=143. Macaroni.= Macaroni is moulded and dried. Girls then pick out the whole sticks, and put them in boxes. The broken pieces are all thrown together in a barrel, then ground and moulded over. It is very easy work, and requires no learning. They are paid from $2 to $3.50 a week, working ten hours a day. The girls I saw, stood while at work.
=144. Maple Sugar.= The cheapness of sugar made from sugar cane has almost annihilated the existence of maple sugar, except as a sweetmeat. The peculiar flavor of maple molasses and sugar makes them much loved by some people. The trees are tapped early in the spring, when the sap first rises. After sufficient water is collected, it is put on and boiled until of the consistence required. It is slow work and pays poorly, but can be performed by women capable of the heavy labor involved in carrying, lifting kettles, and stirring.
=145. Market Women.= Mrs. Childs says, in her "History of Women," "On the seacoast of Borneo fleets of boats may be seen laden with provisions brought to market by women, who are screened from the sun by huge bamboo hats. In Egyptian cities, the country girls, closely veiled, are frequently employed in selling melons, pomegranates, eggs, poultry, &c." In the southern countries of Europe it is common to see women riding to market on donkeys, laden with marketing. We learn from "London Labor and London Poor," that there are 2,000 persons employed in the sale of greenstuff in the streets of London, as water-cresses, chickweed, groundsel, turf, and plantain. The cresses are eaten by people; the other articles are sold for birds. We may divide market women into two classes--those that raise or have raised the products they sell, and those that buy to sell again. The articles of the first are generally genuine and of fair price. Vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter, with fruit, both green and dried, are carried to market, and there the market women, placing them on stalls or retaining them in their wagons, wait for purchasers. This class mostly supply the markets of towns and villages. Their articles are usually fresh and wholesome. There are thirteen markets in New York city where everything is obtained at the second or third remove from the producer. It is estimated that there are 1,300 huckster women attending the New York markets. The members of some families are engaged in the sale of different articles: one will sell eggs; another, vegetables; another, poultry, &c. It is said that better meat and vegetables are brought to Philadelphia than to New York markets. In New York there is a larger population requiring articles of a cheap kind. We think market women, considering their habits and modes of living, probably do as well in a pecuniary way as any other class of women. Their wants are few, their habits simple, and their occupation--though an exposed one--healthy. The variety of seeing new faces, and chatting with those similarly employed, yield more comfort and content than most women's work. They take in but a few pennies at a time, yet have their regular customers, and, in prosperous seasons, many besides. I will give an extract from my diary of a visit made to several of the New York markets: "I saw some women selling fruit; some, vegetables; and some, tripe and sausage. I judge, from the appearance of most dealers, it is not unhealthy. Most of the women were far advanced in life, particularly those who sold vegetables. They all complain that they do not sell so much since the commencement of the hard times. How is it? Do people buy less, and so eat less? or is less wasted in their kitchens? or are some unable to buy meat and vegetables at all? Here I would state the remark of a druggist: that, as times are hard, people do not indulge in so much rich food, nor in a surplus of it; consequently there is less sickness, and so little medicine sold that the druggists are discouraged. This druggist has since sold out, and moved to the country. Most of the market women looked to be Irish. One strong Irish woman told me that American women cannot bear the exposure in cold weather, and rent their stalls through the winter to men. They make their appearance in March with the flowers and early fruit. Butter is sold exclusively by men in Washington market, New York, and is more profitable than anything else. There is considerable difference in the class of custom in the different markets in New York; but the poor are usually more in number than the rich--so the markets frequented by them may receive as great a profit as where a smaller number of better customers attend. Some women regulate their sales to have a percentage, but many sell for what they can get, without regard to the amount of profit.