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SEX TN INDUSTRY.
hurried glance upon the state of progress in the composing-stick. Whatever ameliorating circumstances it may possess, in any or all of the ways mentioned, it is evident that type-setting is an employ exacting an unusual degree of mental concentration and energy, with great rapidity of manipulation ; and, as such, if previous hypotheses have been correct, cannot fail to have a marked effect upon the health of its female operatives. Let us see how these hypotheses are borne out by the facts, as variously obtained.
Mr. M-, brought up in the business
from a boy, now engaged in it for eighteen years, having worked in offices with female compositors ranging from one to twenty in number, and including from two to three hundred in his observation, states, —
“ Few girls can continuously set more than five thousand ems per day, while men will set from seven to eight thousand ; not because the girl is not quicker in movement and perception, for she is, but because she cannot ‘ stand it,’ — she is not strong enough. It seems to be the back that gives out. Girls cannot