364. Suspenders.
J., New York, says his girls can earn
from $4 to $5, and are paid by the piece. There are but four
suspender factories in the United States, of any size. The factories
at the east are mostly supplied by the daughters of farmers from
the vicinity. The one in Easthampton is of the best standing.
The girls are intelligent and well behaved. Board too is lower.
They like to employ families, father, mother, sons, and daughters.
A suspender maker, in New York, told me he buys the woven
goods, then cuts it the right length, and shapes the leather for the
ends, which his wife sews on. I expect, from the appearance of
their room, they earn but a meagre subsistence. The agent of
the American Suspender Co., at Waterbury, told me "they employ
a large number of girls to spool, weave, and pack. The straps
are sewed on by farmers' daughters, who take them home. They
are paid for by the gross. They earn less than weavers, who can
make from $4 to $6 a week. They have had constant work until
this fall (1860). The bindings are sewed on by hand. It requires
some time to become a good weaver. A man serves a regular
apprenticeship—women will learn for ten years, if they continue.
Ingenuity and mechanical talent are desirable. A learner
is not paid while in with another weaver. The amount of employment
in future depends on European competition. The hands
work ten hours a day, and they employ about fifty women, one
fourth of whom are American. Women are superior to men in
activity, and will handle thread much better than men. Board,
$1.75."
365. Tailoresses.
The tailors of London have a pension
society. All the tailors' work of this country might be performed
by women. It is most suitable for them. Some say women cannot
do the nice sewing of a coat. Give them the same training,
and pay them the same wages as men, and we are confident they
can. All of the clothes sold in the slop shops of cities are made
by women. Many can sew beautifully, but have not learned the
art of cutting out. This they will find an important part of their
trade. It will greatly assist those who make boys' clothes. It is
ascertained that at least 4,800 females are supplied with work by
the ready-made clothing establishments of Philadelphia, which
enables each industrious sewer to earn from $1.25 to $5 per week.
A large number of women are now engaged in making clothes for
the soldiers. At most large clothing establishments, work is done
both by hand and machine. Some is done in the house, but most
is given out. At O.'s, New York, they employ a large number.
The majority are Americans, but some are Germans, and a few
Irish. The foreman finds those that are dependent on their work
for a living, do their work better than those that merely do it for
pocket money. The best work is always best paid. A good
hand can earn $3 per week. They work by the piece. Some
women hire a room and employ girls to work for them. S. says
the principal reason that women do not get as good prices as men,
is that they do not learn to do their work so well. He spent five
years learning, but a girl expects to learn it in so many weeks,
or months, at most; but many women that sew for a support are
very poor, and cannot afford to spend much time learning. T.
pays his women from $5 to $10 a week, according to the work
they do. R. says girls do not feel the interest in their work they
should. They forget that three minutes lost by twenty girls
amounts to an hour. If a procession is passing, they think it very
hard if they cannot have ten or fifteen minutes to look out of the
windows. The girls that sew earn from $3 to $4.50, except those
who fasten the ends of threads and take out basting threads, who
receive $2.50. They all work ten hours. They have some who
take their work home, and are paid by the piece. Those that do
their work best have the highest prices, and are most sure of having
constant employment. Some of their women become mere
machines, and that in his opinion was a recommendation. They
have no life or spirit, but plod on day after day in the same way.
Such, when they do their work neatly and thoroughly, he thinks
most reliable. They find it difficult to get their work well done.
It is computed by Dr. L. that one thousand needlewomen fall
victims annually to overwork at the needle. A city missionary
told me that he knew of many sempstresses that spent sixteen
hours out of the twenty-four, stitching. I was told in D. & B.'s
clothing store, that the women who sew by hand, earn from $3
to $4 per week. P. measures and cuts, and he employs women
to operate on machines, paying from $3 to $4 per week, working
from 8 to 7 o'clock. It is done under Mrs. P.'s supervision.
The work is mostly for boys. They give work out, and of course
pay by the piece. Their most busy times are from October to
March, and from April to September. They do Southern work.
L. & Co. make boys' clothing, and pay by the piece. They require
a deposit from those that are doubtful. If business is good,
they give work all the year. He thinks there is enough of work,
in busy times, for all the tailoresses in the city. The best way
to learn is to receive instruction from journeymen who employ
hands and take learners. Some require an apprenticeship of
three months, and some of six months, in children's clothing.
The busy season commences November 1st and runs to March
1st, and from March to September 1st.
366. Vests.
First class vest makers receive better prices
than women in the other departments of tailoring, and are more
sure of work. Superior hands can earn from $4 to $5 a week.
Clothing, cap makers and shoe binders are often crowded together
from forty to fifty in a room, where it is stitch, stitch, stitch from
daylight to sundown. Some slop shops in New York pay only
fifteen cents for making a vest, and only ten cents for pantaloons!!!
There are over nine thousand tailoresses doing custom work in
New York, and of these 7,400 are vestmakers.
367. Upholsterers.
Some branches of upholstery are
hard work in consequence of the heaviness of the materials. At
some upholsterers in Philadelphia, when a girl applies for work,
she is taught during a fortnight, and receives enough to pay her
board—usually $1.50 per week. At the end of this time, if found
faithful and diligent, she is put upon full wages, $3.50 a week.
In this trade there is the serious drawback of remaining a great
part of the year unemployed, as it is only in the spring and fall
that the business is brisk. Men usually put up tapestry, and lay
down heavy carpets. The price to girls by upholsterers is about
on a par with other work done by females. H., Philadelphia,
employs several women. The forewoman receives $5.50 per
week; the next best hand, $5; the less proficient, from $2 to $5.
The business requires a good amount of intelligence, and about a
year's application to acquire it. H. is not exacting as to the
number of hours his operatives work. When business is slack
they have easy times. He employs his good hands all the year.
In one of the principal importing and manufacturing upholsteries
and carpet establishments in New York about seventy females
are employed. They make up a great many lace and damask
curtains, and are under the supervision of a forewoman. Seventeen
sewing machines are kept, though most of the sewing
is done by hand. Any person that can sew well can do all the
work, as it is cut out and prepared. With a very few exceptions
all are paid by the week, receiving from $3 to $4, working
ten hours a day. The piece workers can sometimes earn $5.
They are employed the whole year. An upholsterer told me
that his work is done to order, and consequently the measure for
beds, mattresses, curtains, &c., is always taken. There are many
women in Boston, I have been informed, working in sofa, chair,
and lounge manufactories that earn from $1 to $1.50 a day. A
firm in Boston writes: "I employ women to sew and attend
sales, and pay from $3 to $4 a week. Men are paid two thirds
more than women, because it is the fashion. It requires three
months to learn. A knowledge of the needle and figures is
desirable. Learners are paid. Females work nine hours and a
half. Some parts of our work are in wood, and too heavy for
women; the rest they can do better than men. Board, $2 to
$4. A firm in Boston, "employing two women to make sofa
cushions, pay them $4 each per week, working from eight to ten
hours a day. They pay women less than men, because female
help is generally cheaper. Men spend three years learning;
women, one month. Learners have their board paid. The prospect
for work is good. Spring and autumn are the most busy seasons,
but they have work all the year." Another firm in the same
place write they "employ fifteen women, pay by the piece, and
their hands earn $5 per week. The prospect for work is good,
but there are plenty of hands there."
368. Beds.
At a feather store I was told feathers for
stuffing beds are bought from merchants, who employ agents to
travel through the country, and buy them up. They get their
feathers from the West. Live geese feathers are the best. All
imported are from Russia. It requires great experience to buy
feathers. At another store I was told feathers must be baked to
render them light—otherwise they are flat and heavy. The
salesman never knew of a woman being employed in baking—thinks
it not suitable, for the down gets in the mouth and
nostrils, as the feathers must be constantly stirred. In the
spring and fall, when most people go to housekeeping, most beds
are sold.
369. Carpets.
Two thirds of the inhabitants of Saxony
are employed in weaving. It requires from two to three years
to become a good carpet weaver. To prepare warp and rags for
rag carpets is very suitable, but the weaving is rather hard for
women. Mrs. W. says it does not require a great deal of strength
to weave rag carpets, when the loom is a good one and in proper
order. In weaving, both the arms and lower limbs are exercised,
particularly the latter. She wove when she was only thirteen
years old. The exercise tends to develop the chest. The price
for weaving in small places is from 12½ to 18 cents a yard.
She knew one lady that often wove fourteen yards a day, amounting
to $1.75; but her health failed, and she changed her occupation.
I called in a weaver's, in Brooklyn. He charges 18¾
cents per yard for weaving, and can weave from eighteen to
twenty yards a day. Some rags are much more difficult to manage
than others. The dust from the rags in spooling and weaving
must be disagreeable. When not working for customers he
makes carpets to keep on hand for sale. He buys the rags of old
women, who get the scraps at tailors' shops every Monday morning,
and cut them into strips, then wind and sell them at $7.50
a hundred pounds. The women are mostly Germans, and make
a scanty living at it. In the Old Ladies' Home, Brooklyn, some of
the inmates pass part of their time in preparing rags for weaving.
Some old women buy of junk dealers the rags they sell to weavers.
A woman whose husband was a carpet weaver in New York, continues
the business since his death, employing two old men to
weave. She charges eighteen cents a yard for weaving. She
says that kind of weaving could never be done by machinery,
as it would pull the rags all to pieces. She buys listing and
cloth of old women who get it from the tailors and bring it around
to sell. She pays twelve cents a pound for listing, six for cloth.
She cuts them herself. A weaver told me he charges eighteen
cents a yard. He buys pieces of cloth from the tailors for making
up a stock to keep on hand. A pile of listing lay on the
floor, for which he had paid nine cents a pound. He can weave
from eight to sixteen yards a day. I have seen the average price
of weaving carpets stated at nine cents a yard. The dust that
flies in preparing carpet rags is disagreeable, and injurious to the
eyes and lungs.
370. Curled Hair Pullers.
Hair pullers are mostly
Irish women, the wives of foreigners and laboring men. A few
are women of a better class reduced in circumstances. In Philadelphia,
at the shop of a kind old man, I saw women picking hair
for mattresses. He pays two cents a pound for picking. The
women earn from forty to sixty cents a day. The dust that flies
from the hair is injurious to the lungs, and the constant watching
is trying to the eyes. At one curled hair factory in New York
I saw women employed at one cent a pound, at another two cents.
A smart woman can pick twenty-five or thirty a day. An upholsterer
in Boston writes: "We have women to sew, pick hair,
&c. We pay by the piece. Men receive one third better pay
than women. Women receive less, because they have not brass
enough to ask more. Any woman can do our work. The prospect
of work in our line is very fair. We have twenty women
who work all the time. The demand for hands is small, surplus
large. Large cities are best for our trade. Board, $2.50."
371. Curtain Trimmings.
I saw two girls, in New
York, who work at the trade. Their employer does not pay
learners for two weeks, then according to what they do. Some
are paid by the week, and some by the piece. The last plan pays
best. The girls earn from $3 to $5 per week, some even as much
as $7. Plenty of hands can always be had. They have most
work in summer. At another place I was told it takes three or
four months to learn. Good hands can earn then from $4 to $5.
Mrs. B., in New York, told me her girls work by the piece,
making curtain trimmings, and earn from $5 to $6 a week. They
work from 6
A. M. until 7
P. M. They can learn it in a few weeks.
At Y.'s, in New York, I saw a plain, genteel-looking woman engaged
in making tassels. She pays $2 a week for board—washing
extra. She spoke very well of her employer, for whom she
had worked twelve years. She mentioned an old lady upstairs
who had been in his employ twenty years. He has fifteen women
in the tassel department, and fifteen making gimps and fringes.
Some of the hands are paid by the piece, and some by the week—ten
hours a day. They are paid every two weeks on Saturday
afternoon. In the old country women make twisted cord, but
not in this. Cordmakers are on their feet all the time. Y.'s
women get from $2 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get
from $6 to $9. It requires six months to learn, and learners receive
$1.50 per week. In winter, just before the holidays, is the
best time for work; but Y.'s hands have employment all the
time. When not filling orders, they make stock work. They have
a great many applications for work.
372. Furniture Goods.
"At Seymour, Conn., are
manufactured brocatelles and cotalines, a fabric composed of
silk and linen, or cotton, and used for furniture draperies and
carriage linings. Each loom is worked by a girl, who requires
very little previous experience to manage it perfectly. There
are about 60 persons employed at present in the work, two thirds
of whom are females from the age of fourteen upward. The
rate of wages paid by the company is higher than that given by
the neighboring factories, the nature of the work requiring a
superior degree of skill and intelligence."
373. Mattresses.
A girl engaged in making mattresses
told us they are mostly sewed up by machines, and operators
earn from $3 to $6, working ten hours a day. In some factories
women sew the mattresses, and boys and men prepare the hair
and fill them. A mattress seller told me he employs girls to
make mattresses in the spring and fall, paying $3 a week, of ten
hours a day. One bed furnisher told me her work is mostly done
by old ladies. She says some girls down street earn $6 a week,
making mattresses. One large manufacturer told me that his
is piecework, and some of his girls earn from $8 to $12 a week.
He furnishes the sewing machines. In April and May, he finds
it difficult to get enough of hands. At another large store, I
was told they pay from $6 to $7 a week to good operators, and
have their work done in the building. At another large bed and
mattress store, I was told they pay women for making ticks with
machines from $4 to $5 a week. It is not very steady work.
At another place they occupied a room back of the store, and
earned from $4 to $6 a week. A firm in Nashua, N. H.,
write me "they employ fourteen American women in making
mattresses, cushions, &c., and pay from $3 to $3.50 a week,
including board, and work ten hours a day. Men are paid
about $5 a week, and do different work from the women. Some
of the hands are employed all the year. There is no great
demand for mattress makers at present anywhere. Board, $2."
374. Venetian Blinds.
At W.'s Venetian blind manufactory,
in Philadelphia, I was told they generally employ several
women. They earn about $3 a week, and take their sewing home.
The work is sewing tapes on the main pieces to support the slats.
The business is best in the spring, from January to May, and is
good in the fall, but they endeavor to furnish some employment
all the year to their girls, who are American. A manufacturer
of Venetian blinds in Boston employs some women in writing,
sewing, laying out work, &c. They are mostly paid by the piece,
and earn from $3 to $6 per week. Male and female labor is not
of the same kind in his establishment. Men spend two years
learning; women, one month. The last part of spring and the
first part of summer are best for work. He could easily find
more sewers, if he had employment for them. He finds them
cheaper and more suitable for the work than men. The means
of mental and moral culture are those common to the residents
of Boston.
375. Window Shades.
At an establishment in Philadelphia,
a few women are employed in the busy seasons, spring
and fall, in laying the gilding on the borders of linen shades.
They earn from $1.50 to $3.00 per week. The painted linen
window shades (landscapes, buildings, &c.) are executed entirely
by men, who receive $12 a week wages. Our informant said
these men could paint (I think) 6 pair a day. I am sure there
is no reason why a lady could not paint landscapes and other
ornamental work on shades, if they would only qualify themselves.
It would probably require two or three years' practice to acquire
proficiency, for a person unaccustomed to painting of any kind.
The design of common ones is invented as the painter proceeds,
as he has no pattern to work from. It requires a knowledge of
colors, and some taste and ingenuity. A man is paid from $1.50
to $2 a day. K., New York, has a number of women stencilling
shades. The women earn about $4 a week. B., New York,
usually employs two girls in putting elastic over the bands of
pulleys and tying them up, for which they each receive $4 a
week. I saw a girl in New York, engaged in stencilling. She is
paid by the piece, and can earn $6 or $7 a week, when she has
constant employment. It does not take long to learn. I called
at a factory where they pay three cents a piece for painting the
centres of common shades. It is done with cloths. They pay
$2 a piece for fine ones. The fine ones have the principal parts
drawn before being painted. A smart man can earn $20 a week
at that work, but shades are not much used now. At a store on
Broadway, they used to employ girls for painting shades and
putting on the gilding. They had American girls mostly. German
men are mostly employed at that work. If American men
learn this business, they have so much energy and ambition they
are soon able to get an establishment of their own, and then employ
foreigners, many of whom work for less, to obtain employment,
and then cannot raise their prices, and so are apt ever to
retain a subordinate position. Their girls worked in the room
with the men, but it was a large room, and they worked at the far
end. Part of the work ought to be done by men. They had one
woman that put on the flowing colors and earned $9 a week.
But they found it necessary to have the girls wear Bloomer
costume, to prevent their dresses touching the shade while painting;
but they would not even then consent to lay down their
hoops, and as their skirts would touch the painting and injure
it, they altogether abandoned the employment of females. L.,
New York, told me he met with great opposition when he first
employed women to gild window curtains, and he could not have
held out if his house had not been established and he very firm.
He lost one or more of his customers by doing so. The work is
very suitable for women. L.'s men and women work in the same
apartment, but the men are required to be very respectful. The
women have a dressing room attached to their workroom. They
move about on their feet all the time, while at work. Men put
size on, but women could do it. The women receive $5 a week,
and never work over ten hours. The work can be learned in a day.
The Southerners are doing without fancy goods now, so the trade
is very poor. L. has saved about $1,000 the past year by employing
women. Men are in such haste to get through their
work, that they are careless and waste the gold leaf. A window-shade
manufacturer in Boston, who employs some girls in stencilling,
informs me by letter that "he pays by the piece from $3 to
$6 per week. A smart, active girl can earn more than a man of
medium abilities. Cleanliness and endurance are the most
essential qualifications. The prospect for continuance is as good
as that of any other fancy business. Best seasons for work are
from March to July, and October to January, but at other times
hands can make enough to pay their board. They work from
seven to twelve hours; for over hours, are paid extra. Board,
$2.50; (washing extra) but they have not a room alone." One
shade manufacturer writes: "There are parts of my work that
could be done by girls as well as men, but their style of dress is
not adapted to it." Another in Boston writes: "I would employ
women, if my shop was convenient, as I could get them for less
price than men. Men are paid thirty-three per cent. more than
women: one reason is they are capable of more endurance. We
work ten hours in summer, eight in winter." Another firm in
the same city employs from four to eight women, paying from $3 to
$6 per week, working from nine to ten hours a day. Six months is
the average time given by a learner. Spring and fall are the
most busy seasons."
Wire Window Shades.
Mrs. C. said a lady used to paint
wire shades for her husband. He also employed men. He has
most work done in summer. It requires care to keep from filling
the niches with paint. Miss —— acquired boldness and freedom
of execution in oil painting by the practice. Rapidity and lightness
of touch were also acquired. Her hand had got a stiff,
cramped feeling, from painting on canvas constantly. The price
paid for shades depends on the fineness of the cloth, the size, and
design. Miss S. says her father has the landscape painting done
by Germans, and pays good prices. It is paid for by the square
foot. He charges $2 a square foot, for a shade in the frame,
ready to put in the window. The artists take them to their
studios. Germans are preferred because they work most rapidly.
One makes a great deal of money, but he works late at night and
on Sundays. Several coats of paint are put on before the landscape
is painted. Some copy engravings, but enlarge the scale.
They make to order. The business is increasing. He sends a
great many to the South, particularly Havana and Baltimore.
376. Bookfolders.
I know of no work in a bookbindery
that could not be performed by intelligent women that were
properly instructed. Forwarding, marbling, gilding, stamping,
and finishing could be done by them, in addition to presswork,
folding, gathering, and sewing. The female bookfolders of New
York number several thousand. The women in Philadelphia
binderies are between 1,000 and 2,000. The most bookfolding
and sewing, out of New York, are done in Washington and Philadelphia,
and some in Cincinnati. The busy seasons for book
makers are from September to January, and from March to July.
In this business there is a union among the men regulating prices,
hours, &c. There is a great difference in the character of the
binderies in New York—every shade and grade is to be found.
In seeing the size and comfort of the workrooms, and the manners
and conversation of the employer, it would not be very difficult
to judge of the pay and condition of the workgirls. The
trade is well filled, and, no doubt, with quite as many women of
worth, self-respect, and education, as any other. At the Bible
House, Tract House, Methodist Book Concern, and Harper's,
New York, the faces of the workers are bright and cheerful.
Every precaution is taken to secure only those who are respectable,
and the associations surrounding them are calculated to
elevate, rather than degrade. Most of them are able to pay
enough for their board to secure the right kind of home associations.
These establishments, except in emergencies like the present,
retain their hands all the year; while those in a majority
of other houses fluctuate with their business and are unoccupied
three or four months in the year. Bookfolding is paid for by the
1,000 sheets, depending on the size of the sheet and the number
of times it is folded. A good, fast folder can earn from 50 cents
to 65 cents a day, whether folding with a machine or by hand.
A few can earn as much as $6 per week. Folding and collating
pay the best of woman's work. Collating is usually paid for at
20 cents an hour. Men in bookbinderies get from $8 to $20 per
week. Some employers are much more kind and intelligent than
others. Some bookbinders in New York impose on girls by
taking them to learn the business, requiring that they stay from
six weeks to six months to do so, and paying nothing during that
time. During the most of the time their work is efficient, and
they earn money for their employers. When the time has expired
they are turned off, and others taken on. Some bookbinders
employ those who will do their work at a very cheap rate,
often thus exposing them to influences that are pernicious.
Favoritism is often shown by employers and foremen. At H.'s,
200 women and girls are employed in folding, sewing, and gilding.
Either of the branches is light and pleasant, and soon
learned, after which the remuneration depends upon the abilities
of the learner. Their hours are from 7-½ to 6, but it is piece
work. All of his workpeople are temperance people. The work
of bookbinders is not more unhealthy than any other indoor
work. At the Tract House they take a few girls to learn to fold,
and have them work until they earn $6 before they pay anything.
An English woman told me that she used to earn $7 a week, as
forewoman, but they never allowed her to be absent a day. A
publisher in Philadelphia employs about fifty girls in his bindery,
but complains that as soon as they make a few dollars they will
take a holiday to spend it. He says the better he pays the girls
in his bindery, the more they are absent from their work and the
more difficult are they to manage. That, I think, arises from defective
moral training. We know that people of right principle
(both men and women), whose wages enable them to dress comfortably,
and provide wholesome food and well ventilated, healthy
apartments, are not only better able to work well and constantly,
but do so. It stands to reason they should. If the poor cannot
make a proper use of their scanty compensation, they are more
to be pitied than blamed, for we know well they have nothing to
spare. The manufacture of blank-books is an important branch
of business. A blank-book manufacturer in Troy writes: "I
pay both ways, and the wages are from $3 to $4.50 per week.
Men's wages are from $6 to $12, but their work is different and
heavier. Women's part of the work is learned in from six weeks
to one year. A ready hand and quick eye are wanted by a
learner. Busiest time from December to July. There is a surplus
of hands, so far as I know. When men work at the women's
branches (which is very seldom), they do it more substantially."
In France women do much of the work in blank-book
binderies. In M. Maitre's book bindery, Dijon, France, "No
apprentice, boy or girl, is received until after they have made
their premier communion, and received a certificate that they can
both read and write, and also a medical certificate of vaccination.
The workpeople are thus of a respectable class. The young
children of most of the married women are either sent out to
nurse in the country, according to the very common custom of
France, or else the married pair form one household with the
grand parents."
377. Book Sewers.
"Trades in general require a large
share of mechanical ingenuity, in combination with strength,
mathematical skill, and other qualifications. Strength is requisite
to the success of a bookbinder." Women employed in sewing
are paid by the piece, and as soon as they are competent, which
requires but a few days, are paid according to their application
from $3.50 to $7 per week. The work of women in binderies is
clean, and about as comfortable and remunerative as any other
of a mechanical nature. At the Methodist Book Concern we saw
girls folding, gathering, sewing, putting plates in books, gilding
the covers, and feeding the presses. They were well dressed and
intelligent looking, and evidently felt an interest in the welfare
of the establishment. The majority were Americans. The superintendent
told us, "girls earn, in the sewing department, from
$3 to $9 per week. A good sewer can earn, without difficulty,
from $5 to $5.50 per week. They have about thirty, most of
whom work by the piece. They have one strong woman who
sometimes earns $10 a week. They never work over ten hours,
as the house is only open for work that long. The folding and
enveloping of tracts and papers admit of a change of posture.
There is no similarity in the male and female labor. The comparison
in prices is about one-half to one-third. It requires a lifetime
to learn a man's branch; an intelligent woman can learn hers
in a week. The result of a bookbinder's work is not for a day,
but for all time. Bookbinders have more constant employment
than those in most other trades. The work is most dull in summer.
There is constant employment in New York for first-class hands,
and always a surplus of second-class. Large cities offer the best
localities—those in the South and West will probably furnish
many openings to publishers." A. & S. employ girls to fold,
stitch, and sew. They are paid by the piece (customary), and
earn from $3 to $5 per week. Sewers can earn more than folders
and stitchers—say from $5 to $7. They work until six o'clock
and commence when they please, as they are paid by the quantity.
A bookbinder told me his girls work from seven to six o'clock.
He gives work all the year. They are paid by the piece, and can
earn from $5 to $6 a week. I have been told folders and sewers
are taken as learners only where the cheapest work is done. At
some binderies three cents 100 is paid for folding, three cents for
sewing, and six cents for stitching. At some places five cents 100
is paid for folding 12mo. sheets. The proportion of hands employed
in the different branches of bookbinding is somewhat as
follows: About two thirds are folders, one sixth gatherers, and
one sixth sewers. A process has been invented by which books
can be strongly bound without sewing. I fear it may be the
means of throwing many sewers out of employment. At W.'s
bookbindery I was told they sometimes take learners. They expect
them to stay six months, and pay them half that they can
earn during that time. They pay workers by the piece, and they
can earn from $4 to $6 a week. Some of the girls are employed
to remove the covers from old books and magazines that are to
be rebound. M., who does the printing of the A.'s, informs me
that his girls work by the piece, and average over $4 per week.
His learners receive one half their earnings—the teacher the
other half. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons, but the
women are never entirely out of employment. There is no surplus
of good hands, but many imperfect ones. He employs from
125 to 150. The superintendent at H.'s told me that the girls
in the sewing-room earn from $3.50 to $8. He says their women
are intelligent and lady-like, and would adorn the best society.
They change their dresses when they come to work, and then before
leaving. If they are at all hurried in their work, their
hands, both men and women, come early and stay late of their
own free will. Males average $10, females over $4. The reason
of the difference is, that men serve an apprenticeship of five or
seven years—women five or seven weeks. The former are the
mechanics; the latter merely assistants. The latter cheapen the
labor of the former, without having the strength or physical
ability to perform their work. (I cannot see how it should be so
when the branches performed are entirely distinct.) The foreman
at B.'s told me a very brisk worker can earn $6 a week, but
few do. They do not average over eight hours a day. They
never light their building. S.'s girls, in good times, are employed
all the year. He pays by the piece, and his girls earn from $3
to $5. In most small book binderies in New York men and girls
work in the same room. A girl at the Tract House told me they
pay better for sewing there than in most other places, and have
work all the year, in ordinary times. A printer boy told me his
sister earns, in a bindery, from $8 to $10 a week. D. has newspapers
printed and folded, and pays his women for folding from
$4 to $5 a week. A manufacturer in New York, having a bindery
in New Jersey, pays his girls mostly $3.50 a week, besides
their board and washing. He boards them, and he is very particular
in having them attend church on the Sabbath, and keeping
an oversight of their morals and habits. Most of the binding
done South and West is that of blank books. There is not so
much machinery at the South and West as at the North. F. says
the binding of blank books pays best. A good folder may earn
$6 a week, but a sewer not so much. The majority of both do
not earn more than $4. They pay from the first. One woman
can stitch enough to keep three men employed. So there are not
as many women employed in factories where blank books are
made, as where printed books are. I was told on Fulton street,
at a blank-book manufactory, that their girls earn from $5 to $7.
They give steady work all the year. The binding of blank books
pays best. They have one girl that sometimes earns $9 a week.
At jobbing houses girls generally earn $6 a week, when paid by
the week for binding.
378. Card Makers.
For about eleven hundred years
women have been more or less employed in the manufacture of
cards. At N.'s, New York, I saw two girls who each earn $6
a week, and work only in daylight, and have work all the year.
I went through D. & Co.'s work rooms, and saw the process of
making playing cards. A large number of girls were at work,
who receive average wages of $4 per week. It requires six
months to learn well. They do not like to take any learners with
whose character they are unacquainted; for many, when they
have learned, will go off where they can get better pay. Six
girls that learned with him last summer were drawn off by an
employer who offered them twenty-five cents a week more; but
when his busy time was over, they came back crying to be taken
in again. So he made a rule that none should be taken back that
once leave. (Do not men go where they get the best prices?)
They keep all their hands at work, because many of them represent
three or four others, who are dependent on their labor for
bread. They give work all the year, and pay a learner according
to what she accomplishes. They sometimes find it difficult to
get good hands. They will not take hands from another employer
unless they bring a note saying they have been honorably
discharged. It is to avoid getting bad and dishonest workers.
(If employers in that line of business, or any other, should agree
never to receive hands from each other's places of business, it
would cast workers entirely at the mercy of employers.) D. says
their regulations are strict. I thought the girls looked to be
comfortably situated. Some were cutting cards, some assorting,
some counting, and some enveloping. Nearly all sat. He thinks
the business so limited that it is not likely to furnish employment
to many more. He says girls working at bookbinding and hoop
skirts are out of employment a great deal; two thirds of the
hoop-skirt makers are now out of employment. S. & P. make
fancy and business cards. S. told me he pays his most experienced
girls $3.50 a week. Learners receive $2.50 a week for four
weeks—after that, according to activity and capability. He has
hundreds of applicants, and always selects those who seem most
destitute. They work ten hours a day. He has had some girls
several years. To the small girls he pays less. He often has two
or three girls from the same family. Foreign goods are so much
preferred by Americans that they put French labels on some.
Visiting Cards.
A., New York, employs two girls to put
up visiting cards, and pays $3 and $3.50 per week. It does not
require any time to learn. He now uses a machine for cutting
that does the work of several girls. I was told by a very obliging
girl, working in a visiting-card manufactory in New York, that
to some the occupation is unhealthy, because of the lead inhaled,
which injures the lungs. In that factory learners are paid $2 a
week. It requires but a week to learn to cut the cards, which is
done with a small hand press. The girl knew of two places in
the city where the work was paid for by the piece; but in that
factory they were mostly paid by the week, receiving $3.50 and
$4, working ten hours a day. It requires from four to six weeks
to learn. Nimbleness of fingers and ability to count are the most
desirable qualifications. They have work all the year, except in
November and December. They sit while cutting, assorting, and
packing. This work is confined to women, as they are best
adapted to it. Those in the brushing room stand. Several hundred
girls are employed in New York in the card business.
379. Card Stencillers and Painters.
A stencil engraver
told me he cannot use acids in his work, because his
lungs are weak, and it is very injurious. The business is dull in
winter, but good in spring and fall. It pays very well when
there is enough to do. His work has to be done hurriedly, as it
is generally for merchants who are going to ship goods, and frequently
do not order the plates until the barrels are headed and
the boxes are nailed. The making of embroidery stencil plates,
he thinks, would do better for a woman, and that could be done
without any regard to seasons. A visiting-card writer told me
he charges $1 a package of fifty-two for plain marking. Mrs. H.
saw the advertisement of one who writes one hundred cards for
$1. I. G., who makes show cards, says a boy for filling the letters
is paid six cents a sheet. For designing, a person could get
twenty-four cents a sheet. He could both design and fill thirty
a day, so earning $1.87½. He knows that the merchants of the
South used to purchase their cards in New York, and so there
must be openings in the South for writers of show cards, and
probably in the West. It requires about one year to learn to
design well, and two weeks to learn to fill in neatly. Employees
are paid by the piece. I was told that card painting must be
done by women, judging from the prices paid—some cards costing
but twelve cents a piece. I am sure women could do all the
work. Making the letters is very simple, and filling them up is
a mere mechanical operation. They can earn, I am confident,
over $2 a day, if they have enough of work. It is peculiarly
adapted to women, and some of them should learn it. I saw the
wife of a German stencil engraver, who assists her husband by
cutting out with scissors the parts that form the letters. He is
paid three cents a letter. He can cut forty letters in two or
three hours. A coat of wax is laid on the plate, and an instrument
used for working out the letters, figures, or design, then an
acid poured on, and when it has stood for a time removed with
the wax. It can then be cut out with scissors, or into large letters
and figures with other tools. Writing plates are cut by
hand, as they can be most neatly and delicately done in that way.
They are twice as high in price as stencil plates. S., who manufactures
show cards, has several times thought of employing
women. They could with a brush fill the outlines, which is now
done by men, who earn from $2.50 to $18 a week. It would require
about a year to acquire proficiency in drawing the outlines
of the letters and using the brush to fill them. He thinks it a
very suitable business for women, and will probably employ some
before long.
380. Cover and Edge Gilders.
I think burnishing
the edges of books could be done by women after they are put in
the frames, but considerable strength is required in the preparatory
processes of shaving and screwing up. The burnishing is
done with agates. I doubt whether it requires more strength
than many other things women do. Laying gold leaf on the
edges could certainly be done by them. Men that gild the edges
of books receive from $7 to $9 a week. Men will not fold or
stitch, because it does not pay well enough. G. says gilding the
covers of books requires a longer apprenticeship than either folding
or sewing; and at H.'s, workers are paid at first eight cents
an hour, afterward ten cents an hour. It being piecework, the
girls are not strictly confined to hours. Book and card edge-gilding
is done both in England and France by women.
381. Electrotypers.
Electrotyping is now more used
than stereotyping by those who expect to have many editions of
a work published. It costs but little more than stereotyping,
and is either four or six times as durable, I forget which.
2,000,000 impressions can be taken from an electrotype plate,
but only 800,000 from a stereotype plate. A boy learning the
business receives $4 a week the first year, and after that more.
A journeyman receives $2 a day, and some $2.50. A journeyman
told us he had spent seven years at it, and he felt that he
had yet much to learn; in fact, a person could be always learning.
Electrotyping would be a useful and profitable occupation
for women. An apprenticeship of three or four years is given
to it.
382. Envelope Makers.
At B. & G.'s, New York,
girls work by the piece all the year in busy times, and can earn
from $3 to $6. Most of those who get in factories, do so through
the influence of friends or acquaintances in or connected with the
establishment. Their business is increasing. They keep their
girls all the year. They give lessons in the busy months, August
and September, February and March, and pay from the first. A
good hand can earn from $3 to $5. P. & Co. usually employ
sixty girls. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to
$4.50 a week. The envelopes are made by machines, attended
by women. They employ five or six girls making envelopes by
hand, as they have not machines of some sizes. P. thinks the
occupation is full. They have employed their girls all the year.
They used to take learners, and give the teachers their profits.
My companion, Mrs. F., inquired if envelopes could not be more
easily made where the paper is manufactured. He replied, they
could not, because paper (and, I believe, all other goods) are
delivered free of freight in New York, and he can make more by
being here in the centre of trade, than if he had to send his goods
here to be sold, and employ some one to sell them. He prefers
the girls that can be obtained in the villages and country, for he
thinks them more honest and truthful. He thinks the grade of
morals altogether superior in the country to that of the city. He
spoke of the want of moral obligation in the lower classes, arising
from the want of proper instruction, and the lower you descend
the worse you find it. The makers of boxes for containing envelopes
they got were such a common set, that they instructed
some nice American girls how to make them, and now employ
them. He says the box makers are a common set. So I have
heard bookbinders, umbrella makers, and hoop-skirt workers
spoken of. But I frequently hear one trade speak disparagingly
of another. W. told me their girls are paid so much a thousand.
The envelopes are cut by a machine attended by a man. They
are folded by a machine managed by two women, who of course
stand. They are pasted and enveloped by girls who sit. The
girls earn from $3 to $5 a week. It requires but two or three
weeks to acquire the trade. A learner is paid nothing. The
envelopes are tipped or gummed by a girl, who stands. This is
the most difficult part of the work done by women, and pays best.
There are eight factories in New York, one in Philadelphia, and
one in Connecticut. Nine tenths of the business is done in New
York. There are probably between two hundred and three hundred
girls employed in the business in that city. W. requires
references. Some employers are particular in their selection of
hands—others advertise, and take them as they come. 2,700
envelopes have been made in an hour by machinery. A manufacturer
in Massachusetts writes: "The work is considered particularly
healthy. Girls from 12 years up are employed, and
earn from thirty-three to seventy-five cents a day of ten hours.
Men are paid from $1 to $2.75 per day. Two are machinists,
two overseers, and two cutters of envelopes. Women are not
strong enough for this kind of work. Some parts can be learned
in a month, some in six months, and in others it requires a year
to excel. We give the same employment and pay through the
year, whether our profits are larger or smaller. I employ about
sixty, one sixth of whom are American. The work is light, and
we have constant applications from girls, who prefer this to any
other manufacturing business in town. Board, $1.50."
383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers.
The
lady at F. & W.'s who directs the papers for them, says the
business has been followed by women in New York for fifteen
years. I called at the office of the
Independent, and saw one of
the editors, who, on learning my business, kindly invited me into
the room where the young ladies were employed in directing
strips of paper to envelop newspapers. It is a pretty business,
and well adapted to women. Some learn it easily, and some
never learn it. Dr. C. remarked: "A person may have a willing
mind, but not an obedient hand." They had one young lady who
spent five months at it, and then gave it up, because she could
not succeed. It requires a peculiar aptitude, aside from an expeditious
movement of the pen. It was followed more by women
eight or nine years ago than now. Many ladies would like to
get employment of the kind, but cannot. I think all the young
ladies in the
Independent office were American, and were certainly
very pretty and lady-like. They have a separate room to
write in. They spend about eight hours directing envelopes for
papers to send away. One earns $6 a week, another $5, and
another $4. The one that first came is permitted to have as
much work as she can do. The next has what she leaves, and the
third the remainder. The objections made by some men to employing
ladies are that they do not like to have women work in
the same room where they are. They feel under more restraint,
and not so free to say what they please. Such a restraint may
be a wholesome one. Many women make the same objection in
regard to working with men. Again, if a lady does not work as
they wish, or is idle, they do not like to correct her, because
women are more quick to resent. The last excuse is a poor one.
They also waste much time by having their beaux call on them.
Some urge they find a boy more useful, because they can put him
to doing something else, when he is not busy writing. In the
Tribune office, men are employed because they can do it more
rapidly. It is said some direct eight hundred envelopes in an
hour. In some offices the girls are expected to seal the papers,
but not in all. At the Cosmopolitan Art Association, I saw a
lady that is employed in directing the
Art Journals that are sent
by mail. The covers are put on by a boy. She receives $9 a
week, and spends about eight hours writing. At the rooms of the
A. C. Association, we saw three ladies directing envelopes for the
report of the society. The Association issues a monthly magazine,
and at the time of its issue employs the same ladies for the
purpose of enveloping and directing them. At other times they
employ but one. She has been there ten years, and is very efficient.
She attends to the books containing the names of subscribers,
assists the treasurer sometimes, writes letters for the
secretary, and makes herself generally useful in that way. All
the ladies complained of women being so poorly paid. The one
who has been there ten years says, for the $350 a year she
gets, they could not secure a young man's services for less
than $700 or $800. The others are paid 63 cents per thousand
for directing, and ten cents per hundred for sealing and directing.
