Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1875 — Women and Work in Paris. [ARTICLE]

Women and Work in Paris.

Long ago women’s work, which in itself ia so profitable, was estimated at its true value in Paris. Wider fields of action are daily opening out for increasing wants, develop increasing resources, anffi whilst waiting for the fruits expected from the technical schools fast multiplying, each woman who has a vocation or a talent of one sort or another employs herself in earning something for her family. In days gone by hand labor implied in most cases a certain degree of ignorance on all points outside itself, the worker being considered a mere tool; but now we have discovered that every trade is more quickly and profitably exercised when general education goes hand in hand with technical training, becoming, as it were, a kind of skylight through which penetrate air ana tight. The result of this is that well-bred and well-educated women no longer look upon work as a disgrace, and that an increasing number of them not only accept but seek it as a dignity. The nature of my own work has brought me for several years'past into intimate relations with crowds of women who live by the work of their hands. Before I took up my work I shared to a certain degree in the prejudice which attaches a stamp of inferiority to manual labor; but I was soon cured of this by observing women engaged in hand labor who, by their education, their good manners, their talents, were the equals—often the superiors—of women who never worked for money. In order to work profitably one must not only be in need of work—one must be able to do it well; and this consideration alone should suffice to inspire non-work-ing women with respect for those who are sufficiently intelligent to exercise a profession. With the exception of a few whose dull minds find it easier to accept ready-made prejudices than to think for themselves, we Parisians are no longer imbued with the false idea that one woman is superior to another simply because she is incapable of helping to support her family. So entirely have we vanquished this prejudice, and so thoroughly is the necessity of giving every woman the means of earning her own livelihood understood amongst ns, that many of our richest girls study hard to obtain the diploma which in case of need would assure them a good position as governess. Others learn painting on china, not after amateur —that is, second-rate and useless—fashion, but thoroughly, so that they could keep themselves by it; and, now that such training is becomiilg a la mode, others become first-rate milliners, dress-makersand plain sewers. This movement is altogether a good one, and it is impossible to encourage it too much, especially by joining it. If it had no other results than that of making work respected whenever it is w r ell and honorably done, it will not have been useless; for it is impossible to deny that the absurd and unjust sneers bestowed by idlers upon workers have excited and envenomed class antagonism.

But, besides this, work has a virtue peculiar to itself: it satisfies, calms, or it may be consoles, those who know how to work. As soon as we can work really well we delight in our work, and no longer wish to give it up. lam perfectly well aware of what will be the result of these remarks. A week from the date of the appearance of this article I shall be inundated with letters from alt parts of the country entreating me to provide the writers with work. Of course this is an impossibility. In the first place I am so busy the day rarely suffices for my own affairs; and in the second there areplenty of hands in Paris who can do Parisian work far more conveniently than it could be executed by people at a distance. There is a large class of very small novelettes and third-rate novels which always put me in a humor, because they spread the most untrue, most unpractical ideas on this head. In their pages are found those wonderful women and young girls who keep their families not only in necessaries but luxury by painting fans in secret, or by spending one or two hours a day in working embroidery for the Parisian shops. There are in these stories as many mistakes as words. Save in the case of a very few workshops, Parisian work is done in Paris. There are, however, plenty of industrial occupations which can be pursued, and profitably, too, in the provinces; but I know very well what my correspondents would say if I told them so: “It is impossible for us to work in our own neighborhood, for we should lose caste; so we must come to Paris, because it is large enough and mysterious enough to hide the shame of work. What would Miss say if she knew I worked for pay? and what airs Mrs. would put on if she knew I had a profession.” Now, what matter does it all make? Can it be possible that we have, and do not hesitate to avow it, more vanity than pride? Those people who aie capable of respecting the idle more than the industrious present us with the measure of their minds and souls, and it is such a very small one it is of no account In these days it is not only amongst teachers and artists that we are exposed to meeting our superiors; it is now absolutely necessary, as well as useful and right, to be polite to tradeswomen. Have you a ; high opinion of the aristocracy? I know i a dressmaker, a milliner and a plain sew- I er, each of whom has a title and a very | authentic De. Do you honor services ren- I dered to the State ? Take care I Nothing I more likely than that your dressmaker is I the daughter of an officer in high posi- I tion. Do you appreciate talent ? Your I plain sewer and your corset-maker are I first-rate musicians and draw splendidly. I Then why, you will ask, are they dress- I makers, plain sewers, corset-makers and I milliners? Because, let me whisper it, I they find they can, when really clever in I these branches, make a good deal more I than if they gave lessons in French, music | and drawing. The truth is that women’s work is only 9 profitable when exercised openly and I when a sufficient degree of perfection is 1 attained in it. The work that is ashamed g of itself, the work which hides itself, de- ® siring to live incognito and anonymously, | brings m nothing worth having. Let us, | Jjjen, give up all subterfuges, all mystery, g Amateur work can never be really re- | munerative because the preference will fl always be given to professional work- 1 women. I In conclusion, let us relegate to dream- 1 land that pretty vision of fabulous sums I earned by working one or two hours a day ■ (unknown to our neighbors) at any oc- ■ cupation whatever. If large sums are I earned in Paris it is not only because sal- 1 aries are higher but because people work I harder. Here women do not do their I work in the intervals between a couple | of calls, a dinner party, a concert and I one or two walks; they work all day. I leaving dinner' paaties and walks to those I who are not obliged to work. And u> I doing this they are not more unhappy. I but the contrary—nor worthy of re- I spect, but the contrary.— Emetine BM- I mend.