Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 37, 9 December 1893, Page 6

Contributor.

IN NEW YORK

PHASES OF AMERICAN LIFE

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

THE MEN GOING- TO THE WALL

(By W. 11. Mathieson.)

I got on all right in tlie day time in Ne.v York, as 1 had plenty of business to attend to, seeing the latest styles of carriages and the most modern appliances connected therewith. When the day’s work was over my thoughts naturally reverted homeward's, and I used to picture what my beloved ones were doing. The man who wrote “ ’Mjd pleasures and palaces where’er we may roam Be it ever so humble, there s no place like home,” was a real philosopher. Homeless Mm self, he grasped the true secret of happiness. Not that I think unalloyed hap pine s is ever found in this world, as man’s ambition prompts him always to be seeding for something not yet attained. ■Well, I came home thoroughly convinced that real happiness is not to be found in the search for change. If you have none at home you certainly will have no lasting pleasure away from there. My readers must remember that outside my agents I did not know a solitary person in America. I had been warned not to speak to strangers. You are not likely to forget this, as you often see, in great, large letters, “Beware of strangers. Do not speak to strangers, and the like; therefore one did not care to address strangers, who no doubt were sometimes very nice people. I was several times accosted by the spieler fraternity, witly their bloated faces and bleared eyes, in the -following fashion: “Say, colonel, where did I meet you ? Come in and have a liquor.” 1 very quickly gave them to understand that I wanted neither their drink nor their company. The summer nights are the most enjoyable in America. The sun through the heat of the day in New York is almost unbearable. Last year I read that over 100 persons had been sun struck in New York in one day last summer. One reason why not only New York but the_ large nities in America are so hot is that the streets are narrow. Broadway, the principal street, is only one chain wide, and the white stone buildings tower up from 100 to 300 feet on each side, and the sun shines right down with a blinding glare very hard on the eyes, and without a breath of wind. The temperature often rises to 120 in the shade. What it must be in the sun I leave to the imagination of my readers. The evenings are —at least in the vicinity of New York — delightfully cool, and they are therefore the best part of the day. Those who can afford it drive out in their landaus, with their powdered footmen in imitation' of the English aristocracy. You will also see the milkman in his cart with his family, -with perhaps an old broken-down trotter over on the knees. When warmed up, however, the horse would astonish our supposed trotters, for a horse that cannot do a mile in less than 2.30 is not reckoned a trotter at all in America. We think we have a wonder if he can break the three minutes. I had the pleasure of sitting behind a real trotter in a light buggy. The animal, I soon found out, was very f as t. He stood 17| hands high, and was higher at the hindquarters than a t th(T wither. He had a most peculiar gait when going full speed—a peculiar rolling motion just like a camel, but he could travel, and the n-entleman who was driving had a very hard job to hold him back, especially when another one shot past him. The streets, in the busy part of the town were very much like London paved with large cob ole stones to stand the heavy traffic, but the boulevards and the roads leading to the gardens were laid down with asphalt, which was as ,

smooth as a billiard table. For the information of my readers 1 must stop one moment to say that in the suburbs of the towns special streets (boulevards) are laid off for villa residences. The two or three storey houses are back from the road and lovely gardens or lawns, as the case may be, are laid off in front right up to the footpath, and quite destitute of fences. These gardens are watered by Corporation -workmen, and kept in apple-pie order. The boulevards are magnificently lighted by electricity, and no heavy vehicle is allowed to go over them —only pleasure carriages. The residents pay increased rents for these advantages, but the houses are eagerly snapped up all the same. They are of two or three storeys,sometimes thrice that height, but each flat, as it is called, is so arranged as to accommodate one or two families, acccording - to their means. The price, I was informed, for one of these fiats per month ranges from 40 dollars (£8) to 100 dollars. Rents are therefore very high, and it is not within the means of many young persons to furnish these flats. They are therefore compelled to take lodgings and live from hand to mouth.

What struck me forcibly was the very small number of children I saw playing about the streets. While on my way to America I had the pleasure of long conversations with several American ladies (school-teachers) and one of them said —“ Take particular notice of the way my countrymen treat their wives, and when you get bank to New Zealand you will admit that in no country in the world are women treated so well as in America.” I took particular notice when there, and must admit that this was a fact, in the towns especially. They have very little to do ; and when a young couple marry they live, as I have said, in lodgings. They have nothing practically to take up their time, and like many idle persons they get into mischief. I may as well state right here that I am. and have been for years, a firm believer in equal rights between the sexes. I must admit that the brains in our house are not all on my side. Women’s rights, which have made such a stride since I came • back, are in practical operation in America. There the professions and many of the lighter trades are open to, and are : being rapidly filled by, women. In many of the larger factories at Home, as well as in America, is this the case. Man’s greed more than his philanthropy, is responsible for this, as many employers of labour find that they can get their work done for about one-half the price, and in many instances better done by women than by men, and the men therefore have to go. The competition is so keen that a few cents on the price of an article turns the scale, so that if the married women were well cared for the poor single ones have a hard struggle for existence —so hard that I sincerely hope you and I will never have such an experience. I found out that in a great many instances, through the high price of rents, young married people have no home —what we consider as such in the colonies —and no families. You will find thousands of married couples in the principal cities of America with no families, and as many more with only one child. When asked why this is so, they say that the cost of living is so great, clothing so dear, and their tastes so expensive, that they cannot afford to rear fumilies, so the families must go. How ? Well, that is hardly a subject for the columns of a weekly journal ; but the stern fact remains that this is the state of society as I found it. (This, I may say, does not so much apply to the country districts ) Now the conclusion can fairly be drawn that if this is the outcome of women’s rights, it will only be a short time before we are face to face with a new danger, one threatening the extinction of the race. Such is the ease in France ; such in a less degree among the higher classes in Great Britain ; and such is the tendency in many of the larger cities in the colonies. [To be continued.]