800 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dollars as against thirteen ; draymen, fifteen dollars as against ten ; 

 gardeners, eighteen dollars as against nine. 



The cost of clothing in California is about ten per cent higher 

 than in the Atlantic States, but the California workman is apt to 

 wear better clothes. The average cost of food is estimated to be 

 higher in California, but the California workman lives better. 

 The cheap restaurants of San Francisco are superior to any in 

 Eastern cities, and one can live there at less expense, or get more 

 for his money, whichever he chooses. Owing to the climate, inci- 

 dental expenses can be made less in California, and no time need 

 be lost from one year's end to another. Lots are still cheap, and 

 wood, the great building material, is about one third lower than 

 in New York city. 



Favorable as are the conditions outlined, the chief advantages 

 are obtained by men. The wages paid to women for manual labor 

 do not compare favorably with Eastern rates. The seamstress is 

 no better off in California than in New York. Men proof-readers 

 receive eighteen dollars a week, while women get nine dollars; 

 men glove-makers are paid twenty or twenty-five dollars, while 

 women have from five to ten dollars; salesmen in stores receive 

 from fifty to a hundred dollars a month, while saleswomen are rated 

 at from twenty to forty dollars. This difference comes partly 

 from the fact that Chinese competition has been especially strong 

 in domestic occupations. As regards teachers, the school law of 

 California says, "Females employed as teachers in the public 

 schools shall in all cases receive the same compensation as is 

 allowed male teachers for like services, when holding the same 

 certificates." In San Francisco the average salary paid to women 

 teachers is $75.16 per month for twelve months. The statistics of 

 the Labor Bureau bring out many encouraging facts about the life 

 of the laboring women of San Francisco. These women number 

 about twenty thousand, engaged in some three hundred occupa- 

 tions. The general condition of the establishments where they 

 are employed is better than in some classes of establishments in 

 the Eastern States, and the hours are shorter. Several " sweaters' 

 shops" have been investigated, and public feeling aroused. In 

 some of the cigar-factories and canneries Chinamen and Ameri- 

 can girls were found working together, and a law will probably 

 be passed to prevent this. A " workshop and factory inspector," 

 to operate under some general laws such as those of Massachu- 

 setts, is needed. The most satisfactory point about the condition 

 of California working girls is the extent to which they " live at 

 home." The tenement-house system has not yet reached San 

 Francisco. With few exceptions the homes of the working 

 women are neat and comfortable. In the interior towns work- 

 girls are paid better, as a rule, than in San Francisco. The 



