- Kelp-burners, the
- Netters, and the
- Bathers,
or women who manage the bathing machines used on the coast. Then come two hundred thousand female servants; of which, largest in number, shortest in life, and, of course, the worst paid, are the general housemaids, or unhappy servants-of-all-work. Then come—
- Brewers,
- Custom-house and Police searchers,
- Matrons of jails,
- Lighthouse-keepers, and
- Pew-openers.
I cannot mention the Matrons of jails, without a sigh, when I remember, that at our common jail and at Charlestown there is no proper matron; and sickness, death, and childbirth meet only with such care as women detained as witnesses, or inebriates, can offer. Surely a Christian community should furnish Christian, womanly ministrations to its prisoners; and I would that some noble soul in an able body might be found to take up this work! Pew-opening has never been a trade in this community; but, as there are signs that it may become so, I advise our women to keep an eye upon it!
There are in the United Kingdom—
- 500,000 business-women,
- 94,000 shoemakers' wives,
- 27,000 victuallers' wives,
- 26,000 butcheresses,
- 14,000 milk-women,
- 10,000 beershop-keepers,
- 9,000 innkeepers, and
- 8,000 hack proprietors.
The difference between the employers and the employed is shown in the following numbers. There are—
- 29,000 shopkeepers, and only
- 1,742 shopwomen;