347. Stays and Corsets.
At Mrs. B.'s, Philadelphia,
I was told women are paid by the dozen for making corsets, and
earn from $2 to $3 a week. They mostly take their work home.
At a place in New York, I was told they have sewing machines,
and they pay operators $4 a week, working from 7½
A. M. to 7½
P. M. Those that sew for them by hand do not earn so much. It
is difficult to get enough of good hands; so the lady thought
there must be openings for competent workers. Girls get $4 a
week for basting. Their girls are of all nations. Every store,
she remarked, has its own way of doing business. It takes some
time to learn to do all parts, as a girl usually works at some
special part. A man does the cutting. One corset maker thinks
it a valuable gift to be able to fit well. She considers corsets
necessary to the preservation of health. American children, by
their restlessness, counteract the effects of their rapid growth.
Miss C. told me those that work for wholesale houses can, if good
hands, find work all the year. They are paid by the piece,
and can earn from $3 to $6. It requires three or four years to
learn all parts. Her girls cannot take their work home. Few
are willing to take learners. At another place, I was told a good
operator can get $6 a week. They sell most women corsets of
French and German make. The French fit American ladies
nearly as well as those made to order, but the German do not.
At another place, I was told it requires but a short time to learn.
There are but few manufactories in this country. The imported
corsets are mostly sold, because cheapest. The basters get $3 a
week, ten hours a day, and operators $4, and $4.50, according to
abilities. Mrs. B. thinks it difficult to become a good fitter.
She employs men to cut, put bones and eyelets in, and press.
Anybody that can sew well can soon take up corset making. All
her sewing is done by hand. She sends her work to the country,
because she can get it done more cheaply. The work pays poorly.
She says the form is retained much longer by wearing corsets.
A lady who employs women to stitch corsets for her by hand, pays
from $2.50 to $3.50 a week—ten working hours a day. It requires
six months to learn, and a just eye, a knowledge of figure,
and an ability to sew by hand and stitch by machine, to succeed.
She says most corset employers in New York are French, and
employés Irish. She thought, if a lady has good apartments in
a genteel part of the city, she may do well. Mrs. B., who has
been twenty-three years carrying on the business on Broadway,
says she has applications constantly, but finds it difficult to obtain
competent workmen. Men are practical corset makers, and
do the cutting. They are better able to cut the goods, so as to
make a handsome fit. They receive better wages than women.
It is a business as much to be learned as cutting gentlemen's
coats. She pays both by the piece and week, and her hands receive
from $3 to $8. Some of the stitching is done by machinery—some
by hand. It requires about the same time to learn corset
as dress making. Learners receive from her from $1.50 to $2
per week. She thinks the supply of hands just equal to the
demand. She employs from 100 to 150 hands. They are mostly
from Great Britain. The business is dependent on fashion.
Spring and fall are the busy seasons. In summer, she does not
sell so much, because ladies are then out of town; but the employés
can work all the year, and do so, as she keeps a stock on
hand. Corsets are more worn now than a few years back. A
manufacturer in Boston writes: "I employ ten American women
in sewing on corsets. They work by the piece, and average sixty
cents per day. The prospect of future employment is not flattering.
Board, $2.25." Another manufacturer in Boston "pays
from $3 to $4.50, and says it is all he can afford to pay. His
hands work ten hours a day. The prospect for this work is good.
July and August are the dullest months. He has found women
equal to men in all branches of business they conduct. Board,
$2.50."
348. Bleachers and Pressers.
I called in a place
where I saw the pressing of bonnets and children's hats. The
rims of the hats were pressed by a woman with a large iron, the
crowns by a man with an iron attached to a lever fastened in a
frame. It is all piecework, and some can earn from $4 to $5 a
week. I have been told that Mrs. K., New York, employs
women pressers. The iron is not so heavy for bonnet pressing
as for hats, but requires too much strength for a woman. Shaping
straw bonnets is done by women—that is, placing them on
blocks and pinning them around the edge, after they have been
bleached, until they acquire shape. A man pressing straw hats,
told me he is paid 5 cents a hat, and can press sixty in ten hours.
The time for learning either to sew or bleach, I find, is usually
six weeks. Mrs. M. pays learners nothing for six weeks. Her
busy seasons are from October to last of November, and from
December to spring. It is all piecework, and her girls earn
from $3 to $4. A bleacher of straw hats employs a lady at $5
per week to alter and wire bonnets, after they have been bleached,
which is done by her own family. She works ten hours a day.
The work is mostly confined to spring and fall. The bleaching
process is very deleterious, owing to the sulphur used. It produces
a loss of vitality and shortens life. A stout, healthy man,
in the course of a year, becomes quite pale and thin. The bleaching
does not require all the time of any one. The bonnets and
hats are put into the bleaching room, and, when they have become
white, are taken out.
349. Braiders.
The following is from the New York
Tribune, of 1845: "The Amazonia braid weavers—a large and
ill-paid class of working females—begin work at seven in the
morning, and continue until seven in the evening, with no intermission
save to swallow a hasty morsel. They earn, when in full
employment, $2 and $2.50 a week. Out of this, they must pay
their board and washing (for they have no time to wash their
own clothes), medical and other incidental expenses, and purchase
their clothes—to say nothing of the total absence of all
healthy recreation, and of all mental and moral culture, which
such a condition necessarily implies. They have, many of them,
no rooms of their own, but board with some poor family, sleeping
anyhow, and anywhere. For these accommodations they pay
$1.50 per week, some of the lowest and filthiest boarding houses
charging as low as $1 per week. The living here must be
imagined." At Foxboro', Franklin, Middleboro', and Nantucket,
Mass., are straw manufactories. "In 1855, 6,000,000
straw hats and bonnets were made in Massachusetts, giving
employment to ten thousand of her people." Rye straw is raised
in all the New England States. It is cut, soaked in water (I
think split), and then dried. It is sold by the pound—then
braided by women and children for 10 or 12 cents a day. It is
mostly done in farmers' families, who are at but little expense for
living. In this state, it is mostly sold to merchants or agents,
who sell it at manufactories, where it is trimmed by machinery,
and then sewed. It is then shaped into bonnets, wired, pressed,
and bleached, the crowns are lined with paper, and they are
packed ready for exportation. The women earn on an average
$5 a week. In England, wheat straw is raised, which is inferior to
rye straw. N. says the largest straw-bonnet establishments of England
are not as large as those of the United States. For making
straw hats in Philadelphia, men receive $7.50 a week, and women
$4.50. Philadelphia is said to spend $6,000,000 annually in the
manufacture of straw goods. At H.'s, New York, they employ
from fifty to one hundred hands. It is usual to have learners six
weeks for nothing, and then pay full wages, if they prove competent.
Work is given about ten months. They are paid by
the piece, and can earn from $4 to $6 per week. In December,
they begin to make up hats and bonnets for spring. A milliner
told me she pays her braiders by the yard. Some earn $4 a
week, and some even $5. They work at home. The summer
season is over by September. H. writes: "In my opinion the
best arranged industrial establishment is the Union Straw
Works at Foxboro', Mass. High wages, cushioned arm-chairs,
a literary society which carries on the lyceum lectures of the
town, are all far above any of our factories. The proprietor would
not call it a factory, to make it more attractive. Out of three
hundred operatives, sometimes, seventy-five have been teachers."
350. Sewers.
Mrs. K. employs about seventy-five girls for
bleaching and sewing braid and straw bonnets. She pays some
$3, some $3.50, and some $4 a week. They work ten hours.
All live at home, but bring their dinners. She bleaches by the
old-fashioned process with sulphur, and has men to do the pressing.
N. & Co. employ about one hundred and twenty-five on
an average six months, and about twenty-five all the year. The
bonnet business has increased very much during the last few
years. At B.'s, I was told the wholesale work for the South
begins in November; but the city work, the last of March, and
continues to July. It is light work, and does not require close
application of the eyes. Machinery can never be used for sewing
straw, because long stitches answer, and straw is too brittle.
Persons of a nervous temperament are often the most intellectual.
Such females make good straw sewers. It requires a peculiar
adaptability, as every other occupation does. Everybody cannot
learn to sing or to paint—just so some cannot make good
straw sewers. He thinks most young workpeople in New York
do not live at home, and considers obedience to parents and
observance of the Sabbath the foundation of success in life.
B—s, of Connecticut, write: "Women are employed in this
country, and in Italy, France, and England, in sewing straw.
Our girls (150) are mostly paid by the piece, and earn from $3
to $7 per week. They also trim straw hats. They spend four
weeks as learners, and are paid $2 a week while learning. To
be a fast sewer is the most important requisite. The prospect
of a continuance of this work is good. The busy season is from
September to June. The best locations are near New York and
Boston." "About 200 persons are employed in the straw
factory at Nantucket. Some of the operatives are daughters of
the leading men of the town, and make $5 a week at the
business." A firm at Middleboro', Mass., write: "We employ
850 women, and have them in preference to men, because
they are more dexterous with the needle. They receive from 30
cents to $1.62 per day, and are paid mostly by the piece. Women
are paid five eighths what the men receive, but could not perform
their labor even at the same price. Learners make enough to
pay their board the first three weeks. Good mechanical talent
is needed in a learner. They have work about nine months in
the year—generally stop July, August, and November. Nine
tenths are Americans; seven eighths live at home. A large number
of them are not dependent upon labor for a living. Board, $2
to $2.25." From a factory in Wrentham, Mass., we have
the following report: "We employ during the winter season, in
the factory, from seventy-five to one hundred females, and in
families who work at home about six hundred, whose pay is
not so good by about one third. Some of our workers are paid by
the piece—some by the hour. Most of them can earn $1 a day,
twelve hours being a day for females. Men are paid 15 cents
an hour; good help extra, and poor, less. They work ten hours.
For the part done by women, we pay the same price from the
first, but their work is not received until it is well done. A
person is employed to give them instruction; five or six weeks'
practice mostly makes a good sewer of one who can learn at all.
During this time most girls earn half wages. To good help we
usually give work nine months in the year. Busy seasons from
December 1st till June 1st, and from July 15th to October 1st.
The rest of the year, work is given out at reduced prices—sufficient
to earn about half wages. All American women. It is
desirable for manufacturers to be near New York city, so as to
keep posted on styles. Many ladies choose this business after
teaching school for years. Most of our hands come from Maine,
and board in houses provided for them, paying $2 a week."
Another straw manufacturer informs me "the girls in straw
shops earn more than in most other kinds of business, they being,
as a general thing, smarter girls, and such as would not work in
cotton and other large mills. Their work varies much, as the
styles and materials change." A firm employing about eighty
American girls write: "They are paid according to their skill
and smartness, from $2.50 to $10 per week. Two thirds work by
the piece—half will earn $5 to $6.50—average about $4.50 per
week. Male labor will average double. It cannot be done by
females—they are not strong enough. The reason of women's
being paid low wages is the surplus of female labor. They can
not
be hired to do housework—it is too confining. It requires
one month, more or less, according to taste and genius, to learn
the work. Good references as to character are required, and
some skill with the needle, and an idea of form. Busy from December
to June, and from August to November. We do nothing
for about three months. Hands hired by the week are paid
extra for overwork. If we could not give them the amount of
work they have, the
best help would go elsewhere. There is
always plenty of help in this branch in New York, and they get
work done for much less, but by a different caste of girls. In
the New England States, girls are generally brought up to work,
whether rich or poor, and we can get help from the best families,
well educated and intelligent—while in some States we could
not find them. Board, $2.25 to $2.50." A straw firm in Franklin,
Mass., write: "We employ about 400 females—60 of
them in our manufactory—the remainder work at their homes.
The former have the privilege of working from 6
A. M. to 9
P. M.;
but as they work by the piece, they are not confined to any
particular time. The latter accommodate themselves. Few
get less than 80 cents per diem, and many can earn over $1—some
over $1.50. All are paid by the piece, except overseers. Males
and females are never employed in the same kind of labor.
Females make and trim bonnets and hats—males bleach, block,
and press them, which is too laborious work for females. Some
years would be required to learn to conduct the straw business
successfully. Some females will make a very good bonnet or hat
after a few weeks' practice. Others take a longer time, and a
few will never make a good bonnet. Our practice is to pay all
while learning. The qualifications required by us are a good
character, good health, skill in the use of the needle, and a desire
to acquire proficiency. The supply of hands is always greater than
the demand. All the females employed in straw factories
are American. Our girls have access to a good library, lectures,
&c. Those employed in manufacturing board at $2.25 per
week, including washing. Boarding houses attached to the different
straw manufactories in this town are of good character and
comfortable."
351. Gentlemen's Wear.
A dyer and scourer of
gentlemen's clothing told me she charges 37 cents for scouring
and pressing a pair of pantaloons; 75 cents for a coat, and $1 for
an overcoat. A woman could make a comfortable living at it if
she had constant employment.
352. Ladies' Wear.
The cleaning of kid gloves saves
quite an item in the purses of the wearers. Wooden frames, the
shape and size of gloves, are used for drying them on. The
renovating of silk shawls, dresses, and other goods is best done by
the French. They are sometimes made to look almost as bright and
clean as if they were new. Woollen goods, too, that will not bear
washing, are beautifully cleaned by those that rightly understand
the business. All that profess to, by the way, do not. Prices
vary, of course, according to goods, places, and renovators.
Women are mostly engaged in this business. A cleaner of kid
gloves writes: "I employ some women with pens and needles at
$3 per week, working from four to six hours per day. Cool
weather is the best for work, but they are employed all the year."
Mrs. C. told me that her husband and his men clean most gloves
in winter; they can clean them in two days. I noticed they are
free from any offensive odor. They pass through the hands
several times. She charges individuals 12½ cents a pair—storekeepers
less. She has been many years at it. They used to send
a wagon and collect them from the stores, but their business does
not warrant it now—so they send a messenger. As many have
attempted that do not thoroughly understand it, the business has
been injured.
353. Army and Navy Uniform.
Our Government
might do something toward bringing about a reform in the
prices paid women. If those who have clothing made for the
men of the army and navy would pay good prices to men of
standing, that pay their workwomen well, we think some good
might be done. At any rate, they would set a good example.
354. Buttons.
The making of buttons is chiefly done by
women, and affords employment for a great many. The proportion
of women to men in this branch of industry is six to one. Some
kinds of buttons are made by hand, but most by machinery,
moved by steam. The manufacture of cloth for buttons is a
distinct branch of business. It was estimated in 1851 that five
thousand persons were employed in Birmingham in the manufacture
of buttons of different kinds, more than half of whom were
women and children. In the manufacture of buttons a variety
of hands are employed—piercers, cutters, stampers, gilders, and
varnishers. "In a factory employing five men and thirty females,
from six to seven hundred gross of buttons can be turned
out daily." I called in a factory where buttons were made of
vegetable ivory. I think all the work could be done by women,
but it is a trade, and requires three years to learn all the parts.
One man might be needed to put the machinery in order when
it would get out of repair. Boys that polish buttons are paid
from $2 to $3 a week. Polishing looks simple, but, no doubt,
requires practice. A little girl, whose father makes common
horn buttons, says he employs some small girls who, by presses,
cut out the buttons and make the perforations. They are paid
seven cents for a thousand. Her parents assort them. H. &
C., manufacturers of cloth and gilt buttons, say it requires some
weeks to learn to chase the gilt buttons, which are done with
small metal tools and a hammer. Chasers are paid by the piece,
working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day. Those
that make cloth buttons work by the week, eleven hours a day.
They pay nothing while the person is learning. They think the
prospect of employment in that branch is good. (I think it must
be, for it is a manufacture likely to extend.) They employ their
hands all the year. The girls sit while at work. S. has girls to
do most of the work in making men's coat buttons. They
cut out the iron and cloth with machines, and also cover
the buttons with machines. The girls require but a few
weeks to learn. They are paid from $1.75 to $3 a week. Some
of the girls are not more than twelve years of age. The average
of the oldest girls is $2.75. They work ten hours. Learners
are paid half wages. Good eyesight and smart fingers are needed.
The gilding of brass buttons is called water gilding, though no
water is used. The mercury and nitric acid used in gilding
metal buttons renders the business pernicious to the health, the
fumes of the nitric acid affecting the lungs, and the mercury producing
its peculiar disease. A manufacturer of tin buttons
writes: "Our women earn from 75 cents to $1 per day, and are
paid by the piece. It requires but little practice to learn. All
are American girls from neighboring families." A manufacturer
in Middlefield, Conn., writes: "We employ from twenty-five to
thirty girls in cutting, drilling, sorting, and packing buttons.
They work by the piece, and average $15 per month. While
learning they are paid $1 per week, and their board. They have
regular work, and pay for board $1.50 per week. The prospect
for an increase of the manufacture is fair." A button company
in Waterbury write: "Our hands receive $3 and upward, as
they are worth. The business is good when times are good.
The majority are Americans. Spring and fall are the best
seasons." A buttonmaker in Morrisville, Pa., writes: "We pay
our girls by the gross, and they earn from $1 to $4 per week.
Men earn from $3 to $9. The women's work is lighter. Beginners
are paid small wages. The prospect of future work is
poor. Seasons make no difference in the work."
355. Canes.
Walking canes could be painted and varnished
by women. I have been told that, in France, women are employed
in making ivory, gold, whalebone, and wire heads for
canes. Mrs. F. makes whalebone heads for canes. She offered to
teach me how for $20. P. says he pays from $6 to $100 a dozen
for the heads of canes—ivory, silver, and gold. The work is mostly
done by Germans. The business will not pay except in large cities.
There are only six in the business in New York, which is the
main depot. He sells most to Southerners and Canadians. The
business requires a regular apprenticeship. Making and putting
on the heads could be done by women, if they were instructed,
but there would not be enough of it to justify more than a few
in learning. The South offers the best opening.
356. Caps.
Cap makers receive very different prices for
their work, depending on the quality of the material and work,
and the house for which the work is done. There are between
eight hundred and one thousand cap makers in Philadelphia.
They are said to average $3 a week. Freedley says: "In Philadelphia,
there are a large number of concerns occupied exclusively
in making caps; those of cloth constituting the chief part of the
business, though plush, silk, glazed, and other caps are also
made. The cap manufacture employs a large number of females,
whose wages in the business will average about $4 per week.
Sewing machines are largely employed; being, in fact, indispensable
in consequence of the expansion of the trade. The annual
production is about $400,000." A few years ago there were
five thousand cap makers in New York city. Many of the cheap
caps in New York are furnished by Jews, who get them done
very cheaply. They not only do much to supply the home demand
for caps, but export large quantities. They sell some caps
for from $1 to $1.50 a dozen. B. pays his cap makers, some $5,
some $6 a week. When business is dull the work is divided, so
that all hands are retained, and have something to do. Caps
are mostly made by German men on sewing machines. Some
Germans take fifty or sixty dozen a week from a store, and employ
girls to make them up. They are middlemen, and cut out the
goods. In New York, almost every branch of business seems to
have its own locality—that of the hat and cap manufacturers is on
the lower part of Broadway. A good hand can earn about $3.50
a week of 10 hours a day, or by working fifteen or sixteen hours,
which many of them do, can earn $8 or $9. Working girls generally
receive about $3 a week. They pay $2 for board. The
remaining $1 is almost consumed in shoes. Nearly all are at
times out of employment. In New York, by constant labor, fifteen
or sixteen hours a day, some cap makers can earn only from
fourteen to twenty-five cents. "We were told by an old lady
who has lived by this kind of work a long time, that when she
begins at sunrise, and works till midnight, she can earn fourteen
cents a day. A large majority of these women are American
born, from the great middle class of life, many of whom have
once been in comfortable, and even affluent circumstances, and
have been reduced by the death or bankruptcy of husbands and
relatives, and other causes, to such straits. Many of them are
the wives of shipmasters, and other officers of vessels. Others
are the widows of mechanics and poor men, and have children,
and mothers and fathers, &c., to support by their needle. Many
have drunken husbands to add to their burdens and afflictions,
and to darken every faint gleam of sunshine that domestic affection
throws even into the humblest abode. Others have sick and
bedridden husbands or children, or perhaps have to endure the
agony of receiving home a fallen daughter, or an outlawed son,
suddenly checked in his career of vice." S., of S. & Co., told
me they take learners when they can make good use of them.
The business, some time back, in New York, was over done, but for
the last three or four years the supply has not more than met
the demand. It is piecework. A first-class hand can, in busy
seasons, make $10, but many are not swift with the needle, and
cannot earn more than $3 a week. They give out some of their
work. All that can be, he has done by machines. R. & H.
have their caps made by machines. It is piecework, and a good
hand can earn from $6 to $9 a week. In a cloth and fancy cap
store, I was told the girls earn $4, $5, and $6 a week. Few
people are willing to take learners, as the season, six weeks, is
nearly consumed by the time the trade is learned, and the instructor
gets nothing for his time and trouble. Children's fancy
caps cannot be made by machine. They are usually piecework.
To make them requires taste. Six weeks is the length of time
usually given to learning the trade. A.'s caps are made by machines.
Good hands earn $5, $6, and $7. His hands are busy
only in spring. He takes learners at that time, and pays from the
first, $2 or $3 a week. D., formerly a cap maker, told me that
P—s have some of their caps made on Blackwell's Island, by the
convicts. B. told me the greater part of the cap is made by sewing
machines tended by men, but the finishing, lining, &c., is done
by women, either at home or on the premises. They are paid by
the dozen, and can earn from $5 to $6 a week. Some have received
even more, but as the work was taken home, it cannot be
known with certainty that one person did it all. The first year
they work at caps of an inferior quality, for which they receive
fifty cents a dozen; girls of average ability, can then take the
better kind of cap, and of course the wages increase according to
the degree of proficiency. A cap maker told me, good hands can
have steady work all the year. The best season for work is when
manufacturing for the fall trade, which is generally in the months
of June, July, August, September, and part of October, and, for
the spring trade, in March and April. Another told me he pays
by the dozen, and his hands earn from $4 to $7 a week. A
maker of cap fronts, New York, told me he pays his girls from
$3 to $7, working ten hours a day. From July to November are
the best seasons—May and June the poorest months. Cutting
out is done by hand, and requires too much strength for women.
Some men cut out fifty dozen caps a day. It is done with a
knife of a peculiar shape, and several thicknesses of the cloth are
out at once. Women are not so employed where the business is
done on a large scale. Some cutters earn $24 a week. A cutter
should have taste and skill, as he is also expected to design
patterns. The English style for caps is sometimes adopted, and
the most of gentlemen's clothing is of the English style, in New
York; but the ladies prefer French fashions for themselves. An
extensive manufacturer of cap fronts and other trimmings, in
New York, writes: "I have about twenty-five females employed,
the majority of whom sew at home. The occupation is perfectly
healthy, easy, and comfortable. I pay by the piece, and the
workers earn from $3 to $6 per week. Any woman that can sew
and has ordinary intelligence can learn it in three hours. There
is no prospect for increase, but constant employment for those
already engaged. Spring and fall are the busy seasons, but employment
is given all the year. I can always get ten times the
help I require in this branch: four or five years ago we paid
much better wages, but competition regulates (unfortunately) the
scale of wages. Experience tells me women are inferior to men
employées, in regard to promptness in coming to the shop, and in
having the articles completed at stated times, when required for
shipment. But I find them superior to men in refinement, temperance,
decorum, attachment to the interest of their employers,
&c., when unmixed with the male sex. I formerly employed
women on sewing machines, and when first started in that branch,
they made from $8 to $10 per week, although, since the last three
years, goods are sold so much cheaper, as to reduce the wages
from $5 to $8." In Detroit, Mich., cap makers get from five to
twenty-three cents a cap for making, and can earn from $2 to
$4 per week.
357. Coats.
We were told by one that ought to know,
that many of the gentlemen's coats seen on Broadway are made
by women. We believe that women of intelligence and judgment,
if properly instructed, could make the greater part, if not
the whole of gentlemen's coats. Much of the tailors' work of
New York is distributed through the country, because it can be
made cheaper. Many men make it a business, as agents, to distribute,
collect, and pay for such work. Men press seams and
sew the heaviest cloth, because they have more strength. What
magnificent buildings there are in New York devoted to the sale
of gentlemen's wear! But to think they are made of the sinews
and muscles and tears and sighs of hard-working women, and to
see the clerks in the stores, with nothing to do but receive and
wait on customers, while those poor girls on the fifth floor are
toiling from early morn to dark to earn less than one half of
those clerks! What a hard life most women lead!
358. Cravats.
W. & D. usually employ fifty hands.
Part of the work is done in the store, on the fourth and fifth
floors. Cravats pay well, and a good hand can earn from $6 to
$18 a week, piecework. Most of their work is done by machine
and finished by hand. Those of their hands who take work
home, do it when not occupied with home duties. The gentleman
with whom I talked, thought a person would not be able to support
herself by that kind of work alone. They have been able
to keep their hands all the year. Another cravat maker told me
he has employed hands all the year, and had most of his cravats
made by machines. A great many have been made in Baltimore.
M. & Co. give some work out and have some done at the store.
They are most busy in spring and fall, but keep some hands all
the year. They can always get plenty of hands. They take
learners, and pay from the first, but not so much, of course.
Week workers earn from $4 to $5—ten hours a day in summer,
rather less in winter. Those that work by the piece can earn
from $8 to $9, for they work faster at home and sew in the evenings.
Part of their work is done by machine and part by hand.
They usually import the material. Most of this work is confined
to New York, and has been a separate branch but a few years. In
Detroit, girls earn from $2.50 to $3.50 a week making cravats.
359. Hats.
We will give an extract from "The Art and
Industry of the Crystal Palace": "In the manufacture of hats
in the United States, there are twenty-four thousand persons employed:
one half of them are men, and the remainder women.
The consumption of straw hats amounts to about $1,500,000,
about half of which are imported. The capital invested in the
hatting trade in this country is little short of $8,000,000. The
number of trimmers in New York are four hundred. There is
no branch of industry in which the rate of wages is so fluctuating;
no trade reflecting so faithfully the depressed or prosperous
condition of the country. There are between fifty and sixty finishing
shops in New York. There is no general understanding
between the shops as to a fixed rate of payment. It is a peculiarity
of the trade, that a person seeking employment never
addresses himself to the principal; he goes direct to the foreman."
Silk and felt hats are most worn in the United States.
We find there is great objection by the workmen to the use of
machinery. Some factories confine their work exclusively to the
making of hat bodies. The manufacture of hatters' trimmings
forms, in large cities, a distinct branch of business. "In C.'s
hat manufactory, in London, fifteen hundred hands are employed,
two hundred of whom are females. Among the processes by
which a beaver hat is produced, women and girls are there employed
in the following: Plucking the beaver skins; cropping
off the fur; sorting various kinds of wool; plucking and cutting
rabbits' wool; shearing the nap of the blocked hat (in some instances);
picking out defective fibres of fur; and trimming."
Women in our country could be employed in bowing the fur,
pressing it with a hatter's basket, folding it in a damp cloth, rolling,
rubbing, working it with the hands, and dipping it in hot
water. The last operation is a very warm one. As it is, we
know of no department in which they are employed, except that
of carding, binding, lining, trimming, and tip gilding. Binding
and lining are much done by them. The work is light, genteel,
and rather profitable, and can be done at home. When done in
factories, the workers cannot be so neat, on account of the dust,
the large number of operatives in a room, and the coloring matter
that rubs off the hats. All employers have reported it healthy,
and I suppose it is as much so as any sedentary occupation, unless
from causes mentioned in the preceding sentence. A hatter in
Philadelphia told us he employs girls to line and bind men's hats.
They are paid 75 cents a dozen for felt hats, and $1.25 for silk
hats. Girls can earn as much as $6 a week at it. It requires a
couple of months' apprenticeship. There is work for steady hands
all the year. We have seen it stated that "hat trimmers in Philadelphia
average $3.50 per week. They number from eight hundred
to one thousand females. Hat binders usually spend six
weeks learning their trade." The war department, about two
years ago, closed a contract with S., of Philadelphia, to furnish
sixteen thousand felt hats for the army, at $2.75 each. They
make all qualities of hats at P.'s, Brooklyn, from those at 75 cents
a dozen to those at $50 a dozen. The linings of the cheapest felt
hats are put in by machines operated on by steam, the others by
hand. I saw girls also laying gold leaf on muslin, which was
stamped by a machine, forming the ornamental work and figures
seen in the crown lining of cheap hats. These workers were
called tip gilders. All except the box makers and tip gilders sit
while at work. Girls at lining and binding can earn from $2.50
to $7. (I think he set his last mark high.) It is piecework, as
everything, I believe, in that line is. Some girls have worked in
P.'s factory eight years or more. The business is learned in a
short time. Operators are paid at the same rate as hand sewers;
but if any difference is made, it is in favor of operators. For
hand workers, care and ability to sew well are the principal requisites.
The hands have work all the year, but in midsummer and
midwinter may do only three fourths of the usual quantity for a
week or two. Hatters who manufacture in Brooklyn and sell in
New York, told me they employ five hundred women, who are
paid by the piece. Those that sew receive from $5 to $6, machine
operatives from $8 to $9. A knowledge of sewing and taste, in
finishing hats, is desirable. The business will extend. Three
times as many hats are sold as fifteen years ago. Some parts of
hat making are performed by machinery that could not be managed
by women. The West and Northwest of the United States
present good openings for this business. Manufactories, of course,
must be where there is plenty of water. At a hatter's in New
York, I was told that they pay 14 cents for trimming a hat of
any kind, coarse or fine, silk or felt; but sometimes pay only 10
cents. Their binder often makes $7 a week. At B.'s, New York,
the girls earn from $5 to $7, and are paid by the piece. They
sew in the establishment. Sewing the crowns in and wires on of
plush hats is a distinct business from trimming, yet one in which
they employ some women. It pays rather better than the other
part of women's work, but requires great care and neatness. Sewing
the leather linings in hats is the least profitable part. More
women might find employment in hat work. A lady said to me
she has an acquaintance that sometimes earns $2.50 a day at
trimming hats. (?) L. employs some girls for trimming in the
spring and fall. It is piecework, and some earn $9 a week. It
is sometimes difficult to get very good hands. There are some
factories in the West, but none in the South. Another hatter
told me he pays 12½ cents for trimming a hat. He has noticed
that the swiftest are the best workers. A hatter told me a smart
trimmer could earn from $8 to $10 a week, six months of the
year; but not more than $3 the other six months, because work
is slack. A salesman in D.'s store told me a brisk hand can trim
a dozen hats a day. The children's hats they have trimmed for
the wholesale trade are not so neatly and carefully done as those
for the retail trade. In selling a single hat, a purchaser examines
closely, and if there is any defect, condemns it. The occupation
is well filled in New York, and the work requires care, taste, and
expedition. D. has constant employment for his hands; but for
four months they have not as much as the hands wish, yet enough
to yield most about $4. The women work above the store, because
the blocks are there. They are allowed to take home and sew in
the evening the linings of those hats that have the rims faced
with leather. The plan is, generally, for a learner to spend six
weeks' apprenticeship with an experienced hand, giving her work
for instruction received. At Sing Sing prison, New York, of the
one hundred and fifty female convicts, a majority are employed
in binding hats, at 15 cents a dozen, made by the male convicts.
The usual price in St. Louis is 14½ cents a hat. At this rate, a
lady can bind and line in a day a number amounting to from $1
to $1.25. There are two hat factories in St. Louis, but they are
not enough to supply the demand. A firm in Danbury write us,
they "employ from seventy-five to one hundred women trimming
hats. They pay by the piece, and their hands average $5 per
week. Males average $9 a week. By the rules of trade, males
spend four years learning; females, five weeks. Women are not
paid while learning. The prospect for a continuance of the business
is good. The busy seasons are from July 1st to April 1st.
Time of work does not exceed ten hours. The majority are
Americans. There are advantages in being near the great centre
of trade in this country, New York. Board, $2." A firm manufacturing
wool hats in the same place—Danbury—write they
"employ ten Irish women in a card room, and sixty Yankee girls
in trimming hats. The first receive $3 per week, the others
$5.50. Women in the card room work ten hours. The American
girls are intelligent and pretty." Another wool-hat manufacturer
in Connecticut writes: "My women earn $1 each per day, on an
average. It takes male operatives two years to learn. Work,
on an average, ten months in the year. Board, $2." A firm in
Milford, Conn., write: "Women earn from $3 to $7 per week.
The reason why women are not better paid, is because the supply
is greater than the demand. The employment will last as long
as people wear hats. Fall and winter are the best seasons for
work. The nearer you get to the market, the better the location."
In reply to a letter, a firm employing from sixty to eighty
women give the following intelligence: "The females employed
by us are generally from fourteen to twenty-one years of age.
They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to $9 per week.
The labor of women is entirely distinct from that of men. It
takes a good needlewoman about two months to become proficient.
Women give their labor to the person who instructs them, from
two to eight weeks. The business is good six or eight months.
The rest of the year, they average about one half of what they
can do. Busy times are from January 1st to May 1st, and from
July 1st to November 1st. The demand is about equal to the
supply, except in very busy times, when we could employ more;
but I think there are plenty, as an increased supply would tend
to lower prices. Most of our women are foreigners. The proximity
to large cities is advantageous to this business, as the goods
are mostly sold in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, &c. I should
say there is little difference between the women employed in hat
manufactories and others who have to earn a livelihood, such as
dress makers, tailoresses, &c. Board, from $1.75 to $2. There
is an objection amongst boarding-house keepers to females generally,
and strangers frequently have great difficulty in obtaining
good board. This is certainly the fault of their own sex." A
wool-hat firm in Yonkers, N. Y., write they pay by the piece,
and workers earn from $5 to $7. Male and female labor do not
compete. A gentleman and his son, in New York, who import
and manufacture children's fancy hats, write me they pay from
$5 to $12 a week, according to ability. Women are paid while
learning, the time for which depends upon capacity and taste.
There is regular employment with them in all months but June
and December. Good operatives are always in demand. Large
cities are the best localities.
Hat Braiders
, &c. Most hats called "palm leaf" are made
of straw grown in the Northern States. P. & Co., of Boston,
write me: "The occupation of braiding hats is one that employs
the odd moments and hours of almost every Yankee farmer's sons
and daughters, throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire,
from one year's end to the other. We employ women, but not
exclusively, and pay by the piece, from $1 to $1.50 per dozen. A
wide-a-wake Yankee girl or boy, with nimble fingers, will learn
in a few hours." A manufacturer in New Hampshire, employing
"from 300 to 400, pays by the piece, and his workers earn from
$6 to $8 per month. They learn generally when children, by seeing
others braid. The future prospect is not flattering, as the
demand for palm-leaf hats is decreasing. The braiders work at
home." $60,000 worth of palm-leaf hats were annually manufactured
at Nashua, N. H., a few years ago. C. told me they
never employ women, except, in winter, to bind and put the oil
-silk
lining in gentlemen's straw hats, for the spring trade of the
South. For the work they pay 12½ cents a dozen. A woman
can do from six to ten dozen a day. The best workers find employment.
The prospect of obtaining work to those who may
learn is good. B. thinks but few American girls are employed
in trimming straw hats. He pays by the piece, and some earn
as much as $5 per week. They should spend about one month
learning, and they do well to earn their board during that time.
360. Oil Clothing.
I was told at L. & Co.'s oil clothing
depot, that they have their sewing done by women at their
homes. It is done by machines. They do not require any deposit.
Since the panic, a number of girls and women have come
in and offered to do their work at under prices. The oiling is
done after the goods are made up. The garments are laid on
tables, and the oil applied with brushes. The clothes are then
hung on frames to dry, and it requires six months. Oiling the
goods is greasy, dirty work, but might be done by strong women.
The work is not at all unhealthy. L. & Co. sell $150,000 suits
a year. Their best sewers can make up six or eight dozen shirts
a week, for some of which they are paid $1 a dozen, and for
others, $1.25. The manufacture of oiled goods is confined to
New York.
361. Pantaloons.
In making pantaloons, as in most
other tailor's work, what is most neatly done commands the best
prices. Custom work pays best. Making pantaloons is not quite
so remunerative as making vests. The prices paid in cities by
good-class tailors for making summer pantaloons, runs from 75
cents to $1.25. For winter goods the prices are higher, ranging
from $1 a pair to $1.50. Some tailors have their pantaloons
made by men, and some even employ men to make their vests.
362. Regalias.
"Five American women are employed at
Chicopee, Mass., in stitching military goods. They are paid by
the piece. They never get their work perfect. Learners are
paid something. Men are preferable, because it takes too much
time to wait on women. There will be work as long as there are
wars." A regalia maker, in New York, told me her girls earn
from $3 to $5 a week. The sewing is done by hand. Those who
embroider in silk receive about the same; those with gold and
silver thread, something more.
363. Shirts.
"Women who make shirts by hand, are paid
for fine shirts from eighteen cents apiece to $1. Those who
make at the lowest prices appear to have no other mission on
earth but to sew up bleached muslin into shirts. The only
time which they economize is their sleeping time; and their food
is economized for them by circumstances over which it would
appear they have but little control. In some instances we have
been informed, that where there are two or three or more women
or girls engaged in this enterprise of making shirts to enable
gentlemen to appear respectable in society, they absolutely divide
the night season into watches, so that the claims of sleep
may not snatch from the grasp of the shirt manufacturers an iota
of their rights. In this way, by working about twenty hours a
day, the amazing sum of $2.50, and sometimes $3, is earned per
week. Sewing machines have so reduced the amount of labor required
for shirts, as well as the price, that they can in some
places only earn twenty-five cents by working twelve hours; and
they cannot get steady employment even at these prices." Between
2,000 and 3,000 women are supposed to be engaged in
shirt making in Philadelphia. Competition has depressed prices
fearfully low. A shirt maker in that city told me he pays by the
week. He gives the bodies out, and they are done by hand; the
collars and bosoms by machines. They are cut out by men with
knives, and the cloth is from twenty-four to thirty-six thicknesses.
They pay basters now mostly by the piece. B., of the same city,
who carries on general shirt making, puts the plain parts out in
the country to be done. It, of course, costs less than the finishing
off. Good workers can earn from $3 to $4 a week for plain
sewing—more for fine. At a shirt-bosom manufactory in Philadelphia,
P., the proprietor, told me he has the bosoms and collars
made by machinery, employing seventeen girls all the year.
Some establishments employ them only in the busy season,
spring and fall. His women earn from $3 to $5 a week. To
one machine are employed three girls: one to cut out, one to
baste, and one to stitch. The fine plaits of bosoms are laid by
machinery. Cutters and button-hole makers are better paid than
basters and stitchers. A shirt maker told me in New York (December,
1860), that the only houses there supplying the article
were those that made up for the California market. Operators,
good ones, he said, usually earn $1 a day, of nine hours in winter,
and ten in summer. Those that work at home can earn more,
because they do more. On Dey street, I was told by a gentleman
that he has shirts made in Connecticut, and he often finds it
difficult to get good hands. He has shirts cut out with scissors.
He used to employ a forewoman to cut and superintend. Most
shirts sold in the South, West, and California, have been
made at the North. New York, Troy, and New Haven are
the principal places. Operators usually earn $1 a day, of
eleven hours; but as the work is generally paid for by the
piece, they may earn only from fifty cents to $1. Making
button holes is a distinct branch. He pays half a cent apiece
for those of ordinary size, and one cent for the larger ones
of the wrists. In good times he employs girls all the year. The
spring sale commences in January, the fall sale in July. S.,
another manufacturer, has common drawers and shirts made by
machine. A brisk hand can make two dozen pair of drawers a
day, and are paid fifty cents a dozen (?) He keeps workers in
prosperous times all the year. A lady who makes shirts by hand
told me she could barely make a living, though her work is done
for customers. She does most in spring and summer. The
trimmings she makes by machine. Madame P. pays eighty cents
for making a shirt, except the bosom, which is imported. She
does her own cutting by hand. A shirt maker says girls that
can finish a shirt neatly get $3 a week of ten or eleven hours
a day. Work of that kind is not confined to seasons. J. has
most work to do in summer. The girls are paid by the piece, and
can earn from $3 to $4. His are made by machine, but finished
off by hand. He has girls of all kinds; idle and industrious,
easy of temper and obstinate; in short, the variety always to be
met with in help. A lady told me she cuts shirts by measure,
and has a variety of styles. She pays an old lady fifty cents a
day for basting, and from $5 to $6 a week to an operator. The
neatness of machine sewing depends much on the way in which
the basting is done. W. told me his basters earn from $3 to $4;
operators from $5 to $6; button-hole makers from $4 to $6. He
gives employment all the year. No demand, except in busy seasons
for good operators, and they can be obtained by advertising.
The owner of a shirt-collar manufactory and laundry said his
collars were stitched by machines, and the operators earn from
$3 to $9 per week. It is piece work. The washers are paid by
the hundred dozen. Six weeks, I believe, is the time usually
given by one that can sew neatly, to learn the trade. At L. &
G.'s, I was told the best seasons in the wholesale trade are spring
and fall; but in the retail trade there is little difference. Men
and boys cut out with a knife, and are able to cut through
seventy-two thicknesses of cloth. Women have not the strength to cut
such quantities. The prospect is fair for good hands. There is
a superabundance of indifferent hands. Their best sewers are
English. Many of them are married women. They used to employ
young girls, but they wasted material and were not steady
at work. They have lost much by women that would come and
take out a dozen shirts to make, and never return them. On inquiring
at the place where the women said they lived, they would
find they had never been there. Few, except the Jews, require a
deposit. It is difficult to obtain one from sewers of the value of
the material taken out. They could obtain one hundred and
fifty hands any day by advertising. Button-hole makers earn $5
a week; some operators, $9. A factory in New Haven employs
eight hundred women; two hundred work in the establishment,
the others work out. The indoor work is done by machines.
The other is finishing off, and is sent through the country. It
consists in gathering and sewing in the sleeves, felling down the
facing around them, stitching on wristbands, sewing in the bosoms,
putting on the collar, and working the button-holes, for
which they receive ten cents a shirt. A firm of shirt manufacturers
in Troy, N. Y., write: "We employ from three hundred
to four hundred women; some with sewing machines, some
with needles, and others in various kinds of labor connected with
our manufacturing. They are paid by the piece, and earn from
$3 to $10 a week. While learning they are paid according to
what they do. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but they
have some employment all the year. The supply is fully equal
to the demand in this locality. About half are Americans;
board, $2 to $2.50." Another firm in the same place writes:
"We employ four hundred, and pay from $5 to $10 per week to
about one hundred hands, and from $3 to $7 to those who do not
depend upon it for a livelihood. Women spend a few months learning;
men, years. Midwinter and summer are the best seasons for
work." A shirt-collar firm in Troy write: "In reply to yours
we would state, we are employing in and outside of our manufactory,
from six to eight hundred women, in running, turning,
stitching, banding, marking, and boxing gentlemen's collars.
Most of our workwomen are Americans, and live with parents or
relatives. Those boarding pay from $1.75 to $3 per week.
Many of our workwomen are very intelligent. All are required
to be steady and industrious. Some parts of our business can
be learned in two or three weeks, while other parts will take as
many months; but each one is paid while learning. Our work
is all done by the piece, and women earn from $5 to $8 per week
during business seasons, which are summer and winter. They
are usually thrown out of employment one month during the fall,
and one in spring. The employment requires from eight to nine
hours per day, in our manufactory. The making of gentlemen's
collars must increase in proportion to the increase of the male
population of our country; and, as styles are becoming more and
more varied, this also must tend to increase the manufacture.
There is, however, no demand for help in any department of the
business, yet. We have but five or six women in all our establishment
who are required to stand upon their feet while at
work. All others can make their positions quite comfortable.
We employ but few men (from five to eight), and they are in de
partments
which women could not fill; nor could men well fill
the women's department." Manufacturers in Boston write:
"The prospect of future employment is good. Our women (fifty
in number) are nearly all Americans. There is no competition
between male and female labor in this branch, which, probably,
is the cause of women receiving less wages. The work is healthy,
only as it involves want of fresh air and exercise. Girls in the
shop are paid from $4 to $7 per week, and work from nine to ten
hours. Good sewers are getting scarcer every year. We are always
ready to employ a really good hand—one who can do nice
work. There is a growing demand for articles of all kinds.
There are a great many women unable to sew well, who compete
with each other for the work given out by the slop shops."
Shirt makers in Ithaca, New York, write: "The work is very
healthy in well ventilated establishments. What we employ men
for, women cannot do as well. There is a demand for collar finishers,
a surplus of machine operatives." Shirt manufacturers
in Watertown, Conn., write: "We employ in our establishment
from twelve to twenty girls and women, all Americans.
They work in winter about nine hours; in summer, ten. Most
of them work on sewing machines, and can earn from $4 to $5
per week. For board they pay $2 per week. There is no season
of the year when our work is entirely stopped." L., in Lynn,
Mass., engaged in custom-shirt manufacturing, writes: "I
pay fifty cents apiece for making shirts, and $4.50 per week
for a machine girl. My workwomen are widows and married
women, and they average five shirts or $2.50 per week, besides
their house work. But a woman that makes five shirts a week
cannot have much spare time." A lady in Massachusetts, who
has shirts made to order, informs me she pays by the piece, and
her girls earn from fifty to seventy-five cents a day. She employs
the most skilful. She says the nature of the employment
is such that no woman could enjoy health long, who did nothing
else, and the wages are so small that anyone must work all the
time to make a living; hence the work does not suit any, except
those who have homes and have recourse to this as a secondary
employment. The demand for the articles in the market is limited,
and she has never been able to carry it on in a wholesale
manner except by the aid of friends whose sympathy has created
a demand for the work.
