The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, by Virginia Penny, a Project Gutenberg eBook.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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.

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.

117. Toy Merchants.

118. Wall Paper Dealers.