=283. Tanning.= Leather can now be tanned by a chemical process in a few days. Leather has been made so thin, and received so high a polish, that it has been used for making bonnets in Paris. Buckskin is used for making many articles in this country. Shoulder braces, drawers, shirts and gloves, are made of it. A tanner writes: "I know of no country where this business exists in which females are employed, unless perhaps in some of the smaller German States, where female service is not deemed incompatible with the services of the ox and the horse. The tanning business in all its departments is laborious and offensive, and although not unhealthy, is dirty and disagreeable, requiring a great amount of muscular power. I know of no employment less congenial to the taste of women, or less suited to their elevation. Morocco is polished by hand, and in some places is done by women. A tanner writes: "It requires strong and healthy men to perform _any part_ of a tanner's trade, and they do not get very highly paid at that. The business is decidedly dirty, and oftentimes very disagreeable, not fit for women in any particular. In order to conduct the business successfully, one needs to be located by a good stream of water, or where it can be easily obtained, plenty of bark, and not far from market." Among the Cossacks, some women are employed in tanning.
=284. Trunks.= A trunk maker said he thought women could not well put the tacks in trunks, because the trunks are first put together, and are heavy lifting; but I think it could be done by them. Putting the linings in trunks could certainly be done by women. The man referred to said he thought some women are employed in a large trunk factory in Newark, because the proprietors thought they could get their work done cheaper, and he hoped they failed, because of their motive. The employment of women, he urged, cuts down men's labor, and so all labor is reduced below its worth, just as it is now in England. There a woman must neglect her home duties, to help make a living. If women, he added, were paid at the same rate as men, and so there was a fair competition, he would not object to women being employed.