THE NELLIE BLY COLLECTION
VOLUME II: The Pittsburg Dispatch
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From (Italics) The Nellie Bly Collection: The Pittsburg Dispatch: "The field of woman's usefulness has since the war been expanding until to-day she has so many new and heretofore manly positions that the subject is given much thoughtful attention. When our men were needed on the battle-field, American women found that other duties besides housework could be performed by them. Surprised at their success they have ventured on until to-day there are thousands of occupations open to them. Some few years ago it was thought if a woman learned housework, it was all that was necessary. Their schooling was thought sufficient if they could read the Testament; to study grammar or geography was wasting precious time. If they necessarily worked for strangers their pay would be two or four cents a week. Cotton factories were open to them; but to be a clerk or doctors, or occupying a desk in an office, was an un-thought of position. While there were excellent women in those dark and bloody days, they would not get along very well now. Time changes all things. Once where one bonnet and one dress would do for a year, four and six bonnets and as many dresses are needed now; and to obtain the same they must earn more than two bits a week. Grammar and geography are as indispensable to the women of to-day as to the men. Women realize that they must live and must have a way to gain a livelihood. With a common-sense view they see what men do and show they—in the majority of places—will do as well. Hence, in this progressive age there are women lawyers, doctors, lecturers, preachers, journalists, editors, teachers and writers, salesladies, stenographers, type-writers, detectives. The less fortunate find employment in wire, cork, coffin, cracker, harness, coffee, tobacco, candy and tinworks establishments, at cotton and box factories, in glass houses, printing offices and laundries, as book binders and rag sorters. Girls workshops are to the majority an unexplored region, yet there are few who have not an interest in and a desire to learn how the same are conducted. With a view to furnish the reading public with truthful pen and pencil pictures of the girl workshops in the vast industrial hive, a series of sketches, of which this is the firstborn, has been commenced..." (right justify) NELLIE BLY. (right justify) "Our Workshop Girls" (right justify) February 15, 1885
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About the Book
Years before she shocked the world with her "Mad-House" and "Around The World" stories, Nellie Bly began her journalism career in her hometown of Pittsburg, PA. In this volume of (italics) The Nellie Bly Collection are over 80 articles from her days at (italics)The Pittsbug Dispatch, many of which have not seen the light of day since they were originally published over 130 years ago. Nellie's first articles address the plight of women, and rail against their second class standing in American society. She would follow that up with a series of articles focusing on women who worked in the factories around Pittsburg. Later, Nellie would travel to Mexico, writing about the people, places and a corrupt government that forced her to stay one step ahead of the police. In this collection, we truly find Nellie Bly discovering her voice as a journalist.