FEMALE OCCUPATIONS.
Into what strange and unfeminine occupations are many of tho female sex driven under the grinding pressure of poverty ! In Lancashire we find women, attired in the course garb of miners, working, laboriously with pick and shovel at the pit mouth; in some of the agricultural counties they are to be found engaged in the heavier kind of farming operations ; while on more than one canal they are to be seen employed as navigators on board several of the long, narrow barges which yet hold their own against the rivalry of the luggage train. Rough in manner and coarse in language, the female bargee has two good qualities—she is honest and industrious. No man works harder than she does. Asa girl she learns to harness and lead the horses which draw the boat along our silent highways; as a woman, she takes her place at the helm dr assists in loading her vessel. Yet she never grumbles. So long as sho can enjoy her pipe—for the female bargee delights in smoking—and her pint of beer, she is happy. But is her existence a credit to English civilization ? We should think that there can be but. one answer—it is not.— Graphic.
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Bibliographic details
Dunstan Times, Issue 536, 26 July 1872, Page 3
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202FEMALE OCCUPATIONS. Dunstan Times, Issue 536, 26 July 1872, Page 3
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