves, and, when in full dress, a Swiss
muslin cap. They do not take vows like the nuns of the Roman Catholic
church, nor do they give up all their property, but make a quarterly

payment, according to their means. One devotes herself to the measuring
out and dispensing of medicine. There is a hospital in Pittsburg in charge of
some deaconesses from Kaiserwerth. They belong to the Evangelical
Lutheran church. The institution was commenced by the Rev. W. A.
Passavant, but is now incorporated by the State, and the "members are
empowered to engage in all works of mercy, such as the care of the poor,
sick, fatherless, insane, and the education of the ignorant and the orphan.
The sisters live in community—dress simply, and generally alike, so as to
avoid any unnecessary distinction and useless expenses. Applicants for
admission go first for a month merely as visitors, and pay their own
expenses going and returning. If both parties approve, they then enter on
probation for three months, and afterward for nine months, or longer, as the
institution may deem best. Then, if their purpose is still the same, they are
received by a vote, according to the charter, as members. It is distinctly
understood, that if a change in their views and purposes, or nearer or family
duties require them to leave after this, they are at perfect liberty to do so,
but always, only, after giving the institution a due notice of three months,
unless such a notification is impossible from the circumstances of the case.
Those who are preparing for the work among the sick learn the duties of an
apothecary. All the sisters know how to mix medicines." Miss E. Blackwell
says: "In the Catholic church the wants and talents of all classes are met.
Single wealthy women become nuns, and so devote their riches and talents
and time to good works. They associate with the most refined and best
educated of both sexes. Poor single women find a home and social
pleasures. It requires practical business habits to become even a successful
sister of charity. They should enter with an active interest and zest into the
duties of every-day life. These orders can never succeed well among
Protestants, particularly until female physicians are introduced." The
Minister of the Interior, writing from Italy to Mrs. Jameson, says: "Not only
have we experienced the advantage of employing the sisters of charity in
the prisons, in the supervision of the details, in distributing food, preparing
medicines, and nursing the sick in the infirmaries; but we find that the
influence of these ladies on the minds of the prisoners, when recovering
from sickness, has been productive of the greatest benefit, as leading to
permanent reform in many cases, and a better frame of mind always: for
this reason, among others, we have given them every encouragement."

Many young ladies of education, wealth, and influence would, on becoming
pious, or when disappointed in their hopes and aspirations, be likely to join
such societies. At such times, many are willing to give themselves up
entirely to works of active benevolence. Such a life, of course, involves
some self-denials. Bishop Potter warmly advocated the introduction of such
orders, and delivered an address in favor of it. The Bishop of Exeter
recommended the establishment of such orders in England, and an
institution for deaconesses has been opened in London.

11. Dentists.

Some time ago, in New York, a few ladies prepared themselves for the
practice of dentistry. We believe only one really practised, and she but a
short time. We find her name in a New York directory as a dentist. It would
be more agreeable to most ladies to have their teeth cleaned and plugged by
a lady. They would not feel the same hesitancy in going alone at any time to
a dentist of their own sex. Extracting teeth would require more nerve and
strength than most ladies possess. Yet, if a woman has nerves sufficiently
firm, and ability to control her sympathies, she may succeed. There are
dental schools in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. A professor in the
dental school at Philadelphia writes: "I would suggest that if any ladies
desire to become efficient practitioners in some branches of dentistry, it
would be better for them to apply to a reputable practitioner, and with time
and attention become thoroughly familiar with those branches. In doing so
they will prove to the world their capability, and the rest in time will follow.
Dentistry has been humorously called a 'woman's profession.'" "There is
nothing even in the surgical part of dentistry, to which she is not adapted. In
this profession she will have a fair opportunity to foil her enemies and
accusers; and her children's teeth would not be set on edge without the
possibility of instant relief. There is no mystery in the dental structure,
which the turnkey, in her magic hand, could not unlock; and no terrible pain
in tooth extraction, which her mystic power could not exceedingly
mitigate." Most profit arising to dentists is from making and inserting
artificial teeth. It is a lucrative business, when properly understood, and one
which affords constant employment.

12. Editresses.

The most powerful instrument for disseminating general knowledge in the
United States is the newspaper press. It does a great deal for promoting a
love of letters; and the cheapness of the papers is such as to render them
accessible to almost every one. The literature of the day penetrates the most
remote corner of our country. Obscure, indeed, is the place that knows not
the printer's power. Even in California, more than a year ago, there were
published 81 newspapers. In New York city alone were published 154
newspapers, and 114 magazines. But this is not strange when we remember
that no less than eighty languages are spoken there. A newspaper states that
there are printed in Austria 10 newspapers, 14 in Africa, 24 in Spain, 20 in
Portugal, 30 in Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in Denmark, 90 in Russia and
Poland, 320 in other German States, 500 in Great Britain, and 1,800 in the
United States. Taking merely newspaper and magazine literature into
consideration, does not our republic offer inducements to intellectual
culture? Does she not reward talent and encourage industry? Yes. Her
general diffusion of knowledge and the learned men of her press give a
positive reply. The dignity of man should be elevated, his affections
purified, and his pursuits ennobled by the mighty influence of the press.
Editors should live as ministers to the welfare of humanity. The aspiring
character of our people and their thirst for knowledge will long make a
heavy demand on the talent and taste of those who wield the editor's pen.
There are several publications in the United States conducted exclusively
by ladies; some in which the assistant editors are ladies; and a small number
devoted to the interests of women alone. Several ladies have entered the
editorial corps within the last few years. The Harpers, in their Magazine,
state there are about six hundred literary and miscellaneous periodicals
published in this country. If all the labor, as type setting, binding, &c., was
done by women, what a fortunate thing it would be for many of the poor! I
have been told that when an article is sent to a newspaper, and is known to
have come from the brain and the pen of a woman, ten to one, her
compensation will be smaller for it, and in many cases it will be rejected.
There are a few exceptions. Fanny Fern, for instance, receives, we have
seen it stated, at the rate of $100 a column from Mr. Bonner for a
contribution to the Ledger. The sum total he will pay her for the amount he

has engaged will be $6,000. Mrs. B. receives $600 for editing a monthly
paper. Some time back contributors to the Independent were paid $3 a
column, and to the New York Observer at the same rate. Mr. L. told me that
a man is paid $20 a week for making out an index for the New York
Tribune, which could be done by any lady with a cultivated and well
disciplined mind. The man that was employed not long since had been a
wood engraver, and had received no special training for his duties in the
Tribune office. The papers to be sent away are directed by machinery,
which a lady could attend. Some one writes me the qualifications for his
business are strength of mind and body. We think there is generally a heavy
draft on either one or the other in every occupation successfully pursued,
and in some on both. Émile Girardin was a French editress that died
recently. Mrs. Johnson, of Edinburgh, was for years editress of the
Inverness Courier, which was published in her husband's name. Miss
Parkes conducts the Englishwoman's Journal. Mrs. Swisshelm edited the
Pittsburg Visitor with much vigor and ability. Mrs. Virginia L. French has
charge of the literary department of a paper issued in Nashville, Tenn. Miss
McDowell might have succeeded with the Woman's Advocate, if her noble
efforts had been appreciated as they deserved.

13. Government Officers.

"Many Government offices could be creditably filled by intelligent and
experienced women. Miss Wallace and Miss Thomas were employed as
computers on the Coast Survey at Washington in 1854, with salaries each of
$480, with perquisites making it $600. A man to do the same work would
probably receive twice as much." "Mrs. Miller, at one time, was engaged in
making observations of the weather—the thermometer, barometer, direction
of winds, quantity of rain, &c., in which she was assisted by another person
appointed by a society of which both sexes were members." Computations
of this kind could be made at home. Mr. Blodgett, who had charge of the
Smithsonian Institute in 1854, wrote: "The discussion of observations in
physical science, meteorological observations particularly, has never been
undertaken in a general manner until attempted in this department of the
Smithsonian Institute, and I have found that accuracy and despatch require

well-trained minds of great endurance. Only the best minds can successfully
undertake scientific calculations and computations; and these must possess
a sort of half masculine strength and endurance." Yet we would not offer
this as a discouragement. If it has been done, it can be done again. "During
Mr. Fillmore's administration, two women wrote for the Treasury
Department at Washington, at salaries of twelve and fifteen hundred a year."
Several ladies are employed in different parts of the United States for
copying by registers of deeds; but the majority are relatives of the registers.
In some towns of the East, however, other ladies than relatives are
employed, who receive $1 per day for their services. Miss Olive Rose has
performed the duties of the register of deeds, at Thomaston, Maine. She
writes: "I was officially notified of the election, required to give bonds, &c.
I am unable to state the exact amount of salary, as it is regulated by
whatever business is done in the office. Perhaps it may average between
$300 and $400 yearly." The Duchess of Leuchtenberg was elected to
preside over the Imperial Academy of Science, in Russia, a few years ago.
An acquaintance told me that in the warehouses at the London docks, silks,
shawls, and such goods are exposed for sale, and many ladies go down in
their carriages and purchase. If any female is suspected of concealing on her
person goods that she has appropriated in the warehouse, the watchmen
who guard the place remark they would like to detain her for a few minutes,
and convey her to a room, where a woman is in attendance to search her.
The present collector of customs at Philadelphia writes: "The only instance
of employment of women in connection with the custom house here has
been, while Liverpool steamers were coming to this port, some years ago,
when one or two were employed to search female emigrants, to prevent
smuggling on their persons. The employment was only for a day or two at a
time, and is now discontinued." Some time ago it was feared that large
quantities of precious stones and laces were concealed on the persons of
some women, and so smuggled into New York. Consequently "two
American female searchers were inaugurated in the revenue service as aids.
They each receive $500 per annum, and are paid by the month. Men receive
$1,095 (or $3 per day) for similar services. The qualifications needed are
intelligence, tact, and integrity. They spend but one or two hours on the
arrival of each steamer or passenger received from abroad." I think, in

European countries, female police, who examine the persons and passports
of women, receive the same salaries as men.

14. Lawyers.

We cannot question the right of woman to plead at the bar, but we doubt
whether it would be for her good. She might study law, to discipline her
mind and to store it with useful information. She might profitably spend, in
that way, time which would otherwise be devoted to music, painting, or the
languages. But the noisy scenes now witnessed in a court room are scarcely
compatible with the reserve, quietude, and gentleness that characterize a
woman of refinement. Theodore Parker said: "As yet, I believe, no woman
acts as a lawyer; but I see no reason why the profession of law might not be
followed by women as well as men. He must be rather an uncommon
lawyer who thinks no feminine head could compete with him. Most lawyers
that I have known are rather mechanics at law than attorneys or scholars at
law; and, in the mechanical part, woman could do as well as man—could be
as good a conveyancer, could follow precedents as carefully, and copy
forms as nicely. I think her presence would mend the manners of the court
—of the bench, not less than of the bar." A lady lawyer would not be
without a precedent, for we read from a note in "Women Artists:" "Christina
Pisani wrote a work which was published in Paris, 1498. It gives an account
of the learned and famous Novella, the daughter of a professor of the law in
the university of Bologna. She devoted herself to the same studies, and was
distinguished for her scholarship. She conducted her father's cases; and,
having as much beauty as learning, was wont to appear in court veiled." We
suppose this is the same young lady of whom we read elsewhere: "At
twenty-six she took the degree of doctor of laws, and began publicly to
expound the laws of Justinian. At thirty she was elevated to a professor's
chair, and taught the law to a crowd of scholars from all nations. Others of
her sex have since filled professors' chairs in Bologna." While we would not
encourage women to act publicly as counsellors at law, we would claim for
them the privilege of acting as attorneys. Writing out deeds, mortgages,
wills, and indentures, would be a pleasant occupation for such women as
are qualified and fond of sedentary life. We know that the hearts of most

women would prompt them to relieve the poor and oppressed: but might
they not do it in some other way as efficiently as by pleading at the bar? If
the weak seek their aid, let them bestow the benefit of their legal lore. If the
helpless seek their protection, let them bring their information and counsel
to bear upon the case, but not by public speaking. By personal effort, or by
applying to the good of the other sex, they may accomplish much. If a
woman involve herself in the intricacies of law, may she not lose those
tender traits that endear her to the other sex, and in time discard those
graces that render her gentle and lovely at home? The profession of the law
is one suited to the inclinations, nature, and taste of but very few women.
But if a lady will practise law, she will need great clearness of mind, a good
insight into the motives of others, fearlessness in expressing her convictions
of right, and ability in refraining from saying more than she should.

15. Lecturers.

Lecturing is addressing people through the sense of hearing; writing is
addressing them through the sense of sight. An individual can address a
larger number by the latter plan than the former. Many people that would
not devote the time, trouble, and expense to investigate books, will give
their twenty-five cents to hear a lecture on a given subject. Rev. Mr.
Higginson says: "We forget that wonderful people, the Spanish Arabs,
among whom women were public lecturers and secretaries of kings, while
Christian Europe was sunk in darkness." "In Italy, from the fifteenth to the
nineteenth century, it was not esteemed unfeminine for women to give
lectures in public to crowded and admiring audiences. They were freely
admitted members of learned societies, and were consulted by men of
preëminent scientific attainments, as their equals in scholarship." Theodore
Parker felt the importance of public lecturing, and expressed gratification
that women were occupying the field so successfully. In the Female
Medical College of Philadelphia, great attention is given to the study of
physiology; and several graduates from that institution have lectured upon
this subject, one or two of them with great success. It is thought best that a
lecturer upon physiology should be a physician, all the branches of medical
science being so intimately connected, that the separation of one from the

whole is like the dismemberment of the human body, producing almost the
same effect upon the severed member. "The field for competent female
lecturers on physiological subjects is as broad as the nation, and promises a
rich harvest for as many as can possibly be engaged in it, for the next half
century." Dr. Gregory, of the New England Female Medical College, writes:
"Some of the graduates of this college have lectured to ladies more or less
on physiology, hygiene, &c., and with good success. One in particular has
given courses of lectures, illustrated with the apparatus of the college, to the
young ladies in our four State Normal Schools, with great satisfaction to the
principals and pupils. One of our graduates is resident physician, and
teacher and superintendent of health in the Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary, where there are almost three hundred pupils." Other female
seminaries throughout the country ought to be thus supplied. Among those
who lecture on physiology are Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Johnson.
In cities, a number of ladies might deliver lectures in private schools,
academies, and colleges, on physiology and hygiene. Quite a number of
ladies have delivered temperance lectures, and some were employed at one
time by the State Temperance Society of New York. Lecturers of note
receive from $50 to $500 for a single lecture, beside having their travelling
expenses paid. When lecturing on their own responsibility, the entire
proceeds are theirs, save expenses for room, gas, and (in winter) fuel.
Lectures are most generally given before societies, that pay the lecturer a
specified sum. Lucy Stone was paid $263 for her lectures in Bangor, Maine.
Miss Dwight lectured on art, a few years ago, charging at first ten dollars
for a series of six lectures, but afterward she reduced the price to five
dollars.

16. Librarians.

There is a Woman's Library in New York. The object is to furnish women—
particularly working women, who are not able to subscribe to other libraries
—with a quiet and comfortable place to read in, during their leisure
moments. A lady in Darby, Pennsylvania, attends a town library that was
established in 1785. It has always been kept in the house of her family, and
she has had no occasion to employ assistance outside of her family. In the

Mercantile Library of New York, two ladies have charge of the reading
room. One receives $200, and the other $250 a year. Lady librarians receive
from one third to one half as much as men. The librarian says they are not
physically so capable, and otherwise not so well qualified. They could
always do the lighter work of a library. They are employed all the year, and
spend about eight hours in the reading room. The secretary of the
Apprentice's Library in Philadelphia writes: "Both our principal librarians
are ladies, and we have two assistants of the same sex. The principals
receive $308, and the assistants $90 each, per annum. The girls' library, in
which one of the principals and the two assistants are employed, is open
five afternoons in the week, from three to four hours each afternoon and
evening. It is only lately we have employed a lady for a librarian for the
boys' department, and we find the change to be a happy one. The boys are
more respectful, more easily managed, and kept in better order than
formerly, and the number of readers has increased." The gentleman who has
charge of the public library in Boston writes: "We employ eleven American
ladies, who do all the work of a library in its various branches, under the
direction of the superintendent, and subject to revision by him or an able
male assistant. Some cover and collate books, some go from place to place
to get books, and some are occupied entirely with writing and copying
catalogues, shelf lists, records, &c. The ladies are paid $7 per week. Some
spend eight and some ten hours in the library. Much of the labor performed
by males is the same as that performed by females; but in every instance,
save one, paid for at higher rates. Why, I cannot say. The office of
superintendent requires learning and experience. In Boston, the rate of
wages for men is higher than for females. Ladies are paid pretty well here,
in comparison with what they are paid for work elsewhere. Teachers are
paid higher than in other places. A competent person soon learns the duties
of a library, but experience adds to her value. Ladies are employed in
preference to men because they are competent, because it is a good field for
female labor, because they have a good influence on those who transact
business with the library, and, I doubt not, because their work can be had at
less rates than men's. Our schools are graded, and in schools of a given
grade there are divisions. Of course a graduate from the highest division of
the highest grade, other things being equal (that is talent, &c.), is the person
for us. A qualified lady is as good for work as a qualified man. The work of

a librarian cultivates the mind. All advantages, aside from education,
depend upon the taste of the lady employed. If fond of reading and
ambitious to excel, she can, by faithful application out of library hours,
succeed. Three dollars is the lowest price for which a lady can be
comfortably boarded in Boston." "In the Smithsonian Institute at
Washington, a lady is permanently employed as librarian. She receives a
salary of $500 per annum, and is employed six hours a day. The
qualifications needed for the post are reading, writing, some knowledge of
French, German, &c."

17. Magazine Contributors.

Some of our periodical literature is futile and unsatisfying. It is light and
trivial in its nature. It may delight a few hours, but then follows the reaction
—a dull and heavy sinking of the heart—a sluggish dreariness—a neglect
of duty—a disdain for the actual realities of life. The prose of most
magazines is only love dreams—the poetry froth. Such light nutriment is
unfit for the souls of women—such ethereal diet can never satisfy the
cravings of an immortal mind. But some improvement has taken place in
part of our magazine literature, and a few of our reviews equal those of any
country. Subjects are as numerous as the objects around us, and suited to all
moods and diversities of mind. To the contributor, I would say: Your writing
will be likely to find readers—whether it be grave or gay—sad or sprightly
—witty or jovial; whether one making a draught on the imagination or the
judgment; whether one displaying your own attainments, or calling to aid
the opinions and acquirements of others; in short, one of thought, fancy, or
facts. Your friends may like your ideas draped in poetry, or the more
substantial dress of prose. One is like gold, the other like iron. One serves
for ornament, the other for use. The true poet is a gifted person; a heaven-
born talent does he or she possess. If you have good descriptive talents, you
can write stories, laying the scenes in far-away countries that are not much
known, and yet eliciting some interest. And as to the subjects of a moral
caste, their name is legion. Magazine writing furnishes a palatable way of
drawing attention to individual foibles, or furnishing a satire on the
inconsistencies and exactions of society in general. If you attempt to write

natural stories, let your scenes and events be such as occur in every-day life.
It has been suggested that a good publication, like the Atlantic Monthly,
conducted entirely by women, would do great good, but we fear it would
not be supported. I was told, however, by the gentleman who has charge of
Harper's Magazine, that two thirds of the articles are contributed by
women, and they receive better prices than men would. The Saturday Press
says that Harper's Magazine pays its writers $7.50 to $10 per page; the
Atlantic Monthly, from $6 to 10; the Knickerbocker, $3, which is equal to
$5 for Harper and $6 for the Atlantic; the North American Review, $1.50
per page. The prices mentioned are said by one supposed to know, to be
exaggerated, and made the exception, not the rule. Mr. H. C. Carey, in an
article styled "Rewards of Authorship," writes: "I have now before me a
statement from a single publisher, in which he says that to Messrs. Willis,
Longfellow, Bryant, and Allston, his price was uniformly $50 for a poetical
article, long or short—and his readers know that they were generally very
short; in one case only fourteen lines. To numerous others, it was from $25
to $40. In one case he has paid $25 per page for prose. To Mr. Cooper he
paid $1,800 for a novel, and $1,000 for a series of naval biographies, the
author retaining the copyright for separate publication; and in such cases, if
the work be good, its appearance in the magazine acts as the best of
advertisements. To Mr. James, he paid $1,200 for a novel, leaving him also
the copyright. For a single number of his journal, he has paid to authors
$1,500."

18. Missionaries.

Miss Rice, a missionary in Constantinople, has a large school for girls.
Some of her scholars live in Constantinople, but most of them are from
abroad—different parts of Turkey and Western Asia. "In England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Germany, females organize societies of their own, and send out
teachers and readers of their own sex. Ladies in England have had a society
there twenty-five years, expressly for sending out and sustaining single
ladies to work for heathen women, and they have already themselves sent
two hundred into the field, at a cost of many thousands of pounds. If any of
the lady missionaries sent out by the ladies' society in England desire to

leave the work within five years, they shall be at liberty to do so, but shall
refund to that society the cost of sending them out." Mrs. Ellen B. Mason, a
missionary of Burmah, is now in New York, endeavoring to obtain female
missionaries to return with her. A lady (Mrs. Bigelow) was employed
among the city missionaries in Boston, at a salary of $350. From the last
reports of the American Board of Foreign Missions, the Old School
Presbyterian, the Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist, and Dutch Reformed,
we find 451 lady missionaries were supported by their Boards at the time of
making out the reports. The American Board had in charge 185 among
foreign nations, and among the Indians 41 = 226. Of those sent out by this
Board, 26 are unmarried. The Old School Presbyterian has 78 among the
Indians (33 unmarried), and among heathen 53 (3 of the number single) =
131. The Baptist Foreign Missions number 34 (none unmarried). The
American Baptist Union require every lady and gentleman that go out as
missionaries from their Board to marry before they go. The Dutch
Reformed have 11 among foreign nations. The Protestant Episcopal have 26
foreign missionaries (all married). The Methodist 17 (2 unmarried). In a
manual for the use of missionaries and missionary candidates in connection
with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, we find the
laborers needed for the foreign field are: 1st, ordained ministers of the
gospel; 2d, physicians; 3d, school teachers; 4th, printers; 5th, farmers and
mechanics; 6th, unmarried female teachers. In referring to all the other
classes but the first mentioned, it reads: "Though not called to preach the
gospel, their Christian profession requires from them the same devotedness
to the cause of Christ, according to the circumstances in which the
providence of God has placed them, that is required from the ministers of
the gospel. The application should be in writing, and the candidate should
state briefly his age, education, employment, the length of time he has been
a professor of religion, his motive and reasons for desiring to be a
missionary, the field he prefers, and the state of his health. For a female this
information may be given through a third person. No person will be
appointed to the service of the Board until the executive committee have
obtained as thorough a knowledge as possible of his or her character. For
this purpose a personal acquaintance is very desirable. In all cases, written
testimonials, full and explicit, must be forwarded." The treasurer of the
Presbyterian Board said the salary depends on place and qualifications. The

Treasurer of the Dutch Reformed Missions said a single lady receives from
$300 to $400, according to her qualifications. Piety and a good common
education are all that is necessary. They learn the language after arriving at
their place of destination. None go without a certificate from a physician,
saying they are free from organic disease. If their health fails so that they
cannot recover, their passage home is paid, and they are supported for one
year after. The minister connected with the Methodist Board said the salary
depends on the places, and no particular preparation is requisite. They have
many more applicants than they have places for.

19. Medical Missionaries.

An association in Philadelphia educates a limited number of ladies to go out
as medical missionaries. Any information in regard to this association may
be obtained from Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, 1418 Rittenhouse Square,
Philadelphia. The enterprise opens to such missionaries a wide field of
usefulness, that cannot be reached in any other way. A number are now
wanting in foreign countries. Rev. Mr. Dwight, writing from Constantinople
in 1852, very highly commends the plan of giving to some female
missionaries a medical education. He refers to the secluded lives of the
females in oriental nations, to their ignorance, and the superstitious
reverence felt by the people for those acquainted with diseases and their
remedies. He thinks that in Constantinople, among all ranks of people, and
even among the Mohammedans, a female physician would find constant
practice, and gain an access to the female portion of the community that
missionaries cannot. And, if pious, in the capacity of physician, she could
do much to promote their spiritual welfare. A knowledge of the Turkish
language would be indispensable; and some acquaintance with French and
Italian, Dr. Dwight recommends. And it was thought by some of the
missionaries in India, before the rebellion occurred, that medical missionary
ladies could accomplish much good there, especially at Calcutta.
Missionaries in various other countries have also given it as their opinion
that a great deal of good might be done in heathen countries by medical
ladies.

20. Physicians.

It is only within the last few years that women have received any
preparation for the practice of medicine in our country. But it is now
advancing in a way that is very gratifying to the friends of the cause, and is
beginning to be appreciated by the people. Many of the most learned and
talented men in the profession approve of women devoting themselves to
the practice of medicine on their own sex and children. The mildness and
amiability of woman, her modesty, her delicacy and refinement, all tend to
make her acceptable at the bedside. Her quick insight into the ailments of
others and her promptness in offering a remedy enhance her value. Some
think the modesty and delicacy that should characterize a physician are lost
to a lady in acquiring a knowledge of the profession. We would think not
any more than by a gentleman. Why should the result be different? And
surely a woman wants in her physician, whether male or female, a person of
pure thoughts and feelings. Some say women have not firmness and nerve
enough to perform surgical operations—that if they have, it is only animal
force. What is it but animal force that gives the superiority to men (if they
are superior)? Some say that such a profession may call woman among an
objectionable class of people. "The fact that the practice of medicine draws
its support from the miseries and sufferings of the world is no objection to
its respectability. What profession is there that does not draw its support
from some suffering, necessity, or disability?—unless it be that of the
mountebank." Another objection urged is, that women lose their delicacy by
the study and practice of anatomy under a male physician. This offensive
feature is removed in the Female Medical College of Philadelphia, where
that post has been filled by a woman for six or seven years. It is filled,
writes one of the professors, to the full satisfaction, I believe, alike of the
class and the faculty. In 1758, Anna Manzolini was professor of anatomy in
Bologna. We believe, if a lady acquires a knowledge of medicine, it should
be a thorough one. Undoubtedly too much strong medicine has been used in
the United States, and that will account to some extent for the bad health of
American women. Night practice and the inclemencies of the weather are
the greatest difficulties a woman must contend with in the practice of
medicine. If a lady has means, she can command a conveyance of her own.
As to practising at night, she can have some one to accompany her, if in the

city. If in a town, village, or the country, she will be likely to know who the
people are, and have a conveyance sent for her. If a woman acquires a
thorough knowledge of medicine, she can better promote the well-being and
preserve the health of herself and children. No lady should undertake the
practice of medicine unless she feels competent in every way to do so. If
she does, let her enter with her soul into it, and keep constantly in view her
object to relieve the suffering and bring health to the diseased. The practice
of medicine is more renumerative than teaching. Mrs. Hale, who strongly
advocates the practice of medicine by ladies, says: "Teachers grow out of
fashion as they grow old; physicians, on the contrary, gain credit and
reputation from length of practice." There is one department of medicine
that we think belongs to women, and women alone. It is midwifery. In the
feudal times many ladies of rank and wealth prescribed and measured out
medicines for their tenants, and many women practised midwifery. It is
proved by Dr. Saul Gregory, of Boston, founder of the New England
Female Medical College, that the practice of male physicians in the
department of midwifery is not only injurious, but destructive of human
life. He writes: "I have within the past six months made an effort to
ascertain the number of lady graduates, having written to the different
schools where they have graduated. From the number certainly ascertained,
with the addition of a probable number of others, I should say that there are
at least two hundred graduated female physicians in the United States. The
number from this (the New England Female Medical College) is thirty-four.
The field is broad enough, of course, for many thousands; and to women of
good natural abilities and suitable acquirements there is a prospect of
success in all of the cities and large villages of the country. They will more
readily find professional employment now and henceforward than they have
during the past ten years, inasmuch as the idea of female medical practice
has become more familiar to the public mind, and the custom is becoming
gradually established. The tuition in medical colleges generally is from $60
to $80 a term. Board is from $2 to $4, according to circumstances. About
$30 worth of medical books are needed. This college has a scholarship
fund, affording free tuition to a large number of students from any part of
the world." Dr. Gregory expresses our views in regard to more unoccupied
women entering the profession of medicine, so much better than we could
do, that we will transcribe what he says on the subject: "Man, the lord of

creation, has the world before him, and can choose his profession or pursuit
—war, politics, agriculture, commerce, mechanic arts, mercantile affairs
(not excepting ribbon and tape), and a thousand vocations and diversions.
There are said to be 40,000 physicians in the United States. 20,000 of these
ought to give place to this number of women, and turn their attention to
pursuits better adapted to their strong muscles and strong minds. In addition
to providing for the self support of 20,000 or more women, this change
would relieve that number of men, and secure to the country the benefit of
their mental and manual industry—quite an item in our political economy
and national wealth. Of course, this very desirable change cannot be
brought about so suddenly as to create any great disturbance in the
established order of things, even if the enterprise is carried forward with all
possible vigor; so that physicians now in the field need not be greatly
alarmed in prospect of female competition." We think, all diseases peculiar
to women, or surgical operations on women requiring any exposure of
person, should be treated and performed by women alone. Many a woman
suffers for months, or years, and often a lifetime, because of that instinctive
delicacy that makes her rather suffer than be treated by a male physician.
Those that prepare themselves as physicians should be ladies of honor,
education, and refinement. In most families, after the minister of the gospel,
the physician holds the next highest place in the esteem of the members.
Other subjects than those of medicine are often discussed, and the advice of
a physician sought on matters of vital importance to those interested. The
free, unembarrassed entrance of a physician into the sanctum of home,
gives an opportunity of learning much that should be sacredly preserved in
their own hearts. A lady physician needs firmness and dignity in the
maintenance of her rights and opinions. When a woman is weak both in
body and mind, timid and fearful, how much better can one of her own sex
soothe her! It may be the nurse has not time, in a charitable, or even in a
pay institution. But if her physician is a woman, well acquainted with her
profession, and possessing discernment, sympathy, and some knowledge of
the human heart, how readily may she read the inner as well as the outer
wants of her patient! She will treat her gently and tenderly; and if the
patient be a mother, the physician will see her family now and then, to
relieve her patient's anxiety. If she is poor, she will speak to some of her
rich patients, or acquaintances, to see that she is furnished with suitable

employment when she is well. And so she will interest herself about those
matters most male physicians would never think of, or, if they did, would
consider beneath their attention. "In Paris, for a long period, women have
studied medicine with the best physicians, who used them as supplements,
to attend the poor and do some of the hospital practice." Two lady
physicians became quite distinguished in Paris, and a hospital was in the
entire charge of one. The statistics and professional reports of these ladies
are now accepted by the best physicians in all countries. Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell has lately established a hospital in New York city, where ladies
studying medicine can have the benefits arising from the observation and
experience acquired in a hospital. This has long been considered almost
essential in the education of male students. In the same city is a preparatory
school of medicine conducted by professors connected with the medical
schools of the city. They give separate instruction to a class of ladies, who
are admitted to the clinical teachings of two of the largest dispensaries in
the city. These dispensaries furnish upwards of 60,000 cases of disease
annually. In 1850, a charter was granted to the Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania. A college was commenced in Boston about the same time.
Both of these schools are for females exclusively, and each has graduated
about fifty pupils. In the Pennsylvania Medical University both sexes are
received. In some branches the presence of mixed classes is embarrassing to
both professors and pupils, and that free communication desirable for
acquiring and imparting information is partially checked. This difficulty is
done away in some female colleges by employing competent lady
professors. In Europe, women are not permitted to receive instruction with
the male students, but in hospital practice they have excellent opportunities
of gaining information as nurses and physicians. I know of no pursuit that
offers a more inviting field for educated women than the practice of
medicine. The ability of woman to study and practice medicine has been
satisfactorily demonstrated. Some ladies have graduated at both the
allopathic and homœopathic schools in Cleveland. The allopathic school in
that place was the first to admit ladies. Different motives actuate ladies in
the study of medicine. The wives of some manufacturers, planters, and
others, who reside where medical advice is not easily obtained, study
medicine that they may prescribe for their husbands' employées. Some
study medicine that they may have something to rely upon in case other

resources should fail them. Some teachers have studied that they may
instruct their pupils in the laws of hygiene and remedies for disease. Quite a
number of lady physicians are employed in female boarding schools. The
benefit resulting from having the advice of a physician at any hour of the
day or night is very great, and must relieve the superintendents of schools
and absent parents from much anxiety. Some ladies prefer giving advice at
their residences. A lady that devotes herself to a speciality should endeavor
to keep posted in all the branches of her profession, so far as she can
without neglecting to acquire all the information possible in her speciality.
"In the United States there are 40,564 physicians, 191 surgeons, 5,132
apothecaries, 456 chemists, 923 dentists, 59 oculists, 59 patent medicine
makers. There are 35 medical colleges, 230 professors, and about 5,000
students." Dr. Ann Preston, of the Pennsylvania Female Medical College,
writes me: "Of those in practice who graduated with us, quite a number
have found it very remunerative, and the prospect for others to secure
practice is most encouraging, if they only possess the requisite
qualifications. The desire to employ ladies as physicians is constantly
extending, and my faith in the triumphant and extensive vindication of the
movement deepens from year to year. There are openings in perhaps nearly
all the cities and villages of our land—certainly in Eastern Pennsylvania;
but in choosing a physician, people must have confidence in the sound
judgment, good character, and professional ability of those they employ. A
woman settling among strangers is more liable to suspicion than a man; and
in such a case it takes time, and a long continuance in well doing, to become
established in a lucrative practice. It also requires means; and unless these
are abundant, it is much better for the lady physician to settle where she is
already known and respected, and where, among her friends, she can live at
small expense. Still, in one or two cases, our students have gone
successfully among strangers, earning enough to bear their expenses during
the first two years. The cost of fitting a lady of moderate abilities for the
practice of medicine varies. The whole cost of two or more courses of
lectures and graduation is $175. Board here is from $3 to $5 a week for
students, everything included. The needful text books would cost from $20
to $25; then travelling expenses, clothes, &c. I have known ladies
commence with only one or two hundred dollars in advance, teach school
during the summers, and graduate in three or four years. Sometimes these

have come as beneficiaries. Still it is much more comfortable to have six or
seven hundred to depend upon during the course of study. The time also
varies, but we think no person should graduate who has not studied two
years and upward. A large proportion of our graduates have studied
medicine three years, and several have spent the next year in the hospital in
New York. We are about opening a hospital here, which, in case of some,
will obviate this necessity. I believe ladies in practice here generally make
the charges common among men physicians; and several of them realize a
handsome competence, and are gladdened by seeing, year by year, that
prejudice is passing away, and that medicine is proving a fitting and
glorious sphere for the exercise of woman's best powers." There are several
regularly educated female physicians engaged in the practice of medicine in
Philadelphia, some in New York, and some in Boston, with a few in other
cities of the North, South, and West, and here and there scattered through
towns, villages, and the country. There is an opening for one or two well-
qualified physicians in New Orleans that can speak the Italian and Spanish
languages. Many physicians find it an advantage to have a knowledge of the
French and German languages, on account of the large foreign population in
our country. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell writes: "It is very difficult by letter to
answer your question about medical education. It is almost impossible for a
lady to get a good medical education without going to Europe. Philadelphia
or Boston would give a woman the legal right to practise medicine, and that
is the chief value of what is given, for the exclusively theoretical instruction
of those colleges could be as well obtained by reading and private tuition.
New York can furnish much valuable practical instruction, but not the legal
right. Between the two places, a student who will spend four years may
become a respectable young physician, without going to Europe; but fully
that period of time is necessary to pick up scattered knowledge, &c. A lady
should be able to command $2,000 during the four years. She is otherwise
very much crippled in her studies. There is a real necessity for women
physicians; therefore, in course of time they will be created; but the
imperfect efforts and most inadequate preparation of those who now study,
rather retard the movement, and the creation of practice is a very slow
thing." I called on Mrs. ——, M. D. She goes out at night when called—
sometimes alone, sometimes takes her female student. She thinks there
must be openings South and West, and that the prospect for lady physicians

is very good. She supposes the cost of a medical education would be about
$1,500. I called on Mrs. ——, M. D., who practises medicine, and often
lectures on diseases and their remedies. She walks to see her patients, or
rides in stages, but the majority come to her dwelling in office hours. She
never goes out at night except where she is acquainted. She has a small
number of students. She has a speciality, but does not confine herself to it.
She attends several families by the year, charging, I think, $200 a year. She
thinks many intelligent ladies might, if they would qualify themselves
thoroughly, succeed in establishing themselves as physicians.

21. Preachers.

A friend once said "the professions of ministers and lawyers ought to
accord. One is the interpreter of the divine law, the other of human law. A
preacher is a lawyer for heaven." The promptings and workings of the
human heart must be well understood by a minister. One in this holy office
should not connive at the faults of her congregation, or give herself up to
the acquirement of popular applause. We think one half the good
accomplished in a church is done by the ladies of the church, particularly
single women. And we know well that ministers are aware of this, and
readily enlist the ladies of their congregations in good works. In old times,
Angela de Foligno was celebrated as a teacher of theology. "In Spain,
Isabella of Rosena converted Jews by her eloquent preaching, and
commented upon the learned Scotus before cardinals and archbishops." In
modern times, two or three ladies have studied theology, and preached with
success. Mrs. Blackwell and Mrs. Jenkins are both said to be ladies of
literary merit and genuine piety. Their mild, amiable, and lady-like
deportment make them beloved by all who are sufficiently acquainted with
to appreciate them. Some one writes: "It seems to me that woman, by her
peculiar constitution, is better qualified to teach religion than by any merely
intellectual discipline." Women are more susceptible to religious
impressions than men. Two thirds of the communicants of our churches are
of that sex. The Quakers, Shakers, and Methodists, we think, are the only
denominations in which women speak in religious meetings. The founder of
the Shakers was a woman—Ann Lee—who established her faith in 1776.

22. Proof Readers.

The reading of proof has become a regular branch of business. Many of the
large houses in cities where publishing is done, employ persons expressly
for this purpose. We think proof reading opens a charming prospect to the
employment of cultivated women. Girls could just as well be trained to read
manuscripts aloud, for proof readers to correct their first sheets by, as boys.
A proprietor of one of the largest publishing houses in this country kindly
furnished us a reply to the question, what are the duties of a proof reader,
and are ladies ever so employed? Hoping it will not be considered a breach
of courtesy to use the reply, we give it in the words of the writer: "Proof
reading consists in the reading of proofs, marking the errors, and making
the work typographically correct. A good proof reader ought to be a
practical printer, as there are a thousand minute details which one can
hardly learn except by daily experience at the composing case and imposing
stone. In addition to this he should have more or less knowledge of various
languages, ancient and modern, and be well informed in history, art, and
science. Proof reading is considered the best situation in a printing office;
and the most intelligent printers usually gain and hold these situations. We
know of no case in which this duty is performed by a woman; the cases
must be rare indeed in which one has had an opportunity to qualify her for
performing its duties. Moreover, it is a position the duties of which must be
performed in the printing office." It is true that proof reading must be done
in the printing establishment; but separate rooms, we believe, are always
provided for proof readers. So ladies need not be frightened by supposing
they must do their reading in the composition room. One of the firm of the
Boston Stereotype Foundry writes: "We employ but three young ladies to
read proof, and pay from $3 to $5 per week. They are Americans, and work
nine hours. At one time we employed women in the type-setting
department, who received two thirds of the price paid to men. Women are
paid less than men because they are women, and because plenty can be
found. Women possessing a good English education can learn in two
months—if apt, become expert. They commence at $3, and finally get $5.
The prospect of employment is good for a few. Occasionally there is a dull
time, which affords opportunity for a little sewing, &c. Unless very dull, the
occupant retains her position and wages. Good workmen consider women

an innovation. To sum up the whole matter in a few words, women (barring
the heavy work) can perform the labor appertaining to proof reading and
type setting as well as men." A lady told me that one of her daughters assists
her father with his newspaper. She reads the proof, looks up articles he
wants, helps select matter for the paper, and translates French stories for his
paper. Her services are worth to him from $500 to $600 a year. On visiting
the Bible House, I learned that a lady is there employed as proof reader. She
corrects both in English and German. Four or five male proof readers are
employed, but she is the only lady. She gets $5 or $6 a week. The principal
proof reader gets $12 a week. "Accuracy, quickness of eye, thorough
knowledge of orthography, grammar, and punctuation, with a knowledge of
languages, and a vast deal of learning and general intelligence, are
necessary for a proof reader. An intuitive perception, arising from this
cultivation, enables one to detect errors immediately, often without knowing
how and why."

23. Publishers.

We find in the census report of Great Britain, 923 women reported as
booksellers and publishers. What the number of publishers alone is we
cannot tell, nor do we know whether any of them conduct the business on
their own responsibility, or whether they are widows, and have men to
conduct the business for them. We know of two large publishing houses in
New York that pay 10 cents on the dollar to an author for the manuscript of
any book they see proper to publish; that is, for a book they will sell at retail
for $1, and at wholesale for 60 cents, the author receives 10 cents, which
gives the publisher 50 cents for getting up the book and running the risk of
selling it. If the author incurs the expenses of getting the book up, they may
allow 15 cents. They will pay no larger a percentage for any subsequent
edition than for the first. But they will not undertake a book unless they
think they can make money out of it. The same book might be printed and
stereotype plates cast at 85 cents a volume. The author could then sell it for
65 cents a copy to the book merchants, and they would sell it at 90 cents a
volume. After the first edition of one thousand, the author could probably
get it printed at 40 cents on the volume less. If the book takes, the merchant

may allow the author twelve to fifteen per cent. Some publishers purchase
the copyrights of books they think may succeed, paying a specified sum, as
agreed on with the author. Publishers calculate to have two out of every
three books fail that are brought into market. Some publishers sell for
authors on commission. The authors get up their own books, and the
publisher sells, receiving forty per cent. from the retail price. He sells to the
trade at a discount of from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent., according to
amount and distance. The average discount would be thirty per cent. This
leaves the publisher ten per cent. to transact all the business, advertise, &c.
From the first edition the publisher will not be likely to derive any profit;
but if the book takes, the publisher will make a handsome profit from the
subsequent editions.

24. Readers to the Working Classes.

In China, at almost every store where cups of tea are sold, a number of men
make it a business to read to those that come in to buy or drink tea. A
gratuity is bestowed by such as feel disposed. The working classes that are
not able to read and buy books, are thereby enabled to have the benefit of
those that can. Now we do not see why the same principle may not be
carried out in this country. Shakspearian readings, it is true, have been
popular and fashionable for a few years. We have seen it stated that "seven
of Fanny Kemble Butler's recent Shakspearian readings in New York city
netted the fine sum of $6,000." Beside, lectures have been delivered and
poems recited, mostly of the readers' composition. Now might not
competent ladies make it useful to the working classes of their own sex, or
even both sexes, to spend an evening, occasionally, in reading to them?
Charging a small entrance fee, if there is a good attendance, would support
the reader, and enlighten the audience. It would be better if the poor, hard-
working classes had more elevating and refining amusements. We know of
none better calculated to improve while it entertains than reading. Might it
not be done in saloons?—properly qualified men in the gentlemen's
department, and properly qualified women in the ladies' department. In our
large cities, where time is so precious, many a lady, we doubt not, would
give an additional sixpence to have a book she carries with her or the papers

of the day read aloud while she eats her lunch. The only difficulty is, the
prices paid would scarcely justify one sufficiently qualified for the
undertaking.

25. Reporters.

This is rather a new arena for the exercise of female talent. A reporter must
be a close observer of matters and things in general that pertain to
individual or public affairs. A verbal or written account is furnished to the
publication in which the reporter is interested. A reporter attends public
assemblies of any kind, and writes down or stenographizes the proceedings
of said assembly. In a city, places of amusement, lectures, political and
church meetings, form subjects of interest to a newspaper reporter. Noting
the proceedings of legislative and other legal assemblies forms the most
regular and reliable employment. In London, there are seven publications
that employ from ten to eighteen reporters each, during the meetings of
Parliament. Two from each paper are always in attendance—one in the
gallery of the House of Lords, and another in the gallery of the House of
Commons. A reporter seldom remains more than two or three hours. His
place is taken by another, while he writes out his notes and prepares them
for the press. The reporters are well remunerated, and give very faithful
reports. In the United States, the subscription price of even the very best
papers, and their comparatively limited circulation, will not justify so great
an expense for the reporter's department. Yet most good papers have one or
two reporters. Not long since, a lady stenographer received $1,000 damages
from a railroad company, for an accident that occurred on the car, which
unfitted her for her calling, as it deprived her of the forefinger on her right
hand. A lady reporter, in Boston, writes me: "The art of reporting needs
constant drilling, like music, dancing, &c. Few women have the education
and nerve for professional reporting." A lady teacher of phonography
writes: "A person of common capacity could learn phonography in from
four to six months, studying three hours per day; but to practise for
reporting is quite another thing: that depends upon the unremitting industry
of a person. I know of but two ladies whose business is reporting. It is hard
work, but pays well." This lady also states that her terms of tuition are

seventy-five cents per lesson of one hour. "Phonographers generally receive
from ten to twenty dollars an hour; and it takes about five or six hours to
write out what may be spoken in an hour, if done by one person. With an
amanuensis, it takes about four hours of writing to one of speaking."
Several ladies are acting in Ohio and Michigan as phonographic reporters.
Mr. James T. Brady, in a public speech in New York, said: "Without
disparagement to his friends who were here engaged in catching the
extemporized words of the speaker, he really would be happy to see the day
when women, who had the capacity, should be engaged in making reports."
"Among the American Indians, the women, being present at councils,
preserve in their memories the report of what passes, and repeat it to their
children. They have traditions of treaties a hundred years back, which, when
compared with our writings, are always exact." A telegraphic reporter told
me a first-class reporter can earn from twenty-five to thirty dollars for three
or four hours' labor. It requires a knowledge of stenography, of which there
are several teachers in New York, and which can be learned in a short time.
Some reporters are paid by the week; and some by the page of foolscap,
which is considered, I think, as counting eighty words. Mr. B., a reporter of
New York, had a sister in Washington with him, ten years ago, who attended
the sittings of Congress, and took notes, and wrote them out fully. Her
brother then revised and sent them to the press. Another lady attempted it
for the Tribune, but was ridiculed, and very foolishly gave it up. I was told
that Mrs. W., wife of a reporter for the Tribune, took notes of Dr. Chapin's
sermon on Thanksgiving day, and made a report for the Tribune, with which
the readers of the paper were well satisfied. The reply of Mr. Webster to Mr.
Hayne was saved by Mrs. Gales, the wife of one of the Congressional
reporters, by writing out her husband's short-hand notes, which he for the
lack of time found it impossible to do. Otherwise that remarkable speech of
an eminent orator would have been lost. Mr. L. remarked to me: "A reporter
in New York has to move and write with railroad speed. Everything needs
to be done with a rush; and so dense are crowds, that a woman would have
to lay aside hoops to make her way."

26. Reviewers.

A reviewer of new books should be a rapid reader and of quick
understanding. A reviewer should also be a person of judgment. The vast
number of books now published might afford employment, and a good
compensation, we suppose, to those so engaged. But too often publishers
use a moneyed influence in giving a false reputation to their publications.
Frequently the editors of magazines and newspapers are their own
reviewers. We heartily wish that reviewers would endeavor to check the
circulation of some of the light literature of the day. We refer not so much to
that which is vapid—unsubstantial—wanting stamina—as that which is
impure—immoral. Much is of a kind to open the floodgates of vice and
crime. Stories cast in the old-fashioned mould of hair-breadth escapes,
marvellous incidents, and impossible events, are less popular than formerly.
No doubt much reading is done as a recreation—to forget one's self—to
banish care—to unbend from severe study: let such reading at least be pure
and chaste. Books undoubtedly exercise a great influence over the
disposition, taste, and character; and reviewers have it much in their power
to direct the general taste for books. They can do much toward forming a
high and correct literary tone in society. The number of those who devote
themselves to the review of new books in England is small—in the United
States, still smaller. How they are paid I am unable to learn.

27. Teachers.

Teaching, in its various branches, would form a large volume; but we will
endeavor to take as general, yet comprehensive, a view of the subject as our
limits will permit. The instruction of youth has ever been an honorable and
useful calling: in an enlightened and refined community an institution of the
first class always stands high. The influence of a teacher over her pupils is
almost unbounded. Pupils watch the looks and actions of their teachers with
a closeness of observation surprising to those unaccustomed to children. A
teacher should strive to be consistent, for any palpable inconsistency will
greatly lessen the respect of scholars. There are many systems of teaching;
many plans; many theories. Much may be learned from visiting schools,
and selecting, for one's own use, such improvements as suggest themselves.
But the most valuable assistant in teaching is a thorough and extensive

knowledge of mental and moral philosophy. They bear directly on the
subject. They will prove the best guides, if penetration and judgment,
patience and perseverance are used in the application. There are laws
governing mind just as there are laws governing matter. Learn the opinions
and wishes of parents as far as possible, but always act independently.
Never permit yourself to be trammelled by them. The European method of
giving instruction is by lectures. The plan is used in the professional schools
of our country, and to some extent in our colleges, but in our seminaries,
academies, and high schools the method is seldom practised. The inability
of a hearer to apply to a lecturer, in case the subject is not understood, or the
meaning of the lecturer not rightly apprehended, renders the method as a
general thing objectionable to the young and inexperienced. Where students
are instructed by lectures, a thorough examination on the lectures should be
made the day after, and an explanation given if any parts are not rightly
understood. One difficulty with a lecturer to the young is likely to be in
gaining their entire attention, and presenting ideas to them in a clear,
forcible manner. In the majority of girls' schools no oral instruction is given.
Recitations are heard from text books, and frequently the pupils are unable
to understand what they, parrot-like, recite in class. We think a combination
of the two plans mentioned is best; that is, for the teacher to deliver lectures
on some subjects, and hear recitations from text books on others. The more
oral instruction given by a competent instructor the better. A teacher needs
ability to command order, to promote discipline, and work systematically. A
teacher should endeavor to produce harmony and a proper balance among
the mental faculties, while they are being expanded. No unnatural and
undue prominence should be given to any one of the faculties. Too many
exercise the memory only. Those studies that will be most serviceable to a
pupil should be pursued. Religious principles, common sense, good health,
and a uniformly cheerful disposition are necessary to make a good teacher.
A teacher should well understand the springs of human action. Add to these,
ability to discriminate, perfect command of temper, unwearied
perseverance, patience that never flags, and tact for imparting knowledge,
and you have the desiderata for a most excellent teacher. If there is any
office in life that calls for the exercise of every virtue, it is that of a teacher.
It is the most responsible office in life except that of parent. Teaching is a
vocation peculiarly fitted to women, and will ever be open to women of

superior talents and extensive attainments. In worth and dignity it is inferior
to none of the professions of men. It is finally taking its place among the
learned professions. Female education has been too superficial. A more
thorough and extensive course is needed in most of our schools. Woman
must be taught to think for herself, and to act for herself. She needs to
depend more on her own abilities—requires more self-reliance. Miss
Beecher maintains that there is no defect in temper, habits, manners, or in
any intellectual and moral development, which cannot be remedied. There
are said to be more than 2,000,000 of children in our land out of school, and
requiring 100,000 teachers to supply them. We would not give the
impression that if 100,000 ladies were to prepare themselves to teach, they
would find 100,000 places awaiting them. No; we believe the supply now
fully meets the demand; and we are sorry to see the impression being so
often given by editors and others, that teachers are needed and in demand;
because we think many ladies of limited means are thereby induced to
spend what little they have in preparing themselves to be teachers; and
when they are qualified, ten chances to one, if they get a school, it is only
for three months out of the twelve, and that not regularly. A precarious
subsistence is obtained, and, to those without homes, certainly a most
unreliable one. We love to see ladies educated, and would gladly see them
all qualified to teach; but we do not like to see inducements thrown out to
qualify themselves, under the impression that there are hundreds of places
vacant only because they cannot obtain teachers. There is no employment
more uncertain than that of a teacher. Many causes tend to produce this.
Among them are dissatisfaction on the part of teacher or people, low wages,
the fluctuating condition of country schools at different seasons of the year,
a large mass of people not knowing the advantages of an education, and the
want of endowed institutions of learning. If a lady has sufficient capital to
establish herself permanently as a teacher, she will be far more likely to
succeed. As new places are settled and population advances there will no
doubt be openings, but they will require teachers willing to endure the
hardships and privations incident to a new country. Some lady teachers
might get employment if they would go to the country, but the variety and
excitement of the city they are not willing to relinquish. An active life is
happiest, and none, if well filled, affords more constant employment than
that of a teacher. Evening schools are established in most of our large cities,

for the accommodation of those that labor through the day. In New York
these schools are in session two hours, and a teacher receives one dollar an
evening. Some lady teachers are employed in schools for the blind and for
the deaf and dumb. In Germany, teachers are treated with a degree of
respect and delicacy that should serve as a model to other countries. The
acquisition of knowledge has long been too mechanical an operation. Girls
are expected to receive as undoubted truths all they meet with in their
school books. They are not taught to pause and consider if statements are
grounded on certain or uncertain premises. They are not taught to exercise
their own thoughts and judgment. School agencies in the large cities of the
North are establishing branches in the South and West. Where there is no
established organization of this kind, families and neighborhoods are often
at a loss how to obtain a governess or teacher, while a teacher is equally at a
loss to know of such situations as she desires. There is considerable
difference in the character and qualifications of the teachers sent out by the
different agencies of New York. Connected with these agencies might be a
means of communication for obtaining amanuenses, copyists, and
translators. Few parents are willing to intrust their children to those who are
not trained for their business. The establishment of schools for the
preparation of teachers is one of the great inventions of the age. There is
one in almost every State. There was, and probably still is, an educational
association, that centres in New York city, which has for its object the free
instruction of a limited number of young ladies desirous of preparing
themselves for teachers. One of the institutions is in Dubuque, Iowa; the
other in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The principal of the Normal School, New
York, receives $600 a year, and he does not hear a single recitation. He
spends five hours in the room every Saturday, which, for all the year of 48
weeks, equals 240 hours—nearly $3 an hour, merely for the light of his
countenance. The number of governesses in England is very large. Their
duties are more severe and their remuneration less than in any other
country. In the United States, governesses receive higher salaries in the
Southern than the Northern States, and are treated more like members of the
family. The salaries of teachers are also higher, but it costs more to live in
the South. One way in which so many men get situations as teachers to the
exclusion of females, "may be attributed, in a degree, to favoritism of Odd
Fellows' and other social and political bonds." As time advances, more

attention will be given by the ladies to special branches of education. There
will be professors of mathematics, languages, &c., just as there are in male
institutions. Each one will cultivate most highly a knowledge of that science
to which her talents and wishes incline. In the public schools of New York,
there are thirty-nine gentlemen conducting the male departments, who
receive a salary of $1,500 per year; while, of the lady principals of the
female departments, there are only ten getting a salary of $800, the highest
salary paid a lady in the public schools of New York. There are said to be
1,183 female teachers in New York city. In Louisville, Ky., the gentleman
principals of the grammar schools receive a salary of $1,000 a year, the lady
principals $650. In the male and female high schools, the principals receive
$1,600 a year. The lady preceptress in the female high school has a salary of
$900. The lady who teaches mathematics in the Female Presbyterian
College of Louisville receives a salary of $900. In Chicago, the maximum
salary of female teachers is $400 a year. In the Cleveland Female Seminary,
in 1854, the lady teacher of rhetoric and English literature received a salary
of $500 and board; of English branches, $500 and board; of history, $500
and board; of mathematics, $500 and board. We have seen it stated that
female teachers are growing scarce in Maine, because the wages are so low.
"At the New York Central College for students of both sexes, there is one
female professor in the faculty, and she receives the same salary as the other
members, and has the same voice." It is a manual labor school, where the
same justice is not exercised in regard to the pupils, as the "male students
get eight cents per hour for labor, females but four cents an hour." In the
twelfth ward of New York city, the subject of paying lady teachers the same
salaries as those of the other sex was agitated last winter: the result I did not
hear. Higher prices are paid to lady teachers in Boston than any other city of
the United States, except the cities of California, where ladies conducting
the same branches as gentlemen receive as good salaries. The majority of
teachers in San Francisco are ladies. In the United States there are 150,000
teachers in the public schools, and 4,000,000 scholars. "There is one scholar
for every five free persons; in Great Britain there is one scholar to every
eight persons; in France, one to every ten persons." According to an
estimate made by Rev. T. W. Higginson, there are in fourteen of the United
States, in all schools, both public and private, 152,339 male teachers, and
162,687 female teachers. In the New England States, according to his

estimate, there are 45,619 male teachers, and 87,645 female teachers. In the
Western States, settled mostly by New Englanders, we find the proportion
of lady teachers greatest. We hope the number of lady teachers may increase
in the different States in proportion to the increase of the population. In
Brooklyn, L. I., there is a female seminary endowed by Mrs. Packer, which
usually, we believe, has an attendance of between 300 and 400 pupils.
"Matthew Vassar, Esq., of Poughkeepsie, it is said, has devoted a sum
which will soon amount to $400,000 to the endowment of a college for girls
in that city. He hopes to make it a rival of Yale, Brown, and Harvard. It is
not to be free, but the tuition rates will be very low. In the plan provision is
made for a library, cabinets, apparatus, galleries of art, botanical gardens,
and the like. If well carried out, this institution may be a lasting monument
to the wisdom and benevolence of Mr. Vassar."
28. Teachers of Bookkeeping. In the catalogue of Comer's Commercial
College, Boston, we find the following statement: "As an inducement to
ladies to prepare themselves for mercantile employments, a discount of
twenty per cent. from the terms for gentlemen is made, although the course
of instruction is precisely the same." Twelve free scholarships have been
founded in the institution for deserving cases of either sex. With all large
commercial schools is now connected a separate department for ladies; and
efforts are made by the principals to obtain situations for their pupils as they
leave school. A letter from Misses McIntire and Kidder, Boston, states: "We
have been engaged in preparing ladies for bookkeepers, saleswomen, &c.,
for the past ten years. It was at first difficult for ladies to obtain such
situations; but as those who did succeed gave entire satisfaction, others
were induced to give them a trial; and now they are very generally
employed in our retail stores, at prices varying from four to eight dollars per
week, and a few at a still higher salary. The time required for a person who
has received a common English education, is from six weeks to three
months. The terms for the complete course in bookkeeping, which embraces
improvement in writing, with rapid methods of calculating interest and
averaging accounts, are $14; and for bookkeeping only, $12; and three
months' time is allowed. The chances for obtaining employment are very
favorable, as more situations are opened to them every year. Each student is
instructed separately and assistance rendered in obtaining employment.

Bookkeepers are usually employed ten hours a day. The employment is not
so unhealthy as needlework. Women are superior to men in faithfulness in
the performance of duties." The principal of a mercantile college in
Brooklyn says he thinks "many ladies might obtain employment as
bookkeepers, if they would only properly qualify themselves for the duties.
He had six or seven lady pupils that are now employed as bookkeepers in
New York. Their compensation depends on their abilities and the amount of
labor they have to perform. They are not so well paid as male bookkeepers.
Much depends on the kind of friends a lady has to secure her a place. It is
the same case with a young man. If he acquires a reputation for integrity
and faithfulness, he may get even as much as $2,500; while one more
obscure and unknown may be as competent, but not able to command more
than one third as much. So, one may have to work but a few hours; another,
from eight in the morning until twelve at night. Some have a great deal to
do in some seasons, and but little in others; while some are kept nearly
equally busy all the year." This gentleman charges $10 for instruction. Mr.
D., who teaches writing, bookkeeping, and arithmetic, in New York, gives
private instruction to ladies at his rooms. They are comfortably fitted up. He
charges for bookkeeping, practical course of twenty lessons, $15; unlimited
course, $25;—arithmetic, commercial course of twenty lessons, $10; of
sixty lessons, $20. His charges for all branches required to prepare pupils
practically for business are, for one month, two or three hours per day, $15;
three months, $30; for twenty lessons in writing, public room, $10; private
room, $15. Mr. B., of the firm of B. S. & Co., says a person of good
abilities could learn bookkeeping in one month, by spending most of the
day at it. His price for ladies is $25. It entitles them to an attendance at one
of their branch schools, of which there are eight in the Northern and
Western cities. They endeavor to secure places for those who learn
bookkeeping with them. They also assist their pupils to open books when
they have obtained situations. Millinery establishments, trimming and fancy
stores, &c., are the kind that mostly employ women as bookkeepers. Many
wives of business men learn bookkeeping, that they may keep their
husbands' books.
29. Teachers of Gymnastics and Dancing. Dancing, calisthenics, and
gymnastics furnish excellent exercise for young people, and in many

boarding and day schools for young ladies gymnastics are now taught. A
lady teacher of calisthenics and gymnastics told me that in winter a fire is
kept in the dressing room, and in very cold weather the practising room is
warmed a little. Gymnastics are performed with apparatus. Calisthenics are
arm exercises. The terms of this teacher are $6 for one month, $15 for three
months, and $20 for six months' tuition. In New York and Philadelphia
there are schools where instruction is given to girls as well as boys in
gymnastic exercises. At one gymnasium in New York the terms are $16 a
year for tuition, $10 for six months, and $7 for three months. At a ladies'
gymnasium in Brooklyn, I was told by the instructress that her prices for
tuition are $4 a quarter in summer, giving three lessons a week. A physician
prescribes the kind and amount of exercise necessary.
30. Teachers of Drawing and Painting. There is scarcely any branch of
mechanical labor in which a knowledge of drawing is not an advantage.
Correct drawing is essential to the success of an artist; but coloring is
something very difficult and desirable, particularly the coloring of the flesh.
It is indispensable to the portrait painter. A lady artist of some note told me
that artists do not ground themselves in drawing as they should; that
drawing tells almost the whole story of a picture: coloring only gives beauty
and adds strength. She thinks there are many openings in the South and
West for first-class teachers of drawing and painting. Miss G. received a
salary of $800, as teacher of painting in the School of Arts in Baltimore. It
is folly for any one to devote herself to art as a career, unless she has some
genius and a fondness for it. Mrs. H., of Boston, the wife of the sculptor,
has supported her family by painting and giving instruction in the art.
Teachers in oil painting are well compensated, if they have pupils enough to
occupy all their time. Prices vary in cities from fifty cents a lesson of one
hour to two dollars. Art classes have been formed, both in New York and
Philadelphia. Some artists receive pupils, but the time required for
instruction renders it objectionable to most. Miss G. charges $15 a quarter
of twenty-four lessons, two hours each. In ordinary times, she gives but one
hour's instruction at a lesson. Miss J. charges $10 dollars for instruction in
oriental painting. Mrs. C. was profitably engaged, in Providence, in
teaching drawing and taking crayon portraits. One lady, who taught for
several years with success, charged fifty cents a lesson, the pupils attending

at her room. Those working in crayon in the New York school draw almost
entirely from casts; those in the Philadelphia school, from plates. There is
now a life school in New York, where instruction is given at $20 per quarter
of eleven weeks—two lessons a week. For instruction in drawing from
plates, $12 per quarter of eleven weeks. In some of our public schools,
drawing is taught free of expense to the scholars.
31. Teachers of Fancy Work. The accomplishments of women are
useful in their times and places. Music and drawing are elegant
accomplishments, the earliest as well as the most universal pastimes known.
Those teachers of accomplishments that have acquired a reputation can
command in a city a high price. At Madame D.'s, crochet work and
embroidery are taught at 25 cents a lesson of one hour. Misses H.,
Philadelphia, give five lessons in leather work for $6, and charge, for giving
instruction in wax fruit and flowers, paper and rice paper flowers, &c., $1 a
lesson; in embroidery in silk, gold bullion, &c., $15 for twenty lessons—the
same for hair flowers and bead work; for the arrangement of shells with
mosses and grasses, $1 a lesson. Madame N., who teaches crochet work and
fancy knitting, charges 50 cents an hour. One stitch can be learned by a
quick person in an hour. She thinks there is plenty of that kind of work to
supply all and even more hands than are so occupied. She employs a
number, and pays by the piece. They work at home, and can earn from $3 to
$4 a week.
32. Teachers of Horsemanship. The prices of the riding school, New
York, attended by the most aristocratic classes, are: 16 lessons, $20; 10
lessons, $15; 5 lessons, $8; single lessons, $2; road lesson, one pupil, $5;
two or more pupils, each $3. For exercise riding, single ride, one hour,
$1.50; single ride, half hour, $1. After taking 16 or more lessons, the prices
are somewhat reduced. At another riding school in New York, the terms are:
20 lessons for gentlemen, $25; 20 lessons for ladies, $20; 10 lessons for
gentlemen, $15; 10 lessons for ladies, $12; single lessons, $2. The rules are
very good, and laid down in the circulars. At another riding school in New
York the prices are: $20 for 20 lessons, $12 for 10 lessons, $7 for 5 lessons;
single lessons, $1.50; road lessons, one person, $5; road lessons, three or
more, each $3; 20 exercise rides for $15; evening rides for $1; road rides,

10 for $8; single, $1; road ride to a lady, $2.50. The regulations are very
good. The expenses for keeping up a riding school are considerable; so it
may not prove as profitable as the prices would seem to indicate.
33. Teachers of Infant Schools. Teaching is interesting to those that love
children. But I would say, let not those without patience and tenderness, or
those whose feelings can in an hour change from the boiling to the freezing
point, attempt to teach young children. In ordinary schools, young children
are liable to be either cramped or stunted. If children must be placed at
school early, let it be where they can exercise their little bodies frequently,
and not be confined in school long at a time. To accomplish this, we think
the infant school the most efficient. Lord Brougham gives it as his opinion
that a child learns more the first eighteen months of its life than at any other
period; and that it settles, in fact, at this early age, its mental capacity and
future well-being. Mr. Babbington fixes the period of the first nine years as
the seedtime of life. Some object to infant schools, on the ground that they
divert the mind, and unfit it for continued and concentrated thought in after
life. But we cannot think so, unless the course is pursued an unreasonable
length of time. The first two years of a child's schooling may be passed
profitably in an infant school; at any rate, if the child enters as early as six
years of age. Indeed, we think the variety embodied in the infant-school
system is one of its most pleasing and useful features. The minds of
children cannot rest long on any one subject, any more than their bodies can
retain the same posture long at a time. It stagnates thought, prevents
boldness of spirit, and stunts the growth of a young child to sit quiet hour
after hour. Some mothers send their children early to school to have them
out of their way. Such children could be more pleasantly and more
efficiently taught in an infant school than in any other. Yet, we are rather
inclined to the opinion that a child should be taught the alphabet at home.
Gentle but firm treatment is necessary for children, who need much
sympathy and affection; and it therefore requires the greatest patience on
the part of a teacher, in order to conduct an infant school successfully.
Infant schools are scarce in the United States; but still they exist in some
parts of New England. There was an infant school in Troy, some time ago
(and perhaps it is still in existence), in connection with one of the public
schools. The infant-school system has been partially adopted in some of the

public schools of our Western cities; and the same system applied to
Sabbath schools has been extensively and happily carried into effect, both
in the South and West. There are several infant Sabbath schools, of which
we know, numbering considerably over one hundred children. These
schools are usually conducted by ladies. The exercises are varied, as in day
schools, and consist generally of chanting responses, catechism,
memorizing from cards, telling Bible stories, lecturing, explaining pictures,
singing, &c. This order of exercises, sustained in a lively manner, cannot
fail to interest children, and make the school room for them a happy and
longed-for place. Nature itself points out the course to be pursued in the
education of a child: first, physical training; second, moral training; and
third, mental training. Mind and body are so closely united that an injury to
one is resented by the other. One is placed as a protector to the other, and
will not permit injury to its companion with impunity.
34. Teachers of Languages. A knowledge of Latin is desirable for ladies
that expect to devote much time to books. The study of it is fine discipline
for the mind. The German and French are studied by many ladies: the
French more for the purposes of light literature and conversation; the
German by those that wish to dive into metaphysics. These languages are,
both, useful to ladies engaged in stores: the French mostly in New York city
and in the South; the German more at the North and West. In Italy, at
different times from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, learned women
occupied chairs in the universities, as professors of music, drawing,
philosophy, mathematics, and the languages, both ancient and modern. The
author of "Women and Work" says: "Women should teach languages and
oratory. Aspasia taught rhetoric to Socrates. The voice of woman is more
penetrating, distinct, delicate, and correct in delivering sounds than that of
man, fitting her to teach both languages and oratory better." The prices paid
for private instruction in the languages are higher than when received in a
class, and run from 25 cents an hour to $1. A language is best taught by a
native of the country in which said language is spoken.
35. Teachers of Music. Vocal music is taught in most of our schools, and
is required to be taught in the public schools of Germany and Prussia. In
Germany, instrumental music is also taught free of charge. It is not

uncommon to see a German mechanic performing on the piano.
Instrumental music is probably the most expensive accomplishment
attending the education of a young lady. Music is more generally cultivated
in the United States than any other accomplishment. It is better appreciated
by the mass, and, consequently, becomes more ingrafted in the national
element. In a few years our musicians will probably equal the most
celebrated of Europe. A skilful musician need never suffer in America. If
competent to give instruction in music, there will be opportunities to do so
in our cities. Most seminaries require one teacher of music, and often two or
more.
36. Teachers of Navigation. "One of the best and most popular teachers
of navigation and nautical mathematics and astronomy in England is a lady,
Mrs. Janet Taylor. Her classes are celebrated, and numerously attended by
men who have been at sea as well as by youths preparing for the merchant
service." Not long since, she received a gold medal and a premium of £50
annually from the British Government.
37. Teachers of Swimming. There is a swimming school in Paris,
containing as pupils ladies of all stations in life. Swimming schools for both
sexes have been established in New York. In the one for ladies and girls
instruction is given by one of their own sex, and a charge made of 25 cents
a lesson. From the New York Observer we copy an article: "A few years
ago, a gentleman well known in the philanthropic world established a
school in New Jersey, not far from New York, with the intention of making
physical training a prominent part of his educational system. He began with
his own children and a few others. The school has gradually grown until it
numbers eighty pupils, both boys and girls. Every pupil at this school is a
gymnast; every one can row a boat; and every one, down to the smallest
girl, can swim. The boys and girls are formed into separate boat clubs,
seven to each club, rowing six oars, with the seventh for coxswain. So they
row races whenever the weather permits, and they do not mind a little rough
weather. Every day, too, during the warm season, they all have a swim. The
boys swim by themselves; and the girls, in suitable bathing dresses, go
elsewhere, with a teacher. One year of such training and exercises will lay
up stamina for a lifetime." A school has been commenced in New York for

teaching swimming out of the water, by machinery. The prices are 25 cents
a lesson in a class, and $1 a lesson for private instruction.

38. Translators.

Translations published in the United States are mostly made in England.
Some languages are susceptible of a much more correct and graceful
translation than others. It requires study to get the exact meaning of some
authors, and taste and genius to convey that meaning. A literal interpretation
will not always convey the meaning of an author as well as a looser
translation getting more the spirit of the original. A person should have
general information on the subject to be treated. A translator of history must
be a good historian. It requires time to establish a reputation as a translator,
but even a translator's career must have a beginning. Dr. G., who has charge
of the editorial department of one of the most extensively circulated
magazines in the United States, says translations from French and German
are not so well liked in magazines as original matter, and anything to be
translated for his magazine he does as a recreation from more serious
duties. Owing to the international copyright law of England and France, a
French author will send his manuscript over to England and have it
rendered, securing the right to the translation. The translation often makes
its appearance very nearly as soon as the original. Most of the valuable
works in French have been translated. Mr. W. told me, however, that there
are some scientific French works that might be rendered into English, and
some on mechanics; but it would require some one acquainted with the
subject, on account of the technical terms. Dr. G. thinks the chances a
thousand against one that an individual could find constant employment
translating. He has frequent applications from translators for work in that
line. So we have reason to think translating is a very precarious occupation.
The best way is to find some French book that will be popular in America,
and translate it, and offer it to a publisher. Some translators look over
catalogues of foreign books and examine such as they think will be likely to
please. They take it to the publisher, who, if he thinks it will be available,
gives the individual the task, if they can settle on satisfactory terms. A lady,
who translates considerably, told me that she receives $5 a page for a

finished translation from the French for magazines. Books are generally
done for so much, according to the contract of the parties. The price charged
for verbal translation would doubtless depend on the amount of time
consumed; but for a written translation, the charge would be made by the
page or volume. In most of the Government departments translators are
employed, and their salaries are no doubt good. Interpreters are also
employed in some of the courts, but they usually unite their occupation with
that of copyist. In some private establishments interpreters are employed.
Where there is sufficient business to occupy all the time of a lady, she
would doubtless find her services as an interpreter lucrative.

ARTISTIC PURSUITS, AND EMPLOYMENTS
CONNECTED WITH THE FINE ARTS.

39. Actresses.

The circumstances under which a play-actor's life are seen are calculated to
please the young and susceptible. They put a false estimate on the pleasures
it affords. They are apt to forget that the moments in which performers
appear on the stage all sparkling as the diamond sands and crystal pebbles
of a brook, are the principal, perhaps the only bright ones of their lives.
Many a sad spirit, many a broken heart is concealed under the glittering
tinsel. We are not among those who denounce the theatre as a school of vice
and infamy—nor could we conscientiously laud it as a school of virtue. We
think the influence and effects depend very greatly upon the character of the
plays; much, too, depends upon the individuals of the audience. There is no
amusement that may not suffer in the abuse. Late hours, intoxicating drinks,
and bad companions, in many cases form the curse of regular theatre-goers;
and for these the plays (perhaps harmless in themselves) are charged with
being demoralizing. Good plays have an intellectual fascination. We think
the drama might be made more a school of instruction and innocent pastime
—less a school of evil tendencies. In China and Japan, the female parts in
theatrical performances are never executed by women. No women ever
appeared on the stage of the Greeks or Romans. Even the female characters
in Shakspeare were not represented by women in his time. The first lady
that appeared on the stage took the parts of Juliet and Ophelia in 1660. The
publicity attending the life of an actress makes it repulsive to many, and the
egotism that the profession engenders is an objectionable feature. That there
are good and virtuous people connected with the theatre we cannot for a
moment question; but some of the men are worthless and dissipated, and
many of the girls and women engage in it because they see no other way of
earning their bread. Many a ballet girl has danced to support an infirm
mother or orphan brothers and sisters. The roving life of an actress and want

of home influences are not conducive to the growth of domestic virtues. Yet
some actresses have married advantageously in Europe, and been respected
in social life, not less for their virtues than their talents. The craving of
admiration incident to the calling is apt to make an actress vain. Her
fondness for excitement, and her consciousness of importance in the eyes of
those who patronize her, furnish additional fuel to the fire. If she makes a
failure, she may die of chagrin. Mr. B., a dramatic agent, thinks there is
always a supply as soon as there is a demand for dramatic performers. They
cannot enter and leave the profession, like any other. They must be actively
engaged in it all the time, or leave it. Their talents must be carefully
considered, and they placed in the company that requires them, and in such
places as suit their talents. If a play in which they excel is to be performed
in a distant city, they accompany the troupe to which they belong. A
company consists of a combination of various talents. The number
employed is not fluctuating, but they change their localities often; that is, go
from city to city and town to town, shifting their place as seems best. They
are compensated according to talent and proficiency—from $3 a week to
$150. They are usually paid according to the contract made with them. I
think the voice of actors when off the stage is peculiar. It is deep and
hollow, as if trained to be thrown to a distance. By the drama two of the
senses which afford most pleasure are entertained—the eye and the ear.
Madame Celeste made $50,000 clear in this country; Essler, $70,000. The
play, "Our American Cousin," is said to have cleared $40,000 in New York.
Mr. P., a dramatic agent, told me that actresses are paid according to their
position and talent. A ballet girl is paid from $3 to $6 a week, if by the
season. Wallack pays $5 or $6. Utility people are paid from $6 to $10.
Prices depend very much on who and what the people are, and the class of
theatre by which they are employed. Those of the better class are paid from
$25 to $60 a night. When they are not required they are not paid anything.
In Europe, some of the theatres are open during the summer. In New York a
paper has lately been commenced, devoted almost exclusively to the drama.
"Our great star actors, Mr. Forrest or Miss Cushman, command their
hundreds of dollars a night. The handsome Brignoli or the ponderous
Amodio will not dispense their silver notes short of fabulous thousands of
golden dollars per month. Those who try the life of an actor speedily
discover that, of all hard-working men, few render more constant, wearing,

unceasing labor for their money, than those who conscientiously do their
duty in a theatre. Multitudinous and constantly varying requirements are
made of an actor who has achieved a leading position. He must be a
linguist, an elocutionist, a fencer, a dancer, a boxer, a painter (for the proper
coloring or 'making up' of his own face and figure is no small part of his
art), a soldier (so far as a knowledge of military drill and the manual
exercise is concerned); and he should be a singer, and a bit of an author. In a
theatre where a drama unfamiliar to the company is produced every night,
or in case of a new 'star,' who plays his own pieces, a day's work of an actor
may be set down as follows: To learn by heart a part not exceeding six
'lengths' (a length is forty-two lines), attend rehearsal from ten to one or
two, and act at night in one or two pieces. That is, six lengths new study,
rehearsal, and playing at night, is what may be required of an actor for a
day's work, without giving occasion for grumbling at the managers. There
are many actors who, upon an urgent occasion, will study from ten to
fifteen lengths in a day, besides attending to their other duties. This,
however, is never required except in case of sudden sickness of another
performer, or some similar extraordinary event. In provincial theatres the
actors are worked much harder than in New York, and paid much less. The
starring system universally prevails, which necessitates a constant
succession of new plays, most of which have to be studied from night to
night, as a play is not often acted two nights in succession in small cities.
But when a piece has a successful 'run,' the actors have no new study for
several weeks. Actors are usually engaged for certain lines of business; that
is, each one engages to perform only such style of characters as he is best
qualified to personate. The remuneration of actors comes next into
consideration, and the scale has a wide range, from $3 a week up to $200 a
night. This last sum was for years the demand of Mr. Edwin Forrest. Other
stars are generally content with certain 'sharing terms;' that is, the gross
receipts, after a certain specific amount has been deducted for the expenses
of the theatre, are equally divided between the star and the manager. Thus,
for example, if the expenses of the house are $300 per night, and the
receipts $400, the lucky star and the fortunate manager pocket $50 each per
night. This is the fairest basis on which to conduct the starring system,
because, by this plan, the salaries of all the stock company are assured first,
and the profit of the star depends on his own power of attracting the public

to the theatre. In New York the salaries paid to stock actors are higher, on
the average, than those in any other city in the United States. The managers
ignore, to a great extent, the technical 'lines of business,' and engage the
best artists that can be had, and then have plays especially written, in which
each of their leading actors shall have a part suited to his peculiar powers.
While this plan secures to the New York public the finest acting that can be
seen in the country, it also entails upon the managers a salary list of
dimensions that would swamp a provincial theatre in a single week. The
leading actors, as Messrs. Lester, Blake, and Walcot, at Wallack's Theatre;
Messrs. Jefferson, Jordan, and Pearson, at the Winter Garden; Messrs. Mark
Smith and Vincent, at Laura Keene's Theatre, receive from $50 to $100 per
week. Salaries for women are about half, or perhaps two thirds of what are
paid to men holding corresponding positions. General utility men,
supernumeraries, and ballet girls receive from $3 to $10 per week. When an
unusual number of 'ladies of the ballet,' or supernumeraries of the other sex
are required, on some extra occasion, they are specially engaged, at 50 cents
a night, or sometimes for even less money. The salaries on the east side of
the city, at the Bowery Theatre, are lower than on Broadway, the principal
actors seldom receiving more than $35 or $40 per week, and the others are
in proportion. In smaller cities, as Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, &c., the
highest sum paid to a performer seldom exceeds $25 per week. Actors who
have achieved a position which warrants them in demanding it, stipulate for
a 'benefit' in addition to their salaries. On these occasions, a third or a half
of the gross receipts of the evening is paid over to the performer, according
as his agreement is for a 'third clear' or a 'half clear' benefit."

40. Aquaria Makers.

One of the most innocent and pleasing amusements that has attracted
attention for some time is the making of aquaria. The cases are formed of
plate glass, square, oblong, circular, or any shape to please the fancy of the
owner. The glass is tightly sealed when joined. The aquaria are of two
kinds: one is formed of salt water, and contains marine plants and animals;
the other contains fresh water, and such plants and animals as are found in
rivers and smaller streams. They form a beautiful addition to a garden,

conservatory, or drawing room. Rocks form the foundation, and the soil on
them furnishes subsistence to the plants. Zoophytes, mollusca, and fish
form the inhabitants of the aquarium. Insects also find a place in this
miniature "ocean or river garden." The size for parlors is from one foot to
three in length. The largest aquaria in this country are now on exhibition at
Barnum's Museum, New York. "They comprise over one thousand
specimens of living animals and vegetation. In these tanks the water is
seldom changed, the natural operations of the plants and animals keeping it
always pure." They are made to order in New York, and we think might
afford a pleasant pastime to some, and pecuniary profit to others. A work
giving directions for making them has been published in New York. The
author is a Mr. Butler, who has got up the mammoth aquaria in Barnum's
Museum. There are two establishments in New York where they may be
ordered, and specimens seen. "Before we leave the margin of the sea, we
must just glance at the smaller occupations pursued there by women. The
most considerable of these was once the gathering and burning of kelp; but
chemical science has nearly put an end to that. There is still a great deal of
raking and collecting going on. In some countries half the fields are
manured with small fish and the offal of larger, and sea weeds and sand.
Then there is the gathering of jet and amber, and various pebbles, and the
polishing and working of them. The present rage for studies of marine
creatures must afford employment to many women who have the
shrewdness to avail themselves of it."

41. Architects.

We scarcely know to what extent this branch of business can come within
the province of woman. Yet it is as practicable, perhaps, as some we
mention. Civil architecture is the only one open to women. In this art we are
as a people little more than novices; yet great improvements are going on.
In a century's time, perhaps, the art in this country will have obtained the
perfection of ancient nations. Properzia di Rossi, born in Bologna, 1490, is
said to have furnished some admirable plans in architecture. The author of
"Women Artists" mentions as designers in architecture, Madame
Steenwyck, of the Dutch school, and Esther Juvenal, of Nuremberg. She

also gives the name of a lady who was a practical architect in Rome, in the
seventeenth century—Plautilla Brizio—who has left monuments of her
excellence in that species of art. The villa Giraldi, near Rome, is the joint
work of this lady and her brother. "The wife of Erwin von Steinbach
materially assisted her husband in the erection of the famous Strasbourg
cathedral; and within its walls a sculptured stone represents the husband and
wife as consulting together on the plan." The most varied and general
information is desirable for a first-class architect. A knowledge of drawing
and the first principles of geometry are the most important requisites. Some
architects select the materials for the building, which of course requires a
knowledge of the different kinds and conditions of wood, their fitness for
various parts of a building; also, the qualities of iron, stone, brick, and
whatever goes toward making up the building. An architect should also
select the most suitable site for the erection of the intended structure, which
would be decided, to some extent, by the way in which it was to be used.
He also should be able to judge the nature of the soil, and the way in which
a want of fitness may be remedied. Then he must see that the foundation is
securely laid; and, as the building progresses, that the workmen carry out
the details of the plan which he furnishes. Much of this work seems
unsuitable for women; but the making and executing of plans could be very
well done by them. It would give exercise to their taste and inventive
talents. Men employed in architectural drawing earn from $1.25 to $3 a day
of ten hours. Miss H. told me of a wealthy lady in New York who is quite
an architect by nature. Mrs. D. told me of a young lady of her acquaintance
who is gifted with talents that would make a superior architect. She has
planned several houses for her father, who has sold them at an advance of
from $3,000 to $4,000, on account of the convenient arrangement of the
rooms and their tasteful decoration. She displays exquisite taste in the
selection and arrangement of furniture. She is withal economical in her
expenditures. She is a close calculator of the cost of materials, and a great
economist of space.

42. Cameo Cutters.

There are two kinds of cameo cutting—one with a lapidary's wheel, of hard
stones, as the onyx and the sardonyx. The shell cameos are cut with small
steel chisels, from the white portion of the shell, leaving the chocolate color
for the background. The figures are in relief. The stone is prepared by the
lapidary, and the artist arranges his design according to the capabilities of
the stone. He makes a drawing in paper on an enlarged scale, and a model
in wax of the exact size, and the latter is carefully compared with the stone,
and such alterations made as the markings on the stone seem to require. The
outline is then sketched on the surface, and cut with tools prepared for that
purpose. After it has been properly cut, it is smoothed and polished. In Mrs.
Lee's "Sculpture and Sculptors" we find an account of those that have
engaged in cameo cutting in the United States. Mrs. Dubois, of New York,
cut several cameo likenesses of her friends, and so well did she succeed that
she went to Italy to acquire proficiency in the art; but the artist to whom she
applied said he could teach her nothing—she had only to study the antique.
John C. King, a sculptor of Boston, has also engaged in the art of cutting
cameos; and Peter Stephenson, of Boston, had cut in 1853 between 600 and
700 cameo likenesses. He writes me: "Cameo cutting might be done by
girls, especially the finishing process—polishing. When in Italy, some years
ago, I employed girls to polish my cameos, and paid from 12 to 50 cents
apiece. I think they earned about $1 a day. The employment is not
unhealthy, but confining." Margaret Foley, formerly a member of the New
England school of design, resided in Lowell, and cut cameos at $35 apiece.
She was kept busy in filling orders. The Misses Withers, of Charleston,
S. C., are said to cut cameo likenesses with beauty and skill. I saw Mr. L. a
Frenchman, in New York, copying a likeness from a daguerreotype. He also
copies from life. He learned the business in Paris. He charges $15 for those
large enough for a breastpin, and which it requires him about three days to
make; smaller ones are lower in price. He imports the stones, and furnishes
without extra charge to those for whom he works. A good intaglio worker
can make cameos, but a cameo worker cannot make intaglios. Some men
can never learn the business. It would form a beautiful pastime and a
profitable and refined occupation for a lady, if sufficient work could be
obtained.

43. Copperplate Engravers.

In a hasty reading of "Women Artists," we find mention made of a number
of ladies occupied at various times, in different European countries, as
copperplate engravers: in the sixteenth century, one in Holland, and one in
Italy; in the seventeenth century, Germany produced seven, France one,
Spain one, and Italy three; in the eighteenth century, Italy two, France one,
and Denmark one. It may have been that some escaped my notice. Mr. S.
told me he knew a family of copperplate engravers; but the daughters are
now married. I saw a lady who engraves on copper; she had an office in
New York. She was willing to instruct a lady on these terms: after the pupil
had acquired about six months' practice, she would allow her half for all the
work she did in six months more; then she could be at liberty to work for
herself. She thinks a year sufficient time to acquire a good knowledge and
practice of card engraving. She had spent a year at it irregularly, having no
instructor, but asking advice and assistance now and then. In that way she
did not obtain the custom she would have done by being known to others.
The patience and careful attention to details requisite, and the sedentary
nature of engraving, render it a more suitable occupation for women than
men. To make a good card engraver, an educated eye, a steady hand, and
ability to form letters gracefully, are the principal requisites. A card
engraver told me he knew a lady who assisted her husband in his work, that
of copperplate engraving. As the people of the United States become
wealthy, and cultivate a taste for the fine arts, engravers will be more
patronized. There is a collection of old and choice copperplate engravings
in the possession of Mr. Plassman, who has a school of art in New York;
there is also such a collection at the Historical rooms in the same city.

44. Daguerreans.

The process consists in concentrating the light of the sun on a metal plate,
so prepared by chemicals as to retain the impression of an image that falls
upon it. The shadow catcher has become almost interwoven with the every-
day realities of life. Prof. Draper speaks of daguerreotyping as introducing a
beautiful work, in which "the fair sex may engage without compromising a

single delicate quality of woman's nature." Some artists, not content with
moving in the ordinary way from place to place, have cars built that roll on
wheels and are drawn by horses. The daguerrean sleeps in his little home,
and, on the road, far away from a good tavern, can even do his own
cooking, or have it done, in his car. The business has also been carried on
by men in small boats, floating down rivers and stopping at villages and
farm houses. It requires taste and judgment both to make an operator and to
color. Colorers of photographs could, if skilful and constantly employed,
earn $30 a week in large cities. An operator, if busy, works from 9 to 5
o'clock in winter. A wonderful improvement has taken place in the
daguerrean art since its discovery. A lady daguerrean and photographer
writes me: "Ladies are employed in the business as operators, and to
superintend; also to repaint and retouch photographs. With care in the use of
chemicals, I do not consider it particularly unhealthy; less so, I think, than
sewing by hand or machine. No person will do well for himself, herself, or
patrons, who commences business without a good knowledge of it. The
time of learning will depend upon the individual's knowledge of the
sciences bearing on photography, and their talent for the business. It would
vary from two weeks to three months. The labor of the learner is usually
given while learning, and from $25 to $100 besides. Spring and fall are the
best seasons, summer the poorest; but there is no time during the year in
which there is not something to do. I operate and superintend in my own
establishment, and hire a boy only, who does chores. The principal
discomforts of the business are the heat to which we are exposed in summer
(being usually and necessarily near the roof), the smell of chemicals (which
do not unpleasantly affect any one), and the soiling of clothing, which is
more unavoidable with women. The amount of business, and consequently
the location, decide the profits of the business. As the business is attended
with considerable expense, it is necessary, in order to make it pay, to seek a
good location. It is profitable when a person is well established in a
desirable location. I think ladies and children usually prefer a lady artist.
Upon the whole, I think the business quite as suitable for women as men.
There is generally more or less spare time, but a woman is most apt to
occupy such time with fancy work or reading." A daguerrean writes:
"Women are sometimes employed in the reception room to receive ladies—
occasionally, in the operating room. They receive from $3 to $8, according

to capacity and address. Men generally command better prices, because
they can sometimes perform labor out of a woman's sphere, such as
unpacking goods, carrying packages, and other jobs, not suitable for
women. I think the business as healthy as any indoor business. It requires
from six to twelve months to learn the duties of the operating room; for the
reception room, from one to three weeks. Industry, patience, perseverance,
shrewdness, and suavity of manners, are the necessary qualifications.
Prospect for employment poor, as prices are reduced to almost nothing. All
seasons are nearly alike. November and June are dull. Our women work in
summer from seven A. M. to six P. M. The work averages about eight hours
per day the year through. Men are superior in patience (?) and force of
character. Women are easily discouraged, and liable to be petulant. In many
instances, there is much running up and down stairs, which is harder on
women than men. And there is too much standing for a woman's health."

45. Schools of Design.

Schools of design were established 444 B. C., for the purpose of
improvement in making statuary. The arts declined when Europe was
overrun by barbarous tribes, but in the eleventh century began to recover,
and in 1350 several painters, sculptors, and architects formed an academy
of design at Florence. In Paris there are seven schools of design for males,
and two for females, supported by the city. There are seventy schools of
design in Great Britain, and there is an annual exhibition of their work in
London, where premiums are awarded. It is about twenty years since the
schools were commenced in England. In 1854 nearly I,500 students had
been educated in the School of Arts in Edinburgh. There are schools of
design in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. The object of
these schools is to give a knowledge of some industrial branches of the fine
arts. "The greater part of the higher order of designs are practically
unavailable, for want of knowledge, on the part of the designer, of the
conditions of the particular manufacture in question. The economic
possibility and aptitude are not studied; and hence, the manufacturers say,
an enormous waste of thought, skill, and industry. This want supplied, a
field of industry practically boundless would be opened to female artists, as

well as artisans; and it would be an enlightened policy to look to this while
the whole world seems to be opening its ports to our productions." Mrs.
Alice B. Havens writes of the school of design in Philadelphia: "When
novelty and jealousy shall have ceased to excite envy and suspicion among
those who would keep our sex from honest independence, a wide sphere of
employment will be opened by this and similar institutions to educate
intelligent women; for surely, if English manufacturers are not content to be
under the control of foreign influence, our own countrymen can never be."
The largest class of wood engravers is in the school of New York; the
largest for designing on wall paper, in Philadelphia. More time has been
devoted to instruction in drawing in the New York than the Philadelphia
school. Without some practice in drawing, nothing can be accomplished in
either wood engraving or designing. Designing, in some of its branches, is
taught in all of the schools. Designs for paper hangings, calicoes, and wood
engraving receive most attention. Designs for carpets, silks, ribbons,
furniture, lace, plated ware, silver, jewelry, &c., have received but little, if
any attention—those for casts and moulds, no more. If women of taste and
cultivation attain superiority in designing, we doubt not they will reap a
very fair harvest for their work. Lithography, wood engraving, drawing and
painting, are also taught in schools of design. There are now in the school of
design, New York, between 200 and 300 pupils: some are wood engravers,
some designers, and some painters. "The earnings of the pupils in the
classes of drawing and engraving are as varied as their skill and experience,
but are about the same as those of men who have been at those branches of
art the same length of time. Engravers and designers are generally qualified
to work on orders the second year of their practice. With industry and the
use of their whole time during school hours, pupils may expect an increase
of about a $100 a year for several years. The income from the branches of
art taught in the school must always be proportioned to the talent,
experience, habits of application, and rapidity of hand shown by the artist.
The engravers in the school who best understand drawing have the best
work, and even the highest wages. The pupils have the entire benefit of
their earnings." "At Lyons, France, the manufacture of divers stuffs absorbs
the hands of thousands of men and women; but the men, only, enjoy the
privilege of inventing combinations of forms and colors destined to inveigle
the eyes of fashionable caprice." In the school of design, Philadelphia, a

charge of $9 per quarter is made to amateur pupils for instruction, and a
charge of $4 per quarter to professional pupils. In the school of design, New
York, a charge of $4 per quarter is made to pupils who acquire instruction
as an accomplishment: to those fitting for a profession, no charge is made.
A lady teacher in the New England school of design had a salary of $400.
We will copy an article placed at our disposal on the artistic employments
of women in America. It was written by a former principal of the school of
design in Boston: "The artistic employments of women in this country may
be divided into three classes: 1st, those devoted to the fine arts; 2d, those
engaged in designing and the business departments of the arts; 3d, teachers
of drawing, painting, &c.—1. Under this head comparatively few will be
found; the number, however, is fast increasing, and as avenues of sale for
their works are found, I doubt not that there will be a marked improvement
both in the quality of their work and in the amount paid for their labor. Most
who pursue this department are confined to portrait painting or crayon
portraits. I have seen beautiful portraits in colored crayons executed by
ladies. I regret to say a comparatively small price was given, varying from
$10 to $25, while works executed by men not a whit superior in any respect
would command from $25 to $50, and even more.—2. Designing, and the
Business Department of the Art. This admits of several divisions, and first
we will take designing for textile materials. When women are engaged in
the mills, their labor is very poorly paid for, compared with the payment
made to the other sex. I know of about twenty women who are so engaged.
The prices paid for their labor varies from $1 to $2 per day—men receiving
from $800 to $1,200 and even $1,500 per annum. The difference here,
however, is not so great, when the time given by the two to the necessary
study is compared. Many of the male designers serve an apprenticeship
varying from three to seven years before they are supposed to be fitted to
take the situation of designer in a mill, and even this does not include the
preliminary instruction in the school. Women, on the contrary, after a year
or little more of study, enter the mill on equal terms with the prepared
designer, his pay at the commencement of his engagement usually being
from $1 to $1.50 per day. The employment of women at all in this
department is almost a new thing, and is not yet countenanced to any great
extent. Time, however, will remove all difficulties in the way, and, by
steady perseverance I think woman will be able to show herself superior to

man in this branch, because it is more in her own domain than in that of
man. When the designs of women are presented to manufacturers and found
acceptable, they will command a price equal to the designs of men. This I
speak from experience, having disposed of designs for silver ware, printed
coach linings, coach lace, paper for walls, calicoes, delaines, and muslins,
and other articles of like nature. These have commanded the same price as
the designs of men, but it is difficult at times to find a market for them. I
remember presenting some designs to a manufacturer, about two years
since, which were very much praised; but when I stated they were made by
ladies, at first it was said to be impossible, and then they sunk in value,
were wrong in the mechanical detail, were not adapted to the purpose for
which they were intended; but, unfortunately for the truth of the latter
statement, they were disposed of to another manufacturer in the same street,
who had formed rather a different idea of the powers of women as
compared with men. A second branch of business art is drawing for
mechanical purposes and patent inventions. There are in this city many
ladies who earn quite a handsome income by drawing for the patent office,
patent agents, &c., the drawings chiefly linear mechanical ones, the
remuneration varying according to ability. Some are paid by the piece, and
others by the day. The day laborers earn from $1 to $2, and in two instances
$2.25 and $2.50 per day. The price of work varies according to size,
intricacy, finish, &c., the rate being nearly that which men receive, in some
instances the same. This requires mechanical knowledge which is not very
often possessed by women, but is a branch of study that would be found
both pleasant and profitable, especially if they were prepared for it by an
elementary course in the public schools. It is not a branch that admits of
much display, and is therefore almost entirely neglected, or taught in such a
way as to be utterly futile for all practical purposes. A third branch is
architectural drawing. I know of but one instance of a woman pursuing this
branch, which is both delightful, useful, and very profitable. Perhaps there
is not any department of the fine arts to which woman might more
successfully devote herself than to this. Such a devotion of woman's power
would tend to abolish the gross deformities we so often see paraded before
our eyes in the streets, in the form of buildings presenting every possible
incongruity of shape and every perversion of the beauty of form. This
requires much study, but would eventually repay for all the time and trouble

that would be bestowed upon it. A fourth is wood and other engraving. This
commands as high a price as men's labor, when brought into the market; but
when women are employed in engraving establishments, the grossest
injustice is shown them in the inequality of the payments made. A woman
will receive, in the same place, for the same amount of labor, a sum not
exceeding half of that paid to the men in the same employment. In England
this department stands on a perfect equality as regards sex. The quality of
the work being the test of price, it is the same to men as to women, if the
quality is the same.—3. Teachers of Drawing and Painting. This is always
most profitable when pursued independently of the schools. When it is so
pursued, the rate of payment varies from $5 to $25 per quarter, for each
pupil, excepting in the case of very small children, when the prices may be
a trifle lower, but the same would be the case with men as with women. In
most academies the service of teaching in this department is given by
preference to women, and at the same price. When they are engaged simply
as assistants, then a gross inequality begins. A man would be paid say $200
or $300 per annum for one half day a week—a woman $100 or $150 at
most. The reason for this lies deeper than I can divine, but in other instances
when a lower price is paid, it is generally the fault of the individual
employed. There should, if possible (and I conceive it to be so), be a fixed
rate for teaching a certain number of pupils, and so much more additional
for every one added: this would give a general rate for all to make their
demands upon. If more branches, or extended time, or any other demand
was made upon the individual teaching, then they would have some
standard whereby to regulate the extra charges. There is only one feature
which requires to be somewhat changed, and that is a tendency to
superficiality. Women oftentimes commence to teach before they
themselves have taken more than the most elementary steps for their own
improvement. Time will, however, regulate this deficiency; and as the
resources of improvement open to all, those who devote themselves to the
honorable employment of teaching will take all proper steps to fit
themselves for the office.—There is no department of the fine arts—
painting, sculpture, architecture, or manufacturing design—in which
woman may not run an equal race with man, if she takes the same trouble
and care to fit herself for it, and, when fitted, is faithful to her own interests
and her profession. This will never be accomplished by schools of design as

at present instituted, for they lose their character and become designing
shops. This must be laid aside, and culture, with a general or specific object,
be alone attended to for the time necessary to learn properly and thoroughly
what they are about to practise. Men and women both, now expect to learn
the art of designing fully in the course of six or twelve months. This can
only be done to a limited extent, depending on the powers of the pupil, the
mode of instruction, and the capacity of the teacher to win and to guide
those committed to his or her care. If the profession is entered upon with
unfitness and want of knowledge, then the prices of labor will be
necessarily reduced to a low scale; if with fitness, and a certainty of our
own capacity, we can demand 'a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.' The
interests of this nation demand the production of native designs, and
whenever her children are fully fitted to produce them, are competent to put
their designs side by side with those of other nations and challenge a
comparison, every other obstacle will dwindle into a shadow, and every
difficulty that now stands in the way of woman's natural place, in art at
least, will be finally removed—to which end 'may God speed the plough.'"

46. Miscellaneous Designers.

Designing is a peculiar, and more a natural than a cultivated talent. A few
years ago, Miss M. drew on stone for the New England Glass Company.
She received $10 a page, which she could generally do in four days,
working only four hours per day. Two men had at different times done the
work for the company, one receiving less, and the other more than she.
Misses L. and R. drew and designed in the carpet factory at Lowell. They
received $1.25 per day. A young lady who designed at the Pacific Mills, in
Lawrence, was said to receive $3 per day. Miss S., who had given but
eighteen months' practice to drawing, designed for ground and painted
glass, and received $6 per week. Designs for toys, dissected pictures,
games, puzzles, &c., are an appropriate filling up of spare moments for a
designer. I was told by an English seller of embroideries, that, in England,
designing and making patterns for embroideries is a distinct business. He
has been at it many years, and does not feel himself perfect yet. It is not
made a distinct branch in this country yet, because there is not enough of it
done. Here a few primary patterns can be arranged and rearranged so as to
answer all the demands of trade. A great deal of money is expended on
monuments, but there is a want of variety in the designs. A wide field is
here opened to operators in this department. Some designers in Boston
write me: "Only a few ladies are employed in our business, for there are not
many who are willing to devote the time necessary to become proficient.
Some are employed in Europe. The employment is not more unhealthy than
sewing. Women are paid according to their proficiency, and earn from $3 to
$15 per week. Women receive the same compensation as men, if they do the
work as well and as fast, but they ordinarily cannot do either. They are not
paid until they have spent two or three years learning. A combination of
artistic and mechanical talent is required. The prospect for employment is
good. There is not much variation in the seasons for work. Ten hours is the
average time required. There are now as many in the business as can find
lucrative or constant employment. It requires not less than five years,
generally more, to be a fair general workman in this business. Boston, New
York, and Philadelphia are about the only places where there is a demand

for designers. A first-class education and cultivated taste are absolutely
necessary to success."
47. Designers for Calico Prints. This employment is well adapted to
women. It requires taste and ingenuity. Its labors are light, but rather
confining. A person of lively fancy and nice powers of discrimination
succeeds best. The gay, rich, dark colors of winter clothing are not suitable
for summer; nor are the light, delicate ones of summer suitable for winter
clothing. This inviting field of labor, now that it is unbarred to woman, we
hope will be well improved. Let her enter, and she will find sufficient to
"reward a careful gleaner with a valuable sheaf or two." We do not speak of
inventing and preparing designs for calico prints particularly, but of the
general field for designers. Some proprietors engage a designer (here and
there a lady) to stay at their establishments, and devote all their time to the
preparing of designs—paying a fixed salary for the month, year, or any time
specified. Some adopt the same plan in wall-paper establishments. The
price generally paid for a design pattern for calicoes is from $1 to $3.
48. Designers for Wall Paper. One of the most important branches of
designing is that of preparing patterns for wall paper, fire screens, &c. In
the report of the Philadelphia School of Design it is stated that one of the
ladies of that school received $60 for a design some time ago. They seldom
bring that much, and all designs prepared will not sell. The usual price for a
good hall design is from $12 to $20; and of paper for a room, from $12 to
$16. We fear it will be long before the beautiful designs of the French are
equalled by Americans. Their taste must be more highly cultivated before
such is the case. Mr. C., of New York, employs a designer (Frenchman),
paying him $1,000 a year, who receives in another manufactory a salary of
$3,000 a year. N. C. & Co. get some of their patterns from the school of
design in Paris, because the French have more taste in designing, or, rather,
that taste has been more cultivated. Brande gives the merits of designing as
follows: "Every work of design is to be considered either in relation to the
art that produced it, to the nature of its adaptation to the end sought, or to
the nature of the end it is destined to serve; thus its beauty is dependent on
the wisdom or excellence displayed in the design, in the fitness or propriety
of the adaptation, and upon the utility of the end."

49. Draughtswomen.

There are several kinds of draughting, or drawing on stone: architectural,
mechanical, letter, figure, and landscape. Very few women have undertaken
draughting in any of its branches. But we do not see why it should be
confined to men. We suppose the minds of some women are as well adapted
to the business as those of some men. Our ideas of the fitness of women for
architectural drawing are given under the article Architects.

50. Employés in the United States Mint.

A very interesting description of the employment of ladies in the United
States Mint at Philadelphia will be found in Godey's Lady's Book, of
August, 1852. Col. Snowden, Director of the Mint, writes to me as follows:
"Women are employed to adjust the weight of the blanks or planchets,
preparatory to the coinage—each piece for the gold coinage being
separately weighed and adjusted. So also are the larger coins of silver;
namely, the dollar and the half dollar. They are also employed in feeding the
coining presses. There are about fifty women at present employed. This
force is amply sufficient for our present operations, and for any additional
amount of work that the mint may be called on to perform. The
employments in which they are engaged are healthy and pleasant. Some
years ago the women received seventy-five cents a day in the adjusting
room, and eighty-five cents for those employed in the coining room. Since
that time I have increased their per diem compensation to $1.10 in both
departments. They are paid monthly. Men employed in labor of a similar
character secure about $2.20 per day. A day's work is about ten hours;
ordinarily the women do not work more than seven or eight hours;
sometimes more, sometimes less, but never beyond ten hours. There are no
other occupations in the mint, than where they are now employed, suitable
for women. I am greatly in favor of employing women, and I have extended
the employment of them as far as it is practicable. For adjusting the weight
of coins, and attending or feeding the coining presses, I consider women as
not inferior to men, except that they cannot endure work for as great a
number of hours." The adjusting room is kept very close, as even the breath

of a person may affect the gold dust. The windows are kept closed on that
account all the year. Visitors are not permitted to enter this room. I have
been told that the adjusters wear chamois dresses, which they change before
leaving the mint. They are required to wash their hands and clean their nails
before leaving the premises, lest gold dust should be in them. A great many
applications are made for situations in the mint. None but a thoroughly
honest person should occupy so responsible a place."

51. Engravers and Chasers of Gold and Silver.

I was told by a lady in Philadelphia, that had been engaged with her
husband for some years in chasing the backs of gold watches, and had laid
by quite a snug little fortune, that from $5 to $6 is paid for engraving a
watch case. It requires many years to render one a competent gold or silver
chaser—I think about five years. A general engraver told me he thought
women could very well engrave jewelry, silver, and card plates. The
superior taste of women could be exercised to advantage. He thinks a
woman of good abilities could obtain sufficient practice to earn good wages
at the expiration of six months. It is a very confining business, but one that
pays well. It requires more skill in drawing than beauty of penmanship,
though the last is a desirable item. A good engraver calculates to earn $1 an
hour. The kinds most suitable for a lady are so clean that she need not have
her clothes soiled by her work. Mr. C. knew a lady once in New York who
was a beautiful engraver. She learned the business with her father. A
watchmaker can soon learn to engrave, because he uses similar tools, and
knows how to handle them. A person that can engrave watches could easily
engrave coarser work. Engravers, when employed by the week, earn from
$12 to $25; and $15 a week is a fair average of an engraver's wages. An
engraver cannot well work more than nine hours a day. Ornamental
engraving is done in some jewelry manufactories by women. Engraving is
done with gravers, but chasing is executed with punches and a small
hammer. Engraving is more on the surface than chasing. An article chased
is indented on the inner side, one engraved is not. It requires some time to
excel in chasing and engraving. There are two kinds of watch engraving—
that of landscape and that of borders. I was told by an Englishman that

some silver-plate chasing is done in England by women. A jeweler writes:
"We occasionally employ women in engraving—on brass, and we do not
find any difficulty. In this branch of business, we believe, they are more
suitable than men." Mr. S., who engraves on gold, silver, and other bright
metals, told me that a long time back all the engraving in his branch was
done in England by women. It is light work. The designing is like a lawyer's
work—hard on the brain. Most engravers in this country do their own
designing. His father was the first engraver in New York. He takes
apprentices for five years, not paying anything the first year, the second, $2
a week and clothing, and increases according to the attainments of the
learner. There are two kinds of engraving in his branch: the line engraving
can be done with one tool, the other kind requires several. He can obtain
foreigners who can do both kinds (usually called mongrel engraving), and
who would be glad to get work. Chasing and polishing are about as good
mechanical pursuits as a woman can follow. Some silver chasing is done by
filling the article with sand, and striking with proper tools; some is pressed
with heavy machinery. Soft chasing is done on metals, but the chasing of
plated ware requires some strength in the wrists, and is done before being
plated. The patterns are placed before the workers. It requires a long time
and application to acquire proficiency. More women could find
employment as chasers, if they would apply themselves long and closely
enough. A chaser, who employs eight girls in Providence in making and
chasing jewelry, writes: "They earn from $4 to $5 per week, but men from
$15 to $18. Women cannot do their work as well as men. Men spend from
two to three years learning, women from one to two months. Spring and fall
are the best seasons. The prospect of employment for women in this branch
is good. There are other parts of the jewelry business in which women could
be employed, and I think they will be. I prefer to employ women, because
they are cheaper." A jewelry engraver writes: "In some branches of our style
of engraving, women are employed in France and Germany. The occupation
is sedentary. The average rate of workmen is $12. I think women could
command the same prices as men. It requires about one year to learn. There
are but few first-class engravers. A bold and steady hand, a ready and quick
ingenuity, which would qualify a person to be a good draughtsman and
designer, are the qualifications most needed for an engraver. About fifteen
years ago there was no demand for engraving, but it is now on the increase,

and considered a necessary finish to jewelry. About the Christmas holidays
are the best seasons for work. Ten hours a day are required. In the Western
and Southern States are openings—in large cities a surplus. I think, women
are peculiarly adapted to engraving, but they would be likely to marry, and
then we would have our trouble to repeat in teaching new learners."

52. Equestrians and Gymnasts.

In equestrian entertainments, much depends on the accessories. Without
music, artificial light, and paintings, they would be rather tame. The
principal requisites for a circus rider I take to be agility, grace, and
fearlessness. Size and form have not so much to do in making a successful
rider and gymnast as one would suppose. The athletic exercises require
vigor and firmness of muscle. One should be trained from the earliest
childhood. Children usually begin as early as three years old. In former
times, these children were, many of them, picked up in the streets, and there
is no doubt that these human waifs had a hard time of it; but now many of
the professionals bring up their own children to the business. All the
performers, in addition to their several "star" or "single" acts in the ring, are
required to appear in any capacity assigned them in the scenic pieces and
spectacles, and to attend the rehearsals of the same; also, to appear and
remain on the stage in proper dresses, for the purpose of filling the scene,
and giving a gay and animated appearance to the stage. Mr. Nixon's
establishment, New York, being the most complete in the country, and being
thoroughly systematized in every department, will serve as the best source
from which to derive information concerning the routine duties required,
and the weekly moneys paid there to circus performers. "The principal
performers in Mr. Nixon's company are paid as follows: Ella Zoyara,
equestrian, in addition to first-class passage from England and back for self
and two servants, medical attendance for self and servants, carriage and
horses whenever required, and a benefit every two weeks, receives per
week $500; Mr. William Cooke, equestrian, manager, passages for self and
wife from England and return, and per week, $500; James Robinson,
equestrian, for self and three horses, $305; the Hanlon brothers, six persons,
gymnasts, per week $300; Mr. Charlton, stilt walker, passage, &c., $125;

Mr. Duverey, contortionist, passage, &c., $125; Mlle. Heloise, equestrienne,
$100; Mlle. Clementine, equestrienne, $100; M. and Mad. Du Boch,
equestrians, $100; Master Barclay, equestrian, ten years old, $75; Mr.
Whitby, ringmaster and equestrian, $100; Mr. S. Stikney, equestrian and
general performer, $100; Mr. J. Pentland, clown, $100; Mr. Ellingham,
ringmaster and general performer, $40; Mr. Armstrong, equestrian and
general performer, $40; W. Kincaid, do., $40; W. Pastor, do., $30; W.
Bertine, do., $30; Brennan, do., $25; Niel, do., $25; F. Sylvester, do., $20;
A. Sylvester, do., $20; W. Ward, slack rope and clown, $30; Prof. Yates,
ballet master, $25; Mr. Stark, general performer, $25; S. Ruggles, $20;
Davenport, $20; Foster, $20; Peterson, $20; four lady equestrians, per week,
each $20; and twenty ballet girls and twenty supernumeraries." We extract
from an English paper the following statement: "In Paris, no less than
15,000 persons were admitted yesterday, although the prices were doubled
for the occasion, to witness the performance on the tight rope of a woman—
Madame Blanche Saqui—who is entering her eighty-fifth year."

53. Etchers and Stamp Cutters.

In England, in the seventeenth century, Anna and Susannah Lister were
regarded as having much skill in the noble art of etching. They illustrated a
work on natural history written by their father. A century later, the Countess
Lavinia Spencer and a Miss Hartley became noted for their skill in etching.
Rosa Elizabeth Schwindel, of Leipsic, worked at the business of a stamp
cutter in the beginning of the eighteenth century; and two Frenchwomen
during the same century—M. A. de St. Urbin and E. Lesueur.

54. Herbarium Makers.

Herbariums are collections of dried plants. They are formed by gluing to
sheets of paper the flowers and leaves of plants, after they have been
pressed and dried. To botanists, they are useful; and a choice collection is a
frail, but pretty ornament, for a centre table. The largest public herbaria are
at Berlin, Paris, and London. It is supposed that some of them may contain
as many as 60,000 species. There is not much of beauty or interest in such a

collection, but for scientific purposes they may be valuable. It is not
unusual to see them made of the plants and weeds of the sea; and a very
pretty collection do they make, if got up with taste. A book has been lately
printed containing plates, with explanations for making them into pictures
and other fanciful arrangements. The making of herbariums of both earth
and marine plants, would furnish a pleasant pastime to ladies of leisure, and
a source of revenue, perhaps, to those who might wish to make it a matter
of profit.

55. Lapidaries.

A skilful manipulation is necessary to the business of a lapidary. If woman
has sufficient firmness of nerve to perform the duties of surgeon, we see not
why she would not have for the cutting of precious stones. It is a business
conducted on a limited scale and by few persons in this country. Mr. R., of
New York, told me that a lady in Birmingham, England, had a large
establishment, and employed women and girls to work for her. He knew of
no lady that worked at the business in the United States, except one that
used to be in an establishment on Broadway. The employment, he thinks, is
not unhealthy. After a lady has learned, she would probably earn from $4 to
$5 a week, working for others. He received $12 a week when working as a
journeyman. He spent seven years as an apprentice in England, but he
learned the manufacture of jewelry in connection. The prospect of
employment depends much on the condition of the money market, but there
is reason to think the business will increase as the country grows older. All
seasons of the year are alike. Money matters only make a change. He says
there are many books written on the precious stones and the art of cutting
and polishing them. He mentioned a book by a lady of London on the
subject. Mr. H., an importer and manufacturer of cornelian and other fancy
goods, told me that grinding precious stones is very hard work. Men lie
across wooden benches to apply the agate, cornelian, or whatever it may be,
to the grindstone. There are eight grindstones, weighing twenty tons each,
on one axle. The polishing is done by boys, who sit at small wooden
wheels, some of which are covered with leather. Sometimes women do this
work. As this method of grinding stones is done by water power, it is done

more cheaply than by steam. In Germany, a man who works at precious
stones or makes up jewelry at home, has his wife and daughters to assist
him, and hires a peasant girl to do his housework. The women and girls
make the fastenings for earrings, and file and polish the rings. He pays
seventy cents a gross in Germany for them. He says, in the country and
villages of northern Germany daughters are considered treasures, for they
remain at home, and by their handiwork maintain themselves; but in the
south of Germany, where there are no manufactures, girls are a burden on
their parents. B., of Philadelphia, used to employ girls to set up jet, garnet,
and turquoise for grinding; but those stones are now out of fashion, and so
girls are not employed. He says an old lady, whose daughter is connected
with the Home Mission, wished them to give instruction to her daughter in
cutting stones, that she might, as a pastime, cut those brought by members
of the family from the seashore and watering places. He thought it likely
she would also teach the art in the Mission School. Cutting facets he
thought pretty work for women. They can either sit or stand at the tables.
There is nothing unhealthy in the grinding, as the stones are kept wet all the
time. But the dust used in nipping glass and stones is injurious to the lungs.
When a man has been nipping all day, his nostrils are nearly closed. The
amount of work depends on fashion. There are seven establishments in
Providence, and the work is done by steam. Some stones cannot be cut by
steam machinery, as the wheel must every few seconds be graduated in
motion. In hard times, the jewelry business and employments connected
therewith are dull, as people dispense with superfluities. Southerners buy
most jewelry, but now they do not indulge in such purchases.

56. Landscape Gardeners.

Mrs. R. often goes and looks at gardens, directs how to lay them out, and
what to buy for them. She then orders the plants of others, and sells on
commission, having them arranged according to her own taste, influenced
by that of the purchaser. Her purchases are made of a German, living some
distance from town, who can raise them cheaper than she could in the city.
Her compensation, of course, varies greatly. A landscape gardener writes:
"What a lady could do as landscape gardener at the West, I do not know. I

am rather inclined to doubt her success at the East. It would require too
much time and space to enter here into the details of what are required to
constitute a landscape gardener: First, one must have a decided love for it,
and a willingness to sacrifice much to the pleasure of the occupation. Nor
can I say a great deal in favor of the profits. I have never been able to make
a living by the profession, although I have often thought if I had gone to
New York, or farther West, the case might have been different. In pages 381
and 382 of 'Country Life,' and in many other parts of the book, you will see
what I consider essential to the making up and preparation of a landscape
gardener, and better expressed than I can condense into a letter." Mr. C., of
Massachusetts, writes: "I have never known a lady to undertake the
profession of landscape gardening; and much of the labor which I find it
necessary to perform, would be impossible for a lady. Still, there is much in
which female taste would find abundant field for exertion, if the labor could
be so divided as to make it profitable. My first work on any estate is to
make an accurate topographical survey of the ground, and draw a plan of it
in its natural state, and then proceed to make my designs for its
arrangement; and when that is done, if required, I undertake the
superintendence of the work at the ground. A lady would have to employ a
surveyor, in the first place, and would labor under many disadvantages in
directing the operations upon grounds; and, to judge from my own
experience, the business could not be made profitable under such
circumstances. Loudon's 'Encyclopædia of Gardening' will give the best
directions I know of for the necessary operations of designing and
executing plans, and Downing's work, with Sargent's appendix, comprises
enough suggestions, on matters of taste, for the use of any person who is
possessed of innate natural taste, without which I would advise no one to
attempt to be a landscape gardener."

57. Lithographers.

The impression for chalk drawings is made by delicate manipulations with
crayon pencils; for ink drawings, with steel pens and camel-hair brushes. It
requires one skilled in the use of her pencil, for every stroke of the pencil or
pen on the stone remains, and cannot be erased. Consequently, any defect

on the stone is conveyed to every copy of the paper. In answer to a letter of
inquiry, respecting the time necessary for preparation, the writer says: "A
person who draws well upon paper would, I should think, with six months'
practice on stone, become proficient. The process differs little from crayon
drawing on paper; and the progress of pupils depends entirely on their
previous attainments in drawing. The different kinds of lithography are
black, chromo, and gold illuminated; also, lithography combined, or
uncombined, with embossing. In a report of a British school of design, it is
stated that the chromo-lithographic class for females "exhibit the
commencement of a series of useful labors." An immense number of cheap
lithographs are colored by women; such as are hung in taverns, country
houses, sailors' homes, servants' rooms, &c. At Mr. C.'s establishment, I
was told that in France the females are quite as successful as the male artists
in lithography. He says lithographs require to be more highly colored than
the colors we see in nature. Mr. C. thinks of sending to France for
lithographers, as he cannot get enough in New York well qualified. A
correct eye, skilful manipulation, and an appreciation of art are required to
make one skilful in lithography. Germans excel, because they have so much
patience. An American would become nervous at the slow work that they
prosecute with the greatest pleasure. At Mr. C.'s they have a forewoman,
who superintends the girls, who are paid by the quantity and kind of work
they do. He finds that small girls are usually the best workers. Their fingers
are more nimble, and they enter into it with more zeal. He thinks it best for
them to commence at ten or twelve years of age. Prospect good for
employment in that branch. The coloring of all the finest pictures is done by
men. It requires some time to become sufficiently expert to earn much.
Their girls earn from $3 to $7 a week. The work requires care, and is
wearisome, because of sitting long and steadily. Mrs. P., Brooklyn, an
English lady, learned to draw when eight years old, and studied lithography
with a distinguished artist of London, who executed entirely with his left
hand, having lost three fingers on his right when he was a child. She has
spent twenty-two years in lithographing—seventeen of them in this country.
She is probably the only lady professionally engaged in this business in the
United States. She has earned almost constantly, I was told, from $12 to $30
a week. Lithographing is very lucrative to a skilful artist. The remuneration
is better than women often receive for their handiwork. We believe some

women could find employment in it, if they were prepared. Mrs. P. excels in
architectural drawing. She thinks one must have the talent of an artist, and
great practice with the pencil, to succeed. She has given instruction to
several youths, but never to one of her own sex. One must be articled, and
pass through a regular course of advancement, to follow it advantageously.
To an apprentice, after two or three years' practice, a small premium is paid.
She had one youth to learn of her, who, after four years' time, received $7 a
week from her for his work. She thinks there will be employment to a few
well qualified. She has always been kept busy. The employment is not more
unhealthy than any other of a sedentary kind. Mr. M. says they have no
difficulty in finding enough of crayon lithographers, but that there is more
lithographic engraving done than crayon lithographing. It is done on stone
with instruments, very much as engraving is done on copper. We have read
"that an improved method of transferring copies of delicate copper and steel
plate engravings to the surface of lithographic stone has been invented. One
copy taken from the steel or copper plate, after being transferred to the
stone, is capable of producing 3,000 prints." "Lithography, engraving, and
especially engraving on wood, would gain in quality by passing from men's
hands to the hands of women." "Lithographic works are produced which
rival the finest engravings, and even surpass them, in the expression of
certain subjects." The first lithography executed in the United States was in
Boston, 1826. W. & S. used to employ girls to color lithographs, but found
it did not pay. They paid from $4 to $5 a week to women, who did the
common part of the work. Men did the finer parts, and earned from $12 to
$25 a week; but only those who are expert, have artistic taste, and
understand the business, can earn so much. French lithographs are prepared
and the coloring done so much cheaper in Europe, they have ceased to have
it done in New York. B., lithographer, Philadelphia, employs many ladies—
about twenty—in the house. Some associate in companies, and take their
work to the house of one of their number; but the greater part are educated
women, who do not wish it known that they earn money by their labor:
these carry the plates to their own homes (and even have them sent to the
fashionable places of resort in summer), so that many a fair damsel trips
along Chestnut street with a roll of something, which seems to be music,
but is, in fact, work. The coarse handed take no part in this employment.
Very few have ever attained the highest degree of proficiency in it. The

most delicate work is done by men. Americans have most aptness for
coloring, although the Germans excel in drawing on stone. Women seldom
attempt the latter art. It requires long practice for girls to excel in coloring.
Many grades of skill are required to color lithographs, and there is much
difficulty in making all the copies exactly like the first. Some need a
treatment so nearly approaching the artistic, that scarcely any one who has
the skill can be found to give his labor for the price, which is necessarily
limited. We gained no information as to the amount of wages paid to the
colorists, but, judging from the price of a very beautiful specimen (29
cents), it must be sadly inadequate. The scientific societies are the main
support of this business. The Government, indeed, gives very extensive
orders, but there is always so much competition to obtain them, that the
profit is small. Audubon was the greatest encourager of this branch of
industry. This employment is very desirable in every respect for educated
women; and although machinery for printing in colors is fast encroaching
on it, yet it will long offer a field for female enterprise. Our informant
employs from 100 to 300 hands, according to the prosperity of the times. A
commercial crisis affects this as well as all other trades. One of the firm of
the best lithographic establishment in New York, told me they pay their men
for drawing on stone from $25 to $30 a week. The time required to learn
lithography, he thought, would depend much on natural talent. A good
knowledge of drawing is necessary. He thought men would soon get over
the opposition of women entering the business; but they did not like the
restraint of working where women are. They would soon become
accustomed to it; and if they were women of the right kind, it might be a
very beneficial restraint. But, as to that, women could do the work at home.
Many Germans, well acquainted with the art, are engaged in crayoning.
When they first come to this country, they work for lower wages than
Americans, but after a while learn their value, and ask as much as any one
else. On account of the low wages for which foreigners can usually be had,
but few Americans have prepared themselves for this occupation. But when
work is plenty, and the individual industrious and skilful, he can earn good
wages. Seven eighths of the work done for this country is executed in New
York. The agent of a lithographic company writes: "Drawing on stone could
be done by women as well as men; and would open to them a very genteel
and remunerative branch of business. The drawing is now done mostly by

Germans and Frenchmen; but ladies who have a taste for drawing could
soon learn this art. The usual price for such artists now is from $12 to $35
per week." Prof. P., of New York, gives instruction in lithography, charging
$12 per quarter of eleven weeks—two lessons per week. Special
arrangements are made with pupils who intend to devote themselves to the
profession as artists or teachers. A gentleman remarked to me that Mr. S., a
certain distinguished lithographer of this city (New York), would make an
excellent teacher in that art. His forte is heads. A few strokes from his
pencil always give a beautiful finish to a piece of work.

58. Map Makers.

Women could not well travel about to obtain information of localities for
the making of maps, but nearly all the manual labor connected with the
business would be very suitable for them. Lithographing maps is said to be
a profitable branch of the art, and opens a field to competent women.
Attending the machines for making impressions from the stones might very
well be performed by women. "In Philadelphia, map coloring gives
employment to about 175 females, some of whom display exquisite taste in
this delicate art." There used to be 150 girls in New York painting maps, but
there are very few now. Freedley tells of a map-manufacturing
establishment in Philadelphia that "turns out 1,200 maps weekly. Connected
with it are two lithographic printing offices, having twenty presses, and
coloring rooms, in which 35 females are employed." I was told by a lady
who had colored maps, that it is trying on the eyes and poorly compensated.
A map maker said he was always most busy in the fall, and then employed
from 12 to 16 women. In winter he employed about half that number, and
they principally married women, who have worked for them several years.
Mr. W. pays two of his best and most experienced lady workers a certain
sum by the week, and they hire girls and women to work for them. The
profits of these forewomen, aside from their own work, amount to $1.50 to
$2 a week the year round. Girls receive $1.50 a week while learning. It
requires from six months to one year to become proficient. Neatness, a
steady hand, knowledge of colors, and fineness of touch, are the principal
requisites for a good map colorist. It requires no artistic knowledge. An

expeditious and experienced hand can earn $1 a day. There is at present a
need of hands in New York, and a surplus in Philadelphia. All seasons are
alike in this business, except as monetary affairs are concerned. All Mr. W.'s
hands work in the house. They work about nine hours a day all the year, and
never take maps home with them, as they are mostly large and heavy maps.
Map making is mostly confined to Philadelphia and New York. None are
made in the South and West. There is one map publisher reported in
Richmond, but he has his maps made in New York. Mr. C. gives his maps to
a map mounter, who employs a girl to sew the bindings on with a sewing
machine. She is paid at the same rate as any other operator. The paper
bindings are of course pasted on. Mr. C. employs one girl to paint the
outlines, but all the other painting is done by stencil plates. Map coloring
formerly gave employment to many females, but now it is very rare that a
map is colored by hand. The stencilling process introduced by the Germans
has superseded it, as they are thereby rendered cheaper. Girls used to earn
75 cents to $1 a day for painting maps. If girls would learn stencilling and
work on their own responsibility, they might compete with the Germans.
The process is very simple and soon learned. At Mr. H.'s, I saw a large room
full of Germans stencilling. Men earn $8 or $9 a week, and do it faster and
better than girls, as they have more strength. I saw one girl shading, who
earned $1 a day. A map manufacturer writes me: "In map coloring I am
compelled to employ men to a large extent. A curious fact is, that
respectable middle-aged women, who have been coloring for years on
piecework, make from $4 to $5 per week; while young men, comparatively
unpractised, earn at the same prices, say from $9 to $10." A manufacturer
who employs about 80 females, writes: "I employ women in pasting and
putting down maps, who receive from $3 to $4 a week, being paid by the
week, and working ten hours a day. The difference in prices of male and
female labor is about one half. One can learn the business in a few weeks;
the only qualifications requisite are sobriety and strength. The prospect for
work in this branch is good. There is no difference in the seasons. Some
parts of the work can be done more cheaply by women. A supply of hands
can always be had. The women do their work less carefully than men." A
map publisher in New Hampshire writes: "I employ 28 women and girls in
binding, mounting, stitching, and coloring maps, and pay from $3 to $6 per
week, working eight hours a day. The engraving is done by men, who

receive from $6 to $20 per week. Women's labor can be learned in a few
weeks, and is not so hard or difficult as men's. Engravers spend three years
learning. I employ women to color, because they have better taste than men.
Draughting surveys, engraving, and lithographing have never been
attempted by women. New York is preferable as a locality." A gentleman in
Boston writes: "We employ from four to eight women in our map-mounting
department. They could not be employed in any other branch, which is
varnishing and polishing all kinds of hard wood. There are a large number
employed in New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo. Pay varies from $3 to $5
per week—ten hours a day. We employ no men in this branch. There is
something new to learn every day. Business is the same all the year. We pay
our girls nothing while learning." A lithographer in Boston writes: "I
employ women to color maps and pictures, paying by the piece, the workers
earning from $3 to $6 per week. The employment is not unhealthy."

59. Medallists.

"Beatrice Hamerani worked at medallions, and in 1700 elaborated a large
medallion of Pope Innocent XII., highly praised by Goethe." "Toward the
end of the seventeenth century we hear of Madame Ravemann, who
executed a beautiful medal, an exquisite specimen of cutting." In the school
of design in New York, we saw two very creditable medallions, executed by
one of the members of the school.

60. Modellers.

An ornamental designer and modeller writes me: "In England I attended my
lady pupils at their own residences, except one to whom I gave instruction
at my residence. One was the daughter of the Lord Mayor of the city,
another the daughter-in-law of the Earl of H. Very few ladies learn any of
the higher branches of art, except those that do so for recreation. A person
that has some skill in drawing would, without the slightest doubt, soon
acquire a knowledge of this beautiful art. Some persons have a natural gift
for modelling, while others would not learn it with all the cultivation arising
from education and good society. Probably the best source of employment

in New York would be to design and model for the silversmiths—such as
Ball & Black, Tiffany, &c. One of the most fertile departments in Europe to
lady modellers is not carried on to any extent in this country—the making
of fine pottery. The fingers, of course, must be soiled in modelling; but such
an inconvenience is trifling compared with the pleasure of forming fruit,
flowers, and foliage, or modelling the medallions of friends." The
modelling of gas fixtures might afford employment to a small number of
qualified women. We know of one establishment in Philadelphia where part
of the designing for fixtures, lamps, and chandeliers, is done by a lady, and
all the copying done for illustrated catalogues of those which are finished.
She receives $6 a week, and goes about 9 o'clock A. M. and remains until 4
P. M. Mr P., at his school of art in New York, has a very large collection of
casts. He gives instruction to boys and young men in modelling and
drawing, charging 25 cents a lesson of 3 hours in the day or 2 in the
evening. They are instructed in classes. Some of his casts are gigantic. In
one of his rooms is a beautiful, but small model, in wax, for $300,
representing a hunting scene. We have been told that some ladies in
Germany model wax patterns for the ornamental work on china. Few tools
are used by a modeller—the only ones are for the sharp and delicate parts
that cannot be formed by the fingers. As clay does not shrink uniformly in
drying it is moulded before drying in plaster of Paris, and a cast of the same
material taken from that, which serves as a model for the workman. Some
artists model in wax. Women might be employed in modelling ornamental
and scroll work for brass founderies, &c., and get good wages.

61. Modellers of Wax Figures.

Catharine Questier, who lived in Amsterdam about 200 years ago, besides
possessing many other accomplishments, was a modeller in wax. Joanna
Sabina Preu, who lived in Germany not long after, was noted in the same
way. A daughter of a Danish king also modelled in wax. "Professor Anna
Manzalius, an Italian lady, modelled excellent portraits in the beginning of
the eighteenth century." In England, in the early part of the eighteenth
century, Mrs. Samore modelled figures and historical groups in wax. Mrs.
Patience Wright, born in Bordentown, New Jersey, 1725, made a great

many likenesses in wax. Some were full length and some were busts. They
were mostly of the statesmen that were conspicuous in the American
colonies at that time—yet some were of Englishmen, as she resided in
London, after she became a widow, and supported her family by her
handiwork. Her daughter, Mrs. Platt, modelled in wax in New York in 1787.
I saw a maker of wax figures who said he had supported his family by his
work, and thought a few others might make a living at it. One must be able
to draw a model before undertaking wax figures. It requires good perceptive
powers, ability to distinguish colors, and a peculiar taste. One must be able
to work from life, and it is well to know how to do so from pictures. Mr. G.,
interested in Barnum's museum, told me that it was impossible to get such
wax figures made in this country as they want. He spoke of the miserable
imitations that are made, and thought a person well qualified would be
patronized. Most of the groups in Barnum's museum were made by Mrs.
Pelby, of Boston. Mr. Barnum wrote to Mr. Tussaud, whose mother made
those so famous in London (and who is living now), to know if he would
instruct some one to send to America; but he is not willing to give any one
instruction. He employs persons to make the different parts; one set of
workers make the bodies, another the heads, another the feet, &c. The
world-famed group of his mother, Madame Tussaud, was first opened in
Paris about 1770. After being exhibited in the large towns of Great Britain,
it was taken to London, where it still remains. The figures are so life-like
that now and then one is mistaken for a living person, while a person is as
often mistaken in the group for one of the figures. More than forty persons
are kept in charge of the exhibition.

62. Mineral Labellers and Arrangers.

A lady could not easily make collections of minerals, but she might find it
an absorbing occupation to arrange and label them. Few ladies in our
country have given any study to mineralogy, and very few would be
competent to form cabinets. Yet, for those that are, we doubt not
employment of that kind could be found. The individual wealth of our
country has not been sufficient to enable many to make extensive
collections. The most that exist are connected with universities and other

institutions of learning. They have been collected at different times—in
fact, mostly formed by single specimens, added now and then. Individual
collections have been formed in the same way. Individuals add to the
cabinets of their friends, as they have it in their power. The most extensive
collections in the United States are at the Patent Office, Washington, and in
the National Academy of Science, Philadelphia. Mr. H., a mineralogist from
Berlin, says: "In Berne, Switzerland, a man and his wife are mineralogists.
On the husband's death the wife will continue the business." It must require
many years' study and an extensive knowledge of chemistry to become a
superior mineralogist. I would think considerable time and capital were
requisite for a mineralogist to establish himself. Mr. H. makes exchanges of
minerals for others, receiving, I suppose, a commission for doing so. A
geologist writes me: "No women are employed in my business. It requires
one half of a lifetime to become fitted for the duties of a geologist. A
knowledge of engineering, and most of the natural sciences, is needed.
Draughting in the office is the only part suitable for women."

63. Musicians.

Madame Romeau says: "Few women have been engaged in musical
compositions, and they have rarely undertaken important works. In painting
and literature one is pre-occupied only with the work of the author. In
music, it requires the coöperation of two persons—the composer, and the
performer. Books and paintings act upon us without any intermediate
objects, while the piece of the composer, to be understood, needs the flow
of harmony noted on the paper in hieroglyphic signs, and must escape under
the fingers from the instrument. It is necessary to animate the inert matter—
to make it yield to the wish of the performer and reproduce the inspirations
of the composer. Few women compose songs. A musician leads a different
life from an artist, who lives in her studio and has few expenses. A musician
must face the crowd, and hear its dissatisfaction, and smile at its applause.
A cantatrice, or songstress, often travels from town to town like an actress."
Some persons think none of the arts can be purely religious except music.
"Mozart in music, and Raphael in colors, have taught us the spiritual
ministry of the senses." A comparatively small quantity of music has been

composed in the United States. The study of a lifetime is bestowed by very
few on music. Some American ladies have gone to Europe to perfect their
musical taste, and a few have acquired distinction. With musicians, as with
vocalists—those who, in this country, have reaped the greatest profits in the
shortest time were foreigners. Some were pianists, some flutists, some
violinists—some one thing, and some another. The composition of music
for soirées, fancy balls, masquerades, tableaux vivants, private theatricals,
operas, dramas, musical farces, ballets, &c., might occupy all the spare time
of musicians capable of composing. There is a circulating library in London
of 42,000 volumes. There is, also, one in New York and one in Brooklyn.
Subscribers to the one in Brooklyn pay in advance for one year $12, with
the privilege of selecting from the catalogue $6 worth of music at the
termination of the subscription; for six months, $6; for three months, $3; for
a single piece worth less than $1, 6 cents per week; less than $2, 9 cents per
week. Mr. G. thinks a lady can never become a good violinist, because it
requires great strength in the right arm. The muscles of violinists are as
rigid as a blacksmith's. I have heard that occasionally a pianist acquires
such strength in his hands that he could almost prostrate you with one of his
fingers. A gentleman told me, ladies could not become superior organists;
that they cannot have sufficient power developed. It requires much strength
of hands and feet. He remarked, the organist, at the church he attended, was
a lady, but made no comments on her qualifications. I have known two lady
organists, who were considered superior performers, and received as good
salaries as gentlemen would have done. One received $500 for playing
twice on Sabbath. On week days she gave instruction. I was told that she
supported her whole family for years by her musical talents, and laid by
money with which she purchased a comfortable dwelling in a city in New
York State. The salaries of organists are small considering the amount of
talent and practice required; but most organists teach music, or stand in
music stores, or act as agents for manufacturers of musical instruments. "In
the summer of 1860, among the Marblehead band of female shoe strikers in
the procession at Lynn, Mass., was Miss Margaret Hammond, fifteen years
old, who beat the drum in martial style the whole line of march." "In Ohio
they have a lady drummer, who has received a diploma for her skill. Her
name is Minerva Patterson, a daughter of Major Elisha Patterson, a wealthy
farmer of Jersey, Licking Co." The French papers have given some insight

to the prices paid great musicians, Malibran received in London, for every
performance at Drury Lane, $750; Lablache, for singing twice, $750, and
for a single lesson to Queen Victoria, $200. At a soirée in London Grisi
received $1,200. Paganini charged $400 a lesson. "Herz and Thalberg each
made about $60,000 in this country." There is a female musical society in
London which gives concerts for benevolent objects.

64. Music Engravers and Folders.

Mr. L. engraves and prints music, and employs two ladies to fold it. There
are but few music engravers. The smaller the number of persons in any one
kind of business the higher the prices they can command. A lady in New
Orleans engraves, whose husband is a music printer. It would require but
two or three years to learn it. Some ingenuity, a knowledge of the value of
notes in music, and judgment in the arrangement of them are necessary to
make an engraver. In New Orleans, eight months are usually considered a
year, I believe, in business arrangements. At a music engraver's the young
man told me that he never heard of a woman engraving music in this
country, but he knows that some do in Paris. The work they turn out, he
added, is not good; it will not wear, because women have not sufficient
strength in the wrist to engrave as deeply as a man. A person who engraves
plates for music can earn from $3 to $5 a day. German work is considered
the best, because the quality of the ink used is better. Music engraving is
divided into two distinct branches—one is lettering and engraving the title
page—the other is engraving the notes. No steam machinery has ever been
invented for printing music, because the ink must all be put on the way the
work is done. Music is one of the first things dispensed with in hard times.

65. Opera Performers.

The first opera of modern times was performed about the close of the
fifteenth century. At the first introduction of the opera into France and
England, it was much ridiculed by wits and critics. Voltaire, however, and
others, came to its rescue, and with what success may be known, when it is
acknowledged to be one of the favorite amusements of the fashionable

world. The want of adaptedness of the opera to the English language has to
a great extent excluded successful efforts at translation. Yet some operas
have of late years been performed in English. "In Paris, the Italian opera is
patronized by the Government, as a school of vocal music; and the
managers are careful to maintain a complete and skilful company." In an
opera, the music is the most important part, while at the theatre the music is
subordinate to the play. The orchestra in some parts of the opera
accompanies, and, in others, seems to respond to the sentiments of the
piece. The operatic performance is not so warm, so impassioned, so
abandoned, as that of the theatre. The trilling and sudden starting, so
common in operas, is rather too artificial to please the unsophisticated. A
conversational style is seldom used, but the words are expressed in a
recitative style that is graceful and effective. In Germany, however,
dialogue has been introduced. Good imitative powers are essential to
success. The noble talent of music has been desecrated, in some operas, by
the impure thoughts and language expressed. In the United States probably
not more than thirty, out of the entire audience of several hundred,
sufficiently understand the Italian, to follow the play without considerable
effort; but it is so much of a pantomimic character that much is gained by
the sense of sight. Much of the zest and interest are lost to those who are
indifferent to the accessories. On this account, we suppose it can never
become a favorite amusement with the generality of people. The French
papers give some curious statements in regard to the salaries paid to great
musical artists. We learn that Hummel left a fortune of $75,000, and twenty-
six diamond rings, thirty-four snuff boxes, and one hundred and fourteen
watches, which had been presented to him at various times. In modern days
musicians are quite as extravagantly paid. Alboni and Mario get $400 every
night they sing; Tamberlik, every time he sings a certain high note, demands
$500; Madame Gazzaniga was paid $500 a night recently in Philadelphia;
Lagrange, at Rio Janeiro, is now receiving a princely salary; and
Piccolomini cost her manager over $5,000 a month; and these prices are
said to be moderate, compared with those often paid in Europe to
distinguished musical artists. At the opera house in Paris, for the present
season, Mr. Colzado, the manager, pays as follows: to Tamberlik, for
seventeen representations, $8,000; Alboni, $2,200 for seven representations;
Mario, $15,000 for a season of five months; Grisi, $5,000 for two months;

Madame Perer, $14,000 for the season; the Grazioni brothers, $15,400;
Corsi, a baritone, $4,000; Galvani, $3,600; Nantin Didere, $4,000; Tecehini,
$3,600; Mlle. de Ruda, $3,400. The chorus and orchestra cost for the season
$17,600. "Parodi, the American prima donna, receives no less than $30,000
per annum, a larger salary than that paid to the President of the United
States." "Miss Hensler, the American prima donna, has been engaged by the
manager of La Scala for fifteen months, at the rate of $170 a month."
"Sophie Curveth receives $2,500 a month, for eight representations; for
every representation beyond eight in the month, $300 more."

66. Painters.

"Less prejudice exists against artists than teachers in France. They have
privileges that teachers have not. Painting is considered the most desirable
profession by parents for their daughters. The girl begins early in life to fit
herself for her profession. The work is less severe than that of an author.
Painting does not require such close application of mind, nor is it necessary
to spend so much time in solitude, nor are the expense and anxiety so great
as that of authorship. Gratuitous schools of art exist in Paris, where
instruction is given principally in perspective. Most students prosecute the
art in studios, paying from $4 to $6 a month. Most of them spend the whole
day in the studios, from eight in the morning until six in the evening. The
artist that instructs them visits the scholars only two or three times a week.
The studio is a sort of mutual school, where pupils teach each other; they
are of all ages. All conditions of society are represented. Three kinds of
painting are done by them—face or portrait, landscape, and flowers. Most
of the girls of the higher classes prefer landscape. Female artists compete
with men, and wear their hair short. Few women like the physical fatigue of
a painter's life. There is not the same play for coquetry in artists, as in
singers or actors. It requires great perseverance for a female artist to acquire
firmness of execution; she does not possess it to the same extent as man.
Some artists are willing merely to copy paintings, paint portraits, and give
lessons. The school of landscape painting is one well fitted for young and
original talent. Women succeed in painting portraits; also, in painting
flowers and fruit; very few have tried historical paintings." Painting is

certainly a profitable employment for a lady artist of superior ability, if she
can have enough to do. Miss F., New York, established a life school for lady
artists. One subject is used at a time; the classes are limited—two classes—
eight or ten pupils in each. Those that need instruction will pay $12 for
twenty-two lessons; those without instruction, $6. There will be two sittings
a week, of from three to four hours. A person of sensitive, nervous type,
susceptible to every impression of a pleasant kind, is most likely to succeed
as an artist. Mr. R. Peale told me that many ladies in Europe paint portraits.
He considered it a higher style than landscape, or still life. He thinks
painting itself not injurious to the health. The turpentine used is sanitary,
and the white lead is deleterious only when taken into the lungs. What is
inhaled in breathing can do no harm. Mr. Peale thought that the principal
reason of artists being so poor in health, is because of their long and close
confinement indoors. In painting the first coats are often applied by an
assistant, employed by the artist; and in some cases, by the students of the
artists. Miss Merrifield, of England, has written a work on the art of
painting. A number of ladies in England, and in the United States, are
winning a reputation as artists. The prospect to lady artists in the United
States is very encouraging. Ladies are allowed the privilege, on proper
application, to copy paintings in the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia,
the Düsseldorf, and the Bryant galleries, New York. According to the census
of 1850, there were 2,093 male artists; but there are said to be not more than
600 or 700 superior artists in the United States. The patronage the best
receive is such as to keep them well employed. A meagre support and a long
life of labor are necessary to establish a reputation as an artist, even to one
that has talent. But the way in which most of our first-class artists live, that
are prudent and steady in their habits, and possess any business
qualifications, contradicts the opinion, quite common, that an artist's life
must always be one of self denial and poverty. We think artists fare as well
as most people, and we do think it a life very inviting to the young ladies of
our country. Those that have the time, the means, and the talents, will find it
an absorbing, a fascinating employment. Women succeed best in painting
pictures of their own sex, and of children. The more tender and delicate
organizations are best suited to their talents. Most of our artists live in the
metropolis, New York; the Western country is too new and crude. There are
materials enough, but not much appreciation of talent. Besides there is less

wealth, and another thing is, that artists must keep themselves where
mention will now and then be made of their pictures, to bring them into
notice, and where the most ready sale will be found for them. During the
last few years a taste has been developed in St. Louis, that promises some
golden fruit. A gallery of paintings has lately been opened there. Why is it
that a talent for painting and poetry is so often combined? Is it that the
quiet, contemplative state that produces poetical inspirations also favors the
visible expression of beautiful thoughts? A poet painter is more frequently
to be seen than a poet musician. One, I suppose, of a quick, lively
disposition, and very impressible, might be more likely to possess musical
talent than one of a quiet, thoughtful nature. But genius is not fettered by
temperament. There is a society of female artists in London; the first public
exhibition of their paintings took place in June, 1857. It is managed by a
committee of eight ladies, and bound by twenty-three articles. A portrait
painter writes: "The artist requires a high, well-developed anterior brain, a
healthy body; and a brain and body well regulated and balanced; a love of
the beautiful that inspires the character with patience and indomitable
perseverance, and a contempt for applause; for 'art is long,' and, unless one
is willing to 'scorn delights and live laborious days,' he can never meet with
real success. If women can attain to excellence as artists, they can command
the same remuneration as men receive. Art knows no sex." A professional
artist remarked to me: "Amateur painters never attain excellency, because it
requires not only talent, but constant application." I think if there is
anything that should have its full value, it is a painting, because of the
patience and perseverance necessary for an artist to excel, and the long and
costly preparation requisite. It commands, too, a certain style of talent that
many do not possess. In addition to this, those who can afford to buy
paintings are those who can afford to pay a good price.
67. Animals. We know of no artist in this country whose talents have
been devoted to the painting of animals, and of but one lady, in any country,
that has distinguished herself in that line—the far famed Rosa Bonheur.
68. Banners. We saw an ornamental sign painter decorating a large flag.
Stars are painted on the silk, and then sized and gilt. The flag was stretched
on a frame like a piece of tapestry, but upright like an easel. Mr. M. had

never known of any women being employed in the trade. He decorated
banners for processions, political campaigns, &c. This is evidently a field
for female industry.
69. Crayon and Pastel. Crayon drawing seems to have been much in
vogue in Italy in the seventeenth century; and we read of an Italian lady, as
far back as 1700, devoting her time to pastel painting. The soft, light,
dreamy effect given by the use of pastels, peculiarly fit the style for the
portraits of ladies and children. Mrs. Dassel, of New York, was noted for
her excellency in the use of pastels. Mrs. Hildreth, of Boston, is very
successful in her crayon portraits. She charges from $30 to $40 a head. Mrs.
M. A. Johnson, of Massachusetts, has spent some years working in crayon.
"Her indefatigable patience in the execution of details, the fidelity of her
likenesses, and the delicate perfection of finish in her pictures, are
remarkable." Miss Clark received $20, and over, for crayon portraits in
Boston, a few years ago. Before Miss Stebbins, of New York, became a
sculptor, she drew crayon portraits, charging $50 per head. Her execution
was said to be clear and forcible.
70. Flowers and Fruit. During the latter part of the eighteenth and the
first half of the present century, a number of lady artists have distinguished
themselves in flower painting. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, a few devoted themselves to it in Holland, Germany, Denmark,
and France. For a few years past some American ladies have turned their
attention to flower painting with marked success. A number in England
have also obtained distinction.
71. Fresco. The wife of an artist told me her husband knew of a fresco
painter in England, whose daughter would assist him when he was hurried.
But the lady thought working with men was objectionable. I heard of a
young lady in New York, who assisted her father, by filling up the outlines,
as he drew them on side walls. Mrs. Ellet states that Angelica Kauffman
assisted her father in the interior decoration of a church, in Schwarzenberg.
She painted, in fresco, the figures of the Twelve Apostles. Her success in an
undertaking so difficult excited considerable attention. Mrs. N., wife of a
fresco painter, thought the work unfit for women, because they would be
compelled to work with men, and stand on platforms to work on ceilings;

consequently are liable to exposure of person. They might paint the side
walls, and let men paint the ceilings.
72. Historical. But few ladies have devoted themselves to historical
painting. The most lived during the latter part of the last century, and the
commencement of the present. Catarina Vieira painted several church
pictures, after the designs of her brother.
73. Landscape. In the past century Holland gave to the world the largest
number of female landscape painters. America and England bear away the
palm for the present century. American scenery opens as wide a scope for
the talent of the landscape painter as any on the globe. Mrs. ——, one of
the first landscape painters of our country, thinks landscape requires more
care and talent than portrait painting, but the latter pays best. She says there
are some ladies in Boston, who are very good landscape painters. She
thinks it would be very difficult for a young artist to become established in
New York, without influential connections, and the means to keep her until
she does become established; but would be more likely to succeed in cities
in the South and West. She thinks there are good openings in Baltimore, for
artists of every kind. She says art is much more encouraged in the United
States during the last few years, and a good artist need not fear starving.
The artists of New York have three receptions during the year. The object is
to make known their paintings, with a view to selling. At the last annual
sale of pictures for the New York Artists' Fund, $2,000 were received. Some
artists copy a landscape exactly as they see it; some select the most
beautiful parts of different landscapes, and combine them; and a few draw
entirely from imagination. Good painters of scenes for theatres, I have been
told, often receive from $25 to $40 per week.
74. Marine. Some very good marine views have been executed in this
country, but none by ladies.
75. Miniature Painters. "We may run back as far as the twelfth century,
and find a few miniature painters among the fair sex. Margaretta von Eyck
devoted most of her time to painting miniatures, in the fifteenth century. In
the seventeenth century, an Italian lady of Palermo distinguished herself as
a painter in oils. Mrs. Wright, an English miniature painter, died in 1802;

and Maria Conway was a noted miniature painter, living in London, who
died in 1821. In the seventeenth century, Maria Rieger was employed to
paint miniatures in the aristocratic circles of Germany. In the same century,
a Swiss lady, Anna Wossar, began at the early age of thirteen to win a name
in the same branch of painting. In the same century, almost every country in
Europe gave birth to one." Mad. Goldbeck, of English birth; Mrs. Hill, of
Boston; Miss C. Denning, of Plattsburg; Miss Anne Hall and Miss O'Hara,
in New York, are the principal miniature painters in the United States. It
was reported that Miss H. occasionally received as high as $500 for a
miniature. Mrs. Hill received from $75 to $100 for a miniature. The
popularity of photographs has caused many portrait and miniature painters
to devote themselves to that branch of art. Some artists succeed in giving an
ideal, spirituel beauty, truly astonishing. I think it is more observable in
miniatures on ivory than any other style. Mr. W. writes: "In the department
of miniature painting women find profitable employment and are ofttimes
very expert at the work. I know a lady in Washington who paints very
beautiful miniatures, for which she receives from $10 to $15. This is very
nearly the same rate paid to men. Woman's delicate sense of touch and
facility of expression make it a branch for which she is especially fitted."
76. Panoramas, we suppose, have pretty well paid their way, particularly
the first that were exhibited; but we know not that any lady has ever
engaged in this branch of painting. Mr. D., a scenic and panoramic artist,
says the "decorative workshops" of Paris are 250 feet long, and 50 feet
wide. The cloth for panoramas is laid on the floor, and the paint then
applied, as it would run if hung up. There are galleries around the walls,
some distance above, from which the artist may judge of the effect of his
painting. Many dioramas are used, and might be colored by ladies.
Panoramas have not been so common since Banvard painted his. Painting
them does not always pay for the trouble and expense. It requires a certain
order of talent for painting panoramas, and probably as high an order as any
other.
77. Portrait. "Lala, though not a native of Rome, exercised her
profession in that city during the youth of Marcus Varo, painting portraits of
women. Her pictures were better paid for than those of any other painter of

her time. Portrait and character drawing have ever exercised the talents of
the first-class artists." Mary Beale was a celebrated portrait painter, who
lived in the reign of Charles II.; and Anna Killigrew painted the portraits of
James II. and his queen. An artist told me that it requires the most intense
mental application to bring out a variety in the expression of the
countenances of some sitters, and difficult to seize the most happy
expression. An ambrotype copy should be kept for the colorist to look at
occasionally, while progressing with his work. He thinks seven hours a day
enough for an artist, when his mind is exercised with his work. After so
long an application, he might turn his attention advantageously to some
style of painting more mechanical in its nature, that will be an occupation to
his body and a relief to his mind. A portrait painter writes me in answer to
some questions: "The artist's labor cannot well be intrusted to another. In
France there are female portrait painters, who are said to execute such
works with more delicacy and profit than men. The employment is not
unhealthy, unless the laborer confines herself too long in a poorly ventilated
room. Women are paid by the piece, when employed by artists. I would say,
in general terms, why women are not better paid is owing, doubtless, to a
very foolish idea that, in all respects, they are not so reliable. Perhaps a
remnant of a more barbarous period has something to do with it. In inferior
conditions of society women are always looked upon as inferior creatures.
Women have done great things in art. See the career of Rosa Bonheur,
Angelica Kauffman, Miss Sharp, of London, and, in our own country, Mrs.
L. M. Spencer and Miss Hosmer." Some people are gifted with a love for,
and success in, one style, and some in another. Our nation, composed as it is
of representatives from all lands, will give fair play to the best powers of
the portrait painter. Miss G. thinks a lady of talent, by close application,
with an extensive respectable connection, can establish herself in New York
as an artist, and earn a livelihood by the products of her pencil. She charges
as much for a crayon portrait as for one in oil. She succeeds best in crayons.
$60 is her price for a large portrait; $10 or $15 more, with hands.
"Mademoiselle Rosée, born in Leyden, in 1632, deserves a place among
eminent artists for the singularity of her talents. Instead of using colors,
with oil or gum, she used silk for the delicate shading. It can hardly be
understood how she managed to apply the fibres, and to imitate the flesh

tints, blending and mellowing them so admirably. She thus painted portraits,
as well as landscapes and architecture."
78. Water Colors. Much improvement has taken place in this style of
painting during the last few years. Fanny Corbeaux is mentioned as a
superior English painter in water colors, of the present century.

79. Painters of Dial Plates.

This is rather an artistic employment, but poorly paid. All the clock faces
used in the East are said to be painted by women. Men would not do it for
the prices that are paid. In Boston is a large factory where a number of girls
are employed in painting hard dial plates—that is, enamelled. I saw a Swiss
lady in New York who paints silver-faced dial plates. She and a gentleman
in Hoboken (she told me) are the only persons in this country who paint that
style. The drying of hard dial plates she thought to be bad on the health,
because of the great heat to which a person is exposed in placing the enamel
in the furnace, and attending to it while there. Mixing the enamel could be
done by women. When learning to paint dial plates in Switzerland, she paid
$3 a week for instruction and board, but for a sleeping room separately.

80. Picture Restorers.

E. says he has been thirty years engaged in restoring paintings and
engravings. He thinks it is more of a natural gift than anything else. He has
made money by it. His sons, who have been ten years employed as
draughtsmen, cannot succeed, with all the instruction he has given them. To
succeed requires the talents and experience of an artist. He never adds paint
when any is left, but merely restores it. If it is gone, he supplies it. B. says,
restoring paintings is a work of all time. The prospect of a lady succeeding
is poor. She cannot use the heavy iron (twenty-five pounds) necessary for
ironing the lining on the picture. (But that part is merely mechanical work,
and can be done by a man.) The greatest aim with most restorers is to
imitate the old masters. Mrs. C., whose husband is a picture liner, says there
is a great wear and tear of mind in that business. A restorer may injure a

picture, and have it thrown upon his hands, and have to pay ten times its
value. Restoring is the most difficult, lining the most laborious. She never
heard of any one being taught. I should think a restorer would find it
desirable, if not essential, to visit the galleries of Europe, and study the
works of the old masters. The business requires considerable artistic taste
and knowledge, but, in our large cities, may after a while present a field for
qualified women.

81. Piano Tuners.

I think a piano tuner might form a class of ladies, and give instruction in the
art. $1 is the usual price for tuning a piano in the city. One should have an
acute sense of hearing, to succeed; and he should commence early to
cultivate that sense. It is very necessary to know how to make a nice
discrimination of sounds. Practice in that is best gained in a piano factory.
Some could learn the principles in half a day. More depends on practice,
and a native talent for it, than anything else. At Mr. W.'s is a very superior
tuner, and he has been at it but a few months. It requires strength of wrist,
and a rather long arm. The change of posture and strain on the back is
considerable. There is not one good tuner in fifty. Mr. W. thinks a lady
might be a tuner. He says it is not necessary that a person should know how
to play on an instrument, but it is better. A tuner in his factory receives $3 a
day. Regulating is done by the touch, tuning by the ear. If a lady could
obtain the tuning of the pianos of her friends, they might speak to others,
and in that way she might succeed in obtaining sufficient custom to make a
very comfortable support. It might also bring out any musical talent the
individual possesses. While piano tuners are learning, if they practise long
at a time, they often experience a confusion of sounds, and are not able to
distinguish correctly. I was told by another manufacturer, it is not at all
necessary to be a player to make a good tuner, as the two are entirely
distinct. There is a great difference in the abilities of tuners. There is much
difference naturally in the sense of hearing in different individuals: there is
much from training, there is much from the aptness of a pupil, and in the
application. When they take a boy as an apprentice, they keep him at first to
sweep the room, and go errands, and give him instruction, probably an hour

at a time, in tuning. Longer time would confuse a learner. They have had a
tuner for three years, that they can now send to tune pianos for concerts;
but, a year ago, they could not. Two piano tuners (women) are mentioned in
the census of Great Britain. Mr. W. had two or three ladies to learn piano
tuning in his factory. They were music teachers, living in villages and the
country, who could not engage a tuner oftener than once in two or three
months, when the tuner would come around. He thinks ladies could not
make very good tuners, because it requires great strength in the hand or
wrist, and complete control of the key; for if the key is turned ever so
slightly more than it should be, the wire will break. A manufacturer of
musical instruments writes: "I think women could be placed in a situation
profitable to themselves and the community by learning to tune pianos and
melodeons, which I believe they have the skill and capacity to do. They
would also find it profitable, in some places, to instruct juvenile classes of
both sexes in sacred music."

82. Plaster Statuary.

The few women in this country who work in plaster of Paris, are, as far as
we know, natives of other countries. There is an old Italian woman in
Baltimore who makes and sells works in plaster. Casts are sometimes taken
by women, but rarely. Casts of living persons are taken by having the
individual breathe through iron tubes placed in the nostrils. Casts are also
taken from reliefs, statues, and models. They require less care than the first
mentioned. Fruit is imitated in this material, and colored exactly like the
original. I saw a case that had been prepared by a lady for the rooms of the
American Institute, New York. The librarian thought several collections
might be disposed of to agricultural societies and farmers. It would pay
well, and take but little time to learn. It would require a nice discernment of
colors and shades, and neat, careful workmanship. In Brooklyn, I was told
by a boy, that did not look to be more than 14 or 15 years of age, that he had
been working in plaster of Paris for three years. His was the architectural
branch. The first year he received $1.50 per week; next year, $2; and the
next, $3. He thinks a woman could do any of the work. The moulds for
some parts are made of wax and rosin; some of sulphur, and some of plaster

of Paris. The moulds are tied together, and the liquid plaster poured in. It
hardens in half an hour. Mr. W., a plaster of Paris worker, says the whole of
the work could be done by women. Modelling requires practice in drawing,
and a knowledge of geometrical figures. Inventive talent finds a ready field
for exercise. A good moulder is paid $2.50 a day. The study of architectural
ornaments and books much facilitates the advancement of the art.
Modelling and casting are distinct branches. Most employers pay boys
thirty-seven cents a day for casting; but to learn modelling, it is customary
for the learner to pay a premium. Another maker of house ornaments said
modelling could be learned in six months, and when a person has learned,
he can earn from $3 to $5 a day of ten hours. One must know how to draw
in order to model. Another proprietor told me he had thought of employing
girls to break off the edges of architectural ornaments. They now have boys,
and pay from $3 to $9 per week. Modellers can earn $2, $2.50, and $3 per
day. He paid $2.50 a day, for a year, to one man. At a large store for the sale
of plaster of Paris articles in New York, the proprietor, a gentlemanly
Italian, said he would be willing to give instruction to a class of ladies in
modelling, moulding, casting, and polishing. He would charge $2 for two
hours' instruction, and thinks, after a lesson every day for three months, and
some practice in the intervals, his pupils would have no difficulty in
prosecuting the work alone. It soils the clothes very much. His daughter
learned it, but prefers embroidery. One of the Pisani brothers told me that in
Italy and Paris women work at the business. Much ornamental work is
executed in alabaster, spar, composition, and plaster of Paris. None of them
are unfit for women. A more desirable occupation, with the exception of its
want of cleanliness, a woman could not engage in, than plaster of Paris
modelling. An Italian plaster image maker in Boston writes me: "We
employ about 60 women. Women are employed at this business in Florence,
Rome, and Milan. I get about $10 per day, and pay women $3 per day,
working ten hours. I pay both by the piece and by the day. As a general
thing, we pay men better than women. It requires some genius and a
lifetime to learn the business. The prospects for employment are good in
Boston, and there is a pretty lively demand for hands. All the women I
employ are Italians. Women are decidedly superior workers. The business
can be carried on in any part of the United States. Women might be
employed in taking casts from the dead, if they have sufficient nerve. I have

a peculiar fancy for this branch of the work, and do not consider it
unhealthy."

83. Painters of Plates for Books.

Hundreds of thousands of plates are annually colored in London, and some
in this country. The neatness and patience of women fit them admirably for
this work. It is an agreeable, but at present not a very constant or profitable
employment. The coloring of lithographs in printing has done away with
much hand coloring. The painting of stereoscopic plates has given
employment to some ladies, and does not require much skill or taste. The
gentleman who prepared stereoscopic plates for the Messrs. A., employed
several ladies, to whom he paid on an average from $9 to $10 a week,
working by the piece. Botanical plates are mostly colored by hand. The
gentleman who prepares the fashion plates of the Ladies' American
Magazine employs women, paying from $4 to $7 a week, according to
application and rapidity of execution. They work from eight till dark, in
winter, and by the week, not the piece. It requires but a few weeks to learn.
He has stereoscopic views also painted by women. They receive rather
better prices, as it requires some artistic taste and more care. The universal
complaint among employers is, that their best workwomen will get married
and leave them. If women were better paid, employers would not be so
likely to lose them. A few years ago, we saw a newspaper statement to this
effect: When maps were colored by hand in New York, girls were paid from
three cents to ten cents a sheet, and they earned from $3 to $5 a week. A
few years back, it was estimated that there were two hundred female paint
colorers at the top of the profession, who made excellent wages by coloring
costly engravings. The colorers of plates in Leslie's Magazine pay by the
hundred or thousand. The first year, a learner is paid but little. If she
succeeds right well in that time, she is then paid according to the quality
and quantity of her work, earning from $3 to $5 per week. They must work
in the shop, so the superintendent can see if it is properly done, or reject and
have altered such plates as are not. All seasons are alike. A manufacturer of
children's toy books told me he employed girls for coloring, paying by the
piece. They earned each from $3 to $3.50 a week. They used stencil plates.

He generally kept them employed all the year round, but the occupation is
full. A German print colorer told me he employed thirty girls till the panic,
paying by the piece from $3 to $3.50 a week. Stencil plates of varnished
paper were used. He paid his workers from the first, and they could either
sit or stand while at work. Another paint colorer told me his girls earned
from $4 to $4.50 a week, for coloring the finest prints, working only in
daylight. A manufacturer of valentines and children's toy books told me his
girls painted valentines in winter, and toy books in summer. He pays two of
his girls by the week $7 each, and none of the rest less than $4 a week.
They work from nine to ten hours a day. The use of stencils by Germans has
reduced the price of such work. He could get girls to do book coloring for
$2 a week, but prefers to retain his old hands constantly. Most colorers of
prints work at home. A getter up of gentlemen's fashion plates told me he
pays ten cents for coloring a large sheet containing several figures, and the
worker finding her own materials. No one could earn the salt of her bread at
such rates. Another print colorer told me it requires from two to six weeks
to learn, according to the ability of the learner. Sometimes he has
Government work that must be done hurriedly. They have least work from
New Year to March. Some print colorers pay by the week; $5 is a good
price. I saw an engraving on the wall representing an English barnyard, for
which the proprietor was paid $3 for coloring, while he pays the lady who
does it, $2.25. Some ladies, he says, can earn from $10 to $12 a week.

84. Photographists and Colorists.

Mr. F. says they would employ good lady artists, if they could get them; but
ladies do not succeed so well, because they do not have such an efficient
course of training—do not go through the same gradations in a preparation
for the work. They mostly employ men that are foreigners to color. A
colorist of photographic views for stereoscopes says he pays a lady to color
for him $6 a gross. English ladies color best. The firm with which he is
connected cannot get their coloring done in New York, so have most of it
done in London; and as work is cheaper, it costs them no more with the
addition of transportation. At one photographic establishment in
Philadelphia, the proprietor told us that several artists now devote their time

to the coloring of photographs. He pays one lady at the rate of $12 a week.
She is employed on the low-priced pictures, such as are sold for $5,
exclusive of frame. The portraits range from $75 up. The lady painter is
daughter of an English artist. She works all the hours of daylight, when
required—sometimes only six hours. B. has at different times encouraged
and employed female artists; has never met with any one who excelled, but
does not doubt they might do so if properly trained. He had a lady partner in
daguerreotyping and photographing. She was very poor when she
commenced, but, while engaged in it, supported herself and children, and
educated them, and left $3,000. He told me of two ladies making a
handsome support by coloring photographs. His best pictures are painted by
gentlemen artists. He thinks the taking of photographs not so suitable for
women, because it is dirty work; that is, the nitrate of silver that gets on the
fingers stains them like indelible ink—a small difficulty, I think, in the way
of a woman that has a living to make. There are several ladies in
Philadelphia who make their living by painting photographs. Some ladies
have quitted the profession of teaching to become photographers. Ladies are
sometimes employed in photographic galleries, to wait upon company,
agree upon prices, deliver the work, and receive pay. For such services they
are paid from $3 to $5 per week, according to the amount of business done.
Photographers work from eight to ten hours. Some think the business
unhealthy, because of the gases that arise from the combination of
chemicals. Women that have had practice in drawing and painting can give
a pretty and delicate touch in the coloring of photographs. L., photographist,
employs two ladies to color photographs in water colors. He teaches it for
$10. A good colorist, with constant employment, can earn from $10 to $15 a
week. He thinks there are openings in the South. Some prefer water
coloring to oil, because you can see the pictures in any light. Oils are better
for large pictures that you see at a distance. Painting in water colors does
not pay the artist so well as painting in oils. Misses E., New York, are busy
all the time. They execute different styles of painting, but have lately found
it more profitable to color photographs. They each earn from $12 to $15 per
week coloring photographs, when busy. Their work is all brought to the
house. They have had several offers to go South, and better prices than they
receive in New York. Miss E., with whom I talked, thought if any ladies
would learn thoroughly, and could not obtain painting to do, they could

easily obtain situations as teachers of painting. I saw the wife of an artist
who gives instruction in drawing and painting. She told me her husband is
very conscientious and will not recommend any one to spend their time and
money learning to draw and paint, if he finds they have not talent of that
kind. Some people think they possess genius, and can excel in painting,
even if they commence when thirty or more years of age; but it is best for
an artist to commence early in life. The talent of some is developed in a
shorter time than others. One may learn in three months what another could
not in six. Her husband can advance an American pupil as far in two years
as he did his German pupils in four. He thinks the Americans are more apt,
and acquire more rapidly. She thought a lady would not find any difficulty
in obtaining constant employment as a painter. Miss J., Philadelphia, has as
much to do at coloring photographs as she wishes. It takes her about a day
to color a small one, for which she receives $1. For those pictures on which
there is more work, the prices are higher. The painting of ivorytypes is more
expensive. An ivorytype the size of a $1 photograph would cost $10. Most
photographers send their coloring out of the establishment to be done, and
pay by the piece. In several States, women have been successfully engaged
as daguerreans and photograph colorers. Some have travelled through the
country, stopping in various towns to carry on their business. Some
knowledge of chemistry is necessary for a photographer. One photographer
writes: "Women are employed in every country where there are first-class
galleries. It is unhealthy in the operating rooms, on account of the acids and
poisons. We pay $4 a week to ladies to attend the show case and wait upon
customers. We pay men $6 and $7, because they can do more by one third
of the same kind of work than a woman. Any part of the business can be
performed by a woman. We pay girls $4 from the commencement. They
spend eight or ten hours at the gallery, but are not employed all the time.
They are as comfortable as in their own parlors receiving visitors. Ladies
prefer one of their own sex in the reception room. There is always demand
for superior work in our line; consequently, a prospect of employment so
long as the world stands. In Syracuse, fall and winter are the most busy
seasons." Mr. A. says the occupation of portrait and miniature painters is
gone since the discovery of the photographer's art. He thinks ladies are as
capable of arriving at great excellence as men in painting, if they will only
apply themselves as closely. Their knowledge of colors probably makes

them excel in that respect. He teaches photographic coloring, charging $1 a
lesson of one hour. A mechanical execution in coloring is gained in a short
time, but a good photographist ought to be an experienced artist. Mr. R. told
me his girls are engaged in painting and mounting. He pays one $7 a week,
and the other $5. An individual that is bright, intelligent, and capable of
rapid tuition, could learn in six months. They spend from eight to six
o'clock in the gallery. They have but a few minutes recess at noon, as that is
the most busy time. He prefers women for some parts of the work. Men are
more powerful artists, give a better expression; women are more careful,
and give a finer finish. I talked with a photographic colorist, who gives
instruction to a few ladies in coloring, and employs four. He thinks women
are generally better judges of colors than men, but some women never learn
the shades. (I think, unless it arises from some physical defect, it is because
they are not taught to distinguish colors when children. It is difficult to
teach a person the careful use of any of the senses if they are neglected in
childhood.) The work requires some artistic taste. A knowledge of drawing
and colors, and a good education, are essential to success. A young lady in
the business should be social in her nature, and of pleasing address. I would
think an artist of any kind would need the talent of drawing to the surface
the soul of his or her sitter, for much of the beauty of a picture depends
upon expression. Mr. G. thinks water colors neater for ladies than oil. The
employment is now in its infancy. The taste for photographs is increasing.
There are now one hundred engaged in the business where fifteen years ago
there was but one. Photographists are usually employed from nine to six, or
from eight to five. The remuneration is good when constant employment
can be had. The best locality is a growing place. The business would grow
up with the place. The prices paid enable ladies to obtain boarding in houses
that possess the comforts, and even the luxuries of life. Summer is the
dullest season, but much depends on weather. French women generally
succeed well in coloring. Some English ladies, also, do well. Mr. G. gives a
lady colorer $12 a week. Mr. B., a photographist, writes: "Women are
employed in my branch of art in England. I would like to find competent
assistance, but have been unable to do so. The work is not unhealthy, but it
is very trying to the eyes. I should think that in many respects the work
would be well adapted to females, but think, from trials that I have made,
that the mathematical precision of the work is a feature unfavorable to the

feminine mind. Were I to find such assistance as I would be satisfied with, I
would pay according to capacity and work. Thorough artistic education and
natural talents are essential. In point of taste, as regards color and elegance,
I think women might be superior; as regards precision and firmness of
minute work, I am uncertain. It would require considerable time and
patience to learn the art." One of the proprietors of a photographic
establishment in Philadelphia writes: "I employ from two to four ladies in
painting photographic pictures, and pay by the week from $3 to $6. They
work eight hours a day. I pay men about twice as much, because the men,
being longer at the business, work better and quicker. It requires several
years' practice to gain a moderate acquaintance with this branch. It is our
opinion, that women are well adapted for most branches of photographing,
and for some they would be superior to men, provided always, that they
bring to the work a certain degree of education, and some natural talent. We
suppose the reason they are not more employed in this and similar pursuits,
is, that young women of a certain degree of education, are seldom eager for
any sort of employment. Besides, in this business, it requires years of
earnest application to master it, and before this is accomplished, many
marry. The employer feels little security in retaining a woman at the
business after going through years of instruction, because in many, or most
cases, they marry, and must attend to their domestic duties. With a man the
reverse takes place. He becomes a better and more steady worker after
marriage." "We have a great improvement in photography by its
combination with lithography. By the process adopted, the object to be
represented is photographed at once on the stone, and thus the intermediate
operations are avoided." In times of excitement, like the present, when
soldiers are going from their homes, there is much for the artists to do.

85. Preparers of Scientific Plates.

Mrs. B. has supported herself for some time by making drawings of fossils
for works on geology. She is now doing one for a work on Niagara. It
requires a great deal of care. It is very trying to the eyes as the engraver
imitates every line made by the pencil, and a magnifying glass is of course
much used for presenting enlarged views of the smallest fossils. I think she

is paid by the piece or set, for the work. Of course this pursuit must be
limited.

86. Seal Engravers.

Seal engraving is cutting in a precious stone, letters or a device. The cutting
is done by means of a lathe and sharp cutting tools. Diamond dust and oil
are used. The lathe is moved by treadles. The finer the work, the smaller the
tools. Taste, good eyesight, and a knowledge of form are necessary. No
pattern is used. The hand and eye must serve as guides. It would be a very
pretty occupation for women, but would require time, patience, and
practice. Seal engravers in New York earn from $10 to $12 per week, but
the occupation there is filled. Mrs. Ellet, in her "Women Artists," mentions
a Prussian and a German lady as being noted for their skill in cutting
precious stones. A seal engraver told me he does not pay apprentices the
first year, but the second year $2, and from that up, according to the abilities
of the worker. It requires from four to seven years to learn all the branches
thoroughly. Another engraver told me the business is not worth learning
now that gum mucilage has done away with sealing wax, and consequently
the use of seals. The designs for seals are usually taken from a heraldry
book; always when for a coat of arms. Such seals are in greater demand in
Europe. Seal engravers in this country do not have constant employment.
They cut fancy seals when not otherwise occupied. The work can be done at
night by a good light.

87. Sculptors.

Properzia di Rossi, Maria Domenica, Anna Maria Schurmann, Maria von
Steinbach, Anne Seymour Damer, Falicie de Faveau, and in our own
country and time Miss Lander, Harriet Hosmer, and Miss Stebbins, are
among those who have proved the ability of woman to succeed in sculpture.
Sculptors, it should be understood, seldom, if ever, labor with the chisel.
They prepare models, which are made in a composition of clay or wax, and
then superintend the imitation of these in marble. Sculpture is the chastest
imitation of nature and the highest expression of the form and spirit of

beauty known to art; and while woman is possessed of the finest sensibility
and most exquisite perceptions, there can certainly be no reason why she
should not succeed in it. Mr. Lagrange, in urging the establishment of
Government schools of design in France, says: "Painting, engraving, and
sculpture, encouraged as music and dancing are, promise equal success;
they provide a more assured support in its being better acquired, and a more
substantial renown, and especially a calmer and chaster existence. Painter,
engraver, or sculptor, it is her works alone that claim the public eye. Her
person is sacred; no one dares to lift the veil that conceals her countenance;
no one presumes to call upon her to courtesy to feeble applause. A young
girl, chaste and pure, she may watch by the lonely hearthside; a wife, she
may not see her smiles and caresses in dispute as the seal of a purchased
rite; a mother, she may educate her children under a name they will never
be tempted to despise. Exhibitions, open to everybody, will afford the
public an opportunity to measure her talent or genius; critics will confine
their attacks to her works; and praise, if she deserves it, will reach her eyes
and ears in terms that she will be able to listen to or peruse without the
accompaniment of a blush." Mrs. Wilson, wife of a physician living in
Cincinnati, has executed busts of her husband and children that are said to
be excellent likenesses. Mrs. Dubois, of New York, has sculptured in
marble several specimens. Misses Lander and Stebbins, and Miss Hosmer,
we believe, find their art lucrative. Sculptors should attend anatomical
dissections; should learn the structure of the human frame, and the
appearance of the muscles under the various conditions to which
circumstances may subject them. Indeed the study of anatomy is essential to
success. In sculpture, we closely imitate the parent, nature. The most
superior specimens of statuary are said to be modelled after nature, as seen
in the unlaced, unpinched, unaltered original—just as nature's own hand has
chiselled. In sculpture, modelling is the inventive part of the work, and
requires taste and genius; copying is a merely mechanical operation. A
pursuit of this kind, if followed from the love of it, becomes a soul-
engrossing study. Means or friends to rely upon, for at least two years,
during the time of study, will be necessary in most cases; for if the artist is
to support herself while she studies, only the highest earnestness can sustain
her; but then those that are not in earnest should not undertake this art—for
"it is better to pursue a frivolous trade in a serious manner, than a sublime

art frivolously." Without very decided talent it will be some time before a
sculptor comes sufficiently into notice to sustain herself entirely by the
filling of orders. "Sculpture has become almost a fashion in Paris; but a
woman finds it difficult to devote herself to studies pertaining to the art.
Though greater in number than painters, they have accomplished scarcely
any remarkable works." Many women who might not undertake sculpture,
might learn to work in marble for sculptors. A marble worker in its various
branches, writes me: "I think women might be very well employed in the
lighter parts of finishing. I suppose they are not so employed, because there
has not yet been any organized and extended effort made to introduce them
into this line of business. I am not sure, but think it likely, women are
employed to a limited extent in chiselling marble in Italy and France. Miss
Hosmer has done more than mould for others to copy. She has herself
handled the mallet and chisel. The employment in general is healthy; but
lettering, and indeed fine chiselling of any sort, requiring the eye to be
brought near to the work, raises a dust, which is breathed into the lungs—
though the injury is not very apparent till the lapse of years reveals it. The
qualifications desirable are a good judgment, and eye for form, and a
certain slight of hand. The prospect for marble workers is good in all
departments." On the other hand, another writes: "Sculpture is too laborious
for women, and if women practise the art, they hire all the work done." In
Rome, two thousand women serve as models to painters and sculptors.

88. Steel and other Engravers.

Steel and copper engraving require a very good knowledge of drawing, and
careful manipulation. A great advantage has been gained by substituting
steel for copper plates. One beauty of steel engraving is that it can be done
at home. Men like easy employments, and so have appropriated this one. An
engraver must learn to convey the feelings of an artist. Lithography has
seriously interfered with steel engraving, and photography has to some
extent. There are very few journeymen engravers. Most go into business for
themselves. Some women are employed in engraving copper cylinders for
calico prints. Line and stipple are the most expensive engraving. Mezzotint
is cheaper. Boys practise on copper, and do not work on anything valuable

until they are able to engrave well. One reason that engravers do not like to
take apprentices is, that they cannot do any thing under two or three years,
of any value to their employer, but expect to be paid from the first. Besides,
an engraver seldom has enough of such engraving as a learner can do to
keep him constantly employed. Those who receive apprentices in New York
take them for five years, and pay something from the first; but very few
men in New York, in any branch of work, are willing to take apprentices.
Much of the success of a learner depends on his inclination, taste, and
individual exertion; and when he possesses these, they render him valuable
to his master—so it proves a matter of mutual interest. All engraving is
mechanical to a certain extent, but requires some artistic taste. In "Women
Artists" we find the names of some ladies distinguished as engravers in
Italy, France, Germany, and England, in the sixteenth, seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Jane Taylor and her sisters paid their
share of the family expenses by engraving. Miss Caroline Watson was an
engraver of portraits to the queen in the reign of George III. Angelica
Kauffman and Elizabeth Blackwell both engraved on steel. We read: "In
London, recently, one accomplished female engraver has turned her steel
plates into a pleasant country house, which she means to furnish with the
proceeds of her delicate painting on glass." In Paris, during the last thirty
years, quite a number of ladies have earned a livelihood by steel engraving,
and several are now employed there in card engraving, and engraving
fashion plates. There are some engravers in the South and West, but there
are openings for more. A card, seal, medal, and door-plate engraver writes:
"The usual number of hours for engravers are from eight to ten. The
business may be learned in from one to two years, to be of use; but to learn
thoroughly requires three or four years. The business generally pays well by
jobs, and I see no reason why females may not engrave as successfully as
males with the same application."
89. Bank Note Engravers. "Steel engraving was first practised in
England by the calico printers; but it was first employed for bank notes and
for common designs by Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, Mass." The
American Bank Note Company, New York, employ about sixty girls, forty-
seven of whom are engaged in printing or making impressions; the others in
drying, assorting, and laying together the sheets to be placed under a

hydraulic press. It requires but a few weeks to learn the part done by girls.
Some are paid $3 and some $3.50 per week. They are mostly American
girls. A lady told me that she heard a girl, who had been employed to cut up
bank notes (done with scissors), say she often earned $9 a week. The
company pay a boy $3 a week from commencement until through his
apprenticeship, which is usually four or five years. Here a man can earn
$100 a week, if a first-class bank note engraver; but in England not more
than $10 or $12. There, however, paper money is but little used; a £5 note
being the smallest in value. Bank note engraving is both mechanical and
artistic. At the office of the National Bank Note Company, a gentleman
showed me the various processes. He had often thought ladies would do
well to learn bank note engraving. I saw two or three gentlemen engraving.
The process is simple, but requires a good deal of patience and practice.
Their girls are employed to place the sheet for an impression under a roller,
and, after the impression is made, remove it. Some receive $3, and some
$3.50 a week. It is dirty work, on account of the oil and ink used. Their girls
wash every evening the blankets used on the cylinders. Bank-note engravers
of the first order receive a salary of $4,000. Some receive from $2,000 to
$3,000 per annum. Bank note engravers work but eight hours a day. Mr. M.
thinks there would not be much difficulty, if a lady wanted to learn bank
note engraving, from the prejudices of men, for some of them are not only
just but generous. One of the gentlemen engraving knew several ladies in
England that were bank note engravers.
90. Card Engravers. I was told by a card engraver that it was not usual
to pay a learner anything. He gives his apprentice only his board the first
year. A card engraver may draw letters well, and not be able to write well,
and vice versa. One should be steady and patient to draw and form letters,
and possess some natural taste, to succeed. It requires also much practice. A
card engraver can earn $5 a day, if he is industrious, and has sufficient
work. A journeyman is paid in proportion to his abilities, from $5 to $25 per
week. Some card engravers earn $2,000 a year, clear of all expenses. The
older a city, the more engraving is done. In Europe, first-class merchants
never use type cards, but engraved ones.

91. Door Plate Engravers. I was told by a door plate engraver that a
skilful person, who would apply himself closely, could learn the business,
so that, at the end of one year, he could make a living. For door plate
engraving, it is necessary to form letters well. The size of the letters for a
given space must be divided by the eye. It requires great care, as one badly
formed letter would spoil the whole plate. Engraving of any kind fatigues
the back from stooping, and the eyes from straining. In door plate engraving
the eyes suffer least fatigue. Of course less strength is necessary for plate
engraving if the tools are of a good quality and in proper order.
92. Map Engravers. Map engraving is divided into two kinds: the
lettering and plain work. The last can be learned in six months by a person
of taste and talent. The most that is needed is practice. A knowledge of
drawing is not necessary for this branch. There is not much map engraving
done in this country, because of the expense. Most is done in New York and
Philadelphia. The best map engraving done in Paris is executed by ladies.
There are also some ladies employed in map engraving in London, and card
engraving is there quite common for ladies.
93. Picture and Heraldry Engravers. Engraving pictures pays well—a
man often earning $10 a day. A superior landscape engraver calculates to
earn $2,500 a year. Mr. R. historical engraver, does the engraving for the
Cosmopolitan Art Journal. He says: "In England, better prices are paid for
historical engraving than here. Those who do the work receive less, but the
employer has a greater profit than in the United States. More time is
allowed the engraver in England to execute a piece of work." Mr. R. pays
his hands from $7 to $10 a week, and the best historical engraver never gets
in this country over $30 a week. In England the work hours of an engraver
are nine; here seven. He says the art is dying out both here and in England.
It is a something in which we can always be improving. Seven years was
formerly the length of apprenticeship in England, and there an apprentice
was paid nothing while learning; on the contrary, the parent usually pays a
premium of £100. When an apprentice has finished, he will earn £1 a week,
and continue to receive more according to his skill and ability. Some people
send pictures from the United States to England to be engraved, saying they
cannot do such work in this country as in England; while, if they would pay

the same price, and allow the engravers as much time, it could be done just
as well. Such an engraving as you would pay $150 for here, in England you
would pay $200 for. In England it is customary for an engraver to confine
himself to one style; for instance, in "Falstaff Mustering his Recruits," one
engraver would do the wall, another the figures, and another the drapery.
Mr. R. was paid only $2,000 for engraving "Falstaff Mustering his
Recruits," and it took three men two years. The business is not unhealthy,
and not injurious to the eyesight, although a glass must be used constantly.
Mr. J., historical engraver, used to have persons employed that did the
different parts of a picture, and he paid them each from $15 to $25 a week.
He thinks, of those who learn metal engraving in Europe, not more than
fifty per cent. pursue it as a vocation, and not above four per cent. attain
perfection. Some engraving, both picture and letter, is done by etching, but
the best and most expensive with a graver. Mr. J. M. Sartain writes in
answer to a circular: "I have no females in my employment, because I work
alone. To direct others or alter what they do wrong, takes longer than doing
the whole work myself. Neither do I know of females being employed by
others in my branch of business. But if I were willing to be troubled with
the teaching of any one at all, I should choose a female. This is from my
experience of the males I taught in times past. Women have the requisites
more than men—patience, neatness, delicacy; and the occupation is as
suitable for them as any other they are accustomed to adopt. An unmarried
daughter of mine is about to learn from me, with a view to follow it as a
profession. The chance of employment is however very limited, for the
reason that the cost of printing plates separately necessitates, in an
extensive class of pictorial embellishments, the use of woodcuts. This wood
engraving is equally suited for females, and to a limited extent they are thus
employed. The field in that branch is a wide one already, with a constantly
increasing demand. In my own branch of engraving, the kind of skill
required is that of drawing. The mere mechanical skill required in any kind
of engraving is easily attained; but the art of drawing is the great thing, and
positively demands aptitude and taste—at all events, quite close application
and earnestness. Skill in drawing is a key that admits to a wider range of
arts than I can readily enumerate, and successful and profitable employment
in any engraving depends on that. I am chairman of the committee on
instruction of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Academy of the

Fine Arts, and in that capacity do all I can (as do also the other directors) to
encourage female talent. We have seven or eight ladies among our students,
and they certainly are fully equal to the males in capacity for acquiring art.
Some model, others only draw. The whole of our academy studies are
gratuitous. For whatever branch of the fine arts is to be followed, the first
requisite is drawing, and the next is drawing, and the third and last is
drawing." Mr. B., heraldic chaser, says there are several processes in
making heraldry plates, sketching, engraving, embossing, chasing, and
burnishing. He used to employ girls to burnish. The making of patterns for
heraldry is never taught in this country to women, as it would cause the
labor of men so employed to depreciate. He pays a man from $15 to $20 a
week for chasing. He charges $1 for finding the coat of arms of an
individual or family.

94. Telegraph Operators.

A new source of employment has been opened by the invention of the
electric telegraph. Most of the telegraphing in England is done by women,
and in the United States a number of ladies are employed as operators. To a
quick and intelligent mind it requires but a short time to learn. An English
paper says: "Here women do the business better than men, because of the
more undivided attention they pay to their duties; but considerable
inconvenience is found to result from their ignorance of business terms,
which causes them to make mistakes in the messages sent. However, a short
course of previous instruction easily overcomes this impediment." We have
been told that, in one telegraph office in London, several hundred women
are employed. I hope the application of steam to the operations of the
electric telegraph may not interfere with the entrance of women into the
occupation. In New Lisbon, Ohio, a young woman was employed, a few
years ago, as principal operator in a telegraph office, with the same salary
received by the man who preceded her in that office. "I was told by her,"
writes my informant, "that several women were qualifying themselves, in
Cleveland, for the same occupation." The ex-superintendent of a line writes:
"I have long been persuaded that ultimately a large proportion of the
telegraphists, employed exclusively for writing, would be females, both

because of their usually reliable habits, their ability to abstract and
concentrate thought upon their engagements, their greater patience and
industry, and the economy of their wages. In offices where there is a large
amount of business, and, consequently, much intercommunication with
customers, I have supposed the arrangement would be to have a clerk to
receive and deliver communications, and the corps of operators and writers,
composed exclusively of females, in an adjoining or upper room, apart from
public inspection. And to this arrangement, I think, there is at this time very
little to oppose, except the antagonism naturally felt by male operators, who
see in it a loss of employment to themselves, and a want of proper facilities
for teaching and obtaining a complement, in number, of female
telegraphists. Any female proficient in orthography, with an inclination to
useful employment, would make a good telegraphist, and might readily
command, under a system above indicated, a salary of from $300 to $500,
and be profitable to her employers beyond the ordinary male telegraphists
employed under the present arrangement of office. It is in operating by the
Morse system that ladies are mostly or entirely employed. The Morse is the
easiest. They telegraph in small towns, where there is not much to do, and
the compensation is small." The Electric Telegraph Company in London
suggests that women should be employed in preference to men, as working
more rapidly. All the lady telegraphists we have heard of gave satisfaction
to all parties concerned. To Mr. A., connected with the New York and
Boston telegraph line, I am indebted for the following information:
"Women are employed in operating the Morse instrument. They are paid
from $6 to $25 per month, and are paid by the month. For the class of
offices in which females are employed, about the same wages are paid both
sexes. It requires from three to six weeks to learn, and nothing is paid while
learning. The qualifications needed are a fair knowledge of orthography,
arithmetic, geography, and ordinary mechanical ability. We may want a few
operatives, say six annually. The employment is constant, and about ten
hours a day are devoted to work. We employ about fifty women, and they
only at small offices. Nearly all are American. The employment is
comfortable. There are no parts of our occupation suitable for women in
which they are not engaged. They are generally more attentive and
trustworthy than men. The price they pay for board depends on the locality,
say from $1.50 to $2 per week."

95. Vocalists.

This is an important and profitable employment—one that has secured to
many a poor foreigner visiting this country a snug little fortune. We have
only to cite the cases of Jenny Lind, Garcia, Sontag, Parodi, and Catherine
Hays. It was stated in the New York Tribune of December, 1853, that
Catherine Hays had sent $50,000 to purchase an estate in Ireland. American
talent is in some cases very highly cultivated; but we fear the Scripture
verse applies to the substantial encouragement of native vocalists amongst
us: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own
house." Too much money and attention, we think, are lavished upon foreign
vocalists, while home talent is depreciated. An American singer must often
go to other countries and acquire a name, before she is received with eclat
in her own. It may be that other countries have the same failing, but, we
think, not to the same extent. Let us love American talent, and encourage it
before every other. Adelaide Patti, Miss Hinckley, and Miss Kellogg are at
present the most noted singers of American birth. Mr. C. told me, that in
New York, lady singers receive from $100 to $400 per annum for singing in
churches. One lady choir-singer of whom we knew, received $500 a year,
singing twice on Sabbath. Not more than from twelve to fifteen lady singers
in New York receive over $350. One lady in a fashionable church receives
$1,000; but she is a widow, and somewhat favored. Another lady, leading
the choir in a Broadway church, receives a salary of $1,000, I have been
told.

96. Wax Work.

I called on two Italians that make wax fruit; their baskets vary in price from
twenty-five cents to $2. It would take a day and a half to make a $2 basket.
The Italian that could speak some English told me that when he goes out to
work, he charges $2.50 a day; but to give lessons, he would charge $2 a day.
He thought an individual might learn in eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen
lessons, according to abilities and taste. Miss W., teacher of wax flowers,
charges $1 a lesson, and thinks eight or ten lessons sufficient. She thinks in
country places there would be openings for teachers. I think, where there

are large seminaries, a teacher would do better. She says there is an opening
in Troy. If a person has enough to do, it pays well. She makes by hand; they
are more natural than those made by moulds.

97. Wood Engravers.

Much and long-continued toil is requisite for success in wood engraving. A
great deal depends, also, on the talent of the individual. Wood engraving is
a business adapted to women, as it requires mostly patience and application,
and but little physical strength. Mechanical skill is the most that is requisite,
yet, as in everything else, it bespeaks the soul and taste of the originator.
"Women's nimble fingers, accustomed to wield the needle, lend themselves
quite easily to minute operations in the use of small instruments and the
almost imperceptible shades of manipulation that wood engraving exacts."
As more publishing is done in our country, of course there will be a greater
demand for wood engravers. A great many newspapers now contain a large
number of woodcuts, as Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated News,
&c. Wood engraving has been called into use for Government reports and
scientific works, aside from its extensive demands for periodical literature.
A lady engaged in the business writes of a class in wood engraving: "The
pupils vary so much in ability, application, perseverance, and in the number
of hours devoted to it, that it is impossible to judge what any one may do
who has not made a trial. My own experience is that the practice of wood
engraving brings a sure return for all the outlay of time and trouble spent in
acquiring the art. It would hardly be safe to rely entirely upon the proceeds
of the second year; the third may make up for it. The best wood engraving
is done in England and the United States. In classes of wood engraving in
the schools of design in England, the students are required to produce the
drawing as well as to engrave it." "For a quarter of a century past, many
hundreds of young women, we are assured, have supported themselves by
wood engraving, for which there is now a demand which no jealousy in the
stronger sex can intercept. The effort to exclude women was made in this,
as in other branches of art; but the interests of publishers and the public
were more than a match for it." "In 1839, Charlotte Nesbit, Marianne
Williams, Mary Byfield, Mary and Elizabeth Clint, held honorable positions

among English wood engravers." Miss F., at Elmira, New York, carries on
business for herself in wood engraving. She learned it at the Cooper
Institute, four years ago. The pupils of that institute canvassed for work,
some two and two, but she went alone, and principally in the lower part of
the city. They visited publishers mostly—she went to manufacturers. She
got an order for $500 worth of engraving at a gas-fixture manufactory. I
have heard that ladies in the school of design, New York, receive the same
price for wood engraving that men would receive. N. Orr, the wood
engraver, thinks the prospect very good for a woman to earn a livelihood at
it. He knows a lady who has not only supported herself but partially
supported her parents by her work. For wood engraving, women usually
receive as good prices as men. The business is increasing. There are none
West, except a few in Cincinnati, and I believe a still smaller number in St.
Louis and Chicago. A person that has any talent for it can earn a living at it
in less than two years' practice. A knowledge of drawing is not essential, as
the drawing is usually put on the wood by the designer. Mr. Orr takes
apprentices, but pays nothing the first year. They are bound to him for five
or six years. Some engravers require a premium. I have been told that
designing requires a very different and much higher order of talent than
wood engraving. One designer can do enough in a day to keep a man busy a
week. New York is the principal city for wood engraving. I think most men,
while engraving, stand; but all the ladies that I have seen at work sat. "A
wood-engraving office in Cleveland employed three girls in 1845, at wages
varying from $3 to $7 per week, according to the experience of each in the
business, being the same that men receive in the same office."

MERCANTILE PURSUITS.

98. Merchants.

Occasionally we hear such complaints as these: "Women who keep stores of
their own ask higher for their goods than men, and saleswomen are less
obliging than male clerks." Women, as a general thing, do not understand
their business as well as men, and that is the reason they are not so well
liked. Those inclined to be bold, may become pert; and those in poor health,
peevish. "If women were more employed in stores," said Mr. P., "there
would probably be less shopping, but as many goods sold. Young girls that
go shopping to whisper in the ears of clerks, would then find something else
to do." Woman has a power of adaptedness that fits her admirably for the
vocation of a merchant. A friend remarked to me that Mr. Stewart, of New
York, she thought, would employ women in his store, if a large number of
fashionable and influential ladies would petition him to do so. If the retail
merchants of our large cities and towns would combine and employ only
saleswomen, how greatly would they promote the welfare of the nation!
Young men would no longer waste their health, strength, and talents selling
gloves, tape, and dress goods, but would cultivate the soil, or find openings
as traders, speculators, mechanics, and manufacturers, in cities, towns, and
villages of our Western country. They might do something more creditable
to their physical powers, while they gave their half-starved sisters a chance
to earn an honest livelihood. If ladies would patronize those stores only in
which there were saleswomen, and influence their friends to do so,
employers who now engage the service of salesmen would soon learn what
was to their interest, and make a change. Promptness and regularity are
desirable qualifications in a shopkeeper. The business brings those engaged
into intercourse with all classes of people. Mrs. Dall makes this statement:
"It is a singular fact that there are a great many more women in England in
business for themselves than employed as tenders or clerks; while in
America, the fact, at the present day, is directly the reverse." A lady who has

lived in New York all her life said, if the merchants of the city would
employ women, they could find twenty thousand to-morrow, ready and
willing to enter their stores. In Paris large stores are owned and conducted
by women, and even the importing and exporting of goods is in the hands of
some. The tact and address of French women admirably fit them for
shopkeepers. Many of the smaller fancy and variety stores in our cities are
owned by women, that have by long-continued industry earned a
competency. Lady merchants can to some extent control the taste of the
community where they are; for such articles as they purchase and keep on
hand will be likely to find sale. The taste of the best keepers of dry-goods
and fancy stores, millinery establishments, and embroidery shops will be
displayed in the dress of their patrons. To merchandize extensively, requires
much experience and knowledge of business; but to those that are qualified
it presents an extensive opening for enterprise. Barter, or the exchange of
one kind of goods for another, is very common in the villages and towns of
our country. The Gothscheer (Austrian) women often follow the trade of
peddlers, and are absent from their homes many months, travelling about
the country with staff in hand and a pack at their back. "Advertising and
politeness are the main levers to get customers. Advertising will draw them;
ability to fill their orders will satisfy them; and politeness will induce them
to buy." Quick perceptive powers and judgment are also essential to the
success of merchants. It is very desirable to have a good location for a store.
A lady keeping a small dry-goods store told me she sells $100 worth of
goods a week on an average. She has been nine years in the business, and
constantly gaining trade. She likes rainy Saturday evenings, as she then
sells most. She said one must use judgment in the amount of profit to be
made on various articles. A person must regulate her prices by others. On
some goods she can make but five per cent., and on some others fifty. Many
of the fortunes in Boston are said to have been founded by women engaged
in trade. And the ladies on Nantucket Island during the Revolutionary war
conducted the business of their husbands, fathers, and brothers. A lady
wrote, some years back, of some stores in one of our large cities: "The
proprietors say they give from twenty-five to fifty per cent. more to the
males than to the females of equal talent and capacity, but can give no
reason why they should do it, except that it is the custom, and some parts of
the business require more physical strength, as some articles are too heavy

to be handled by women." Yet why not, we would ask, place women in the
lighter departments, and pay them exactly what would be paid a man for the
same work? The average wages of females in Philadelphia are $4.50 per
week, though some get as high as $7 or $8, but very few above $6. In a few
of the stores of New York and Philadelphia the business is conducted
entirely by ladies. There is a school of commerce for women at Perth,
France. We read an account some time ago of a colored woman on the
Island of Hayti, who is a wholesale dealer in provisions, and worth from
$15,000 to $20,000, that she has made by her own industry and business
tact. She can neither read nor write, but trusts entirely to her memory. She
sells on credit to retail dealers, and to girls whom she has trained. The
merchants have such unlimited confidence in her, that they will trust her to
any amount. Nearly all the commercial business of Hayti is done by
women.

99. Bookkeepers.

The employment of female accountants is gradually extending in our cities.
In female institutions of learning, and in benevolent institutions, lady
bookkeepers might be very well employed. Indeed, we think, they would
find no difficulty in obtaining situations. We know that many merchants
would employ them, if they were properly qualified. We know of some that
now occupy lucrative situations in fancy dry goods and millinery stores. We
have no doubt but the books of most mercantile men would be more
accurately kept, if their wives and daughters had charge of them. In all
European countries women keep the books of the majority of retail stores.
The books of nine tenths of the retail stores in Paris are kept by women.
They are fenced in, and separated from the saleswomen by a framework of
glass. A number of women are employed as accountants at hotels in Europe.
There is a large school for instruction in bookkeeping in Paris, where the
pupils are practically trained. An exchange of articles of a trivial nature, and
a cheap coin of some kind, are used as a medium of circulation. At one of
the largest wholesale warehouses in Boston, the head corresponding clerk is
a young woman, who writes a beautiful, rapid hand, and fulfils the duties of
the situation to the complete satisfaction of her liberal employer. A practical

knowledge of arithmetic is necessary for bookkeeping and selling goods—
two of the most inviting openings now presented to women of ordinary
intelligence. The lady who keeps the books of T——'s skirt factory, New
York, receives a salary of $400. Mr. M. prefers lady bookkeepers, because
they are more particular in keeping accounts, and they are more patient in
their calculations. They are, as a general thing, more honest and
conscientious. Women are just as capable of becoming good financiers as
men. Industry, honesty, and promptness, with the ability to write a plain,
correct business letter, ability to calculate rapidly and correctly, with a
knowledge of bookkeeping, certainly should insure a situation to a lady,
where there is a vacancy. It is well, however, for those who have qualified
themselves for bookkeeping, to obtain a certificate: it is a passport that will
aid them in securing a place. The salaries of bookkeepers in New York run
from $250 to $2,500. At a large store, where saleswomen were employed, I
was told they find lady bookkeepers more accurate in their accounts, and
not so likely to appropriate money that don't belong to them. Where a
gentleman bookkeeper receives $15, a lady usually receives but $8. I know
of one lady in Cleveland, assistant cashier, who received a salary of $300.
An accountant in Boston replies to a circular sent him: "I think the
employment as favorable to bodily health as any sedentary occupation; but
in my particular line of business it is rather trying to the head, as it often
requires close application and intense thought. Those who employ women
here as clerks, undoubtedly pay them by the day, week, month, or year,
where they have permanent situations; but for transient work, by the piece.
Women can always be hired cheaper than men, as it costs them less to live.
I am fifty years old, and have been figuring ever since I was sixteen; still, I
learn something new about accounts every day. A woman would have to
serve a long apprenticeship in accounts and on books, before she could do
much in adjusting accounts. For a first-class bookkeeper, practical
experience in accounts and bookkeeping of business of all kinds are
necessary qualifications. I always prefer the early part of the day for work.
My business is as good at one season of the year as another. I attend to
business as it suits my pleasure—sometimes four or five hours, and
sometimes twelve or fifteen, according to the nature and importance of the
task, and depending oftentimes upon the length of it, and the time when it is
wanted. As a general thing, men and women everywhere in the United

States keep as far apart in business affairs as possible—it is the custom. The
counting house, office, and place of business are not suitable for a female. I
would state that I charge for making out accounts and adjusting books, as a
general rule here in Boston, $10 per day, and sometimes more—never less.
I have had all prices, from $10 to $50 per day, for one, two, and three
months in succession. Sometimes I take a job by contract, say for $500, or
some other specific sum, as may be agreed upon, according to the nature
and value of the service rendered."

100. Book Merchants.

In many of the new towns springing up in the West, there are openings for
booksellers. Many colleges and seminaries are being built up, thereby
offering a still better market for the sale of school books. It would be well
for those going into the business to ascertain, before doing so, what books
are used in the literary institutions of the place. Some booksellers are so
mean as to sell old-fashioned, out-of-date school books to country
merchants, thereby clearing their own stock, and imposing their unsalable
goods on others. No doubt, many established book merchants would be
willing to trust, to such as they have confidence in, a stock of books to be
sold on commission. When a sufficient sum is acquired, the individual can
purchase a stock of her own. Many dry-goods merchants keep a few books,
but when there is a sufficient sale of books, a store, if expenses are only
cleared for a while, may gradually become a revenue of profit, and is likely
to prove a permanent business, where discretion and industry are used. In
London and Paris, women sell stationery, almanacs, memorandum books,
diaries, and pocket books, on the streets. Public auctions of books are held
frequently in cities and towns. Agents do much to extend a circulation of
books. In large cities, merchants confine their stock of books to two or three
kinds—as those of medicine, law, theology, or school books; but, as a
general thing, miscellaneous books are kept. The trade sales which occur in
Boston once, and in Philadelphia and New York twice a year, are only
attended by booksellers. These sales last but a few days. The prices at
which books sell at these auctions are considered a pretty fair criterion of
their future worth. Miss H. told me of a Miss P., niece of Horace Mann,

now living in Concord, N. H., who kept a bookstore in Boston, and
imported books to fill orders, but was crushed by other book importers,
because she was a woman. In many towns and cities, women keep small
stores for the sale of stationery, magazines, newspapers, &c. "In large
stationery stores, women might be employed to stamp initials on paper,"
with small hand presses made for the purpose.

101. China Merchants.

This business is peculiarly appropriate to women. Who so well able to
handle china as careful women? Who so well able to judge what will look
well on a table? It comes so entirely within their province, that the mind
readily suggests the appropriateness. In Paris, most, if not all the china
stores are kept by women. A lady china-dealer, on one of the avenues, told
me that she sells considerable at night to working women, who cannot spare
the time to go shopping in the day; also, to ladies living in cross streets
near, who go out walking in the evenings with their husbands, and call to
buy articles in her line. It does not require as many attendants in a china as
in any other kind of store. A girl is more careful and steady, and can dust
china better than a boy; but a boy answers best to take china home. She
sells most about the holidays. It takes time to learn the business well. In an
Eastern city, two ladies stood in their father's store, and so learned the
business. They married brothers, and each opened china stores, which they
attended, while their husbands engaged in other business. They are both
widows now, but have raised and educated their children. A son and son-in-
law of one conduct the business. They employ saleswomen, paying from $5
to $8 a week. They are now in search of two intelligent young women, from
fifteen to eighteen years of age, to grow up to the business. They require a
little more readiness in arithmetic, tact, and general business qualifications
than they can easily meet with. From their experience they judge the
employment to be healthy. A lady in a large china store on Broadway, New
York, receives $5 a week. A lady in another store told me that lifting
crockery causes quite a strain on the back, and should be done by men. A
person gets very dusty who attends china. It requires lifting and dusting,
and now and then must be washed—always when first taken out of the

crate. Mrs. L. and her husband are English, and have been brought up to the
business. She sells most about Christmas. She is on her feet all the time. To
learn the names of all the articles sold in a large store, and their prices, and
to exercise care in handling, requires patience. A china merchant writes:
"Women are generally paid less than men. There is a difference of from $10
to $40 per month in favor of men, because (with few exceptions) women
are not so well qualified to do business as men. It would take from six to
eight months to learn to sell china. A clear head, common sense, and
activity are the qualifications needed. Women are not more likely to be
thrown out of employment than men, if as well qualified." A lady told me,
the china is a slow business and seldom pays more than twenty-five per
cent., but is a sure business for the cheaper kind of goods. The profit is not
so much as for fancy articles of ladies' wear; but less is lost from the change
of style. China merchants, she thought, seldom employ women; why, she
could not tell. Mr. H., who employs a girl, paid her $1.50 a week and board
the first year, then raised her wages to $7 a month. He thinks if more girls
would qualify themselves for china stores they would be likely to find
employment. A girl should commence young, but should know how to read
and write, on account of taking orders. He thinks it best to get homely girls,
rather advanced in age, to attend store, because the young and handsome
ones will get married. He prefers girls, because they are more quiet and
steady. Small articles of china he sends the girl home with; heavy articles he
takes himself. A lady, whose ware was partly out of doors and partly in the
house, said she had dusted it at least a dozen times through the day, and
then it was covered with dust. Her breakage is considerable. She sells most
about Christmas. Another china dealer told me, she sells most in spring,
when people go to housekeeping. E. L., in the Five Points, sells most in
summer, because her patrons are poor people, and in summer the men have
most work, and their expenses are lighter—consequently the women have
more money. Her stand is a good one, but she does not much more than
make a living. The business requires some experience in buying and selling.
Ladies sometimes come into the store to purchase articles they would not
like to ask a man for. A girl keeping a china stand told me she sells most in
spring and fall. She pays $3 a month for ground rent, but owns the shelter.
She locks it at night, and it is perfectly secure, for her lock is different from
all others. It does not take long to learn to sell common ware. She expects to

sell all winter at her stand, and has to be on her feet all the time. She sells
on an average from $2 to $3 worth a day.

102. Clothiers.

In London there are shops confined to the sale of nautical clothes, and some
to the sale of theatrical attire. B.'s sewers (New York) earn from $2 to $10
per week—piece work, of course. Most of it is done by machine.
Meritorious girls need never be out of work, said Mr. B.; yet he can always
get plenty of hands. He has much of his work done in New Jersey. Some
men make a business of taking it from establishments, and hire women all
through the country to do it. There are two kinds of tailoring—custom and
slop work. The last is subdivided into the cheap slop work and that of the
best quality, and there are two kinds of establishments for this common
work—that which is not better done perhaps than the other, but for which a
better price is paid and received, and done by houses of standing and
reputation. The other is done by extortionists, Jews and Germans, and
patronized by their own class. As tailoring is done now, it does not require a
regular apprenticeship as in bygone years, particularly for those who work
by machine. I met a girl on the steps, seeking for work, who told me she
makes $4 a week as operator, when she can get steady work. One of the
proprietors of L. & B.'s clothing establishment told me some of their
workmen earn from $8 to $10 a week, working by the piece. Much of their
work is for California. They employ hands most of the year, as they work
both for the home and foreign market. The great trouble is that the majority
of tailoresses are inefficient. Some are widows, striving to support their
children. Some have dissipated husbands, and are subject to constant
interruption. Some have not the time to properly learn the trade, and,
consequently, such workers cannot have that labor which pays best,
however much they need it. The character of work done by applicants is
judged of by turning to the book of their former employer, and seeing what
prices were paid. In hard times, like these, employers try to retain those that
are dependent on their labor for their bread. The foreman said, in good
times, there is work enough for all the tailoresses in New York. They pay
good operators $5 a week—a day of ten hours. All the summer work is done
by machines. The pressing and basting is done by men. The foreman of the
S. Brothers' establishment says the best place for tailoresses is in the West,

where there are openings, and they can make money. The only trouble is,
the poor have not money to go West. All their work is done by machines,
and all given out. They do not give work more than six months in the year,
and that barely keeps the girls while they are at work. P. & C. have their
machines worked by hot condensed air. The operators receive from $4.50 to
$6. Basters are only small girls, and earn from $2 to $3 a week. B. & Co.,
clothiers, give work out, and, of course, pay by the piece. Their most busy
times are from October to March, and from April to September. They do
Southern work. Some of the workers only earn $2.50 if they are slow, even
if they are industrious and constantly at work. Some of their best hands can
earn $6 a week, but are likely to be at least two months out of employment.
The prospect for tailoresses is poor. I have heard that some good hands are
wanted in Chicago. A great deal of clothing is sold there to people from the
surrounding country and towns. B. does not require any deposit, but a girl
must show her book from her other employers. They have thousands of
applications for work. The reason more clothing is not made up out of the
city is the difficulty in procuring such tailors' trimmings as they need just at
the time they are wanted. Most clothing establishments keep a list of those
that do not return work taken out, and send them to each other. On persons
applying to the foremen, he turns to his book to see if the names are among
the delinquents. He thinks girls in service are more certain of making a
living, for they are paid from $1 to $2 a week for their work, and have their
board, which would be from $1 to $3 a week, and a competent servant need
not be out of employment; while slop work is very uncertain, and
everything that is made goes for board and clothes. Many of these shop
girls sleep half a dozen in a garret, on straw beds, without sufficient
covering. Many might go to the country and the West and get employment,
but they have not the means; and, if they had the means to go, might not
have enough to come back, if they found it necessary. F. D. & Co.,
clothiers. Their girls earn from $3 to $6 per week, paid by the piece, and
done at home. They give most of their work to men who have machines and
employ operatives. The prospect for this kind of work is poor. Not more
than two thirds of the hands in the city, in this department of labor, will be
retained. When business is good they are able to keep their hands employed
all the year, except for a few weeks when changing from thin to thick work,
and vice versa. They sometimes give a girl work to do as a sample. A

woman told me of three girls occupying the room above her, that have a
sewing machine. Two baste and finish off, and one operates. They work day
and night, and one she knows is even now earning $8 a week. They make
flannel shirts, receiving 75 cents a dozen, without putting in the sleeves,
working the button holes, or putting on the buttons. I saw a girl that
receives 87 cents a dozen for making flannel shirts. We have seen it stated
that a persons possessed of machines, who make up large quantities of
clothing at very low prices, are enabled, by the speed at which they can
work the machines, to produce sufficient to remunerate all the parties
employed, at an average of $4 a week." One clothier in Albany, New York,
pays $3 a week to his hands working eleven hours a a day. He furnishes
work steadily through the fall, and pays men better wages, because they can
do more work. The proprietor of a mammoth establishment in New York,
D., writes: "We employ women in making pants, vests, shirts, and summer
coats, both by the week and by the piece. When the sewers take work out, it
is by the piece; but when the work is done in the shop, it is paid for by the
week. The wages by the week range from $3 to $7. Women thoroughly
educated in the trade can make about $6 per week, men about $9—their
work is heavier. The number of branches in this trade, and the time of
preparation for each, varies. We never receive learners. As the articles are of
general use, good hands usually find employment. The work is brisk from
November till March 1st, and from May till September 1st. The time of
work could be shortened, but at the expense of the laborers' wages. In a city
like ours, there is always a full supply of hands. About two thirds of our
women are American. Women could not be employed to sell clothing to
men." This firm employed, in February, 1860, five hundred hands in the
shop, and eight hundred outside. In B. Brothers' establishment, "indoor
work is paid by the week. An agent pays for the outdoor work by the piece.
Those in the house average $5 per week. Men do heavier work and receive
$7. Women make vests and pantaloons; men, coats. They work in the same
room. The men do the pressing." (I expect it is a rule that they shall not
speak to each other, for not one word did I hear any of them speak in the
half hour I spent in the room.) "It requires about six months to learn the
business. They do not take learners. An ability to sew well, and neatness
with the work, are necessary. They sell most when the country is in a
peaceful and prosperous condition. They sell most clothing to Western

customers about the 1st of January, and to city retail stores about the 1st of
February. They work ten hours a day. There is a surplus of hands in New
York. They employ seventy in the house, and between 2,000 and 3,000
outside. The number of Americans is about 20 per cent." Great injustice is
done by women in the country, in comfortable circumstances, who do the
work at a very low price, merely to obtain pocket money. An English tailor
in New York hires girls for making pants and coats. He pays one $4, one
$3.50, and another $3, and they work from 7 A. M. to 7 P. M. There is no
difference in the prices paid, except when the man's work is heavier. Spring
and fall are the best seasons for work. Men can press better, because they
have more strength; but women can stitch as well, if they have the
experience. He kept one operator at $6 a week in busy times, and $3 in
slack times, and another at $5 the year round. Some of the poor tailors in
New York rent a room, occupy a spot themselves, and rent out the rest of
the room to others at the same kind of work, charging fifty cents for seat
room for a man and a girl to assist him; thirty-seven cents for a man alone.
It is not easy to get good hand tailoresses, for most are employed on
machines. One firm, that employ about five hundred hands, write they pay
from $3 to $5 per week of ten hours a day, and that it requires two years to
learn the trade. S. & D., manufacturers and venders of boys' clothing, write:
"Their work is done by the piece, so much a garment, and wages run from
$2 to $6 a week, of ten hours a day—of course, depending on the skill and
hours of the worker. The relative wages between men and women are, as
sewers, say for men, one third more; that is, as four for the women and six
for the men. The business of a tailoress is numbered among the regular
trades for women, and requires somewhat more than the average trade time,
say one year. They excel as vest makers—a branch almost exclusively
confined to them. There is no uniform usage in regard to pay. The requisites
are good eyesight, average strength, and if taste be superadded, the better.
Winter is the best season for those who work for wholesale venders.
Women are most apt to be out of employment in summer. The demand is, at
present, less than the supply. There is a surplus of vest makers, and a
deficiency, if anywhere, in children's suit making. It is an occupation less
suited to women than trades that require more nicety of touch and eye, such
as designing or wood engraving. The majority of tailoresses in New York
city are German and Irish." A firm engaged in the merchant tailoring and

ready-made clothing business write: "The occupation is unhealthy, because
the workers are constantly sitting. They earn from $2 to $4.50 per week, ten
hours a day. We pay men better, because they are stronger and more
capable, and have more experience. Men receive from $9 to $12. It requires
four years for men to learn the business, and two years for women to learn
it so as to earn $4 per week. The qualifications needed are common sense,
good taste, and strong eyes. From March to January is the busy season; but
good hands have work all the year." B. O. & S. "give their work out. Their
trade is Southern. Their spring work begins 1st October, and continues until
the last of March; and fall work begins in May, and lasts until September.
They do not require a deposit, but a recommendation from the last
employer, and give some work to applicants to do as a sample. Some is
done by hand, some by machinery, Wages run from $3 up. Much of their
work is done by Germans, whose wives assist them. It is sometimes
difficult for them to get good hands. The foreman dismissed the Jews he
found at work when he went there, for he thinks they are not reliable. Some
get work out, but intrust it to others to do, and so it is poorly done. The
foreman said many women spend a day or two out of every week running
from shop to shop to get work. He has never lost anything by girls not
returning goods. If they should keep them, they would soon be known at the
different establishments, and have no place to go for work." In Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, and
Ohio, during the year ending June 1st, 1860, 36,155 males and 52,515
females were employed in making clothing.

103. Curiosity Dealers.

In large cities, a few persons may find employment in this way. To the
business of selling coins, medals, buckles, old-time jewelry, &c., is usually
added the sale of shells and foreign birds. The same persons might engage
in the sale of stuffed birds and animals, marine plants, minerals, and other
such articles as are suitable for placing in a museum. Many women on the
streets of London sell coins, medals, &c.

104. Druggists and Druggists' Clerks.

Some knowledge of medicines and 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 homœopathic 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 homœopathic
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 homœopathic 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.

115. Saleswomen.

Women are quite as capable by nature to sell dry goods as men, but are not
trained so thoroughly, nor from so early an age. Suavity of manner and

perfect control of temper are very desirable qualifications for a clerk. Care,
judgment, and taste are requisite for success. A flow of speech and ability to
show goods to advantage are also desirable. Some people urge that if
females are employed as attendants in stores, they will be exposed to
dangerous and demoralizing influences, and something is said about the
corruption of female shopkeepers in Paris, by way of warning. Now, it so
happens that the corruption spoken of does not exist among the store
attendants in Paris, but among sempstresses. Saleswomen and bookkeepers
there enjoy as a class a good reputation, but the same cannot be said of
sempstresses. Sempstresses, we know from the rates paid them, and the
accounts of travellers, cannot make enough to support themselves; but
shopkeepers can. "One fifth of all the female criminals in Paris are
sempstresses," says Madame Mallet. Some employers complain that women
are too sociably inclined, too much disposed to chat, where several are
employed in the same establishment. It may be true; but are they more so
than men of the same age? The languid appearance of saleswomen, we
think, arises from their being on their feet so constantly. It is injurious to a
woman; and employers should allow them to be seated, when not waiting
on customers. The number of skirts they must wear, and the weight of hoop
skirts, does much to bring this about. The kind of ladies that saleswomen
mostly see in first-class stores is calculated to improve and refine their
manners, and give them a command of language. Besides, it renders them
more particular in their attire. They want to dress and look well. Those
acquainted with the art, say there are at least a hundred ways of putting up
new goods. Some Jews hire a girl to stay in their store, and require her to
sew, make hoop skirts, &c., when not waiting on customers. In the United
States, women are employed in a variety of stores: dry goods, lace, and
fancy stores are the most common. In Philadelphia they attend in nearly all
the largest stores—Levy's, Sharpless's, and Evans's; besides, several
hundred earn a subsistence as saleswomen in smaller stores. Close
observation and much experience are needed to fulfil the duties, but the
natural quickness of most women gives them a tact seldom equalled by
men. The variety afforded by the occupation is pleasing, and the labors are
light. The handling of gloves, tape, ribbon, &c., is undoubtedly best suited
to the finer and smaller hands of women. The reason there are so many
young men performing the duties of clerks and salesmen, is, that they are

lazy, and do not want to perform hard work. Another reason is that the
majority want to dress well and make a good appearance, but have no
capital. The price paid for a girl to attend store would depend on the size,
location, and kind of store, how much they sell, and the abilities of the girl.
Lady clerks usually receive from $3 to $8 per week. The best seldom
receive more than $6; while men receive from $6 to $12. The ladies are
obliged to dress well, and to do so must retrench in other expenses, living in
crowded attics or damp cellars, or on unwholesome food. Mr. M.,
Philadelphia, pays his girls from $3 to $6 per week, it depending altogether
on their qualifications. In Bangor and Belfast, Maine, most of those who
attend stores are women. They have also been much employed in Buffalo,
New York, during the last few years. It is a regulation of some of the stores
in New York and Philadelphia, that a salesman or woman shall not sit down
to rest; and in some, if they do, they are fined. If there is nothing to do, they
must take down the boxes and pull out the articles, then arrange them
carefully in the boxes, as if they were closely occupied, to give the
impression that much business is transacted in the establishment. In fancy
stores on the avenues, New York, girls get from $2.50 to $4 a week. The
stores are mostly open from 7 A. M. to 10 P. M. In some localities, most
goods are sold in the evening. At a small dry-goods store, where I called to
make a purchase, the lady told me she used to employ a girl, paying her $3
a week, without board. She was in the store from 7 A. M. till 9.30 P. M. A
girl in a store on Sixth avenue told me, she and her companions get from $2
to $5 a week. They are there at eight in the morning, and remain until ten at
night, and on Saturday until eleven or twelve. They are not allowed to sit
down. A girl in a lace and embroidery store on Sixth avenue, New York,
told me that girls get in such stores from $3.50 to $10, but they must make
up laces when not waiting on customers. Some receive a percentage.
Women are not paid as well as men, even in such stores. Time of learning
depends on the individual. They are seldom paid anything for a few weeks.
They have most to do in spring and fall; are in the store from 8 A. M. to 9 or
10 P. M. A lady told me she used to get $7 a week in a fancy store. At M.'s
dry-goods store, New York, the superintendent told me they do not pay
learners for one month. They have girls who have been in the store but a
few weeks, that can do as well as those who have been in it for years. Some
again are stupid, and they will not retain such. When girls are qualified,

they pay from $1 to $10 a week. They prefer having ladies in the store,
thinking they know best a lady's wants. They often have occasion to change
—some get broken down and go away, some get tired, some get
discouraged, some cannot be on their feet so long, some cannot please
customers, some are not satisfactory to employers, &c.; so, many changes
take place. The ladies all looked to be Americans. They are allowed to sit
when there is nothing to do, and no customers in; which, I suspect, is rarely,
if ever the case. I have been told the openings for saleswomen are better
farther East than in New York. A lady told me she used to get $1 a day in
R.'s store on Broadway, and the other saleswomen got the same price. Then
she was on her feet nearly all the time. She was there at eight and staid till
seven: all were expected to take their dinner and eat in the store. Mrs. H.
told me she knew a lady that stood in a store on Chestnut street,
Philadelphia, who received a salary of $800 a year. When girls first go into
a store, they usually get $1 a week during the season (three months), then
$1.50, and so increase. A pretty good knowledge of store keeping is
acquired by a smart person in six months, and now ladies are relieved in
large stores from the responsibility of making change. Many of the ladies in
New York stores are Irish. American ladies are more engaged in making
artificial flowers, bookfolding, &c. I was told rather a novel feature in the
life of shop girls, viz.: that many board from home, for the sake of having
company; and in addition to this, men, earning good wages, but of
disreputable character, will often board in low houses, and ingratiate
themselves into the favor of the girls, until they work the ruin of one or
more. Mr. D. employs five ladies, and pays them from $3 to $5. He prefers
ladies. When he takes beginners, he pays $1.50 a week, and better wages as
they become more capable. He has paid $8, and even $9 a week. The ladies
are in the store from eight to half past eight. He allows them to sit when no
customers are in and there is nothing doing. A lady with whom I talked, and
who had stood in a store on Catherine street, New York, finds the
occupation very injurious, because of having to be on her feet so constantly,
and its lasting from 7 A. M. until 9 P. M. In some stores they are obliged to
remain until eleven, and even twelve, in busy seasons. On Grand and
Catherine streets, New York, they keep open very late. She says, when the
weather is dull, and there are but few customers, employers are apt to be
cross and vent their bad feelings on the girls. And in those stores the girls

cannot sit down to take a stitch for themselves; but, when there are no
customers to wait on, they must make up undersleeves, capes, and caps for
the store. She now keeps a millinery and fancy store, and pays her girls $5 a
week, and the girls are in the store from seven to nine. They make up
bonnets, when not waiting on customers, and so have a change of posture
without a loss of time. She has a friend in a Broadway store, that receives
$1 a day. A saleswoman should know how to make out accounts. Ability to
speak the French and German languages is a most valuable acquisition to a
saleswoman in our cities. One discouraging feature in the history of
saleswomen is, that their wages are not advanced like those of men. In
Detroit, Michigan, girls receive from $3 to $5 for standing in a store. "In
Cleveland, in 1854, there was one dry-goods store where four lady clerks
were employed at salaries from $200 to $350 per annum. In one shoe store
a lady received a salary of $250; and one, in another shoe, store, $200. In a
millinery and fancy dry-goods store, kept by ladies, fifteen girls were
employed at from $4 to $6 per week. In another, kept by a gentleman, ten
girls were employed at from $4 to $6 per week." In the same city,
gentlemen clerks usually receive from $250 to $600 per annum. At a store
on Grand street, New York, where a number of saleswomen are employed,
the owner told me he takes girls in the spring and fall. He tries them for one
month, and such as he finds he can make anything of he retains. He then
pays them something, and increases their wages in proportion to their
advancement. Some never rise above $3; but those who are ambitious and
desirous to excel and make proportionate effort, he will pay higher. He has
paid as high as $12 a week. A merchant keeping a large trimming store on
Canal street, pays his women from $1.50 to $8 per week, and they are in the
store from seven in the morning till dark. To wait in a store requires
experience; and a lady, in getting a situation, should endeavor to do so
through the influence of a merchant. It is very desirable to have a good
location for a store. Mr. M. pays his saleswomen from $2 to $6, according
to their qualifications. At a confectionery the woman told me she gives $6 a
month and board and washing; but as she does not keep open on Sunday,
the girl would have to go home Saturday night and stay till Monday. She
would be kept busy all the time, from seven in the morning till eleven at
night, waiting on customers, cleaning tables, washing plates, sweeping
floors, &c. On most of the avenues in New York, merchants do not sell as

much, nor receive such a profit, as on Broadway, and employ women
because they can get them cheaper. In a small variety store, a lady told me
she had paid $4 a week and board to one who had never stood in a store; but
the lady was a friend. She remarked: "If a person has the inclination, a
memory, and common sense, she can soon learn. Few are willing to take
learners. American ladies are not ambitious enough to keep store. For one
month in summer and one in winter there is little doing." A lady
confectioner says: "It requires a very honest person to be in a confectionery,
because small sums are being constantly received and no note taken of
them. Girls are paid according to their capabilities from $2 to $5, and are in
the store from 7 A. M. to 9, 10, 11, and even 12 P. M., in busy seasons,
which are about the holidays. It requires some weeks to know the prices,
where to place the articles, and how to make them appear to advantage." A
merchant, who employs saleswomen, told me he thought women have a
better sense of propriety and are more particular than men, but they lack
judgment and promptness. He thinks women do very well as far as they go,
but there is a boundary line in ability, beyond which women cannot pass.
The gentleman referred to was indebted to his mother, who had kept the
store he then owned, for his education and position in business. Mr. P.,
seller of ladies' trimmings, employs from twenty to twenty-five
saleswomen, who knit and embroider for the store when not waiting on
customers. A lady who waited in the store told me they change their
position frequently, seldom sitting more than ten minutes at a time. Women
are paid from $4 to $10 per week, and are in the store from half past 8
A. M. to half past 6 P. M. They pay from $2.50 to $3.50 for board. The
business can be learned in from three to six months. While learning, they
receive enough to pay their board. Industry and ambition are necessary for
success. The prosperity of the business in the future depends on the fashion
and the amount of money in circulation. Winter is the best season for the
sale of goods. The women are mostly German; they succeed best in
knitting, because they are brought up to it. There are openings in the
business, West and South. A saleswoman told me her business is hard on the
back, because of the standing, reaching up, and bending. She is paid $6 per
week, her store companions $3, spending eleven hours in the store. A
person of business qualifications requires only practice to make a
saleswoman. She has often heard ladies complain of having to purchase

small or fancy articles of men. She thought heavy dress goods could be
better handled by men. She says dissatisfaction is likely to arise when an
employer boards his work hands. Mrs. D., who keeps a fancy store, told me
that fifteen or twenty years ago, it was a rare thing to see a saleswoman in a
store in New York. She says nearly all of her saleswomen have relations
dependent on them for support, and if they are thrown out of employment
for a week it is a serious matter. She pays $5 a week to experienced
saleswomen, and gives something to learners; all stay in the store ten hours.
She thinks honesty, truthfulness, intelligence, good address, and a
knowledge of human nature are the best qualifications. Spring and fall she
finds the best seasons for selling goods, and thinks the occupation for a lady
next best to teaching. A merchant in New Haven writes: "We employ from
two to five women (all American) as clerks, paying from $3 to $6 per week.
To learners we pay $2 per week. The employment of women is on the
increase. My clerks are employed through the year, and work from ten to
eleven hours per day. We employ women to save expense, and because we
believe them most honest." A firm in Providence, who sell gloves, hosiery,
&c., write: "We employ ten saleswomen on an average, and pay from $2 to
$7 per week, ten hours a day. We pay $2 per week to learners. To learn
thoroughly requires about six months' practice. We consider the prospect
good of the occupation being opened to more women. One third of our
hands we send off in summer and winter. We find women neater and more
steady than men, but not so energetic." The proprietor of a large
establishment in Philadelphia writes: "About thirty women are employed by
us in selling dry goods. Their health generally improves by their active
occupation, the proper ventilation of our warehouse, and the regular habits
to which they become accustomed. Wages are from $1 to $10 per week;
they are paid less than men because their time of work is shorter, their
expenses are less, and their channels of usefulness more circumscribed. A
lifetime is needed to learn the business thoroughly, although in five years
much may be learned. Women are paid while learning. Quickness of
intellect and of body, good temper, and pleasant manners are very essential.
Women well instructed are generally permanent in an establishment. Our
most busy seasons are from February to June, and September to December.
In no season are saleswomen thrown out of employment. In winter they
spend eight and a half hours in the store; in summer, nine hours. Seventy-

five per cent. are of American parents. The work is fatiguing at times, but
not wearing on the system. Another part of our occupation, in which women
might be employed, if properly instructed, is bookkeeping. Women are
deficient in generalizing, excellent in concentrativeness. Many of our
saleswomen have been teachers, and some return to it. They have their
evenings as their own from 6 P. M.; they have good moral boarding places,
and a public library open gratuitously. About one half live with parents; the
remainder board at from $2 to $2.50 per week, perhaps two persons
occupying the same room." In Paris, France, young women in stores receive
for their services their lodging, washing, and board, with from $40 to $80
per annum.

116. Street Sellers.

The number of women alone, in London, according to Mr. Mayhew's
estimate, engaged in street sales, wives, widows, and single persons, is from
25,000 to 30,000. Girls and women form a large proportion of the street
sellers, and earn from sixty-two cents to $1 a week. The comparative
newness of our country, the smaller size of the cities, and the greater
demand for manual labor have presented fewer calls for street sellers. We
hope the time may never come when our streets will be thronged, as those
of London are, with street venders, for we consider it not by any means an
index of general prosperity. More especially do we hope the scanty pittance
obtained by their labor, and the consequent privation and suffering, may
never be the portion of any of our population willing to work for a support.
All the wants of a great city can be supplied by the London street sellers.
They are patronized mostly by those in the middle and lower walks of life.
All the varieties imaginable are represented in their sale of articles. Both
dressed and undressed food can be obtained of them. Home and foreign
fruits and vegetables of all kinds have each their separate sales. Of the
eatables and drinkables offered by them for sale, the solids consist of hot
eels, pickled whelks, oysters, sheep's trotters, pea soup, fried fish, ham
sandwiches, hot green peas, kidney puddings, boiled meat puddings, beef,
mutton, kidney and eel pies, and baked potatoes. In each of these provisions
the street poor find a midday or midnight meal. The pastry and

confectionery which tempt the street eaters are tarts of rhubarb, currant,
gooseberry, cherry, apple, damson, cranberry, and (so called) mince pies;
plum dough and plum cake; lard, currant, almond, and many other kinds of
cakes, as well as of tarts; gingerbread nuts and heart cakes; Chelsea buns,
muffins, and crumpets; sweet stuff includes the second kind, of rocks,
sticks, lozenges, candies, and hard cakes; the medicinal confectionery, of
cough drops and horehound; and, lastly, the more novel and aristocratic
luxury of street ices and strawberry cream, at two cents a glass (in
Greenwich Park). The drinkables are tea, coffee, and cocoa; ginger beer,
lemonade, Persian sherbet, and some highly colored beverages which have
no specific name, but are introduced to the public as cooling drinks; hot
elder cordial or wine; peppermint water; curds and whey; water; ice milk,
and milk (just from the cow), in the parks. In addition to this information,
most of which is derived from Mr. Mayhew's "London Labor and London
Poor," we will devote the remainder of the article to information from the
same author; and would do so in his words, were it not that we would like
to condense as much as possible. For the substance, we acknowledge,
therefore, our indebtedness to Mr. Mayhew. In the suburbs of London, some
people spend their time collecting snails, worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars,
toads, snakes, and lizards, which they sell in the city as food for birds.
Some, in collecting frogs, which they sell to French families, at hotels and
at hospitals. Some devote their time to the sale of coffee, beer, and baked
potatoes. Some engage in the sale of coke, some of salt, and some of sand.
Nor is literature forgotten by the street sellers. "There are," says Mr. M.,
"five houses in London that publish street literature, and six authors and
poets that prepare such literature in prose or rhyme." Some streetsellers
devote themselves to the hawking of dog collars, and some to the sale of rat
poisons. Some collect the nests of wild birds and the eggs, and sell them.
Some sell whips; and some, walking sticks; but these last articles, we
believe, are sold only by men. In London, some women sell refuse fruits;
some, water-colored pictures and cheap engravings; some, coins
commemorating public events. Some engage in the sale of children's
watches. Some sell implements belonging to a trade; for instance, tailors'
implements. Some sell washerwomen's clothes lines, pegs, and props; or
kitchen utensils, as tin ware, vegetable nets, kettle holders, &c. Some of the
street sellers are blind, with having taxed their eyes too greatly in sewing

for slop shops. Some women are co-workers with the men in the sale of
crockery and glass ware. They go in pairs (generally husband and wife);
some with a large basket between them, others with separate baskets. Some
sell spar ornaments, and some, china ornaments; some, lace, and some,
millinery; some, thread, tape, needles, &c. Quite a number sell women's
second-hand apparel. Some sell umbrellas; some, men's suspenders, belts,
and trouser straps. Others again will sell embroidery, stockings, gaiters,
shoe laces, blacking, pipes, quack medicines, snuff, tobacco boxes, and
cigar cases; and in winter some are seen carrying even kindling wood to
sell. Some women sell dolls, spectacles, wash leather, china cement, razor
paste, matches, or japanned ware. Some women carry sponge in baskets;
they either sell it for money or exchange it for old clothes. A few sell
musical instruments. Some offer guide books, play bills, newspapers,
stationery, and jewelry. Rabbits, squirrels, parrots, and other kinds of birds
are sold by them; and some dispose of dead game. Seeds, flowers, roots,
and, about Christmas, evergreens, are sold in large numbers. In shops, some
try to resell slops from kitchens, old glass, metal, or worn clothes, &c.;
some, exhausted tea leaves, which they dispose of to those that dye and
redye them to sell again.—We give this chapter, because it comprises all
and many more than the sellers on our streets. The few engaged in street
sales in our cities are mostly confined to old women, who sit at the corners,
with stands on which rest store articles, tin ware, sweetmeats, and fruits, or
a small lot of fancy articles. There are several stands of second-hand books
and newspapers, or shelves of candy, kept by men, but the variety in the
business is quite limited, compared with the cities of Europe. Mr. Mayhew
thinks the majority of street sellers in London have been servants and
mechanics that could not get employment. Some street sellers go on foot
through the country during the summer, to sell at fairs and races. Many
others get employment from the farmers in gathering vegetables and fruits
for market, weeding gardens, picking hops, and assisting in haymaking and
harvesting. In Paris, some women carry bread to sell, in baskets strapped to
their backs. In New York, I saw two women with baskets of vegetables and
fruit to sell. I spoke to one, who told me she earns sometimes as much as $1
a day, and sometimes but a few cents. In winter, it is not unusual to see girls
with baskets of dried thyme, parsley, and sage, who sell it for culinary
purposes. I talked with a woman who carried tin ware in a basket. She often

does not earn fifty cents a day, and will be walking all day, not even going
home at noon. She buys by the dozen, and so gets the articles a little
cheaper. I inquired of a girl selling radishes how many she usually disposed
of in a day. She takes them around only in the afternoon, and sometimes
sells to the amount of $1.25.

117. Toy Merchants.

This is a business better suited to the natural nurses of children than to men.
A handsome profit is derived from the sale of toys. The busy seasons with
toy merchants and confectioners are about Christmas and New Year. Toys
might be more extensively made in our country, thereby giving employment
to many now without it. Women mostly stand in toy shops in New York.
Even so small an item as the eyes of children's dolls produces a circulation
of several thousand pounds in England. Several establishments in London
are devoted exclusively to the manufacture of dolls.

118. Wall Paper Dealers.

Selling wall paper is a light, pretty business. In cities it affords a
remunerative return; in towns and villages it is sold mostly by dry-goods
merchants and druggists. The only objection I see to it is, that a step ladder
must be used to get the paper down from the higher shelves; but a small boy
might be used for that, and also for carrying paper home to purchasers.

119. Worn Clothes and Second-hand Furniture.

Mr. Mayhew tells us that in London thirty persons are engaged in the
exclusive sale of second-hand boots and shoes. He mentions one man that,
in 1855, was thought to take over £100 ($500) a day. Boots and shoes, too
far gone to be repaired, are sold to Prussian-blue manufacturers—so
nothing is lost. In Philadelphia, near Penn Square, may be seen ranged, on
an open space, a large quantity of second-hand clothes, shoes, dresses, &c.,
for sale. The business, in this country, of buying and selling again worn

clothes is mostly in the hands of the Jews—perhaps altogether. In all
countries it is more or less a favorite business with them. The time is past
when the Jew was prohibited in other countries from holding real estate; yet
the Jews in all countries, so far as I know, generally retain their property in
money, or invest it in something movable. Old clothes in our country are
generally given in exchange for new china, glass ware, &c.; yet a number in
the large cities pay money. In London all kinds of articles are given for
them, and then they are taken to the old-clothes exchanges, where they are
disposed of for money, principally to shopkeepers who deal in the sale of
worn clothes. Some of these articles are made over, some made smaller,
some turned, some changed in form; in fact, the greatest ingenuity is
exercised to employ to advantage the articles used. Second-hand articles are
not so much sold in this country as in older countries, where money is more
difficult to get, and poverty greater. Boys' cloth caps and roundabouts, and
women's shoes, are made of old coats and pants, so worn in parts as to be
unsalable. Coats are also made of cloaks, bonnets of aprons, &c. Men's and
women's apparel of all sorts is bought and sold by them. Old umbrellas and
parasols are bought, repaired, and sold. Silk dresses, if unfit to be sold, are
used for making children's hoods, facing coats, &c. The scraps are used for
making quilts. Old woollen dresses, whose waists are much worn, are used
for making wadded skirts. Tailors' and dress-makers' trimmings are
sometimes purchased for a small sum, and used in making up girls' hoods,
boys' caps, &c. In London, most of women's second-hand apparel is (as it
should be) sold by women. It is customary for buyers to cry down every
article offered them for sale or barter, but those they offer for sale are
magnified into ten times their value. Many of the men who go through the
streets of our cities buying old clothes or giving china ware in exchange for
them, take them home and their wives repair them. I called at a second-hand
variety store in Brooklyn. The woman says most people engaged in the
business are foreigners. The business is not unhealthy. Clothes brought in
are washed and done over, and their domestics are always healthy. Their
business is very dull. Ten years ago it was quite brisk, but many stores of
the kind have been opened in Brooklyn lately. She and her daughter go and
look at any articles for sale; and if they think the person honest and the
price suits, they will buy; so that, if any one should come and claim the
clothes as being stolen, they could immediately take a policeman to the

place where they got them. If articles are bought, they examine and put a
price on them, and get the address of the individual. If they find they are not
stolen, they then purchase. The poorest season for the business is midwinter.
They keep their store open till ten o'clock at night. I was told at another
store they sell most clothes in the evening to laborers' wives. In a store in
New York, the lady says she buys her clothes of Jews that go about
exchanging china for old clothes. It is very necessary that a good locality be
fixed on, near a river or bay, on a thoroughfare, or in a neighborhood where
many poor people live. One woman told me she employs two girls and
three men to make over and do up worn clothes for her store. She pays her
girls, each, thirty-one cents a day, and they work twelve hours. She sells
most in the evening. At one place I was told that Mondays and Saturdays
are their busiest days for selling. They sell most to the French, Irish, and
negroes. Germans do not like to buy second-hand clothes. She regretted that
in her present store she had not glass cases to keep the dust off her clothes.
Her purchasing is mostly done among the rich, she says, and so it brings her
a good class of customers. The keeper of a second-hand furniture store told
me that she goes to auction herself and purchases. It is two or three years
before the business pays. She will go to a dwelling and look at furniture
before purchasing. It requires a man to do the lifting. She has old furniture
repaired, chairs reseated, &c., before she attempts to sell them.

120. Variety Shops.

Variety shops, for the sale of coal, wood, kindling, candles, matches, and
water, are frequently seen in the poor districts of cities. They are a great
convenience to those whose means will not admit of their buying in large
quantities. It costs them more to buy it in that way, yet the keeping of shops
affords a subsistence to those who do.

EMPLOYMENTS PERTAINING TO GRAIN, BIRDS,
FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES.

121. Agriculturists.

With industry and enterprise, what may not woman accomplish! We have
heard of women in Western New York, Ohio, and Michigan, that not only
carry on farms, but do the outdoor work, as tilling, reaping, &c. It is said
that in countries where the physical labor of women in the open air is as
great as that of men, their constitutions become as stout and capable of
endurance. Agriculture is an employment safe and profitable, and capable
of almost any extension in this country. There is a great difference usually
between the theory and practice of farming. Many agricultural works and
periodicals are published that abound in practical instruction. In grazing
countries stock is raised, and the labor of the people is given to making
butter and cheese. A variety of soil and difference of altitude produce
different crops in the same latitude. In the United States the raising of hops
is becoming a branch of national industry, and some women are employed
to pick them. In England and France large numbers of women are employed
to pick hops. In England, 52,000 acres of land are devoted to their
cultivation. There is danger, in picking hops, of getting wet and taking cold,
which acts upon the system very much the same as the ill effects of
calomel. But if proper care is used, the work is not unhealthy. There is a
people's college in New York State, where females are received as pupils as
well as males. No doubt a horticultural department will be formed. We think
it would be well if more women would devote themselves to agricultural
and horticultural employments. Weeding gardens and attending dairies or
poultry yards would each furnish work for more women than are now
employed, and save women from running to the cities, which are already
crowded to excess with applicants for work. Headley, in his "Adirondack
Mountains," says: "Twenty miles from any settlement on Brown's Tract in
Adirondack, Arnold and his family of thirteen children—twelve girls and a

boy—live by their trafficking, by sporting, and cultivating the field. The
agricultural part, however, is performed chiefly by females, who plough,
sow, and rake equal to any farmer. Two of the girls threshed alone, with
common flails, five hundred bushels of oats in one winter, while their father
and mother were away trapping for marten. They frequently ride without
bridle or even halter, guiding the horse by a motion or stroke of the hand.
They are modest and retiring in their manners, and wild and timid as fawns
among strangers." "On the west side of the Scioto, just below Columbus,
there is planted a field of six hundred acres of bottom land. Twenty-five
German girls follow the ploughs, and do the hoeing, for which they receive
62½ cents per day." There are two sisters in Ohio who manage a farm of
three hundred acres; and two other sisters, near Media, Pennsylvania, that
conduct as large a farm.

122. Bee Dealers.

A new species of bee, that builds in trees instead of hives, is about to be
introduced by Government from Paraguay. In keeping bees there is no
expense. The hives can easily be made at home, or purchased for a
comparative trifle. Their food they seek themselves. "The bee mistresses
gain a living by selling honey in many rural districts of England." Most of
the honey used in the United States is collected in the South. That to be
carried to the North is put in hogsheads. Merchants who buy it have small
glass jars filled, which are sold in markets and groceries.

123. Bird Importers and Raisers.

There are establishments in most of the large cities of the United States for
the sale of birds. The proprietors import and raise them. Most imported
birds are from Germany. They are caught by the peasants living among the
mountains, and sold for a trivial sum in small wooden cages. The favorite
pet bird has long been the canary. In the South the mocking bird is
common, and often seen caged. But few of our most beautiful birds bear
domestication. Their wild, free nature unfits them for it. In Germany there
is a class of men who make it a separate business to train birds to sing. The

bullfinch is the kind most commonly taught—perhaps the only kind. They
teach in bird classes of from four to seven members each. It is done by
withholding food from them in the dark and playing on a bird organ or a
flute. A gentleman told me, he thought few, if any, ladies could be repaid in
making a business of bird raising; indeed, he had known several undertake
it, but fail. He says, people like German birds best, because they learn
earlier to sing; and, you know, a purchaser always wants to hear a bird sing
before he buys it. At a bird importer's I priced birds. He asked for a male
canary, $3; for a female, $1; an African parrot, $8; green parrot, $5;
goldfinch, $3; and thrush, $2. Mrs. L., a German, who raises canaries, told
me she could not support herself by raising birds, but she knows several
men that do. She says the American birds are the longest lived—the
imported die in about two years after reaching this country. Foreign birds
are generally devoid of strength, and their limbs are apt to turn backward as
they rest on the roosts. I suppose that arises from their being shut up in
small cages during the long journey across the ocean, and many of them,
being caught birds, cannot bear the confinement and cramped position.
Another bird dealer attributed the fact of imported being less healthy than
American birds, to their taking cold in crossing the ocean. American birds
that are not mated may live fifteen or sixteen years. The breed, form, color,
sex, and ability to sing determine their price. It is difficult to tell the age of
canaries from their appearance. So one is liable to be imposed upon by
unprincipled dealers, who prefer to sell old birds, particularly of the
feminine gender. Birds are subject to a variety of diseases. Birds are
cheapest in the fall, as it requires more to keep them in winter than summer,
and many do not wish to be at that expense. Mrs. L. sells most in February,
March, and April, the breeding season. Prices vary from $2 to $7. It does
not take long to learn to raise birds, another bird raiser told me, when you
know just how to feed them, and the proper temperature for them. She sells
most in winter.

124. Bird and Animal Preservers.

I notice in the census of Great Britain three women returned as animal
preservers; and I know there are some in Germany, three of whom are in

Strasbourg. Bird stuffing is a trade in which but few can find employment.
It would therefore be necessary to have something else to rely on in case
that should fail. It is thought by some to be unhealthy, on account of the
arsenic used—particularly to young people. The senior of a firm I called on
had been engaged in it fifteen years without detriment to his health.
Females mostly prepare the branches of trees, or other fanciful stands, on
which the birds are placed. The frames are usually of wood or pasteboard,
covered with moss. I called at Mr. B.'s, and saw a young man who works
with him. He thinks the work is not unhealthy. It is an art in which there is
always room for improvement. Mr. B., who has been at it thirty years, says
he is always learning something new in regard to it, or making some
discovery in the art. The eyes are manufactured in New York. To one
practising the art a good eye for form is necessary, and an ability to imitate
nature closely. The spring of the year is the best season; but all seasons
answer. The only danger in summer is from insects. A bird stuffer told me
he would teach the art to one or two persons for $50; but he thinks the
prospect for employment poor. It is difficult to get birds to learn on in
winter; but in summer plenty can be had. He has had acquaintances
commence in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago. The first two could not
make a living. He knows of two young ladies that have learned it merely as
a pastime. I called on a French lady, Mrs. L., who stuffs birds and animals.
She taught the art to a barber, who made a great deal of money by it. He
paid $150 for his instruction, spending every other day at it for two months.
A Cuban, who owns seven hundred slaves, paid her the same amount. He
wished to learn, that he might preserve birds he could obtain while
travelling in various countries. She has received several letters from Boston
requesting her to come there and stuff birds for a museum that is being
commenced. She was the personation of health, but she complained that she
suffered with rheumatism. She trembled much—she thought from
rheumatism. May it not be that it is the result of arsenic that she has got into
a pimple, or where the skin was broken? The work, of course, requires a
firm hand. She showed me a parrot, done, she said, in one hour, for which
she was to receive $3. A German book is written on the subject that contains
directions. The information can be obtained in English from a little work
called "Art Recreations." The ingredients are often sold in drug stores
already mixed. It can be done at all seasons. Mrs. L. thinks one could

become proficient in two months' constant practice. A gentleman went to
California, and made a large collection of birds; stuffed them, and sent them
to various European countries. In the four years he was at it he made
$60,000. She sent six hundred to a museum in Paris a short time ago. She
thinks St. Louis may present an opening. Mrs. L. knows a man who has
been employed in stuffing birds and animals in the museum of Strasbourg
from the age of fifteen to seventy-seven, and is a very corpulent man, being
nearly as broad as he is long. That she gave as an indication of its
healthfulness; but it may be that he is bloated from the arsenic, as it has that
effect. She says even poor people will pay to have a pet bird stuffed, when
they have not a dime to buy bread.

125. Florists.

The rearing of flowers has ever been a charming pastime to many of our
sex. When the pleasure can be combined with profit, it is well. The
cultivation of flowers is a taste whose beneficial results are not sufficiently
appreciated. When the cares and troubles of life begin to press upon men
and women, they are apt to neglect the cultivation of flowers, when it might
absorb some of the cares that burden their hearts. Vines, roses, and
ornamental fruit trees cost but a small sum, and yet how much they add to
the beauty and comfort of a place! Most of the choice roses of our country
are from cuttings imported from France. They are brought over in jars.
Many, of course, die on the voyage. The variety is very great. The selling of
roots, plants, and bouquets is quite remunerative in some places. Much
depends on the knowledge and skill of the florist, the location of his
gardens, and the fondness of the people in the community for flowers. It is a
delightful business for a lady, if she has men to do the planting, digging,
and other hard work. In Paris, there is a market devoted to the sale of
flowers. In most of the markets of our large cities, are exposed for sale pot
plants and bouquets, also shrubs and evergreens. A florist told me that he
employs two women in winter to make up bouquets and wreaths for ladies
going to evening and dinner parties, concerts, and other places of
amusement. It requires taste and ingenuity. He pays each $5 per week. They
can make up wreaths to look like artificial flowers. A woman on Long

Island makes a living by raising flowers that are sold in New York. I was
told that some lady has established a horticultural school on Long Island.
Florists in and near cemeteries are apt to find sale for flowers and plants.
Hence it is common to observe gardens and hot houses so located. I rode
out to a florist's near Brooklyn. He says the business is not so good as it
was, because the Germans in Hoboken raise flowers and sell bouquets for
sixpence that he could not sell for twenty-five cents. The man does not send
bouquets to the city, as it does not pay. Their profits are mostly derived
from the sale of choice fruit trees raised at Flushing. They sell bouquets at
their hot houses from a shilling up to $5. They derive most profit from
flowers in winter. A florist's occupation is healthy, and affords much
pleasure to one fond of flowers. Yet it requires close attention to business.
In England it was formerly customary to serve a seven-years' apprenticeship
at the business, but three or four years will answer very well, if an
individual gives undivided attention to his business, and is with a superior
florist. A knowledge of botany is necessary to a florist. It requires
considerable taste to make up a bouquet, and therefore is very appropriate
to women. A knowledge of colors and their artistic arrangement is essential;
also a natural taste for flowers, and some patience. Making bouquets,
wreaths, &c., is slow work. The stems of flowers for bouquets are cut very
short, as most of the nutriment of the stem is lost to the succeeding ones by
cutting long ones. Artificial stems are added to the natural ones, and are
usually made of broom straw or ravelled matting. Mrs. F., the wife of a
florist, says the wives of most florists assist their husbands in making up
bouquets, wreaths, and baskets. She thinks, if a florist had enough to do to
employ a lady, he would pay her $3 or $4 a week. She has often thought a
small volume might be written on the flower business in New York. She
says no one has an idea of the amount of money expended for flowers. Mr.
D. used to send out $1,000 worth of flowers on New Year's morning. It is a
very irregular employment. Some days she sells a great many for balls,
parties, and funerals. One might learn to make bouquets, if they have taste
and judgment, by a few months' practice. The flowers that are sold at
different seasons vary greatly, and the value of them depends much on their
age. Mrs. F. has sold a few baskets of flowers at $50 apiece. She sells many
flowers for Roman Catholic churches about Easter. Mrs. R. says florists
prefer to have men, because they can work in the garden or green house

when not cutting or putting up flowers. The Germans have run the business
down in New York. A florist named Flower writes: "We employ from two to
four women tying buds, hoeing, weeding, &c.; in winter they help about
grafting. They are paid fifty cents a day, of ten hours. Women so employed
are German born. The employment is healthy. Men get seventy-five cents a
day, as they can do more work; but the principal reason for employing
women is, that we can hire them cheaper and like them better for light
work. Women could do all parts of our business, if they had a fair chance
with men, and would improve the chance. One year would give a general
knowledge, but five would be better. A good, sound constitution, and
industrious habits, are the best qualifications. Women that want such work
can find plenty of it; but outdoor work is too hard for American women."
Another florist writes: "In Europe, where women are sometimes employed
in fruit or vegetable gardens, their wages are usually about half a man's.
Women (chiefly Germans) are employed in this country by farmers to pick
fruit, vegetables, &c., by the quantity. At light work, done by contract,
women, I believe, can make as much as men. Several years would be
necessary to learn the business; some branches of it might be learned in a
few weeks. The requisite most needed for women to work in green houses,
is a change of fashion. Their dress unfits them altogether for moving about
in crowded plant houses. Were their dress similar to the men's, I see no
reason why they would not be equally useful in other departments as well as
this. If that should ever happen, they would, in my opinion, be worth as
much as men; for the work is mostly light, and ladies, having a natural taste
for flowers, would soon learn it. If you have gone through green houses,
you cannot but know the difficulty of doing so without breaking everything.
Men, at this kind of work, are not fully employed in winter." A lady florist
writes: "I sometimes think my nervous excitability is to some extent caused
by an excess of electricity, derived from the earth or flowers with which I
work."

126. Flower Girls.

Flowers are the mementoes of an earthly paradise. They are said to be "the
alphabet of angels, whereby they write mysterious things"—the mysteries

of God's love and goodness. Earth would be a wilderness without them.
Girls sell flowers most profitably at opera houses, theatres, and other places
of amusement. They buy of those who devote themselves to the raising of
flowers, and arrange them into bouquets. A number dispose of flowers on
Broadway; and, summer before last, I observed a French woman at the
Atlantic ferry selling bouquets to people waiting for the boat. A florist told
me he disposes of flowers to girls who make up bouquets and sell them.
One of them pays $500 rent for her room. It yields a handsome profit when
a person has a good stand. He would like a stand at the opera house, but a
great many others are looking forward to it. Some pay for the privilege,
others obtain it by being known to the managers. I was told by a man who
supplies bouquets that he pays to florists from $8 to $10 a day for flowers,
and then makes up his own bouquets. I have been told that at some hotels in
Germany, girls pass around the table at dinner, and give bouquets. Such
recipients as feel disposed, pay a small sum.

127. Fruit Growers.

If American women would only turn their attention to the cultivation of
fruits and flowers for market, instead of giving it up to ignorant foreigners,
how much better it would be! A few hundred dollars would make a very
handsome beginning; and those who do not have so much at their disposal,
could get their friends to advance it. At Shrewsbury and Lebanon, much
fruit is put up by the Shakers, and sent to New York for sale. Women might
have orchards, raise fruit, and send it to market. Mrs. D. owns a farm, and
does not disdain to graft fruit trees, superintend their planting, gather fruit,
send it to market, &c.; and she realizes a handsome profit. The grafting and
budding of fruit trees might be done very well by women, and also the
budding of ornamental shrubs. "Miss S. B. Anthony," says the Binghampton
Republican, "resides at Rochester, and supports herself by raising
raspberries from land given to her by her father." I have been told that on
one acre of land near New York city a thousand dollars' worth of
strawberries can be grown. In New Jersey and Delaware, women are
employed to gather berries for market. If a lady is within a few miles of
town, and has facilities for raising and sending fruit to market, she will not

be likely to fail in meeting with ready sale. Berries bring a good price in the
markets of a city. In Cincinnati, from May 21st to June 1st, 1847, 5,463
bushels of strawberries were sold, and near St. Louis is a gentleman that has
some hundreds of acres of strawberries in cultivation to assist in supplying
the St. Louis market. The drying of fruit affords employment, and generally
well remunerates time so given, if carried on extensively.

128. Fruit Venders.

Flowers are formed to please the eye and indulge the fancy; but fruits are a
healthy and important article of food. Some women sell fruit in market;
some, at stalls in the street; some, in fruit shops or groceries; and some,
from baskets, going from house to house. Most dispose of small fruit, such
as berries—some wild and some cultivated. The ferries in large cities are
very good stands for sellers of fruits and sweetmeats. Places of amusement
and the entrance to cemeteries, are also. I talked to one apple woman, who
says her business is a slavish one. Her stand was at the Atlantic ferry, New
York. When she goes to her dinner, she gets the gate keeper to mind her
stand. She earns, on an average, $1 a day. She rises, gets her breakfast, and
starts to market by five o'clock. She remains at her stand until nine o'clock
at night. She sells the greatest quantity of fruit in the spring and fall, when
people are most apt to be making money, and so permit a little self-
indulgence. She sells least in winter. I saw a woman on the street selling
fruit and flowers. When she is out all day, she can generally earn from fifty
cents to $1. Another fruit seller told me that she makes a good living. She
has been at her stand eight years. She sells most fresh fruit in summer; and
in winter, about the holidays, most dry fruit and nuts. In the coldest weather
she remains in her basement, heated by a stove, where she stores her fruit at
night. Her grapes are brought in on the cars, put up in pasteboard boxes.
Her location is excellent, for the working class of people pass in the
evening, returning from work, or in their promenades. I talked with an old
woman at an apple stand, who told me she often sells $1 worth of articles in
a day, but seldom makes a profit of more than half. She sells most fruit in
summer, but most cigars, candy, and nuts in winter. She says there is a stand
on every block, in that part of New York. Hers is a good location, because

so many men pass. In wet weather, she does not sell much. She is shielded
in winter, by sitting in a hall near, where she can keep an eye on her stand.
She lives near, and while she goes home to dinner, her husband sells for her.
An apple woman, in New York, told us, she has kept her stand in
Washington park for seven years. She remains at it all the year. If any other
fruit vender should trespass on her bounds, a policeman would soon send
him or her off. Another old woman, keeping a fruit stand, told me she
makes a comfortable living at it in summer; but in winter she stays in a
confectionery store, and gets $10 a month and her board. At another fruit
stand, on asking the old lady how she got on, she burst into tears, and
replied, very poorly, scarcely made enough to keep her alive. A professional
honor exists among fruit women, and a desire to sustain each other in their
rights. A wholesale fruit dealer writes me that it takes from two to four
years to learn the business, when carried on extensively.

129. Gardeners.

The strength and energy of people, in northern climates, have led them to
excel in the rearing of fruit—not in imparting a more delicious flavor, but in
the quantity, the fulness, and the size of the fruit. In the balmy air and under
the sunny sky of the South, vegetation develops more rapidly and more
luxuriantly. He who adds to the list of beautiful and fragrant flowers, or
improves some variety of fruit, enlarging, or rendering it more luscious, will
be remembered as a benefactor. Gardening is a pleasant and healthy
occupation to those that love outdoor life. A woman can no more be
healthful and beautiful without exercise in the open air, than a plant can
when deprived of air and light. We learn, from Mr. Howitt's "Rural Life in
England," that "there are on the outskirts of Nottingham, upward of five
thousand gardens, each less than the tenth of an acre. The bulk of these are
occupied by the working classes. These gardens are let at from half a penny
to three halfpence per yard." German women are often employed, near
cities, to weed gardens, gather vegetables, and other such work. "In
Hereford, England, there are no fewer than six annual harvests, in each of
which children are largely employed: 1, bark peeling; 2, hay; 3, corn, 4,
hops; 5, potatoes; 6, apples; 7, acorns. Add to these, bird keeping in autumn

and spring, potato setting and hop tying, and the incidental duties of baby
nursing and errand going."

130. Makers of Cordial and Syrups.

Women who live in the country, and have small fruit, would find it pay well
to make cordials, berry vinegars, &c. There are some establishments where
it is made, and women are employed to gather the fruit. The people of the
Southern States have depended on the North for these articles, but we
presume a change will be wrought. The abundant growth of small fruit in
the South will enable the South before long to meet the demand. We think
there will be many openings of this kind, in the South and West, for many
years to come. Some manufacturers of ginger wine, bitters, syrups, cordials,
and grape wines, write: "In reply to your circular we say—We do not
employ any women in our business, although we indirectly furnish
employment for several hundred, during the various fruit seasons, in
gathering most kinds of fruit, which we use in our business. Many of these
fruits are wild, which we buy at a specified price. The gatherers control
their own time, and their earnings will vary from fifty cents to $1 each, per
day. It would probably require the labor of about six hundred for six months
of each year, in gathering the amount of fruit which we use. But as we do
not directly employ them, or know anything about the general business of
those thus employed, we are unable to give further particulars."

131. Root, Bark, and Seed Gatherers.

When the grass is bowed by the sparkling dew, and the hills shrouded in
mist, plants exhale most freely their sweet odors. They are then gathered
and sold to manufacturers, who prepare from them oils, essences, and
perfumeries. An old Quaker lady on Tenth street, Philadelphia, keeping an
herb store, told me that she purchases her herbs mostly of men, but some
women do bring them to sell. It requires a knowledge of botany to gather
them, and the stage of the moon must be observed. Digging roots, and
gathering plants, at all seasons, is a hard business. At another herb store, I
learned that the prices paid gatherers depend much on the kind of herb, the

difficulty of obtaining it, and the season when it is gathered. A woman may
earn $1 a week, or she may earn as much as $10. The roots and herbs are
bought by weight. Many are purchased fresh in market, but some of the
gatherers dry them. They are sent from different parts of the Union to the
cities and towns. One told me that she would rather purchase herbs and seed
put up by women, for they are neater and more careful with their work. She
sells most in spring and fall. An Indian doctress told me barks must be
gathered in the spring and fall, when they are full of sap; and roots, when
the leaves are faded or dead. She sometimes makes $20 worth of syrup in a
day. She says the business requires some knowledge of plants, experience in
the times of gathering, amount of drying, &c.

132. Seed Envelopers and Herb Packers.

In a seed store in Philadelphia, we found, they employ women in January
and February, at $2.50 a week, to put seeds up in paper bags, seal them, and
paste labels on. They go at eight in the morning, and remain until dark. At a
large drug store in Philadelphia, we were told they employ nine women.
They have seven distinct branches for the women, and separate apartments
for each branch, consisting of weighing and putting up powders, sorting
herbs and roots, putting up liquids, &c., &c. The women earn from $3 to $5
a week, and spend nine hours, from eight to six, having an hour at noon. In
busy seasons they remain till eight or nine, and receive additional wages.
There is nothing unhealthy in the business. They are paid $3 a week from
the time they are taken to learn, and deduction made for absence. A seller of
botanic medicines in Boston writes me: "He employs women in putting
medicines in small packages for the retail trade, bottling the same, and
labelling. He pays $5 a week to his women, and $3 a week while learning,
the time for which is six months. Common sense, neatness, and integrity are
the qualifications needed. The girls work from nine to ten hours. He will not
employ any but American women. He pays men $8 or $9, because they can
take them off, and put them upon work that girls cannot do. Women would
be paid better if they were stronger, and did not need so much waiting upon
in the way of lifting and arranging their work. Rainy days they want to stay
at home, or, if they come, it takes half a day for them to dry their clothes.

Men they can depend on in all weather. Women might keep their books, if
their crinoline was not too extensive: that alone would bar them from the
counting room. Women are inferior only in physical disabilities. Girls are
good for nothing until after sixteen years of age; and nine in ten will get
married as soon as they are fairly initiated in work—hence the time spent
by women in acquiring a business education is to a certain extent lost—lost
to their employers, but of assistance to them in the education of their
children." Mr. P., botanic druggist says: "There are but three establishments
in New York, for this business, and twelve women would be quite enough
for them. They put up herbs in packages. One day's practice is enough for a
smart person. The women are paid from $3 to $5 a week." At the United
States Botanic Depot they employ one girl, and pay her $4 a week. She only
works in daylight. Mr. J. L. employs two girls to put up botanic medicines.
He has men to cork the bottles. They work ten months in the year. Nothing
is done in December and January. They pay $4 a week, of ten hours a day.
In Louisville, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, few women are employed in this
way. Some seedsmen and florists near Boston employ four ladies in
enveloping seed. One of the ladies writes: "We presume more ladies are
employed in Europe to put up seed than in this country. The employment is
not unhealthy. We are paid 6 cents an hour, and work by the hour. To learn
the part the women do, requires about two hours. Judgment is most needed.
Employment of this kind is increasing, there is a demand for female labor in
the seed department." A seedsman, in Rochester, writes: "We employ six
women in making paper bags, paying 25 cents per hundred. Boys are
employed at about the same wages. We have work from July to January.
The girls take their work home. We use some boys, because their work
benefits their families equally as much."

133. Sellers of Pets.

In Paris there are stores for the sale of dogs and cats. In London, the sale of
dogs is mostly on the streets, or at the residence of the raiser. The
aristocracy of England maintain 500,000 dogs and a large number of cats;
consequently food must be provided for them. The sale of birds is common.
Gold and silver fish, white rabbits, Guinea pigs, squirrels, tortoises, fawns,

lambs, and goats, are sometimes sold in seed and flower stores. Flowers and
birds are the favorite pets of ladies in the United States. Everything of this
nature is sold to some extent in the markets and on the streets of our cities,
but generally at the houses of those who devote themselves to the business.

134. Wine Manufacturers and Grape Growers.

Many persons are becoming interested in the culture of the grape; and some
are spending time and money in experimenting. Longworth of Cincinnati
has realized a fortune from his operations. Belle Britain says: "In
Longworth's cellars are 700,000 bottles of wine. Mr. L. informed her (?)
that we have in this country at least 5,000 varieties of the grape, and his
vineyards yield from 600 to 700 gallons to the acre." The color of wine
depends on the color of the grapes from which it is made. In several of the
States, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Alabama, vineyards are
flourishing, and many new ones are being planted out. The variety of soil
and surface in our country is such that there is every probability of success.
As yet, only two kinds have been much grown. No doubt a large number of
women will, in the course of a few years, be employed in the cultivation of
the vine and the manufacture of wine. One can soon learn, with a few
instructions in each season, the proper culture of the vine. A great deal of
the work in the vineyards of France and Switzerland is done by women.
Women do better that men, because their fingers are smaller and more
nimble. The want of intelligent culture has been the greatest barrier in the
introduction of graperies into our country; but such is the number of
foreigners now among us that have a practical knowledge of the business,
we need fear no want of workmen. Many, too, have not been willing to
invest capital in an uncertain enterprise. Wine manufacturers in Orange
county, N. Y., write: "We have not employed women to any great extent in
our business. There are some branches of the business in which women
might be suitably and profitably employed, where those branches are
extensively carried on. The bottling process, including cleaning of bottles,
filling, putting on foil, labels, &c., could be done by women as well as men.
Women could pick the grapes, and cull out the green and poor berries, and
prepare them for the press. They are employed for this purpose in Europe.

The reasons why we have not employed women in these branches are, we
bottle not more than one sixth of our wine; we manufacture principally for
church communion and medicinal purposes, and the principal demand for
those purposes is by the gallon—consequently we send it out mostly in
casks. (Some wine growers bottle all.) The men, whom we necessarily
employ by the year or month in the cultivation of the ground, vines, &c.,
are of course employed in the season of the vintage, bottling, &c.; and in
hurried times, such as the time of picking the grapes, we get such additional
help as is easiest obtained, generally boys and girls, with sometimes
women. Women are in such demand here for household labor, that, unless
sought for at the proper time, March and the 1st of April, and hired for the
year, it would be almost impossible to obtain them. The wages generally
paid are from $5 to $7 per month, mostly $5 and $6." Another grape grower
writes, in answer to a circular: "I do not employ female help in my business,
except for a few weeks during the time of tying up the vines and in
gathering the fruit, for which I pay 50 cents per day, without board. Women
might be employed to quite an extent in this business, which is increasing in
the country to a wonderful degree."

RAISERS, MAKERS, PREPARERS, AND DISPOSERS OF
ARTICLES OF FOOD.

135. Bread Bakers.

Nearly all the bakeries in New York are attended by women. I could not
learn of any women being employed in bread bakeries to mix or bake, but
they are in Germany and France. In France the bakehouse girls enter ovens
heated often to 300°, and, it is stated, sometimes to even 400°. Bakerooms
are usually of such great heat as to be injurious to the health of any but the
strongest and stoutest. Some establishments have day and night bakers. The
night bakers are up all night, and must have their bread ready by 5.30 A. M.
The day bakers go in at 7, and turn out a batch of bread at 11 A. M. Bakers
spend on an average seventeen hours at their work, and this no doubt
accounts partly for the absence of women from the occupation in this
country: seventeen hours out of the twenty-four are too many for any
woman to be on her feet. In this country the bakers are robust, hearty-
looking men, and mostly Germans. Their average wages are $6 a week.
Some bakers have a scaly eruption produced by frequent contact of the skin
with flour. Inhaling the flour in mixing bread I have heard is unhealthy.
Some women might object to working in the same room with men, and
baking is certainly very warm work in summer. In most European cities the
price of bread is regulated by the Government. The cost of materials and the
state of the market regulate the price. A fine is the penalty for a violation of
the law. In this country, bakers regulate the price of bread by the kind and
quality. No law is enforced specifying prices. Some years ago an attempt
was made in New York to have bread sold by the weight, but the bakers all
opposed it. They might have been tempted to put something heavy in the
flour. In large cities some establishments are devoted to one branch only of
the business. Baker's bread is more used in free than in slave States. In
Northern cities some families prepare their bread, cakes, pies, and meats,
and send them to bakeries, where for a small sum they are cooked. It saves

a vast amount of labor. Some bakers use potatoes in making up wheat
bread. I never knew of rice being used by bakers in this country, but know it
is by some bakers in Paris. The modes of baking bread, and the kinds of
bread used, vary not only in different, but in the same countries. "Some
bakers give the impression their bread is made by women," said a lady in a
bakery, to us, "but it is not. A woman could not make up two or three barrels
of flour in a day. Men are just as neat bakers as women could be." At three
bakeries I was told by the employers that they pay their girls who attend the
shop $7 a month, and board them, but do not have their washing done.
From several girls that stood in bakeries I learned that they received from
$6 to $10 a month, and their board. Only one of the number got her washing
done without extra expense. The girls were expected to keep the counters,
waiters, jars, and floors clean. They must be in the bakery by 5 o'clock
A. M., and stay until 10 P. M. Some women require the girls to sew when
not waiting on customers, and some require them to sweep and keep the
room clean, and some even to wash the shop windows. Girls that stand in
bakeries receive no better compensation than house girls. A foreman of the
baking department, generally receives $8 a week, and his boarding. Girls
are usually paid from the time they enter. A knowledge of reading, writing,
and figures is considered sufficient. I was told by one lady in a shop that
girls attending bakeries usually receive from $8 to $10 a month, with board,
and some, also, get their washing done. They are not required to keep the
books for those terms, and the bakeries are few in number where female
employees keep the books. I was told by an Irish woman that in Ireland
there are few or no women attending bakeries and groceries. At one bakery
a girl told me she finds it very bad to be on her feet all the time. She could
not stay constantly in a bakery for one year at a time, she gets so weak from
excitement and fatigue. She says most Germans keep their bakeries open on
the Sabbath; but the Americans have too much respect for the day to do so.
On Saturday night, bakeries are often open until 12 o'clock, and sometimes
later.

136. Brewers.

I wrote to a lady, whose name I saw in a directory as a brewer. She replies:
"You wish to know if I work at brewing, personally. I do not at present, but
have done so, and worked hard the man's part; but my means are such now
that I can do without. I have men employed, and a clerk, &c., &c. I am a
widow, and superintend my business, and understand all that is connected
with it. I suppose it is not necessary to dwell longer on the subject, as I am
out of the working part now. I am sixty-two years of age."

137. Candy Manufacturers.

"There are three hundred confectionery manufacturers and retail dealers in
New York city. Twelve establishments are devoted exclusively to the
manufacture of candies. In some, as many as a hundred hands are employed
in busy times. During the busy season, there are engaged in the
manufacturing houses about five thousand persons of both sexes, though a
very much larger number, probably some thousands, are indirectly
supported by it, the paper-box makers being generally busily employed, and
many children gaining a livelihood by hawking candies through the streets.
The city of New York is the headquarters of the confectionery trade,
supplying as much as all the rest of the Union together, and distributing the
results of its industry to all parts of the United States, as well as to Canada,
most of the West India Islands, Mexico, Chili, and many other places. It is
estimated that fully $1,000,000 worth of confectionery is made annually in
this city; and by that term we mean preparations of sugar, chocolate, jujube
paste, &c., but exclude many articles such as ice creams, jellies,
blancmanges, pastry, and other delicacies, which would sum up this amount
to perhaps double. Two of the principal houses manufacture daily between
them four thousand pounds of candies, at prices varying from 14 cents to 50
cents per pound, the average being about 20 cents." The coloring matter of
foreign candies is generally showy, and of a poisonous nature. That of
American manufacture is not of such brilliant and permanent colors, but
more regard is paid to health in the selection of coloring matter. At
confectioners' in London, classes of young ladies are taken and taught the
art of making confectionery. Some candies are made by stretching over a
hook, some must be shaken in a pan over a charcoal fire, and rolled on

tables with marble tops. I was told at S. & P.'s (a wholesale house) that they
are most busy from August 1st to 20th of December, and from March to
June. They take learners for a week, to see if they are fit for the business,
and if they are, reward them for their time. It takes but a short time to learn
the part done by girls. They pay experienced girls from $3 to $6 a week.
The girls work ten hours a day, and if longer, they are paid extra. Lately
they have kept their girls until ten o'clock at night. It requires taste and
invention to envelop fancy confectionery, but is not very reliable for
constant employment. S. & P. employ ninety girls in busy times. At another
place I was told they will not take Southern orders, for the Southerners will
not buy, and have not the money to pay, if they would. The fancy candies go
through three or four processes, and so the girls must work in the same
room as the men who paint them. The girls sit while at work. R. pays by the
month, and keeps his girls all the year. He says labor is more poorly
compensated in New York, in proportion to the rates of living, than in any
city in the Union. He thinks some girls should go from the cities into
country places, and enter into service. H. says a person of any intelligence
can learn in two or three months to paint candies. He used to employ girls
to put gilding on, paying $2 a week—ten hours a day; but if a girl can paint
well, she can earn $4 or $5 a week. He knows several German girls in the
city that do. The candy flowers, he says, are made by hand, the fruit
moulded. A lady confectioner told me that a woman who ornaments fancy
candies is poorly paid, and it is dirty, sugary kind of work. Yet she
acknowledged that candies must be kept on a clean table and handled by
clean hands—otherwise they would not look well, and consequently not sell
readily. The wives of German manufacturers do most of that kind of work.
A confectioner told me, candy is never made in this country by women, but
it is in England. He said the dust of the powdered sugar and the gases of the
coal render it unhealthy. In large establishments most candy is made by
steam. The making of candy he thought even too laborious for men. The
teeth of candy manufacturers are often decayed from the frequent tasting of
heated sugar. One candy manufacturer writes me: "We employ six girls in
making candy, and do not think the business unhealthy. Wages range from
$1.25 to $4.50 per week—ten hours a day. Men's wages are from $4.50 to
$9. It requires from three to five years for men to learn. Women's part is
learned in one year. The prospect of employment is good for a limited

number. Fall is the best season, but they are always employed except during
part of the winter. In some branches of the work women excel." At a
manufactory of gum drops and candy rings, I saw a boy who receives $3 a
week for making the rings, and a girl who receives $2.75 for picking gum
drops, i. e., loosening the sugar in which they are incrusted while being
made. They work from 7 A. M. to 6 P. M.

138. Cheesemakers.

A great deal of cheese is made in Central and Northern New York, and
some in Ohio, Vermont, and West Massachusetts. Making cheese is a
chemical operation, and requires experience. It is made in all civilized
countries. I talked with an old gentleman who had been in the cheese
business nearly all his life. He said a farmer's wife is the best help in cheese
making. In making cheese, seven eighths of the work is done by women. A
man usually places the cheese in the press, and removes it when it is dried
sufficiently. The occupation is healthy. Women are paid from $1.75 to $2 a
week and their board. Some people employ men, because they can go to
work on the farm when not making cheese. The business can be learned in
from six weeks to two months. When learning, girls give their work for
instruction, but have their board. Neatness, good health, judgment, and
common education, are desirable for a cheese maker. An individual must be
able to reckon the pounds, weigh the salt, and regulate the temperature of
the milk and curd by the thermometer. The first advice given by a lady who
taught to make cheese was, "Keep your vessels clean." The prospect of
employment in this branch of work is good, for it is difficult to obtain good
cheesemakers. The best seasons are from the 1st of March to the last of
November. The number of hours given by a girl to her work depends on the
contract made—generally eight hours—sometimes ten. In most places
cheesemakers have more leisure than house girls, but some employers
expect them to do housework when not employed about the cheese. Some
farmers hire girls who devote themselves exclusively to cheese making
during the season for it. Some have the afternoon after the cheese is put in
the press, and the jars, &c., are cleaned, until time to milk in the evening.
The morning milking is usually done before breakfast, and the cheese made

after breakfast. It requires until about two o'clock to get through. When
cheese is put in a press, nothing further is necessary until it is ready to be
removed. It remains in the press twenty-four hours. Most farmers have their
cheese made on Sunday morning as on other days. The girls have Sunday
afternoon or evening, according to contract. Some farmers do not make
their cheese on Sunday, but retain the milk until Monday morning, and
make it into butter. Women are best adapted to the work, and employed
mostly because they can be got cheaper. The majority are Irish women.
They are usually put on a footing by their employers, and eat at the same
table. So little spinning and weaving are done now in the country, that the
female members of farmers' families generally do the milking, unless the
farmers have grown too wealthy and proud to have their wives and
daughters so employed. Some dairymen make, with the aid of their
families, all the cheese they use and sell. Milk should be drawn from a cow
as rapidly as possible and while the cow is eating. One milker should be
employed for every ten cows. Milk is very sensitive. Dairymen will make
more by having the cream remain on the milk than by taking the cream off
for churning, at the rate butter sells this winter (1861). Where the cream is
used, an inexperienced hand would find it more troublesome to make
cheese. Twenty-three million pounds of cheese were exported last year from
the United States. American cheese is, in England, taking the place of
English cheese. A German cheesemonger told me he makes the Limburg
cheese—a preparation which has been known about eight years in this
country. He was putting up some to send to New Orleans. It was very soft,
and I thought the smell very offensive. He gets American cheese of a
Yankee girl, to whom he pays $80 a year. She uses the milk of sixty cows.
She works at it but eight months. During four months of the year but very
little cheese is ever made. The arrangements of some cheesemakers for
preparing the article are very complete.

139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers.

B. S. & W., Philadelphia, employ women in packing parcels of essence of
coffee, spices, vermicelli, &c. They make paper cases, pour the article in
through a funnel and ram it down, then label and pack the cases in boxes,

which are nailed up ready for delivery. One or two persons obtain a
livelihood by cutting the labels to paste on the boxes. They are paid fifteen
cents a thousand for this work, and are able to support themselves by it. The
women are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 per week. The work
rooms are airy and comfortable. Females were formerly more employed
than at present to put up coffee; but as coffee is now ground every day at
most factories, and as it is considered best when just ground, less is put up
than formerly. Messrs. L. & B., New York, employ girls to put the articles
in papers, pasting labels on and sealing them. They work by the piece, and
earn from $3 to $7 a week. The odor might be disagreeable to some, but
persons get accustomed to it, and it is quite as healthy as most work. There
are not over one hundred and fifty women so employed in the State of New
York, yet such packing is generally done by women. It is customary to pay
by the package. The girls change their dresses on coming to the workroom
of L. & B. They do not work with the men, but with some boys who fill
boxes with the same articles. L. & B.'s girls have employment all the year.
They never have any difficulty in getting hands. I saw a man who makes up
essence of coffee. A lady was assisting him to put it in papers. At another
factory I was told they pay by the week, from $1.50 to $4, according to the
industry, quickness, and practice of the worker. It is not unhealthy work.
They give employment ten months of the year, but at present have little to
do. It requires but a few weeks to become expert. In some establishments
girls stand or sit, as they please, while at work; in others they are all
required to assume constantly whichever posture the foreman directs. At W.
& Son's two small girls are employed, who each receive $2.50 a week.
There is one factory in Cincinnati, one in St. Louis, and one in Chicago.

140. Cracker Bakers.

At M.'s the young man said fancy crackers could be made by women. In
making soda, oyster, and some other crackers, the dough is kneaded by
machinery. In some establishments the dough is rolled out and conveyed to
the oven by machinery. In a cracker bakery I was told the women might be
employed in packing and selling crackers. It would not require all the time
of one woman to pack for a large bakery. A cracker baker writes us: "We

employ no women, and do not see that they could work to advantage in our
business." Women could do all the work now done by men in this line, but I
suppose considerable opposition would be experienced, except by ladies
who have sufficient capital to carry on business for themselves.

141. Fancy Confectionery.

Most confectioners sell, in addition to their fancy candies, imported fruits;
and a few keep cakes. Some also keep fruits preserved in brandy or their
own juice; and some keep in addition pickles, oysters, sardines, &c. Some
confectioners merely make sweetmeats—some sell them, and some both
make and sell. In cities, confectioners usually furnish the refreshments for
both public and private entertainments. A manufacturer of confectioneries
in New York told me that in busy times he employs fifteen girls; but at that
time (January, 1861) only half as many, for they have no Southern orders—
the people in the South are doing without candies. The part done by girls
requires no special training. He pays girls for their labor from the first. They
pack, pick gums, envelop in fancy papers, fill boxes, &c. He pays $3 a
week for those that have some experience, and keeps them ten hours a day.
He gives the making and painting of fancy candies out to those that have
families, and who do it at home. W., of Philadelphia, pays his girls, eight in
number, $1.50 a week for the first two or three weeks, then from $3 to $4.
Making common candy is said to be too hard for women. They assist in the
finishing of fine candies, as rolling and covering chocolate nuts. They put
the fancy candies in French envelopes, and cut the silvered or gilt paper that
gives the finish. They can sit or stand as they please while at work, but
while enveloping mostly sit. They work ten hours. It is rather a light
business. M. employs fifty women in putting up and packing candies. He
pays them, from the time they begin, $2 a week. They learn in two or three
months. He pays then from $4 to $5 a week. A lady told me she was paid in
one establishment $6 a month and board. A girl in a confectionery told me
the prices usually paid girls are $7 or $8 a month, with board and washing,
and the girl is expected to keep the accounts. A lady in another store said
summer is the poorest season for confectioneries, as people do not like to
eat candies, because it makes them thirsty; but in those confectioneries

where soda water and lager beer are kept, there is more or less custom
during the summer. They keep open till ten o'clock at night, and all day
Sunday. Sunday is their most profitable day. She knows a girl that is paid $5
a month in the Bowery, with her board, or $7 without. To be kind and
obliging, and have the faculty of pleasing the little folks, are the best
qualifications for the business. Prices paid depend on the responsibility of
the employed. Some that keep the books receive $5 a week without board,
most others receive $1.50 or $1.75 per week and board. Judgment must be
used in the selection of a stand. A lady who keeps a small confectionery and
fruit store in Williamsburg, says she does not make much on cakes and
bread, only half a cent on a loaf of bread. She says it is best not to trust any
one for pay—that children often come and say they want so and so, their
mother says she will pay on Saturday; but Saturday comes, and no pay; and
if they go for the money, the parents will say, "Come again," and put it off
from time to time, until they become discouraged, and give it up altogether.
M—s, French confectionery and chocolate cream manufacturers, take
learners at the proper season, which commences in August. They employ
some girls to paint fancy candies. H. says one must commence at the very
first step, and gradually advance—that to learn the business requires a long
time. He pays four girls $5 or $6 a month each, and gives them their board,
for selling confectioneries and waiting in his saloon. At S——'s
confectionery I was told that the small fine candies are made by steam.
They are made in pans, which are shaken back and forth over fires, the gas
of which is very injurious, and cannot be carried off by flues. Their girls
make so much noise, laughing and talking with the men, and waste so much
time, that they are required to work on the first floor, the same as the store.
They are paid from $1.50 to $2 a week. They are paid by the week, because
they do their work better than if paid by the quantity; besides, it is less
troublesome. They are paid for overwork (regular hours being ten), and
some earn as much in that way as by regular wages. The girls pick gums,
separate gum drops, put candy in boxes, &c. C. employs girls to paint, put
up candies, and attend store, and pays $1.50 and $2 a week. Most of the
painting is done by French and German men, who are paid from $10 to $12
a week. It requires a long time to acquire taste and experience; one, in fact,
can be always improving. C. thinks girls are not likely to find constant
employment in the kind of work he gives to females. A French confectioner

told me he had employed a woman to make chocolate cream, paying $3 a
week for ten hours a day, and could employ her all the year, as the demand
for chocolate cream is very great. S. employed one girl to sell candy, paying
$5 a week. She was at the store at 7.30 A. M., and remained till 6 P. M. in
winter and 8 P. M. in summer. She did not keep the books, but washed the
jars and case, and swept back of the counter, and dusted several times a day.
Talked with a girl who stood in a confectionery store on Broadway. She
knew a girl on Chatham street who received $12 a month and her board.
She herself received $9 a month and her board, but not her washing. The
proprietor told her she must sew for his family, when not waiting on
customers. It seems that it is not an uncommon requisition. They have but
few customers until about 11 o'clock, and he expected her to accomplish
more sewing than a sempstress who gives all her time to it. The young lady
is in the store by 7 o'clock in the morning, and remains until 11 o'clock at
night. Any one wishing to commence a confectionery can learn from the
wholesale dealer of whom she purchases how to regulate the prices of
sweetmeats. Mrs. W. wants a girl to wait in her saloon, will give $8 a
month, with her board and washing. She would be required to sew, when
not waiting on customers, and would have to wash the jars and cases, keep
the counter clean, and dust and arrange the articles in the window every
morning. She would have to be in the store at seven, and remain until
twelve (seventeen hours). In large confectioneries girls stand while picking
gums used in making gum drops. They are mostly made in summer. There
is now (December) a great demand for girls, as there always is about the
holidays. Those now at work are kept three hours over time—from seven to
ten—and paid extra. The chemicals used in making some confectioneries
are unhealthy, but women have nothing to do with that, except in painting
candy toys. A confectioner in Boston, who employs four American girls in
attending store and making goods, writes: "We consider the occupation very
healthy, never having had a case of sickness with girls while working at this
business. Some are paid $3 and $4 per week, working ten hours a day;
others by the quantity, averaging $1 per day. Male labor is paid for,
according to the knowledge of the business, from $6 to $15. Girls could not
do the work, and the work that women do it would not pay to have done by
male labor. It requires a long time and a great deal of practice to learn the
whole business, but that part done by women is learned in a few weeks.

They are paid something while learning. Honesty, industry, and a good
education are the most desirable qualifications. Spring and fall are our most
busy seasons. In midwinter we do not have many at work. Retail stores
require most help in summer. New York requires most hands, especially
women; but the demands are now very small, the trouble at the South being
the main cause. They are not strong enough to do some parts of the work.
The large towns are best for our business." A lady in a fancy confectionery
on Broadway told me she receives $8 a month and her board, and is paid by
the month. She thinks many diseases are brought on women by having to
stand so much, as they do in confectioneries, bakeries, and dry-good stores.
Women that have stood in any kind of a store before, and have business
qualifications, are paid while learning. There is never any difficulty about
obtaining qualified hands. She finds the work very laborious, and
complained of having to be in the confectionery and saloon from seven in
the morning until twelve at night. In some saloons the attendants are up
until 1 o'clock (eighteen hours!), and are on their feet most of the time. A
confectioner in Concord, N. H., writes: "We employ from five to ten girls
(because we find it most profitable) for helping make, rolling up, and
packing lozenges and pipe candy. Also for standing in the confectionery.
The work is very healthy. We pay about sixty-seven cents per day, and they
work from six to ten hours. No man employed, except one who takes
charge. There is a prospect for employment so long as children cry for
lozenges. The girls are American, and work at all seasons. They are as well
paid, according to the cost of living, as mechanics in this place. Women are
superior to men in rolling up and packing lozenges. They pay for board
$1.75 per week."

142. Fish Women.

In the United States, where every one has a right to fish in the rivers and
lakes, there is a fair opening for those in this line of business. But it is only
in the spring and fall that fish are much eaten. They are not considered
healthy in the warm weather of summer. A pound of fish is said to be in
nutritive power equal to eight pounds of potatoes. In the United States,
according to the census report of 1850, there were engaged in fisheries

20,704 males and 429 females. The fishwomen of Philadelphia have long
engaged in the selling of shad, and are to be seen in great numbers on the
streets of the city, and even when not seen are likely to be heard crying fish.
At one time they had a large market devoted exclusively to the sale of fish,
but it became a nuisance, and the city authorities had it torn down; yet the
women, possessed of strong local association, were not to be so routed.
They are still seen sitting before their tables of fish in the neighborhood of
where the market stood. Much money has been realized by the fishwomen,
some of whom are said to own property of considerable value. What a
lesson to patient industry! "From the time of Louis XIV. to the present, fish
have been sold in Paris exclusively by women. They are now remarkable
for the urbanity of their language and propriety of their conduct, having
risen high in the scale of respectability during the last half century." "On the
coasts of the department of Somme there are certain fish, the shrimps and
'vers marius,' which are exclusively reserved to the young girls and
widows." On the coast of Great Britain thousands of women are employed
in the herring, cod, mackerel, lobster, turbot, and pilchard fisheries. Women
and children rub salt on the fish to be cured, with the hand. When cured,
women pile them in stacks from four to five feet high, and as wide. Women
are paid, at Newlyn, for this labor, 3d. an hour, and every sixth hour receive
a glass of brandy and a piece of bread. Many are also employed in obtaining
oysters and canning them; and on the return of whaling vessels, numbers of
women assist in preparing the cargoes for market. In New York, fish are
mostly sold by men, who drive about in a little wagon containing fish, and
blow a horn, crying out now and then the kind of fish they have for sale.

143. Macaroni.

Macaroni is moulded and dried. Girls then pick out the whole sticks, and
put them in boxes. The broken pieces are all thrown together in a barrel,
then ground and moulded over. It is very easy work, and requires no
learning. They are paid from $2 to $3.50 a week, working ten hours a day.
The girls I saw, stood while at work.

144. Maple Sugar.

The cheapness of sugar made from sugar cane has almost annihilated the
existence of maple sugar, except as a sweetmeat. The peculiar flavor of
maple molasses and sugar makes them much loved by some people. The
trees are tapped early in the spring, when the sap first rises. After sufficient
water is collected, it is put on and boiled until of the consistence required. It
is slow work and pays poorly, but can be performed by women capable of
the heavy labor involved in carrying, lifting kettles, and stirring.

145. Market Women.

Mrs. Childs says, in her "History of Women," "On the seacoast of Borneo
fleets of boats may be seen laden with provisions brought to market by
women, who are screened from the sun by huge bamboo hats. In Egyptian
cities, the country girls, closely veiled, are frequently employed in selling
melons, pomegranates, eggs, poultry, &c." In the southern countries of
Europe it is common to see women riding to market on donkeys, laden with
marketing. We learn from "London Labor and London Poor," that there are
2,000 persons employed in the sale of greenstuff in the streets of London, as
water-cresses, chickweed, groundsel, turf, and plantain. The cresses are
eaten by people; the other articles are sold for birds. We may divide market
women into two classes—those that raise or have raised the products they
sell, and those that buy to sell again. The articles of the first are generally
genuine and of fair price. Vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter, with fruit,
both green and dried, are carried to market, and there the market women,
placing them on stalls or retaining them in their wagons, wait for
purchasers. This class mostly supply the markets of towns and villages.
Their articles are usually fresh and wholesome. There are thirteen markets
in New York city where everything is obtained at the second or third
remove from the producer. It is estimated that there are 1,300 huckster
women attending the New York markets. The members of some families are
engaged in the sale of different articles: one will sell eggs; another,
vegetables; another, poultry, &c. It is said that better meat and vegetables
are brought to Philadelphia than to New York markets. In New York there is

a larger population requiring articles of a cheap kind. We think market
women, considering their habits and modes of living, probably do as well in
a pecuniary way as any other class of women. Their wants are few, their
habits simple, and their occupation—though an exposed one—healthy. The
variety of seeing new faces, and chatting with those similarly employed,
yield more comfort and content than most women's work. They take in but
a few pennies at a time, yet have their regular customers, and, in prosperous
seasons, many besides. I will give an extract from my diary of a visit made
to several of the New York markets: "I saw some women selling fruit;
some, vegetables; and some, tripe and sausage. I judge, from the appearance
of most dealers, it is not unhealthy. Most of the women were far advanced
in life, particularly those who sold vegetables. They all complain that they
do not sell so much since the commencement of the hard times. How is it?
Do people buy less, and so eat less? or is less wasted in their kitchens? or
are some unable to buy meat and vegetables at all? Here I would state the
remark of a druggist: that, as times are hard, people do not indulge in so
much rich food, nor in a surplus of it; consequently there is less sickness,
and so little medicine sold that the druggists are discouraged. This druggist
has since sold out, and moved to the country. Most of the market women
looked to be Irish. One strong Irish woman told me that American women
cannot bear the exposure in cold weather, and rent their stalls through the
winter to men. They make their appearance in March with the flowers and
early fruit. Butter is sold exclusively by men in Washington market, New
York, and is more profitable than anything else. There is considerable
difference in the class of custom in the different markets in New York; but
the poor are usually more in number than the rich—so the markets
frequented by them may receive as great a profit as where a smaller number
of better customers attend. Some women regulate their sales to have a
percentage, but many sell for what they can get, without regard to the
amount of profit. I find those selling vegetables, buy of farmers who come
early, and leave a supply for each seller in case she is not there. Any
vegetables they may have left are locked up in boxes, or barrels, or covered
over and left on the bench. The gates of the market house are closed and
locked up at one o'clock every day except Saturday, with the exception of
Washington and Fulton markets, which are open all day, and the first
mentioned all night. Watchmen are about the markets at all hours of the day

and night, and in some markets an extra fee is paid by the sellers to secure
attention to their stalls. At two o'clock in the morning, Washington market is
fully lighted, and the farmers begin to arrive to sell to grocers. The grocers
usually buy from four to five in summer, and from four to six in winter.
Boarding-house keepers mostly buy from seven to nine o'clock. Families
buy during any of these hours, or later. All the markets are open by half past
three. Fulton market is rather warmer than the others because of the stoves
and ranges used for making coffee, cooking oysters, &c. Ladies do not
come to market so much in winter as in spring and summer. I think the
vocation of market selling must be very healthy, when the venders are
comfortably clad, and have stoves, as many of them do. Market women live
to a great age. Vegetables injured by frost or long keeping are sold at a
lower price. As a general thing, less is sold in market during January and
February, than any other months. In spring time the market presents the
most inviting appearance, for the stalls are then freshly painted, and flowers
and fruit exhibited to advantage on them. Mrs. B. told me that a woman
who sold flowers in Fulton market had made a fortune at it. Some of these
sellers let other women have flowers and fruit to take over the city to sell,
and reap a profit in that way. One old lady told me she always made 12½
cents profit on her goods, they being pocket-knives, combs, &c. The stalls
are sold or rented. One woman told me she paid 12½ cents a day for her
stall; another, 9 cents; and this must be paid for even on days when they are
absent from market. Another woman told me that she got a permit for the
use of a stall in Washington market when it was first built, and not long
since she sold it for $1,500, and the owner pays a tax of $2 a week besides.
She paid $200 for the stall at which she stood in Fulton market, and pays a
rent of 75 cents a week. She makes a living by selling smoked salt fish. The
processes through which produce must pass from the producer to reach the
consumer, might be avoided by permitting farmers to remain longer in the
city, and furnishing them with a place for their teams and produce; but now
they must all leave by ten o'clock, and can scarcely feel that they have a
place to put anything down while they are in the city. In England are
women who shell peas and beans at so much a quart. I have seen books,
spectacles, canes, pocket-books, caps, shoes, hose, china, and even old
clothes for sale on the streets, and around or in the market-houses of
Philadelphia and New York.

146. Meat Sellers.

In markets and in meat shops of the United States, 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