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HOW TO UTILIZE THE POWEKS OF WOMEN. 35
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
—, ~*Ss* Immense According Country Three...
tlie continent in rural districts , where wonien work in the field , until they become shrivelled and tanned like so many mummies , in
the very flower of their age . In some respects , however , our continental neighbours act far more wisely than we do . Nearly all
kinds of shops are given up to the management of women , whether it be that the young men are absorbed by the conscription , or that
they take of themselves to more masculine callings . At any rate , the result is that thousands of women are able to earn their
livelihood by means which here in England are entirely in the hands of men . In London alone there is a whole army of the stronger
sex to be found behind counters , measuring out lace , longcloths , and ribbons , while the same number of young women , to whom
these occupations are adapted by nature , are condemned to idleness with all the mischievous consequences of which it is almost
necessarily the parent . Should _sooiety ever think of reforming itself , we trust that one of its first improvements will be to appropriate to
the sexes the work for which each is best fitted . The army , the colonies , and many other fields lie open to the Lords of the Creation ,
while the Ladies of the Creation are much more restricted in their choice of crafts and mysteries by which to keep away the wolf from
the door . Among "the Swiss , women some years ago took to the finer
operations in the trade of watch-making , and the young men who had previously performed this labor readily went into foreign
countries , either as mercenary soldiers , commercial travellers—for which their national honesty well fitted them—petty shop-keepers
, or clerks . In France it is common to find women , and sometimes even young and very pretty women too , employed as clerks and
money-takers at railway stations , and it is affirmed that they do this business much better than men .
However it is extremely difficult to discover fresh outlets for any kind of industry in an old , and highly crowded community ; but if
the powers of invention were constantly directed towards this subject , which deserves all the attention we can bestow upon it , we
should doubtless _siicceed in the end . Our forefathers , a rough and ready people , gave women a much better chance than we do ; and
when in the ordinary paths of the world they found no room for them they draughted them off into a peculiar sort of factories where
they earned their own bread , and by a wise contrivance rendered labor respectable . These factories were the convents in which
women worked as . girls do now in the cotton mills , though with much more moderation a , nd in a different way . One of their
occupations consisted in copying and illuminating manuscripts _. In many parts of the world , where there exists a considerable
amount of literary , taste , printed books have not yet got into fashion . The opulent , when they read at all , -will have manuscripts
to read , copied with exquisite delicacy , and often bordered with stars , flowers , and foliage in purple and gold . As these luxurious
_TOI-. III . 1 ) 2
How To Utilize The Poweks Of Women. 35
HOW TO UTILIZE THE POWEKS OF WOMEN . 35
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1859, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031859/page/35/
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