THE NEGROES OF XENIA, OHIO.                    1027
 week as an average for the year.  Of the women, one hairdresser
 has a business amounting to from $10 to $15 per week, and manufac-
 tures the hair oil which she uses in the business.  One boarding-house
 keeper has 4 persons employed and does quite a paying business.
 There are others who keep lodgers and boarders occasionall.  These
 are not, however, regularly engaged in this business.  For some years
 a newspaper was published, but on account of being poorly edited and
 badly managed was unable to connect itself vitally with the life of the
 people and has now ceased publication.  One brick and cement con-
 tractor does considerable business in laying cement sidewalks  and
 doing brickworl.  He lives in a neat little brick cottage, and has been
 engaged in this work for over twenty years.  In spite of the large
 number and proportion of Negroes in Xenia, there is as yet no large
 and successful venture  outside of the lines of business with which
 the Negro slave was familiar.
   TRADES.--There are in the various skilled trades 1 painter, 1 cigar
 maker, 1 upholsterer, 1 tailor,  2 stove repairers, 5 stone masons, 3
 shoemakers, 19 barbers, 1 basket maker, 12 blacksmiths, 9 bricklayers
and plasterers, 3 brickmakers, 2 butchers, 2 bottlers, 7 carpenters, and
 2 apprentices.  Some of these are in business for themselves, but the
majority of them work for wages.   The painter reported working for
$1.50 and $2 per day for about half of the year, the other part of his
 time being spent in common unskilled labor.  The butchers report $5
 and $7 per week.  The wages of the, carpenters are $1.50 and $2 per
day.  The brickmakers report $2.25 and $2.50 per day, with work
from twenty to thirty-two weeks a year at their trade.  Most of the
barbers worked regularly the whole year round, receiving their pay
on the percentage plan.  In this way they earned from $2 to $10 per
week.   One brick mason is regularly employed at the Soldiers and
Sailors' Orphans' Home.
   FARMING.--There are 13 owners of sniall farnis, and 26 who reported
working most of their time on the farm.    Farm laborers receive from
$1.25 to $1.50 per day.  For piecework, such as cutting corn and cord
wood, they sometimes earn as much as $2.25 per day.  Many who are
reported as working in other lines also work on the farm when work
in their preferred lines becomes scarce.  Besides this, nearly every
  family has its garden.
   CLERICAL WORK.--There are 5 clerks who act as bookkeepers and
 general helpers in the various businesses of Negroes, receiving from
$3 to $6 per week.  One stenographer, 25 years old, receives $30 per
month as secretary to the superintendent of the normal and industrial
department of Wilberforce University.  He is a graduate of the com-
mercial department of that school.    One young woman is a stenogra-
pher, but is at present unemployed.  In the United States Government
service there are 5 men, 12 as letter carriers for the city of Xenia, 1 as
       14453--No. 48--03---- 4




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

"The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio: A Social Study (1830-1900)." Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor

R.

Issue Number:  48