324. Dress Trimmings.
In London, many women and
children are employed in making dress trimmings. The children
wind the quills, and the women wind the silk on reels, and weave
it, knit covers for fancy buttons, make fringes, tassels, buttons, and
other trimmings. In this country most of such work is done by
women and girls, the majority of whom are Germans, as are also
the proprietors. They are the best for hand work, but English
trimming makers are best for power looms. All large cities contain
more or less manufacturers of dress trimmings, but the business
is mostly confined to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
Many who manufacture, also keep for sale the different varieties
of sewing and embroidery silk, zephyr wool, patterns, and canvas,
braid, and such articles. It is only within the last twenty-five
years that fringes and tassels have been manufactured in this
country, but quite a number of houses are now engaged in it. The
goods are said to equal those of Europe. "There are over 1,000
hands employed in this branch in New York, at least three fourths
of whom are females. Girls at reeling earn $2.50; at braiding,
$3.30; and at weaving, from $4 to $6." I called at a factory
where eighty girls are employed. They earn from $1 to $6 per
week, doing both day and night work. No girl, the foreman said,
can earn $1 a day of ten hours at that work. When the snow is
on the ground, the girls can take work home with them to do at
night, instead of remaining at the factory. He says there are
different seasons for different kinds of trimmings, as buttons,
fringes, gimps, &c., and the styles of these trimmings change.
Work is slack in the early part of the winter for a few weeks. It
would take three or four years to learn all the branches perfectly.
Some sit and some stand while at work. At a manufactory in
New York, I was told the season begins in September and lasts
through the winter. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per week.
There is an over supply of hands in New York. At another place
I was told the work is nearly always paid for by the piece. Their
hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive from $7 to $10.
Women's part can be learned in from four to six weeks, and learners
are paid if they do not spoil too much material. June, July,
December, and January are dull months. In busy seasons good
hands are very scarce. The clerk of Messrs. B.'s factory told us
the wages vary greatly. We glanced over the account book, with
his permission, and observed that the lowest wages were about $1
a week, and the highest $4. It is piece work, and they will not
promise employment all the year. He says, if a girl that learns
cannot earn something in a year, she is not worth having. Their
work is for wholesale houses. At one place I was told the girls
work nine hours a day, and receive $4 a week—six months learning.
After the first week they were paid $1.50 a week for six
months. They make up a stock when not doing ordered work.
N. employs from fifty to one hundred women, and sometimes more.
They can learn in fourteen days. He pays from the first, and
pays by the week, they working from six to six, having an hour
at noon. It requires but a few weeks to learn one branch. One
girl told me she works by the piece, and sometimes earns from $3
to $6 a week. She works from seven in the morning till gaslight.
Girls, when reeling and braiding, stand. To those engaged in
this kind of work, there is employment all the year to twenty-five
out of every hundred; the rest are occupied from July to January.
When paid by the week they seldom receive more than $4, though
by taking it home and working more hours they sometimes make
$5. Prices in this kind of work have fallen considerably in the
last few years. I have been told by a manufacturer that the class
so employed is usually of not so elevated a character as some
others. The prices paid and work given for so short a time, prevent
the best class of workers from entering the business. M—s,
Philadelphia, employ about seventy females, including bookkeepers,
saleswomen, and trimming makers. In the dull seasons
their operatives are not likely to be thrown out of work, as the
wholesale dealers will always require them. The workers are
paid by the piece, according to the degree of perfection they have
attained. When a girl presents herself for employment, the foreman
immediately sets her to work on some easy kind of trimming,
but she receives no wages until her work is fit for sale. The loss
of time on her part and the risk of materials on the part of the
employer constitute the apprenticeship. A smart girl will of
course soon be able to earn something, and has always the stimulus
of increasing her gains. The class of girls in the store seemed
to be superior to those in the workroom, more intelligent and refined.
The workrooms were large and airy. The weavers, button
makers, &c., work from eight to ten hours a day. Another
proprietor said a person to learn the business should go to a small
place, where only a few are employed—not to a factory, as they
will not be troubled with learners in a factory. Some of his hands
work slowly, but execute in a superior manner; others work rapidly,
but make the article in an inferior manner. At another manufacturer's,
one of the firm told me a good hand can earn from $5
to $6 a week, ten hours a day, when times are good. They pay,
after a learner has spent a week at it, according to what she can
accomplish. The prospect for work is good, but he would not
advise a lady to learn it; he thinks millinery better. In a town
not far from New York, where he lived, a milliner could earn $20
a month and her board. Crocheting pays better. For crocheting
the heads of silk fringes, a girl may earn $5 a week. I saw
the agent of a lady who has trimmings manufactured. He says
girls spend about two weeks learning, and are then paid by the
week, from $1 to $4. He thinks the prospect for work very poor
at present, for their work has been for the South almost exclusively,
and now the Southerners will not purchase, particularly as
such articles can be dispensed with. They have employed hands
all the year, but are most busy spring and fall. The busy season
commences in February. A manufacturer told me he pays his
learners $2 a week for a time. His girls have work most of the
year. Good hands can earn $5 a week. Some of his hands take
work home with them to do in the evening. From the arrangement
of the conveniences in the room, I think the air must be
not only offensive but unwholesome. I observed this in two or
three other workrooms. At another factory, I was told it takes
but four weeks to learn, and girls during that time are paid fifty
cents a week. Girls earn from $3 to $5. One man told me he
pays as soon as the work is done well enough to sell. The largest
manufactory in the world of dress trimmings, curtain trimmings,
carriage laces, and military goods, is that of W. H. Horstman &
Sons, Philadelphia. They employ four hundred hands, the majority
of whom are females. In R.'s dress-trimming manufactory,
Philadelphia, seventy females are employed, at an average of
$2.75 a week.
325. Embroideries.
Embroidery was a favorite employment
of the ladies of ancient times. In the days of Grecian
prosperity it was a pastime among all ranks of ladies, and in the
middle ages it was no less popular. The French excel in embroidery.
Much of the embroidery sold in New York is done in
Ireland. "A French manufacturer has invented a process of
applying the electric spark to piercing designs on paper for embroidery."
There now exists a machine by which one lady can
accomplish as much as fifteen hand embroiderers. There are one
hundred and fifty needles attached, all of which can be in use at
the same time. By it the most difficult patterns can be executed.
Many of the machines are now in operation in Germany, France,
Switzerland, and England. "The canton of Neufchatel employs
more than 3,500 females in hand embroidery, but this branch of
the trade is principally carried on in the eastern parts of Switzerland,
where manual labor is extremely cheap." In 1851, 250,000
females were employed in Great Britain in muslin embroidery,
and the larger number of the women did the work at their
own homes. About a million and a half of dollars then passed
out of the United States in payment for a portion of this embroidery.
We would be pleased to see a greater demand for
these articles from a home, and less from a foreign market. The
increased facilities for stamping impressions on the muslin, and
the consequent cheapness of doing so, tends to render the business
more lucrative to those employed. The prices earned depend on
the skill and experience of the worker. Embroidery may be divided
into two kinds, cloth and muslin. The first is used for
thick goods, furniture covers, ottomans, chair seats, tapestry, &c.
The other kind consists in the embroidery of ladies' caps, collars,
handkerchiefs, and other light articles of apparel. The materials
used are cotton, linen, silk, and silver and gold thread. Embroidery
is paid for by the piece, according to the quality of the material
and the amount of work. For stamping muslin to embroider,
four, six, and eight cents a yard are paid, according to the width
and style of pattern. Some stamping is done with wooden plates,
some with copper plates, and some by a paper impression. The
wooden plates cost from fifty cents to $2.50. Metal tools for
stamping cost more. It would be well, in establishments where
embroidery is kept for sale, to keep patterns on hand for braiding,
needlework, and embroidery. Such patterns have met with a ready
sale, and always will, when such a pastime is fashionable. I find
fifty cents a lesson is the usual price paid for instruction in embroidery,
and a person accustomed to using the needle can learn
in a few lessons. One lady told me she charged twenty-five cents
a lesson. An embroiderer told us but little of such work is done
now. A good deal of money was made at it, when fashionable
for outer garments and for children's flannel skirts. A gentleman
that has such work done told me that good medallion
workers would find employment. B., who employs some embroiderers,
thinks there is not a surplus of such labor. He could
employ more hands. He pays by the piece, from $3 to $7 a
week. Taste and skill with the needle are required. Embroidery
pays poorly—one could not make a living at it now, unless
they had constant work, and were rapid with the needle: very
few in New York depend on it for a livelihood. D., a gold and
silver embroiderer, thinks a person of ordinary abilities could
not get to embroidering well in less than one year's practice. He
pays something after a few weeks—as soon as the work is done
well enough to sell. Many Germans and French have taken the
custom. The Germans do it for less, and consequently root out
other embroiderers. So there is not much prospect for work in
New York. He has considerable done for cap makers and flag
makers, who send South and West. He pays his girls from $4
to $5 a week, and they work from eight to six o'clock. I was
told at another place that gold and silver embroidery pays well.
The lady that works for W. earns $25 a week. A man writes:
"You are aware that women are unable to make the very finest
kind of needle embroidery, and that wherever the highest skill is
required, men are needed?" We are aware there are some
womanish men in France that embroider, but we must have facts
before we are convinced that women cannot equal men in embroidering.
A young lady, keeping an embroidery store in New
York, told me her father cuts stencil plates with chemicals for
embroiderers. In some establishments they are cut by steam
power. Her father made wooden plates, but it would not pay. It
takes but a short time to learn stamping, which pays better than
embroidering. Those that do embroidery cheapest, get most to do.
The greater part of it is done in winter evenings, as a pastime by
ladies. Many ladies have stamping done before they go to the
country in the summer, and embroider while they are in the country,
putting out their plain sewing. Ladies that embroider, generally
do their own stamping. M. knows one lady that embroiders
for two or three stores, and makes a very good living. But she
thinks very few have enough embroidering to do to occupy all
their time. The Broadway stores have considerable embroidery
ordered, and get very good prices; but their embroiderers, I have
been told, are not better paid than those of other people. Some
stores give it to ladies who do it for pocket money. Some of
these ladies talk about embroidering for their friends, but, lo and
behold! they expect their friends to pay them. It requires considerable
practice in embroidery to keep the stitches even, and
properly shape the leaves and flowers. A French woman told me
she used to get $1.20 a day for embroidering fine collars in Paris.
326. Feathers.
Mrs. M., Philadelphia, has served an
apprenticeship of five years at dressing and dyeing feathers, and
is now (and has been for fifty years) able to perform every part
of it herself, including the preparation of the dyes. She employs
women, but they do not give themselves the time or trouble to
learn enough of it to carry it on on their own account, but are
satisfied to acquire enough of it to enable them to earn a day's
wages. From the information obtained from this veteran, we
concluded that this trade can be very well carried on by women
alone; and farther, that there will always be considerable demand
for feathers and plumes, at least in large cities. Ladies' plumes
pay best. She prepares plumes for the military. At a feather
store in New York, the lady said the season commences in May.
Learners are paid $1.50 the first week, and, if they become good
workers, may in a few months earn as much as $6 a week. Mrs.
D. says she would like to teach some one the business, and
establish them where she is. She would turn over her custom to
them. She would do so for $200. Her location is a good one.
She would instruct how to curl, mend, sew, and color the lighter
shades, for $5. She says it is not unhealthy, but requires one
to be much on her feet. Taste, both native and cultivated, are
required for success. I saw turkey feathers made into a light,
delicate plume, and those of geese into flowers. Some feathers
from the tails of roosters formed large, dark, rich-looking plumes
for children's hats. This I mention to show what the poultry of
our own barnyards can produce. Mrs. D.'s work was not confined
to the feathers of domestic poultry. In dull seasons she prepares
feathers for busy seasons. Connected with her business might
be the making and selling of artificial flowers and head dresses.
She says a superior feather worker can earn $6 a week, and a
few even $8. Mrs. N. told me she takes learners, paying $1 a
week for one month, then more if the worker is worth it, and so
on. She will not teach to dye. All the American feathers used
in the United States are sent from New York. A colorer and
curler of fancy feathers told me it does not require more than a
few weeks to learn, if you can see the process constantly during
that time. It is easier to learn to curl than dye. To dye feathers
on a small scale is troublesome, for if you have a feather to be
dyed one color, another of a different shade, &c., you must mix
up just enough coloring matter for each one. A lady, that would
learn the business well, might make a living at it in the South or
West.
327. Hoop Skirts.
There are now hundreds of women
employed in the manufacture of hoop skirts, that will, when the
fashion ceases, be thrown out of employment. What resource
will they have? It may be that some other fashion will spring
up requiring their services, but we doubt it. D. & S., New York,
employ from 600 to 1,000, and once had 1,500 girls working for
them. They have large well-aired rooms. We passed through
and saw their girls at work. They were neat, well dressed, and
cheerful looking. Nine tenths are Americans. Most of the girls
have homes. D. & S. have established a free library of two thousand
volumes for the girls, but owing to the negligence in not returning
books taken out, they lost so many that the library is no
longer accessible to them. The trade of D. & S. is Southern.
Their girls earn from $4 to $8 per week, and work 9½ hours a
day in winter. The girls can change their position frequently.
Women are superior to men for this kind of work. While learning,
girls receive enough to pay their board. The continuance of
this occupation depends entirely on fashion. S. thinks the fashion
as likely to last as the wearing of bonnets. Most of the small
establishments in this business have been absorbed by the large
ones. From December to April are the best seasons for work;
from June to September the most slack. T., a large manufacturer,
says the average pay is from $4 to $4.50. His forewoman
earns $400 a year. Some girls are dull, and some are smart—so
the time of learning depends much on that. They pay the girls
something from the time they begin to learn. They work ten
hours a day. As a general thing the girls and women spend all
the money they can spare for dress. The firm have thought of
establishing a savings bank in connection with their manufactory,
for the benefit of their workwomen, but have never yet found time.
Some they pay by the piece; some, by the day; and others, by
the week, or year. Some seasons they employ about one thousand
work people, of whom nine hundred and fifty are women and girls.
I saw, at a factory, some girls covering wire for hoops. The machinery
was very ingenious. They are paid $3, and a few $3.50.
They have to stand all the time, and watch their work constantly.
They work ten hours. The man can always get enough of hands.
It requires but a short time to learn. They have work all the
year. The spooling, respooling, and covering, are all done by
women. Girls can earn from $2 to $6 a week, working ten hours.
I saw an old woman who spools cotton for covering hoop skirts.
She receives five cents a score, and cords six scores a day, earning
thirty cents. At a factory I was told the girls work by the
piece, and get from $4 to $5 per week. Owing to the want of
proper management on the part of the proprietor, I found the
girls do not have work steadily. Sometimes they get out of clasps,
or tape, or hoops, and cannot get them immediately, because of
their distance from the stores. At B.'s hoop-skirt factory, he
told me he pays from $2 to $7 a week to his girls, and he employs
between two hundred and three hundred. It takes but a few
days to learn. The season commences about the middle of November.
The twelve o'clock bell rang, and I heard one girl say:
"Let's swallow our dinner, and, when we have time, chew it." I
called at A.'s factory. He has about two hundred girls, and they
receive from $2 to $5 a week—working ten hours a day. They
were nice, bright-looking girls. More hoop skirts are manufactured
in New York than in any other city. I was in a factory
where hoop skirts were woven by hand. The weaver girl we
spoke to, said she did not get tired now, but did when she commenced.
The girls are paid by the piece, and a good weaver,
when industrious, can earn $1 a day. They do not sell so many
as formerly. At O.'s, they have employed two hundred girls, but
discharged one hundred the day before, and the girls earn from
$3 to $4. Last year they sold more than ever before. They
pay from the time a learner enters, but of course the pay is
small for a time. They begin at the lowest branches and gradually
rise. Those at machines sit, and those at frames stand.
Some skirts excel in elegance of shape, some in durability, and
some in elasticity. Many improvements have been made since
their introduction into this country. The prices paid were better
at first than since there has been so much competition. At
S.'s factory, I was told the girls are paid every Saturday night.
They are not paid while learning, but, when they have learned,
can earn from $3 to $5 per week. Some of their girls take their
work home. The amount of work depends on the market. So
they cannot tell what amount will be done next spring. They
are making up to send to New Orleans. Prices have fallen for
this work, and so a smaller number are employed than formerly.
Spring and fall are, of course, the best seasons for work. The
bindings are sewed on by machines, and operatives get about $5
per week. A. writes from Massachusetts: "Women are employed
in Europe in making hoop skirts, principally in London and
Paris. In our country they earn from $4 to $6 a week. I
pay my men higher wages, on account of the labor they perform,
requiring more exercise both of body and mind. The work of
a woman can be learned in a week or ten days, but constant practice
for months gives greater skill and success. The employment
is very neat and clean, and gives exercise to the whole system.
Women are quicker in motion than men, and their powers of endurance
greater. A sound mind in a sound body, and ambition
to excel, together with a tolerable love of money, are qualifications
necessary to render a girl desirable in this business." This
branch of business has given employment to upward of twenty
thousand women in the city of New York, and States of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The business is usually
suspended for the winter months. In New York city there
is always a surplus of girls seeking labor; they are daughters of
the poorer classes, and live in tenement houses, in close quarters—are
shabbily clad, and their wages go to support perhaps a
drunken father, or a widowed mother and fatherless children.
This class of girls contrast sadly in looks and health with country
girls, accustomed to breathe the free air of heaven. Their flattened
chests, pale faces, and scanty wardrobe tell too plainly of
the competition of labor among girls in that great city. I am
told by manufacturers, in New York, that the daily applications
of girls for employment, at their counting houses, is a source of
annoyance, and that they are obliged to paste placards on their
doors to avoid them. This business can be best prosecuted in localities
where the materials can be purchased, and near markets
where they are sold. The fact that workwomen are not paid as
well as men, is owing to competition. In New England, men laborers
are scarce, but women compete with each other. "Board,
$2 for ladies, $3 for men." A manufacturer in Connecticut, employing
from fifty to one hundred, writes he "pays from $3 to
$4 per week. The best seasons for work are from Jan. 1st to
April 1st, and from June 1st to Nov. 1st. They work eleven hours
per day. Women are superior to men, in the more ready use of their
fingers. Board, $1.50 to $2. Quickness and dexterity are qualities
most needed." O. & C., Connecticut, write, their girls,
"above one hundred and twenty, work by the piece, and earn
from fifty cents to $1.12 per day, in proportion to their skill and
industry. A very few in one branch earn more. Living on fashion,
is of course uncertain. Business months, May, June, October,
November, and December. Women are generally inferior
in construction and skill. Board, $1.75 to $2.50." Manufacturers
in Ashfield, Mass., write: "We employ about one hundred and
twenty women. The greater part of them do the work at their
own homes. Some baste the work together, some work the sewing
machines, some draw the bastings, and others sew on the buttons
and finish the work. Our work is all done by the piece.
Those who work the machines can easily earn eighty-three cents
a day of ten hours—the others earn from thirty-three to fifty cents,
according to age, activity, and capacity. We pay men $1 a day
for cutting the work and packing the goods. Neatness and despatch
are desirable for workers; and for operatives, sufficient ingenuity
to keep the machines in good order and condition. The
work is as comfortable and pleasant, perhaps, as any employment
whatever. Board, $1.50." I find some firms work ten hours,
some eleven.
328. Muslin Sets.
Many girls are employed in large
cities in making up lace goods, as collars, undersleeves, &c. S.
employs two women to make up undersleeves, caps, &c., and
pays from $3 to $5 per week to each. They stay from 8 to 6
o'clock. There are too many in that business who are not well
qualified. Very few are Americans. Miss A. used to make up
sets, and earned $10 a week often (piecework), before the Southern
trade became so poor. Girls earn from $3 to $5 a week for
this kind of work. It is cut and prepared by a forewoman.
Some women sell lace goods on the streets of London. I called
on a man who employs a number of girls to make crape collars.
He says experienced hands can earn from $20 to $26 a month.
They work by the piece. It does not require long to learn. Mrs.
H. called on a Frenchman who advertised for hands for that purpose.
He offered her $1.50 a dozen for making ornamented
ones.
329. Parasols and Umbrellas.
The parasol was used
by the ancients more in religious ceremonies than as a protection
from the sun. In some of the warmest countries, they are
as much used by men as women. The manufacture of parasols
and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in this country,
and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella manufactory,
Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed—one hundred
and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly
as many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make
and sew on the covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the
material and workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn
umbrella making. The girls we saw leaving the premises looked
tidy and cheerful. S. remarked that those who live at a distance
from the workshop, generally arrive earlier than those who
live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from excessive use
of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They used to
employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly
Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please.
Last summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia,
engaged in making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella
factories in New York, girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents
an umbrella. For silk umbrellas, they receive only two cents
more than for cotton ones. Parasols range in price from four to
twenty-four cents, according to size, style, and quality of material.
Old hands, in some houses, take apprentices for two or
three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their work for the time
given in instructing them. March, April, and May are the
busiest months for making city parasols; and August, September,
and October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in
New York, the man said he employed two women in spring and
one in winter to work. The parasol work pays best. His girls
earn, when making parasols, from $5 to $6 per week; but umbrellas
seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale parasol
work commences about the middle of December, but his, being
retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the
trade told me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per
week. Of course they have not work all the year steadily. She
is paid to stay in the store, and is expected to spend any unoccupied
moments in sewing for the shop. An umbrella maker told me
his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the kind and quantity
of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled. In
New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm
that employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average
wages were $4 a week. In the umbrella business the work is
invariably paid for by the piece. A gentleman told me that
girls in that branch of work become very immoral from association
with men while at work; but in large establishments the
females have a separate workroom, and there is no need of their
ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman. (Why
might they not have a forewoman?) S. Brothers say their girls
earn from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of
the year—their best hands all the year. Most of the work is
done at the factories, but some girls run up the covers at home,
and come to the factory to put them on the frames. I was told
that in Philadelphia, work can be done as well for lower prices,
because living is cheaper. My experience as to the price of living
was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had been
making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of consumption
in less than two years, from the long and close confinement;
but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust
and coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particularly
in summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the
openness of the pores. A manufacturer told me his hands could
earn from $4 to $6 a week. A learner must spend three weeks
without remuneration; then she is paid according to the quality
and amount of work done. About one fourth of his girls are
Americans, that have worked out, but desire to do something
they think more respectable. His hands have work all the year,
with the exception of six weeks. The busy time commences in
January. Most of his girls run them up at home, but put them
on the frames at the factory. S., New York, says the business is
bad in July, and part of August—also in February. In his
factory, some tailoresses, and girls that sew for milliners and
dress makers, get employment until the busy seasons of their
trades come round. His women get for sewing from $2 to $3 a
week; those that cut get from $5 to $8. It requires about two
weeks to learn the business. A good use of the needle is necessary
in a sewer, and economy in the use of the cloth for a cutter.
The business is likely to increase. In busy seasons there is
often a demand for good hands. In Paterson, Newark, and
other towns where the Irish prevail, they usurp the labor even
in umbrella making. In New York city a foreign influence
predominates, and many Irish have come into the business there
within the last year. The importation from England of umbrellas
(like almost everything else) is less and less every year.
Some manufacturers have the hemming done by machines. S.
will not, because it throws many women out of employment. A
Broadway manufacturer informs me he pays the ladies who
attend his store, each $5 per week—those who sew are paid by
the piece, and average $4.50 per week. He pays while learning,
the time of which is one month. A good maker will always find
employment. The best season is from January to June. Those
who attend store are there from 8½ until 7
P. M. A manufacturer
in New York, who employs eighty girls, informs me "he
pays by the piece, and each earns about $4 per week. Spring
is the most busy season. Men and women pursue different
branches. Board, $1.50 to $2." An extensive manufacturer, a
Jew, in New York, complained to me that women do not stick
to one trade. He has often had women who have been sempstresses,
cap makers, &c. Some, too, will not remain long at this
work—they want to go at something else. Now, I would ask
what a woman is to do, when her trade gives her work but part
of the year, and her wages for that are merely enough to keep her
alive during that time? Is she to be blamed for going to another
trade in the interval? No—she is to be commended for her prudence
and good sense. Do men confine themselves to one trade,
if they find they can do better in another? The proprietor said
he would not receive any applicants but those that are of good
families and bring certificates of character. He pays by the
dozen, and his women earn from $3 to $4 per week. Some parts
of the work, he says, is done by machinery that women cannot
manage. They receive enough to pay their board while learning.
A woman that has been a milliner has acquired a skill with her
needle, a smoothness and softness of touch, that enables her to
become a very good umbrella maker. Such a one is best fitted
for sewing on silk umbrellas. One that has been a tailoress and
accustomed to sewing on heavy cloths is deficient in fineness of
touch, and cannot succeed so well. The secretary of the Waterloo
Company writes: "The girls of the factory are all paid by
the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive $1.25
per day, and are practical mechanics. The work of the females
is easy, and requires little or no experience. Work hours
average ten, the year through. The women are all American.
Men's board, $3; girls', $2.50." A manufacturer in Concord, New
Hampshire, "pays his girls from $10 to $12 a month. Women
can learn their part in from one to three months. The best
seasons for work are spring and summer—the poorest, winter.
Board, $6 a month." Manufacturers in Boston write: "We
employ one woman the whole year in cutting out covers of umbrellas
and parasols, and pay her $6.50 a week the year round—to
another, who performs the same kind of work, in busy times,
say from November 1st to July 1st, we pay $5.50. A superintendent,
who gives out and receives back the work and keeps the
pay roll, receives $5.50 part of the year, and $4.50 the other part.
From March 1st to July 1st we employ thirty girls to sew up
covers and put on frames, and pay by the piece. They average
$4 per week. We keep ten girls, for this kind of work, through the
winter. It takes four or five years for men to learn the business;
women well versed in the use of the needle, two or three years.
From December 1st to March 1st, some of our women work on
furs, or upholstery, and some are unable to obtain any kind of
work. The supply is more than the demand, particularly this
year. As a location for this business, the advantages are in
favor of New York, because of the large market, and on account
of the principal part of the material being made there. Most
of our hands board with relations or friends, because they find it
difficult to get boarding places at such prices as they are able to
pay. Board, from $1.75 to $3.00." Umbrella stitchers in New
Britain, Connecticut, "have some girls tending machines, to
whom they pay from 50 to 75 cents per day of ten hours. They
have some to sort and pack goods. Women can do the light
work somewhat cheaper than men, and are somewhat quicker.
No other parts of the work are suited to their strength and dress."
330. Sempstresses.
In 1845, there were in New York
ten thousand sempstresses, and now there are probably many
more. "The following are the prices for which a majority of
these females are compelled to work—they being such as are paid
by the large depots for shirts and clothing, on Chatham street
and elsewhere:—For making common white and checked shirts,
six cents each; common flannel undershirts the same. These
are cut in such a manner as to make ten seams in two pairs of
sleeves. A common fast sempstress can make two of these shirts
per day. Sometimes, very swift hands, working from sunrise till
midnight, can make three. This is equal to seventy-five cents a
week (allowing nothing for holidays, sickness, accidents, being
out of work, &c.) for the first class, and $1.12½ for the others.
Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms, neatly stitched, are made
for twenty-five cents. A good sempstress will thus earn $1.50 a
week by constant labor. Fine linen shirts, with plaited bosoms,
which cannot be made by the very best hand in less than fifteen
or eighteen hours' steady work, are paid fifty cents each. Ordinary
hands can make one shirt of this kind in two days. Duck
trousers, overalls, &c., eight or ten cents each; drawers and
undershirts, both flannel and cotton, from six to eight cents at
the ordinary shops, and 12½ cents at the best. One garment is
a day's work for some, others can make two. Satinet, cassimere,
and broadcloth, sometimes with gaiter bottoms and lined, from
eighteen to thirty cents—the latter price paid only for work of
the very best quality. Good hands make one a day. Their coats
are made for from 25 to 37½ cents apiece. Heavy pilot-cloth
coats, with three pockets, $1 each. A coat of this kind cannot be
made under three days. Cloth roundabouts and pea jackets,
twenty-five to fifty cents. These can be made in two days." In
a large town, in Massachusetts, we read, not many months past,
of overalls being made at thirty-seven cents per dozen, or three
cents a pair, and shirts at forty-eight cents per dozen, or four cents
apiece. When the times are hard, prices fall from their usually
low standard. Our hearts sicken within us as we read the prices
paid needlewomen. The trifling remuneration and wasted health
of most needlewomen is a bitter reflection on those who employ
them. Some clothing merchants and cap and shirt makers pay
their women such prices as enable them to live—better than those
mentioned above. They are houses of a more respectable class,
that have a position, and deal with a more liberal class of people.
The occupation of sempstress is crowded to overflowing in New
York. In business times it is impossible to get a working person
to leave New York, but in hard times they are very willing to
go. One firm told me that they often have applications for
operators and sempstresses in busy seasons, but then they will
not leave; and when the times are dull there is no demand, and
they cannot. The supply of labor has been greater than the demand,
and hence the competition that has arisen among clothing
merchants, and the low price of made clothing as sold in slop
shops. The use of sewing machines has to some extent done
away with sewing by hand. Many a woman has been thrown out
of employment by it, to which many of our newspapers can
testify, and have borne witness during the past two years. We
have heard of some slop shops in large cities offering to pay the
highest wages to good shirt makers, each applicant to take a shirt
and make it for nothing, as a sample of her sewing. From one
hundred to two hundred, perhaps, apply, and, of course, that many
shirts are made. It meets the demand of the unprincipled shopkeeper,
and he has, perhaps, employment for a dozen or more. A
man that has a ladies' furnishing store, told me he pays girls that
sew neatly by hand 37½ cents a day. Many clothing merchants
have their work done in the country, because they can have it
done more cheaply. The sewing done by French linen makers is
very beautiful. The majority of sempstresses have no time they
can call their own. Those that sew twelve or fourteen out of the
twenty-four hours, without any relatives or friends even to be
protectors for them, and often in bad health, have no time for
mental improvement or social intercourse. "The habits of the
sempstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward,
and the arms being, even in walking, considerably bent forward,
or folded more or less upward from the elbows."
331. Sewing Machine Operatives.
There has probably
been no invention in which so large a number of persons have
realized fortunes as the sewing machine. All the first manufacturers
of them have amassed money. In the United States 150,000
sewing machines are in use. Miss P. says, a sewing machine
and baster do the work of ten hand sewers and five basters. We
hear of some sewing machines in London, each of which can accomplish
as much as fifteen pairs of human hands. At several
highly respectable establishments we were told their operatives
earn from $4 to $7 a week, according to the abilities of the
operative, the kind of machine, and the style of work. In houses
of lower standing, operatives earn from $3 to $5. I was told of
one man who hires a number of girls to work on machines at
$2.20 a week. At Y. & Co.'s, operatives earn from $2.50 to $4.
Machine stitchers of leather generally get $6 a week. The usual
number of hours for operatives is ten. I have been told that the
secret of its being so difficult to get basters is, they are paid poor
wages. A clothing merchant in the Bowery says he has a family
working for him that earn $28, and sometimes $30 per week.
They use two machines. The machine-made clothing for men
sells at about the same price as hand-made, and is generally liked
as well by purchasers. We think, the sewing of ladies done by
machine does not pay quite so well as hand sewing; but if we
sewed for a living, we would give the machine the preference, because
of its rapid execution. C., who employs about four hundred
hands, says their dull season begins the 4th of July. L., who
sells sewing machines, told me he frequently has applications for
operatives to go into clothing manufactories. G. & B. occasionally
have applications from other places, but always give the choice
to those who have learned with them. L. thinks the employment
of operatives will not amount to anything as a permanent reliance
out of cities. He thinks in one or two years the sewing machine
will be used in almost every family—as much domesticated as
the wash tub. In cities where clothing, bagging, &c., are made
in large quantities, of course, there will be a demand for some.
L., superintendent of E. S.'s machines, employs from three to
twelve ladies, and pays from $5 to $10 a week. They stay from
eight to ten hours. A lady, who hires sewing machines, and
sends out operatives, told me she charges $2 a day for a machine
and operative, sending both, and giving twelve hours' time, or
from $1.25 to $1.50 for an operator only, according to the number
of hours given. If they are hired for a week or more, the
prices are still lower. I think the usual hire of a machine only
is $2 a day. A man that hires machines told me that he rents
for from $3 to $5 per month, keeping the machine in repair
during the time, if it is not badly used. Singer's principal machine
is a strong, heavy one, most suitable for cloth, and requires
much strength to work long at a time. According to D., a
clothing merchant, a woman with one of Singer's machines can
do all the stitching of twelve pairs of cloth pantaloons in a day;
and a coat that formerly required two days to make by hand, can
now be made in one sixth of a day. W., agent of W. & W.'s
machine, says the lady that has charge of L. & S.'s sewing department,
told him ladies prefer to have their sewing done by
machines, and that B. will not have his mantillas made by hand.
He told me of a woman that takes in $30 a week with the aid of
two girls, to whom she pays $6 a week each, leaving the profit of
$18 a week; and of another who makes $8 a week with her machine.
Now that machines are more plentiful, work done by them is not
so well paid. The sellers of machines say it is not unhealthy. Some
people suppose the machine to be much more injurious than the
needle, if worked as long and constantly. The tax on the muscles
of the lower limbs and the weaker parts of the system is certainly
very great; yet those with treadles are thought by some to be
less injurious than those moved by steam. I talked with a lady
keeping a depository connected with an influential church for the
supplying of poor women with work. She thinks sewing machines
are very injurious—says a girl of seventeen will give out in three
or five years at most. It produces a pain first in the hips, and
the jar affects the nerves; and the sameness of the stitch on white
or black goods produces a constant strain of the eye. She mentioned
a young woman who came a few days before to get sewing,
who had worked at B.'s five years on a machine, and her sight
had so failed her that she cannot see to work now by gaslight.
She was but twenty-three, but looked to be thirty years of age.
Sewing by machine, I have been told, injures some kinds of goods.
The needle being large, threads of the cloth are liable to be
broken. Changing the kind and quality of goods in operating
injures a machine. The utility and profit of sewing machines
have to a great extent been usurped by Jew men, that are tailors
and cap makers. I have heard that many respectable men in New
York, after coming home from business, spend nearly or quite all
the evening in operating on machines, doing the family sewing
that has been cut and basted ready to stitch. What can we say
of such effeminacy and meanness, when done by those that are
able to give such work to poor women? A lady remarked to
me: "When sewing machines were invented, it was said new occupations
would be opened to women as the machine came in use, and
deprived some of a livelihood; but it is eight years since, and I
have not heard of one." The sewing machine has certainly thrown
many women out of employment. Those who are able to purchase
one may get along. It is in this as in every other branch of
labor—a capital, however small, is an assistance in business. One
advantage always gained by machinery is that it enables the poor
to purchase more cheaply the materials used by them. Freemasons
often buy machines for the widows they help to support.
In some of the large manufactories of Dublin, where sewing machines
are used, from fifty to two hundred women are employed.
332. Dyers.
Dyeing furs is wet and dirty work, and the
odor is very disagreeable. I was told by a lady that girls at
such work can earn $4 a week, or if by the piece, from $5 to $6.
There are very few indeed at it. She thinks it not unhealthy.
She sometimes cleans furs, mostly ermine, with a powder of some
kind. In the fur business, people must sell enough in three
months to keep them the other nine months of the year. In the
summer they take time to examine, purchase, and make up furs.
C., a fur dyer and dresser, told me he once employed an Englishwoman
to flesh fine skins—i. e., take off the flesh that adheres to
a skin when removed from an animal. It is done with a sharp
knife. She earned as much as a man, $1.50 a day. But men
object to working with women in that business; and no American
women, to his knowledge, know how to do it.
333. Sewers.
From conversations with a number of fur
dealers in Philadelphia and New York, I find the rate of wages
for sewers runs from $2.25 a week to $8. Forewomen get good
wages. Some sewers and liners are paid by the piece, and some
by the week. Those who work by the week are paid for extra
hours. A small number of the women employed in New York
are English, but the majority are Germans, who have learned
the business in their own country. In Germany most of the men
learn to sew, and most of the men engaged in the fur business
know how. Quite a number in New York are married women,
whose husbands are connected with the business. Furs are sold
only in the fall and winter, but made up in the summer. In a
few places they give work all the year to a small number of workers,
but the majority do not give work more than six months, from
May to December. Some fur sewers have another trade for the
other six months, as hat binding, &c. It does not require long
for a good sewer to learn—from one week to six. There are
some kinds of fancy fur sewing that require rather longer. No
women are employed in preparing the skins: that is done at different
establishments, generally in the suburbs, and exclusively
by male hands. The usual number of hours of sewers employed
by the day is ten; but many of those who sew by the piece
take work home with them to do at night, and so are enabled to
earn considerably more. Men working in the fur business in
New York earn from $8 to $12 per week. The quilting for linings
is done by machines, but the linings are sewed in by hand.
Liners are generally better paid than sewers, and earn from $6
to $10. In extensive establishments, a cutter and a certain number
of sewers and liners confine themselves to one kind of fur.
Some furriers pay their learners enough to board them; some do
not pay anything. I think the supply of hands in New York is
equal to the demand. The best workers, of course, are most sure
of employment. New York is the great fur depot of the United
States, but some business is also done in Boston, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. Furs are sent from St. Louis and Chicago to be
made up in New York, and part of them returned to be sold in
those cities. Those that sew furs at home can most conveniently
take learners. There are a number of middlemen in the fur business,
who get work from the stores and make a profit by employing
women to do it at lower wages. Mrs. G., an importer and
manufacturer, cuts her own furs, particularly ermine and sable.
She says furs are sometimes cut in Germany by women, but people
in this country think a woman cannot properly cut them.
Work at the fur business in England is said to pay better than
any other. G—s, the largest firm in New York, write: "We
pay women from $2.50 to $6 per week. Some work by the
week, some by the piece. Men get about double wages, but their
work requires more physical strength. Men do the cutting and
matching, and it requires several years to be a good workman.
Sewers receive about half price while learning. Some women
can learn all that is necessary in a few months. The prospect
of employment is not so good as heretofore. The women work
the year around. Work hours are 9½. Board, $2 to $2.50 per
week." Most furriers report the employment healthy, but it is
not, on account of the dust and loose hairs flying, for persons predisposed
to consumption. A furrier in New York writes: "I
pay mostly by the piece. It takes about one year and a half for
women to learn the parts they do. The amount of work hereafter
depends some upon fashion and the weather. The best seasons for
work are from May until February. We could not shorten the
hours of work unless the business had a longer season. Board, from
$1.50 to $2." A furrier in Boston writes: "Women are employed
for sewing and lining furs here, in England and France,
and partially in Germany, Russia, &c. Week hands get from $4
to $4.50, ten hours a day; others, from $2 to $6. Business in
future is uncertain. I am busy from July to Christmas. The
best location for the business is where furs are fashionable." A
fur dealer in New York, who employs from 10 to 15 women,
gives the following answers to questions concerning the fur business:
"The work is very easy, and not unhealthy. I pay women
from $3 to $6 per week, ten hours a day. They are as well paid
as males, in proportion to the amount of work done. Any apt
female can learn in three months, and is always paid by me $2.50
per week while learning. The business is better and there is
more of it every year. Work is steady from May to December;
very little at other times. The comfort and remuneration of the
employment is satisfactory among working classes. Women are
more capable of handling a needle for light, fine work than men.
The colder the climate, the better the location for business, provided
people have money to buy furs." In some establishments
where men and women work in the same departments, they are
allowed to talk while at work; but the practice, some complain, is
not conducive to good morals. The character of the people and
conversation, however, would decide that.
