FEMALE PRINTERS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2506, 17 January 1877, Page 3

FEMALE PRINTERS.

The employment of women.in printing ii one which until late years was entirely unknown in England; and the fact that a valuable employment has. been opened up for women is due to Miss Emily Faithfull, who has shown that in some parts of the trade their 'services are as available as those of men. There can be no reason why it should not be so, for the work of composing,- which is mainly that in which women are engaged, does I not demand much physical labor, but a good deal of quickness and Beady adaptability, both of which are eminently feminine attributes. Miss Faithfull first of all started a printing press, officered by women, in Great Coram street in 1859, though the attempt was made in the face of great opposition from the trade, and,in spite of all kinds of petty meannesses and insults. But she persevered in her effort, until she clearly demonstrated that the thing .could be done ; at the present day the Victoria Press has earned a well deserved name. It is true that there are not so many women exercising the trade in London as one "would expect: but in the provinces and in Scotland their success is undoubted, and their numbers have a decided tendency to increase. In London the numbers were 231 at the time that the census was taken, of the following agps : —Nine between 10 and 15 years of agei sixty-one from 15to 20, for'y-tliree from 20 to 25, thirty-four from 25 to 35, twenty-four from 35 to 45, twentytwo from 45 to 55, and .the same from 55 to 65, ten from 65 to 75, while, one old lady above 75 enjoyed the honor and glory of being the oldest female printer in London. Besides this chosen band, there were 500 more in the provinces, chiefly in the northern | towns, and 113 in Edinburgh and 1 Glas-1 gow. Gne may estimate the women now engaged in the trade at 1000. The chief work at which they are most apt is that of composing, to do which they stand at frames, take out the letters from their different compartments, and put them together in a " composing stick," which, is afterwards emptied on to, in printing parlance, a "galley." . Lifting up and carrying the heavy iron chases into the press-room is almost too heavy for women's work, and ought to be done by men, as should the press-work itself, for "laying on" and "taking off" the machine is monotonous and fatiguing. Considering, however, the immense number of compositors that there are in England (there were, in 1871, 44,073 printers in England,, of whom the majority are compositors), it seems hard that an opening shonld not be' found for more women, who, while doing their work more cheaply, are not given to " wayz« gooses" or periodical St. Mondays.— The Queen. .