1833 Letter Boston Druggists forced to hire the \"feminine gender\", to Concord MA For Sale

Moffatt, Plummer & Co. [Druggists] Autograph Letter Signed, Boston, July 25, 1833, to Nathan Jarvis, Concord, Massachusetts
Quarto two pages, plus stamp less address leaf, in very good, clean, and legible condition.
\" ... We hope you do not begin to despair of receiving from us an acct. of the state of the Orris concern ... business has been unusually brisk for a week or more past for the season. We have had many orders among which was one for the West Indies (which you know are always \'puttering\') another from the British provinces - in addition to this 2 of our boys have been sick and we obliged to leave writing and put on the ducks ... We have been making preparations today, up stairs to get 2 or more of the femanine gender at work on orris in order to supply the demand however great. We are ready to increase the quantity manufactured and supply orders to any amount when we find it necessary. Heretofore we have been able to work along comfortably with our boys - but increasing business and an increasing demand for the \'truly valuable\' orris & syrup renders it necessary for us to make new arrangements. We have now got a good stock of bottles for each and intend to drive business...\"
Women workers were apparently not common in urban areas of the 1830s, even in Boston, despite the example of the famous \"Mill girls\" at Lowell. Orris root, a plant material that prevented the evaporation of of fragrances, was commonly dispensed by druggists. It\'s questionable whether Nathan Jarvis received this letter, as he had recently given up his drug stire at Concord due to chronic rheumatism, and, after traveling to Cuba to improve his health, relocated to New Orleans, establishing there a new firm that sold wholesale drugs.