151. Пекари пирогов. "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 with them, and receives $1.50 a week, with her board. M. & Co. pay their women five cents an hour, for preparing the fruit and making pies. They sell most to retail stores and hotels—consequently sell most in the spring and fall, when the largest number of strangers are in the city. They keep three wagons running part of the time, which start at six in summer, and, in busy seasons, sometimes do not get in to remain till twelve at night. When it rains or snows they do not sell so much, as those who sell at stands on the street are not out. The drivers come back several times during the day for pies, when very busy, and they mention how many are ordered. So the manager knows how many to have baked. They always sell most on Saturday, and I think sell least on Wednesdays and Thursdays. When the women work over ten hours, they are paid extra at the same rate, five cents an hour. C. and wife pay their best woman $9 a month with board and washing. It is her duty to roll out pastry, put the fruit in, and put the covers on. They employ some girls for $6 a month, to wash dishes, cook fruit, chop apples, pick dried fruit, &c. The work requires more strength than skill. There are only four large pie bakeries in New York. Madame L., who sells French pastry and confectionery, says very few women are employed in Paris, in making pastry, except for families. It requires too much strength and too long labor, to do so for a saloon. The saloons are usually open until twelve o'clock at night. At a bread bakery an attendant told me she prepares the fruit for pies, but the bakers prepare the crust, make and bake them. She says their men do that in the morning, when not otherwise employed, and it would not pay to have a woman for that purpose alone. Mrs. H. employs fifteen women. She pays $3.50 a month, with board and lodging, to those that slice apples and carry pies to and from the oven. Men place them in the oven and take them out. She pays $6.50 to those that roll out pastry and wash dishes, &c. She has three thousand pies made sometimes in one day. It requires more care to bake pies than bread. At another pie bakery, the lady told me she has the fruit prepared for pies in her kitchen and taken to the bakehouse, where they are made up by men, to save the women from working where the men are. She pays a woman for preparing fruit $5 a month and her board. In a pie bakery in New York, one of the attendants said in the old country women learn to bake pies and cakes for confectioners. They pay £30 for instruction, and spend two years' apprenticeship. They learn the whole process, including the stewing of fruit and preparing mince meat. In this country that is followed as a separate branch, and mostly done by women for bakers. She said in the bakery where she stood, girls were required, not only to wait on customers, but wash the counters, shelves, and windows of the store. The other attendant told me she found the smell of the pastry, and being so constantly on her feet, very injurious. They each receive $8 a month, and their board and washing. To succeed, a person should be quick in her motions and calculations, and a good judge of money. They are in the shop fifteen hours. In some bakeries the girls spend eighteen hours in the shop. The time could be shortened, if all the establishments of the kind would unite and make regulations to that effect; but it could not be done by one or two stores on account of the competition in the business. Such a store would lose its patronage. The majority of girls board with the bakers' families, on account of rising early to be in store. Summer is the poorest season on Broadway, as most of their customers are out of the city at that season; but in localities where the working classes are supplied, the summer is the best season, as most of them do not go to the expense of making up a fire to bake their bread and pastry.
152. Маринование устриц. An oysterwoman told me that girls and women are employed at most places where oysters are put in cans to send away. They are paid by the gallon for opening the shells; and near New Haven, some girls make $4 a day. On the Great South Bay, they do not earn so much, as the oysters are smaller and rougher. It requires considerable practice to become expert, but not much physical strength. The business is considered healthy, and women are paid at the same rate as men. Miss B. told me that at Fair Haven some women are paid for opening oysters two and a half cents a quart.
153. Продавцы птицы. Much attention has been paid in this country, during the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding of poultry. All that read this will remember the hen fever that spread through our country a few years ago. Chinese chickens sold at from $40 to $100 a pair; and the usual price of one egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off poultry will be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready sale. Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels, steamboats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and tightly made. When there is a variety of poultry, each kind should be separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, gravel, living plants and loose soil are the principal things to render poultry comfortable. The worms and insects obtained from the loose soil furnish them animal food, and sand or gravel is necessary to promote digestion. It is best not to draw poultry when preparing it for market, as it keeps longer when the air is excluded. In winter some farmers let their poultry freeze, and pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to market. They will keep so for two or three months. I was told of an old lady, back of New Albany, Ia., that has made several thousand dollars by the sale of poultry. The egg trade is a very extensive one. It requires a knowledge of the state of the market, and promptness in supplying its demand at the right time. Several establishments in Cincinnati entered largely into the business some years ago, and, we suppose, still continue it. Eggs are often shipped from Cincinnati to New Orleans and New York. "In France and England 6,000,000 eggs are used annually in preparing leather for gloves." In New York the poultry sold in market is mostly purchased from the wholesale commission merchants, who have stands in some parts of the market, or stores near the market. Poultry is there sold by the pound: chickens, 9 and 10 cents, and turkeys from 10 to 12 cents. It requires experience to learn the quality of poultry, but those in the business can judge of it by seeing the poultry when alive. The best time for selling is through the fall up to February. Some market women sell poultry in winter, and flowers in summer. Those who engage in raising poultry, could unite with it the raising of rabbits, pigeons, &c. About a hundred persons (mostly women) are employed in a henery near Paris, where thousands of chickens are annually hatched out by keeping eggs in rooms, heated by steam to a uniform temperature.
154. Владельцы ресторанов. In London and Paris, young and pretty women are employed in the best class of tobacco stores and in restaurants. This should not be so on account of the number, and often the character, of the men that resort to these shops. Indeed, we think it best not to employ them in any stores that men only frequent. Besides, the unseasonable hours that restaurants are kept open, make it objectionable for women. They are often not closed until midnight or after. In Great Britain girls and women are frequently employed as bar maids at inns.
155. Консервированные продукты, маринады и соусы. The plan is now almost universally adopted in the United States, of putting up fruit and vegetables in cans from which the air is excluded. It is one of the greatest inventions of the age for housekeepers. It saves labor and expense; and if well put up, the fruit and vegetables are as fresh and taste as natural as we have them in the growing season. Quite a number of large houses are engaged in the business in New York, and a few in Philadelphia. E. Philadelphia employs women to put pickles and preserved fruit in jars, sealing and labelling them. They can earn from $2.50 to $3 a week. They sit while at work. The season begins in July, and is over in October. K. & Co., New York, employ about a hundred females during the fruit season. The occupation consists in preparing the articles to be preserved; that is, peeling, seeding, washing, &c., labelling bottles, and painting cans. Those they employ are mostly Irish, and not capable of any very elevated position of labor. The fruit season lasts six months, after which only about thirty remain the rest of the year. The hours of labor are ten, and the compensation from $2.50 to $3 per week. In another establishment they employ only small girls, to whom they pay $2 per week, and occasionally $2.50. Mrs. Dall suggests that farmers' daughters put up candied fruits like those imported from France, which bear a good price and yield a handsome profit. Some women engage in making pickles on their own responsibility. Owners of gardens not convenient to market would find it profitable to put up fruits and vegetables, and to make pickles and sauces. The spices they would have to purchase; but if they had an orchard, they could make good vinegar. They could either sell the articles in the nearest large city, or pay a commission for the sale of them. Mr. D., in one of the New York markets, employs women for putting pickles in jars—gives $8 a month and board. The number of hours they are employed depends on the quantity of work they have on hand. B., New York, employs for six months from six to eight women; for four months, some twenty-five; and the remaining two months, from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five. B. has always had his work done in the city, but contemplates having it done hereafter in the country, as the articles will then be on the ground, and save the trouble of transportation. They send South. He thinks the South must for a long time be dependent on the North for pickles. They even furnish some of the pickle houses in Baltimore. They fear they will lose much because they have now no demand for pickles from the South, and they are likely to spoil by keeping. They are most busy in summer and fall. They keep some steady hands all the year. They find it difficult to get good hands, and pay learners from the first. Many girls go from New York in the summer, to the country, to put up pickles, gather berries, and weed gardens; and it pays them pretty well. B. pays his women fifty cents a day of ten hours. It is not unhealthy, and requires but a little time to learn. In this, as in most other mechanical work, practice makes perfect; consequently, experienced hands receive the preference. At most places men attend to fruit while it is being cooked. The preserving is mostly done in large kettles, around which pass pipes containing steam, encased by larger vessels. Lifting the kettles would be too heavy for women, when they contain, as in some cases, thirty-five gallons of fruit. And the steam used would require some one that knew a little of such matters, yet a smart woman could soon learn. M. & M. have their work done in the house, paying from $2.25 to $4. They can always get hands. W. & P. have their pickles, preserves, and sauces put up in the country. Their girls get from $3 to $6 a week. They employ two hundred girls, and take most of them from the city in the busy season from June to October. G. pays $3 a week. Any one that can use their hands can do it, and become expert in two or three months. Another pickler pays $2 per week. His wife does most of the work. Mrs. M. lives near Washington market. She employs some women to preserve, and some to put up pickles. Most of her preserves are put up by an old lady who does it at her own home. She pays her women from $2.50 to $4 a week. It requires long experience to become proficient. Nearly all the work is done in her house, and of course is done only in the summer. Her custom is mostly confined to the city. If she is preserving a very large quantity of fruit, she has a man to stir it. He spends most of his time taking purchased articles home. She uses only the best articles. She can always get enough hands. An extensive pickle manufacturer writes: "I employ women in packing pickles and all goods of the kind into glass—labelling, corking, making jellies, jams, &c., packing, labelling catsups, bottling syrups, &c. Women are so employed wherever these goods are manufactured. The employment is healthy—so much so that I have known invalids gain their health. I pay $3 per week—men $6 to $10; all work ten hours a day. Women can learn in from three to twelve months. Some learners receive $2, and some $2.50 per week. Quickness, neatness, and skill are required. Summer and fall are the busy seasons. The females are mostly young Irish, born in the United States. Women are superior in handiness, inferior in strength." A gentleman in the business writes from Newburyport: "I employ usually from eight to ten women. I pay eight cents per hour, and they work from four to seven hours. The men's work is worth more than women's, and entirely different from it. The prospect for this kind of work is good. There is no work in winter or early spring. Seaports are the best localities for the business. My women pay from $1.50 to $1.75 for respectable board."
156. Производители сахара. When the part of the sugar cane to be pressed, is cut, it is tied in bundles and drawn to the mill in wagons. It is deposited in heaps outside, and negro girls carry the bundles on their heads to the mill door. After the cane has been subjected to pressure by cylinders, to obtain the juice, it falls through an opening in the mill walls, and is carried off by negro women and spread in the sun, to dry for fuel. The work in sugar mills is very warm and heavy. The work in sugar refineries is very laborious, and requires the workers to be subjected to great heat. Several refiners have informed me that the business does not admit of the employment of women in any department. The business is said to be very trying on the constitution, and produces an unhealthy increase of flesh. It is said to be good for consumptives on account of the great nutriment in sugar. A sugar refiner died not long ago, whose salary received from the company amounted, I was told, to $25,000 per annum. I have thought there is one part of the work a woman might do—it is enveloping the sugar in paper cases. At a sugar refinery a man told us, some women are employed to make bags for containing char, i. e., burnt bones, and earn several dollars a week. The sewing is done by hand; making the bags requires but a short time, though it is heavy work. Most refiners buy theirs at bag factories, or have their men to make them.
157. Упаковщики чая. A boy fitting himself to be a tea broker told me, the business is best in the spring, fall, and winter. The quality of tea is principally decided by smelling—which is done before it is moistened, by blowing on it with the breath and then putting it to the nostrils. Boiling water is then poured on it, and tasted. The boy said, it is a paying business. It is not healthy on account of the dust inhaled. It does not take more than a year to learn to judge of the quality of kinds of tea. Boys learning the business do not live long. They are paid $2, and $2.50 a week. In busy seasons, they sometimes work as late as nine o'clock. There are not many tea packers in the city, and one told me, most of them cannot make a living. We called on Mr. N., a teapacker, who charges for putting tea out of the large boxes, in which it is imported, into canisters and packages, according to the way in which it is put up; whether in paper covers, or canisters of lead or tin. The facing or labelling varies some. He says, packing could be done by girls. He employs men and boys, paying the boys from $2 to $4 a week. There are only two tea packing establishments in New York, and not more than one in any other large city. It is not at all unhealthy. Packing is done most in spring and fall. Mr. N. thinks it would be best to have the girls work in separate apartments from the men. He complains of the want of promptness in girls. A tea packer of Boston writes: "I employ from six to ten girls to cover and line boxes, &c. They are American, of Irish descent. There is nothing in the business, that the girls do, that can be considered unhealthy. Wages run from $2.50 to $3 per week. It does not take a long time to learn, and full wages are paid while learning. I employ my help the year round, though less hours are used for a day's work during the winter. Ten is the number of working hours during the summer, spring, and autumn; and eight, during the winter months." In London, a number of men and women, principally women, buy exhausted tea leaves of the female servants and sell them at establishments, where they are dried, and a fresh green color given them by a copper preparation. They are sold for new tea. The quantity so renewed is thought to amount to 78,000 lbs. annually. The Chinese women assist in gathering tea leaves and drying them, but men do the packing.