The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's WorkPenny, Virginia
General
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work
Penny, Virginia
Women -- Employment
=146. Meat Sellers.= In markets and in meat shops of the United States,
women may occasionally be seen selling meat. They are generally the
wives or the daughters of butchers. They no doubt assist in cleaning
tripe, and making sausage and souse. On the streets of London are nearly
one thousand sellers of dogs' and cats' meat. Most of them are men. This
meat is the flesh of old worn out horses, which are bought, killed, cut
up, boiled, and sold by those who make it a business. Mrs. M. told me of
a woman that sells meat in the New York market. She has made a fortune
by it. She stands in market, and sells, and orders her hired men to cut
it up as desired. Mr. W. told me that women are employed at the pork
houses in Louisville, in putting up hogs' feet, to send to New Orleans.
Less meat is sold in summer than winter. I have been told that curing
meat is too heavy work for women, on account of the lifting. Besides,
they would get wet from the brine used; but some German and English
women do pickle meat, and some even buy and sell stock. The late census
of Great Britain reports twenty-six thousand butcheresses.
=147. Milk Dealers.= Kindness to animals always indicates something good
in the heart. Life, in its every form, should be precious to us. Cows
yield much less milk, and of an inferior quality, on the eastern than
western continent. In Canada and some countries of Europe, the milk of
goats is sold, and considerably used. In some parts of Rome it is
customary for dairymen to drive their cows in every morning, and around
to the houses of their customers, when the milkman draws from the cow
into the vessel the desired quantity. In Belgium it is not uncommon to
see milkmaids following their little wagons, containing vessels of milk,
and drawn by dogs. Mayhew stated, in 1852, that in St. James's Park,
London, eight cows were kept in summer to supply warm milk to
purchasers; four in winter, and the number of street women engaged in
the sale of curds, was one hundred. A lady called with me in a milk
depot. The man has his milk brought in on the cars. Milkmen pay their
women from $6 to $7 a month. They begin to milk about five in the
morning, and the same hour in the afternoon, so that it may cool before
being placed in the cans. Those hired to milk do house work or kitchen
work in the intervals. When milking is done in the afternoon, the men
that work on the farm, and the proprietor himself, assist. In some
places where butter is made for market, the churning is done by horses
and dogs. A milk dealer told me he sold to those who wished to sell
again at cost price, four cents a quart; to other customers his price is
six cents. At one depot, Williamsburg, the dealer was counting over an
immense pile of pennies. His milk comes from New Jersey, seventy miles
from New York. He crosses two rivers every night at twelve o'clock, to
receive his milk at the Jersey depot. He sells at six cents a quart. To
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