Ladder-Climbing Women.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 5

Ladder-Climbing W omen.

What a curiosity she would be in New Zealand, a female hod-camer ! Sho would soon retire from that busing to aHitudinico in a museum. But in Rome hhe i<? ho little of an attraction that she ciop-'tft dra«v the attention of her fellow Hor femininityiscertainly not muwt "idly farcinDating, for she is not very oloan. I ml' od, as a general th'ng the is very duty, fih" seems a shade or two bUeUnr than lvi brothor labourer?. SomeUmc-xthn i- ynu'>^ and pretty, but oftonest she i- oiti and Ul*4 featured; but whetlior yonotr <^c old hoc general appearance would not mnkj a g<i<\il advertisement picture for "«o\m soap." Her garment 3 ueuj'lly of n ragged dress, polku-dottert with mmi or mortar ; an erst win to apron, now bcciHynl into an ugly saffron, and tho vuv.j'n, buuF leer-covering twisted in twmt\ w-vA ovoi* dirtier than the apron. Phy-Ua nf s' thuy are very etroD}?, those foumlu oio.'Umcarriers. In place of a hod they «.o ;i Ictv,

e narrow iron pan with handles at them nd. When they have filled the pan someone helps them to lift it on their heads, and then with this exceseivo load they go climbing up the perpendicular laddera. They mingle with mtn on equal terms, and the petticoats and voicea a indicate to the pufcser-by that jthoy b'*ong to the tender aex.