HARD TASKS LAID ON WOMEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10628, 3 December 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

HARD TASKS LAID ON WOMEN.

Visitors Jiave found women in all Eurojiean countries engaged in the most laborious occupations and working without complaining apparently at what in this country would-in most cases be considered employments beyond feminine strength and endurance. Women are frequently guards at railroad crossings, and besides are in Poland and parts of Germany often section hands and road builders. They break stones for the,highway in parts of Southern Europe, clean the streets in Berlin and Munich, and take their turn in Holland at pushing the heavily-laden canal boats. Women gather the oysters on the Belgian and French coasts, and pack, market, and prepare for transportation the boatloads of fish that are brought in by the fishermen. Oil the Continent- they are the general farmhands, not only planting and gathering the crops but sometimes " serving as plough horses and cart horses. While English women may be advocating with energy and vehemence votes for women their sisters on the Continent seem to he more intent upon work for women. There may be a question in Germany, for instance, as to woman's voting, but there seems to be no question as to her working if "the country is to maintain the splendid military establishment that Emperor William has planned.

' While the work of woman has been a fruitful subject of discussion and publicists and students of social conditions have written volumes upon the topic and have spoken much about it at the various national congresses there seems to be but little accomplished. "None of the reformers have gone quite so far as to advocate the abandonment of her fields of work. They have addressed themselves more to reforming the hours of toil and improving the conditions and surroundings in which she labors. • A woman engaged in mixing mortar and carrying it to the upper stories of a building in London would attract no little attention, yet such a sight is nowise unusual in many of tlie Polish or Bavarian towns. A sympathetic American woman who had watched a long string of women carrying hods of building material up the inclines and ladders of a building in course of construction at Munich stopped to'ask one of them if she did not find the work too hard for her. The woman seemed to consider the question unnecessary and unusual. She said that while it was liard work she did not see at what she- could make more money. Besides, generations of women before her had done the same, and she did not think that she'was more entitled to an easy job that they were. Her chief regret seemed to be that she might break down under the strain put upon her strength. "So long as we are young and strong we are able to do the work," she said. "Ifc is not so hard to us, for we have broad shoulders and hips and strong limbs, but when we begin to fail the bosses no longer have work for us. It .is then the stone piles, or some other work where heavy lifting is not required. But there is not enough of that work for all of us that grow old or are disabled."

It was discovered through further inquiry that the strongest of the women did not last more than a few years. Even at 30 or 35 they were considered old and of no further use to the employers of labor. . • "Women work-harder and at more occupations unsuitable: to their sex in Bavaria "than in any other part of the German Empire. The loneliness of the life that they would lead if they. remained at hotfte and cared for the herds 1 ii\ the mountains .or made clieesc and | butter'in the. upland huts is 110 doubt responsible for .drivinu; many of them to seek employment in the .towns. >The streets of.Munidh are cleaned, by women, and so well cleaned-in fact that they are the pride of.-the city goyei:nment and the people. It is said that before'they took up the .work the streets ■were' amonp: the worst in the country and that the skirted street sweepers -were not at work -a week before an' improvement wag noticed.. They wear a distinct.garment, a dress or dark material with® an .apron, of lighter i material, a green hat with a feather and boots. The uniform perhaps distinguishes them less" than their physical appearance. They are as a rule muscular; with brawny arms; their stature is usually that of a tall man: and the agility that they are often called upon to display in the crowded streets is not possessed by nine men out of ten. Another employment that Munich seems to have given over entirely to the women is that of track and switch tender of the street railway lines. The holders of such jobs are looked upon.

with envy by the Bavarian laboring woman, for it "means less hard labor than some of the other occupations and at the same time better pay. Most of the incumbents of these posts are more than 30, the officials choosing women of mature years- because they believe that they attend more strictly to their business.-

They are distinguished by. a neat uniform of dark material and a little green Tyrolean hat with a feather. They have posts at most of the important crossings, but if there is a lull in the traffic they are permitted to sit on the benches furnished for their comfort at tho edge of the sidewalk.

A recent volume: of industrial statistics published with the authority of the German Government has in its section on female labor a; table showing the number of 'women- in every thousand persons - engaged in different pursuits. In the essentially fcminine pursuits the ; figures reach almost 100 per cent., and they, grade: down to a small fraction over one in a thousand.: In brick .kilns and ' earthen-pipe works ;of 1000 persons engaged in the trade 26.01 are women-; in quarries, 30; in iron foundries, 29; breweries, 22; in shipping and freight handling, ;15; railroad service,' 9; and tin Workers, 11 Tire great number of womenvat work in the -fields the attentioiv of

those who visit the Continent. A German .explanation: of .this condition may be fomidin'the statement that there is nothing more healthful- than outdoor labor and that tlie woman who worksin the field is really? better off than;vlier sister: who' -remains -indoors. Another reason also given is that the military, system makes'such a demand .upon the men of the country that the women: are driven to {he fields in order that the family may get the benefit of its lands. But whatever the explanation, the fact remains that the greater part of the farm laborers are women. They not only plant . and gather the crops shut they also market them. They may be I seen earlv in the morning'taking the farm products to the nearest town, and as tiirie .and horseflesh- are often important considerations the women of each community are generally carried i

with their loads of garden track aiid country products in the big wagon :of one of the farmers. As the contents of each basket are sold out it is hung on the wagon, and when the whole lot is disposed of or the market is ended the women are driven back to their homes to begin preparations for the next.market day. The condition of the German woman in the agricultural districts is better than iu some other countries. She is

frequently employed by the season, which begins early in the spring and continues uiitil late iii'tlie autumn. She makes a contract for : a stipulated sum, often about £2 10s to £3 for the season, with provisions for good lodging arid food at one of "the village fairs. ; She' has her Sundays to herself and. also .the-; principal festival days! But in parts of Italy the contract labor system, ,a variation of the padrolie system, is in force, and women and children are sent out: in gangs to do a stipulated amount of work for a fixed price.: Tlie overseer in order to make the mast possible" out of : his contracts-works his people hard; and furnishes them with very little in the way of food and shelter. ,

In Northern Italy women are employed to a large extent in planting and caring for the crops; in the olive orchards of Apulia they are worked in gangs from November to April for scarcely living wages. A recent description of these workers -says that, theyv have no homes and that the men, women, and children sleep in barns on sacks and straw. One can see them trooping out at early dawn to work tilldusk with only half an hour for the midday meal, the men living on lieans and: oil, the women on pounded maize, which they sling on 'their shoulders in. a bag when tliey go out to work. Belgium with its rich and highly cultivated soil is also a land in which the work of the fields is often done by women under the gang system. The dairy work of the country, one of the most profitable of the little country's industries, is also done. by women. It has been remarked that while the Government has passed : regulations regarding the care and working of dogs it lias let the work of women go on almost without regulation. Earm work is considered desirable and healthful besides many other pursuits in which women are employed in Belgium. Nowhere else are they employed to such an extent in th'e mines. There are more than 10,000 women coal miners in Belgium. In soine of 'the mines they are prohibited from going below the surface, but in most of them they go down the shafts and handle pick and shovel alongside the inen. At all of the mines they do most of the work at the surface pilshing the ears and handling and separating the coal, much in fact of the work that is accomplished in this country by the breaker boys. Another part of the Belgian feminine population finds its livelihood iji the oyster parks along the coast. The women don breeches and labor as -hard and as long, as do their sons, husbands, and fathers. This sort of work is in charge of women also in France. From the establishment of the oyster parks at Csmcale the development of the industry has been due to their labor. Feminine assistance was found necessary here because the men, for the most part deep sea fishers, were away from horiie so much of the time: Women and girls attend to the cultivation of oysters and even act as stevedores in loading the ocean-going vessels that take the product away to the markets.

Further along the Breton shore the women take an active part in the fish industry. The men, who are to a great extent engaged in coast fishing, do little more with their catch than unload it at the docks at Concarneau or some of the other small ports. Here it is-taken in charge by the women, who finish the packing, shipping, and preparation; of the fish for tlie sardine markets. It has been said that the original express carriers in Europe were the women. They began the carrying business years ago and- have kept steadily at it ever since. The Breton girl who peddles milk carries on her head great tin cans and makcs r her deliveries from door to door. If she has a large line of customers she takes can from her head and balances it with another on a yoke over her. shoulders. ' The .Austrian ? p.easant woman gathers up the vegetables; along the countryside and carries them to town in a great basket on her head. : The Northern Italian woman carries the same heavy burden, but often in a basket suspended bv a .strap from her shoulders. 'The women of Southern Germany are often met on the rural, highways trudging along with a heavy burden of - city shipping to be delivered at country' or village homes, and now and then a girl is seen coming in from the harvest .field, almost hidden by the bundle of grass or. grain that she has gleaned in the fields. " On the nigged little island of Capri the sturdy, good-looking, women, whom artists have found excellent models, transport up the- narrow ;~oadways. from the boat landings all the freight- and baggage that is brought, to the island. There are no'horses, and the cost, ot keeping a, donkey for the mere carrying ,of goods is- almost prohibitive. As the men have, other tilings to do the carrying is thus left to the women. An American woman who landed..; there one <lay last; summer said that her trunk after being taken from 'the steamboat was lifted by two men on the head of a straight backed woman I who trod' along with-it in apparent ease l up the hill to the hotel. This carrier- [ led a ■ procession 'of "-women - bearing 011,1 their heads everything from supplies or' fruit .and meats for the hotel ..to a| grand .piano "for a cottage. . In spite of the numerous duties wlncli =lie already has the Thiropcan woman apparently' is looking, for new fields of labor. A short time ago when there wasa strike for better . wages by the messenger boys of Berlin some girls applied for the places of-the strikers. The manager accepted a few of those who offered their services, intending to give therat at least a. trial, if lie had expected that thev would fail lie was mistaken, for they undertook the work with so much spirit and carried it on with such care that the girl messenger has now become an accepted institution of the German capital. , r A woman of an old French family somewhat reduced in circumstances took up cab driving in Paris. She made a success of the work, and others lollowed her example, so that Paris has now something like a hundred regular women cab drivers, and their fares have been increasing in number because they have proved themselves as faithful j as men drivers and not quite so grasp- ' ing as to tips.