OBJECTIVE.
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■work more than eight hours, and keep it up : they know it, and they rarely will ; and even this seems to ‘ pull them down,’ so that it is extremely rare that a girl continues more than a few years at the business.”
Mr. B-, foreman of a large printing
establishment, says, —
“ Girls must sit at the ‘ case.’ I never knew but one woman, and she a strong, vigorous Irishwoman of unusual height, who could stand at the case like a man. Female compositors, as a rule, are sickly, suffering much from backache, headache, weak limbs, aud general ‘ female weakness.’ ”
Mr. D-, the publisher of a well-known
periodical, says, —
“ I have had hundreds of lady compositors in my employ ; and they all exhibited in a marked manner, both in the way they performed their work and in its results, the difference in physical ability between themselves and men. They cannot endure the prolonged close attention and confinement which is a great part of type-setting. I have few girls with me more than two or three years at a time ; they must have vacations, and they break down in health rapidly. I know no reason why a girl could not set as much type as a man, if she were as strong to endure the demand on mind and body. ”