Part 6

"One of the most innocent and pleasant 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 other 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 the garden, the conservatory, or the drawing-room. Rocks form the foundation, and the soil on them furnishes subsistence to the plants. Zoophytes, mollusca, and fish, constitute 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 feet in length."

This is an occupation happily adapted to the graceful, elegant tastes of cultured women.

ARCHITECTS.

"Propersia di Rossi, born in Bologna in 1490, furnished some admirable plans in architecture.

"Madame Steenwyck and Esther Juvenal, of Nuremberg, are mentioned as eminent designers.

"In the 17th century, Plantilla Brizio, of Rome, was a practical architect, and left monuments of her excellence.

"The wife of Erwin Steinbach materially assisted her husband in the erection of the famous Strasburg Cathedral, and within its walls a sculptured stone represents the husband and wife as consulting together on the plan."

The ordinary course of training given, as a basis, and I have no doubt that women will submit, in response to public invitations, as handsome designs for public and private buildings, as men.

ENGRAVERS.

In the course of my experience as an author, I have had occasion to procure eight hundred engravings on wood. I never see men at work upon them, without thinking what a perfect employment this would be for women. It is not a difficult business to learn, but requires mostly a quick sense of touch, keen vision, with a patient, careful manipulation of the fingers. A very large part of the wood engraving should be performed by women.

What I have said of wood engraving is, perhaps, not less true of copper and steel engraving.

PHOTOGRAPHERS.

Photography now employs many thousands in the country, and there is no part of the business which may not be as successfully performed by a woman as by a man. Already a very considerable percentage of the operators and colorers are women.

SCHOOLS OF DESIGN.

Schools of design have long existed in Europe. There are quite a number of them in Paris, some of them of prodigious proportions, and about a third of them are for women. There are schools of design scattered throughout the cities of the United States.

The object of these schools is to give a knowledge of some of the industrial branches of the fine arts. In some of these schools drawing is taught with marked thoroughness.

Designing for paper hangings, calico, wood engraving; designs for carpets, silks, ribbons, furniture, laces, plated ware, silver, jewelry, etc., are beginning to receive much attention.

Just think of the absurdity of employing men to design calicos. As a woman has a keener instinct for delicate forms, and beautiful, harmonious combinations of colors, so it is certain that she would succeed best in designing for calicos and similar fabrics.

These schools of design are to open an unlimited field for the remunerative employment of women. As our civilization is widened and refined, this field will rapidly enlarge.

Already, if there were some thousands of women educated,--and they may be educated, generally without expense to themselves,--they could find immediate and well-paid employment in the industrial prosecution of various branches of the fine arts.

GARDENING.

This has long seemed to me an employment in which women would not only gain health and strength, but in which the most modest and retiring might find a congenial occupation, and the products of which are never depreciated because raised by a woman. A peck of peas has a certain market value, not dependant upon the hands which raised them. A woman who works at making pants receives fifty cents a day, not on account of the amount or quality of her work, but be cause she is a woman. A man engaged upon the same garments receives two dollars a day, not because of the amount or quality of his work, but because he is a man.

It is doubtless true that, in very many cases, the man does his work better than the woman; but it is not less true that, in a majority of cases, the difference in price grows out of the difference in sex.

So of the school. A male teacher receives a thousand dollars a year, not because his moral influence is better, not because the pupils learn more, but because he is a man. A woman teaches a similar school, and receives four hundred dollars, not because of the inferiority of her moral influence in the school, not because the pupils learn less, but because she is a woman.

Now, happily, all this is avoided in gardening. A man who would sell a beet is not obliged to put on a label, "raised by a man, ten cents," and upon another, "raised by a woman, four cents," but the article brings its market value. This is a great advantage, and one affording a special gratification to women of spirit.

Besides, gardening is an occupation requiring very little capital, and, except in the fancy departments, comparatively little training. Near any of the cities a woman can earn more upon a half acre of land, with four months' work, than she can earn by sewing twelve months, saying nothing of the healthfulness of gardening, and the unhealthfulness of sewing. A young woman, tired, disgusted with the difficulties which hamper her on every side, asks:--

"What can I do to be saved?"

I reply, "Cultivate a half acre of ground."

You can sell the products of your garden to one of the market-men who make it their business to purchase garden vegetables where they are raised, and convey them to market. Nearly all of our men gardeners sell at their doors, and have nothing to do with the market.

I do not know of another opening which women can enter so easily, with so little wounding of their sensibilities, and which promises such sure and generous remuneration.

A year ago I urged some young women who were out of employment to engage in gardening. They said they had no capital, no experience, but would be willing to try if the way could be made smooth for them. I spent a couple of days in driving about among the gardeners, in the neighborhood of Boston, and asked the following questions of some fifty of them:--

"Is there any part of your work that women can do?"

"If so, what compensation would you give to attentive, quick- fingered American girls?"

The answer to the first question was uniformly,--

"A large part of the work of a garden, or 'truck' farm, can be done as well by women as by men."

To the second question, the answers ranged from five to eight dollars per week.

A CAPITAL INVESTMENT.

Persons possessing capital, and interested in the welfare of women, could hardly make a wiser or more beneficent investment of their means, than in the purchase of small farms in the neighborhood of cities, for the use of women.

Dividing these into half-acre lots, they should rent them to girls and women, either without rent, or for a sum which would simply meet the interest on the capital invested. In every case, probably, the investments would pay well, without any rent, by the natural increase in the value of real estate in the neighborhood of cities, and the improvement incidental to nice gardening; but the occupant would not hesitate to pay a small rent.

If entirely unacquainted with farming, three or four might join to hire a gardener, and under his guidance they would all soon learn to work advantageously in raising the common garden vegetables.

A dozen or twenty of these girls could board in the old farm house, and would make a pleasant family. Naturally they would "exchange works" with each other, and thus secure social enjoyment.

This is no dream, but only requires that one man or woman should possess a few thousand dollars, which it is desired to invest in property with sure returns, and given, besides, twenty girls who are suffering the tortures of dyspepsia and hopelessness in city work, and who desire a healthy, pleasant, remunerative employment. Certainly, both these classes of persons are numerous.

I know a great many persons in the neighborhood of Boston, (and with our rapid railway communications they may be located at considerable distances,) I say I know of many persons who have farms which are really producing nothing but a little grass and a few flowers, but which, changed into such half-acre gardens, would become sources of considerable income to all concerned. Twenty acres of good land, and a good-sized farmhouse, with an advance of two thousand dollars to prepare the land, and feed the company until their crops begin to return something, would give a home and independence to forty girls; and more than this, would fairly open and illustrate the possibilities in gardening as an employment for women.

It need hardly be said that the cultivation of flowers is an occupation perfectly adapted to the finest girls; and as flowers are in constant demand, with regularly quoted prices, every day in the year, this field bids fair to offer pleasant and profitable occupation to many women. It is enough to say that women should at once be introduced to this branch of industry.

It is hardly necessary, in this place, to point out the practical difficulties, which are accessible to every inquirer. Under the auspices of the New England Woman's Club, at No. 3 Tremont Place, Boston, a horticultural school has been opened a few miles out of Boston, for the training of young women.

As I said in the beginning, I do not know of another branch of industry in which so many women could find immediate and remunerative employment as in cultivating the land; and I cannot doubt, now that the public mind has been awakened to the subject of woman's employment, and as under the rapid spread of the social evil, thousands not interested on the side of benevolence are thoroughly awakened to the importance of multiplying occupations for women, as a defence of public morals,--I cannot doubt that this most promising field will soon be invaded by an army of American girls and women.

It seems to me that one special advantage will be found in the intimate relations between a productive garden and the comfort of a family. What a stimulus to a loving mother, that the products of her garden not only gratify the palates of her loved ones, but make important contributions to their health. It seems to me that, more than any other occupation I can name, the cultivation of a garden in connection with a family, would come in to afford special gratification to the wife and mother.

"Iowa has an Agricultural College on a plot of land of six hundred and fifty acres, with over thirty young ladies and one hundred and forty young men, whose tuition is free, and their daily work, which all are to do, is credited towards their board. This year the college building is to be enlarged to double its present capacity."

It is hardly necessary to repeat the facts found every day in the agricultural and other papers, illustrating woman's capacity for practical farming. Some of the rarest successes in general farming, have been achieved by women. I have personally known several of these farmers, who were intelligent and refined.

MERCHANTS.

What an army of men, some of them big enough to carry an ox, are engaged, in the United States, in selling silks, calicos, thread, tape, needles and pins. Hundreds of thou sands of stalwart young men, who might earn twice as much in more active, muscular, outdoor occupations, are shut up in stores; while a corresponding number of women; desperate for lack of bread, lie in wait at night, when these men come out of their silken stores, to tempt them to vice and disease, which may carry all into one common ruin.

CARPENTERS.

A "kit" of carpenter's tools, and a carpenter's bench, may be purchased for a few dollars. Every house should have such provisions. It is curious how universal is the passion for the use of such tools. Nine persons in ten, including both sexes, would, if they enjoyed facilities, indulge this natural passion for straight lines, angles and curves.

From my observation, I think girls possess this mechanical fancy and tact quite as generally as boys.

In several homes where I have met facilities for making boxes, frames, rulers, etc., the girls have displayed more interest in the use of the beautiful carpenter tools, than the boys.

What a priceless knack of fingers, preparation and fancy for a hundred different occupations, and healthful, muscular exercise would thus be won.

My friend, Capt. R--, purchased a "kit" of carpenter's tools and a turning lathe, nearly twenty years ago, and encouraged his six daughters to use them. Scores of cupboards, shelves, frames, book- holders, towel-racks, etc., etc., scattered all over his house, testify to the mechanical taste and skill of his girls.

At the holiday season they send to friends many beautiful boxes and book-shelves, made with their own hands.

But for the wealth of the family, I have no doubt that these girls would have sought mechanical occupations.

OTHER OCCUPATIONS.

Women would succeed well as engravers and chasers of gold and silver, as etchers and stamp makers, herbarium makers, landscape gardeners, lithographers, map makers, modellers, music engravers, painters, picture restorers, piano tuners, painters of plates for books, steel engravers, sculptors, telegraphic operators, wax workers, book-keepers, book merchants, china merchants, keepers of fancy stores, grocers, junk dealers, music sellers, sellers of artists' materials, sellers of seeds, roots and herbs, small wares, toys, in variety shops, as bird raisers, and bird and animal preservers, fruit venders, dealers in pets, restaurant keepers, thread makers, glove makers, makers of shawls, yarn, ribbons, sewing silk, lace menders, makers of files, guns, hinges, nails, screws, skates, shovels, wire, candle-sticks, hooks and eyes, lamps, pens, rings, scales, buckles, needles, saws, scissors, spectacles, surgical instruments, telescopes, thermometers, lanterns, thimbles, gold and silver leaf, pencils, inkstands, paper cutters, porcelain goods, beads, harnesses, pocket-books, trunks, whips, combs, piano cases. They succeed well as pearl workers, tortoise-shell workers. They succeed in manufacturing shoes of all kinds, and gutta-percha goods. They succeed as hair workers, as artists, as merchants of all kinds of goods. They succeed in manufacturing artificial flowers, belts, bonnet ruches, dress trimmings, embroidery, feathers, hoopskirts, parasols and umbrellas, and so on, and so on, to the extent of several hundred occupations, with a large number of which they have nothing whatever to do, and from which they are kept by persistent, blind, stupid prejudice; the apology, explanation, or whatever you may choose to call it, generally being, either that the work is too dirty, too hard, requires too much patience, or, much more frequently, that it requires too much skill.

With all these occupations open to them, it is hard to believe that New England girls will consent to starve, or for lack of bread, will wander off into bye and forbidden paths.

EMPLOYMENT AGENCY.

Nothing is more simple or easy than to extend the field of woman's industries.

Let the young women and their friends call a meeting, and establish an agency for the neighborhood. This meeting need not cost the girls a penny. A committee of five intelligent ladies and gentlemen can readily be found, who will undertake the management.

The duty of the committee will be to seek new employments for girls, and smooth the way.

FALSE TESTS OF GENTILITY.

Everywhere, among all peoples, we find the spirit of aristocracy-- caste. The distinction between classes, in most countries, appears in dress, intelligence and manners.

In the United States the distinctions are not thus marked.

In the cars, for example, you meet a gentleman, whose address and conversation are very pleasing, and you are just in the act of congratulating yourself upon the acquisition of a charming acquaintance, when some one whispers in your ear the appalling fact that he is nothing but a carpenter.

You meet a lady, exquisitely attired, with a beautiful face, sweet manners, and brilliant conversation, and you wonder who she can be. She must be the daughter of a leisurely, cultured banker; but, after taking pains to ask the conductor, and several gentlemen in the car, you are at last informed by the brakeman:--

"Why, darn it, she is that Lizzie Brown, the dress-maker."

The fact is, we cannot rely upon the European indications of high and low classes, and so, in America, we have devised numerous arbitrary, and often unreasonable and inconvenient habits, and customs, which are learned and practised by "our set, you know," but which are not generally caught up by the earnest, busy class.

One of these, which will serve for present illustration, is a rule that you must, at table, put everything into your mouth with a fork.

In one of our most reputable monthlies, I read, a day or two since, a chapter in a story, in which it was stated, as a shocking exhibition of depraved vulgarity, that John Smith put his food into his mouth with a knife,--the deplorable wretch!

Last summer, at a sea-side house, I was remarking to an intelligent lady, in an after-dinner chat, that of all the gentlemen on the ground, I was most interested in that tall, reserved, scholarly- looking man.

She replied, with a toss of her head, "I can't bear him. Why, he eats with his knife!"

Of course nobody supposes that for most sorts of food a fork is better than a knife; but unless some tests of what is called gentility can be maintained, you see we shouldn't know who's who and what's what.

I learned somewhat early in life to use the fork almost exclusively; but now that it is made a sign of gentility, I am learning to use the knife.

I always enjoyed the anecdote of that "first gentleman of Europe," a certain King of England, who, on a state occasion, invited to his table a Scotch nobleman, with his two daughters. The nobleman was one of the truest friends of the king, and the daughters were most intelligent, worthy girls; but, living very much out of society, they had not learned all the rules of table etiquette. So upon sipping their coffee, and finding it too hot, they poured from the cup into the saucer, and drank from the saucer. The king, who was at the head of the table, heard a derisive laugh from some of the pets of the court, and looking over where his Scotch friends sat, he saw the occasion of it. Immediately he lifted his own cup, poured into the saucer, and set the cup down on the table with a great noise, whereupon the exquisites colored, and hushed.

Girls, I advise you to use the fork in eating such things as can be eaten best with it, unless you wish to make issue with a false and arbitrary test of gentility.

There are table habits, vital in their importance. I may here name the practice of eating only simple food, with great deliberation, maintaining, during the meal, your legitimate share in the conversation, and constantly watching for opportunities to assist those about you.

CONSERVATISM IS FASHIONABLE.

Nothing is more fashionable than conservatism. Slavery--what a hot- bed of sensualism! What a pandemonium of cruelty and crime!

All over the North the merchant, the politician, and the clergyman pledged each other to silence. It was the fashion.

A few brave souls protested. Sneers and ridicule followed them. Ah, can it be believed,--the blue-eyed daughters of New England joined in the sneers. They drew aside their skirts as they passed the champions of liberty and virtue. No other memory connected with the antislavery revolution is so hard for me to bear. If only they, hearing the cry of agony from their outraged sisters in the South, had listened, sympathized, and, in their own gentle way, striven to help the torn and bleeding ones, I could bear the memory of the brutal indifference of men.

"WOMAN'S RIGHTS" ARE UNFASHIONABLE.

In most of the states women have no legal claim to their own children. In several of them the father may, in his will, commit the little ones to the care of strangers, and the mother can only weep and moan.

In many of the states the wife has no right to the property which her father gave her, or to that which she has earned with her own hands.

In not one of the states can a woman express her opinion or wish at the ballot box. Her person, her property, her claim to her children, --everything she holds most dear in this life, is controlled by the ballot box. The most ignorant foreigners are invited to it; our mothers and wives are forbidden.

Women and girls receive, for the same work, only half the compensation of men and boys.

The "woman's rights" movement seeks the mitigation, and final removal, of these outrageous wrongs.

My dear girls, think for yourselves this time. Don't simper and giggle when the fools sneer at "woman's rights." They don't know what they are talking about.

A few days ago I heard a sort of jackanapes ridiculing "woman's rights," and several very sweet girls were listening to his coarse scurrilities; and, must I say it, smiling their approval.

Wearing an unfashionable dress is not half so bad; going into the street with the bonnet of two years ago, even, will not unsex you like a smiling indifference to these desperate struggles of your sisters. To avoid starvation on one hand, and crime on the other, they plead with the world for justice.

In this city of Boston there are twenty thousand women starving on needle-work, and five thousand who live, or die, by crime. A few brave ones, driven to the wall, hope, by calling attention to their helplessness, to obtain sympathy and justice. This is essentially the "woman's rights" movement. Suppose you don't like the mode in which they agitate. When you hear criticisms, or ridicule, if you haven't the heart to say a word in defence, at least you can keep silence.

I wish I dared to tell you how we men almost despise you, sometimes, for this abandonment of each other.

THE "SOCIAL EVIL."

Men go prowling about, seeking to seduce and ruin girls, and will stand by each other, even in this infamous business. When a poor girl, overcome by the arts of an oily-tongued villain, perhaps by a promise of marriage, consents to sin, how you drop her, and shun her, and sneer at her. A hundred times I have heard chivalrous men declare that, "women have no honor; they never stand by each other. If one gets into trouble, the rest forsake her, and run away." Girls, if you care to commend yourselves to men, stand by these unfortunate ones, encourage them, help them. You needn't fear being soiled; the spirit in which you would engage in this angelic service, would serve as a perfect shield.

I know something of men. I have lived in many countries. I have been much in society, have been, to some extent, what is railed a man of the world, and have talked with men about women, hundreds of times.

I am confident that nothing would so elevate a young woman in the estimation of all noble men, as the brave defence of an unfortunate sister. It would thrill us all, and lift you into a heroine.

If a few hundred of you would join hands around the social evil, even in a city like this, where it has attained huge proportions, you could bring it within easy reach of christian aid.