The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, by Virginia Penny, a Project Gutenberg eBook.

324. Dress Trimmings.

In London, many women and children are employed in making dress trimmings. The children wind the quills, and the women wind the silk on reels, and weave it, knit covers for fancy buttons, make fringes, tassels, buttons, and other trimmings. In this country most of such work is done by women and girls, the majority of whom are Germans, as are also the proprietors. They are the best for hand work, but English trimming makers are best for power looms. All large cities contain more or less manufacturers of dress trimmings, but the business is mostly confined to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Many who manufacture, also keep for sale the different varieties of sewing and embroidery silk, zephyr wool, patterns, and canvas, braid, and such articles. It is only within the last twenty-five years that fringes and tassels have been manufactured in this country, but quite a number of houses are now engaged in it. The goods are said to equal those of Europe. "There are over 1,000 hands employed in this branch in New York, at least three fourths of whom are females. Girls at reeling earn $2.50; at braiding, $3.30; and at weaving, from $4 to $6." I called at a factory where eighty girls are employed. They earn from $1 to $6 per week, doing both day and night work. No girl, the foreman said, can earn $1 a day of ten hours at that work. When the snow is on the ground, the girls can take work home with them to do at night, instead of remaining at the factory. He says there are different seasons for different kinds of trimmings, as buttons, fringes, gimps, &c., and the styles of these trimmings change. Work is slack in the early part of the winter for a few weeks. It would take three or four years to learn all the branches perfectly. Some sit and some stand while at work. At a manufactory in New York, I was told the season begins in September and lasts through the winter. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. There is an over supply of hands in New York. At another place I was told the work is nearly always paid for by the piece. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive from $7 to $10. Women's part can be learned in from four to six weeks, and learners are paid if they do not spoil too much material. June, July, December, and January are dull months. In busy seasons good hands are very scarce. The clerk of Messrs. B.'s factory told us the wages vary greatly. We glanced over the account book, with his permission, and observed that the lowest wages were about $1 a week, and the highest $4. It is piece work, and they will not promise employment all the year. He says, if a girl that learns cannot earn something in a year, she is not worth having. Their work is for wholesale houses. At one place I was told the girls work nine hours a day, and receive $4 a week—six months learning. After the first week they were paid $1.50 a week for six months. They make up a stock when not doing ordered work. N. employs from fifty to one hundred women, and sometimes more. They can learn in fourteen days. He pays from the first, and pays by the week, they working from six to six, having an hour at noon. It requires but a few weeks to learn one branch. One girl told me she works by the piece, and sometimes earns from $3 to $6 a week. She works from seven in the morning till gaslight. Girls, when reeling and braiding, stand. To those engaged in this kind of work, there is employment all the year to twenty-five out of every hundred; the rest are occupied from July to January. When paid by the week they seldom receive more than $4, though by taking it home and working more hours they sometimes make $5. Prices in this kind of work have fallen considerably in the last few years. I have been told by a manufacturer that the class so employed is usually of not so elevated a character as some others. The prices paid and work given for so short a time, prevent the best class of workers from entering the business. M—s, Philadelphia, employ about seventy females, including bookkeepers, saleswomen, and trimming makers. In the dull seasons their operatives are not likely to be thrown out of work, as the wholesale dealers will always require them. The workers are paid by the piece, according to the degree of perfection they have attained. When a girl presents herself for employment, the foreman immediately sets her to work on some easy kind of trimming, but she receives no wages until her work is fit for sale. The loss of time on her part and the risk of materials on the part of the employer constitute the apprenticeship. A smart girl will of course soon be able to earn something, and has always the stimulus of increasing her gains. The class of girls in the store seemed to be superior to those in the workroom, more intelligent and refined. The workrooms were large and airy. The weavers, button makers, &c., work from eight to ten hours a day. Another proprietor said a person to learn the business should go to a small place, where only a few are employed—not to a factory, as they will not be troubled with learners in a factory. Some of his hands work slowly, but execute in a superior manner; others work rapidly, but make the article in an inferior manner. At another manufacturer's, one of the firm told me a good hand can earn from $5 to $6 a week, ten hours a day, when times are good. They pay, after a learner has spent a week at it, according to what she can accomplish. The prospect for work is good, but he would not advise a lady to learn it; he thinks millinery better. In a town not far from New York, where he lived, a milliner could earn $20 a month and her board. Crocheting pays better. For crocheting the heads of silk fringes, a girl may earn $5 a week. I saw the agent of a lady who has trimmings manufactured. He says girls spend about two weeks learning, and are then paid by the week, from $1 to $4. He thinks the prospect for work very poor at present, for their work has been for the South almost exclusively, and now the Southerners will not purchase, particularly as such articles can be dispensed with. They have employed hands all the year, but are most busy spring and fall. The busy season commences in February. A manufacturer told me he pays his learners $2 a week for a time. His girls have work most of the year. Good hands can earn $5 a week. Some of his hands take work home with them to do in the evening. From the arrangement of the conveniences in the room, I think the air must be not only offensive but unwholesome. I observed this in two or three other workrooms. At another factory, I was told it takes but four weeks to learn, and girls during that time are paid fifty cents a week. Girls earn from $3 to $5. One man told me he pays as soon as the work is done well enough to sell. The largest manufactory in the world of dress trimmings, curtain trimmings, carriage laces, and military goods, is that of W. H. Horstman & Sons, Philadelphia. They employ four hundred hands, the majority of whom are females. In R.'s dress-trimming manufactory, Philadelphia, seventy females are employed, at an average of $2.75 a week.

325. Embroideries.

Embroidery was a favorite employment of the ladies of ancient times. In the days of Grecian prosperity it was a pastime among all ranks of ladies, and in the middle ages it was no less popular. The French excel in embroidery. Much of the embroidery sold in New York is done in Ireland. "A French manufacturer has invented a process of applying the electric spark to piercing designs on paper for embroidery." There now exists a machine by which one lady can accomplish as much as fifteen hand embroiderers. There are one hundred and fifty needles attached, all of which can be in use at the same time. By it the most difficult patterns can be executed. Many of the machines are now in operation in Germany, France, Switzerland, and England. "The canton of Neufchatel employs more than 3,500 females in hand embroidery, but this branch of the trade is principally carried on in the eastern parts of Switzerland, where manual labor is extremely cheap." In 1851, 250,000 females were employed in Great Britain in muslin embroidery, and the larger number of the women did the work at their own homes. About a million and a half of dollars then passed out of the United States in payment for a portion of this embroidery. We would be pleased to see a greater demand for these articles from a home, and less from a foreign market. The increased facilities for stamping impressions on the muslin, and the consequent cheapness of doing so, tends to render the business more lucrative to those employed. The prices earned depend on the skill and experience of the worker. Embroidery may be divided into two kinds, cloth and muslin. The first is used for thick goods, furniture covers, ottomans, chair seats, tapestry, &c. The other kind consists in the embroidery of ladies' caps, collars, handkerchiefs, and other light articles of apparel. The materials used are cotton, linen, silk, and silver and gold thread. Embroidery is paid for by the piece, according to the quality of the material and the amount of work. For stamping muslin to embroider, four, six, and eight cents a yard are paid, according to the width and style of pattern. Some stamping is done with wooden plates, some with copper plates, and some by a paper impression. The wooden plates cost from fifty cents to $2.50. Metal tools for stamping cost more. It would be well, in establishments where embroidery is kept for sale, to keep patterns on hand for braiding, needlework, and embroidery. Such patterns have met with a ready sale, and always will, when such a pastime is fashionable. I find fifty cents a lesson is the usual price paid for instruction in embroidery, and a person accustomed to using the needle can learn in a few lessons. One lady told me she charged twenty-five cents a lesson. An embroiderer told us but little of such work is done now. A good deal of money was made at it, when fashionable for outer garments and for children's flannel skirts. A gentleman that has such work done told me that good medallion workers would find employment. B., who employs some embroiderers, thinks there is not a surplus of such labor. He could employ more hands. He pays by the piece, from $3 to $7 a week. Taste and skill with the needle are required. Embroidery pays poorly—one could not make a living at it now, unless they had constant work, and were rapid with the needle: very few in New York depend on it for a livelihood. D., a gold and silver embroiderer, thinks a person of ordinary abilities could not get to embroidering well in less than one year's practice. He pays something after a few weeks—as soon as the work is done well enough to sell. Many Germans and French have taken the custom. The Germans do it for less, and consequently root out other embroiderers. So there is not much prospect for work in New York. He has considerable done for cap makers and flag makers, who send South and West. He pays his girls from $4 to $5 a week, and they work from eight to six o'clock. I was told at another place that gold and silver embroidery pays well. The lady that works for W. earns $25 a week. A man writes: "You are aware that women are unable to make the very finest kind of needle embroidery, and that wherever the highest skill is required, men are needed?" We are aware there are some womanish men in France that embroider, but we must have facts before we are convinced that women cannot equal men in embroidering. A young lady, keeping an embroidery store in New York, told me her father cuts stencil plates with chemicals for embroiderers. In some establishments they are cut by steam power. Her father made wooden plates, but it would not pay. It takes but a short time to learn stamping, which pays better than embroidering. Those that do embroidery cheapest, get most to do. The greater part of it is done in winter evenings, as a pastime by ladies. Many ladies have stamping done before they go to the country in the summer, and embroider while they are in the country, putting out their plain sewing. Ladies that embroider, generally do their own stamping. M. knows one lady that embroiders for two or three stores, and makes a very good living. But she thinks very few have enough embroidering to do to occupy all their time. The Broadway stores have considerable embroidery ordered, and get very good prices; but their embroiderers, I have been told, are not better paid than those of other people. Some stores give it to ladies who do it for pocket money. Some of these ladies talk about embroidering for their friends, but, lo and behold! they expect their friends to pay them. It requires considerable practice in embroidery to keep the stitches even, and properly shape the leaves and flowers. A French woman told me she used to get $1.20 a day for embroidering fine collars in Paris.

326. Feathers.

Mrs. M., Philadelphia, has served an apprenticeship of five years at dressing and dyeing feathers, and is now (and has been for fifty years) able to perform every part of it herself, including the preparation of the dyes. She employs women, but they do not give themselves the time or trouble to learn enough of it to carry it on on their own account, but are satisfied to acquire enough of it to enable them to earn a day's wages. From the information obtained from this veteran, we concluded that this trade can be very well carried on by women alone; and farther, that there will always be considerable demand for feathers and plumes, at least in large cities. Ladies' plumes pay best. She prepares plumes for the military. At a feather store in New York, the lady said the season commences in May. Learners are paid $1.50 the first week, and, if they become good workers, may in a few months earn as much as $6 a week. Mrs. D. says she would like to teach some one the business, and establish them where she is. She would turn over her custom to them. She would do so for $200. Her location is a good one. She would instruct how to curl, mend, sew, and color the lighter shades, for $5. She says it is not unhealthy, but requires one to be much on her feet. Taste, both native and cultivated, are required for success. I saw turkey feathers made into a light, delicate plume, and those of geese into flowers. Some feathers from the tails of roosters formed large, dark, rich-looking plumes for children's hats. This I mention to show what the poultry of our own barnyards can produce. Mrs. D.'s work was not confined to the feathers of domestic poultry. In dull seasons she prepares feathers for busy seasons. Connected with her business might be the making and selling of artificial flowers and head dresses. She says a superior feather worker can earn $6 a week, and a few even $8. Mrs. N. told me she takes learners, paying $1 a week for one month, then more if the worker is worth it, and so on. She will not teach to dye. All the American feathers used in the United States are sent from New York. A colorer and curler of fancy feathers told me it does not require more than a few weeks to learn, if you can see the process constantly during that time. It is easier to learn to curl than dye. To dye feathers on a small scale is troublesome, for if you have a feather to be dyed one color, another of a different shade, &c., you must mix up just enough coloring matter for each one. A lady, that would learn the business well, might make a living at it in the South or West.

327. Hoop Skirts.

There are now hundreds of women employed in the manufacture of hoop skirts, that will, when the fashion ceases, be thrown out of employment. What resource will they have? It may be that some other fashion will spring up requiring their services, but we doubt it. D. & S., New York, employ from 600 to 1,000, and once had 1,500 girls working for them. They have large well-aired rooms. We passed through and saw their girls at work. They were neat, well dressed, and cheerful looking. Nine tenths are Americans. Most of the girls have homes. D. & S. have established a free library of two thousand volumes for the girls, but owing to the negligence in not returning books taken out, they lost so many that the library is no longer accessible to them. The trade of D. & S. is Southern. Their girls earn from $4 to $8 per week, and work 9½ hours a day in winter. The girls can change their position frequently. Women are superior to men for this kind of work. While learning, girls receive enough to pay their board. The continuance of this occupation depends entirely on fashion. S. thinks the fashion as likely to last as the wearing of bonnets. Most of the small establishments in this business have been absorbed by the large ones. From December to April are the best seasons for work; from June to September the most slack. T., a large manufacturer, says the average pay is from $4 to $4.50. His forewoman earns $400 a year. Some girls are dull, and some are smart—so the time of learning depends much on that. They pay the girls something from the time they begin to learn. They work ten hours a day. As a general thing the girls and women spend all the money they can spare for dress. The firm have thought of establishing a savings bank in connection with their manufactory, for the benefit of their workwomen, but have never yet found time. Some they pay by the piece; some, by the day; and others, by the week, or year. Some seasons they employ about one thousand work people, of whom nine hundred and fifty are women and girls. I saw, at a factory, some girls covering wire for hoops. The machinery was very ingenious. They are paid $3, and a few $3.50. They have to stand all the time, and watch their work constantly. They work ten hours. The man can always get enough of hands. It requires but a short time to learn. They have work all the year. The spooling, respooling, and covering, are all done by women. Girls can earn from $2 to $6 a week, working ten hours. I saw an old woman who spools cotton for covering hoop skirts. She receives five cents a score, and cords six scores a day, earning thirty cents. At a factory I was told the girls work by the piece, and get from $4 to $5 per week. Owing to the want of proper management on the part of the proprietor, I found the girls do not have work steadily. Sometimes they get out of clasps, or tape, or hoops, and cannot get them immediately, because of their distance from the stores. At B.'s hoop-skirt factory, he told me he pays from $2 to $7 a week to his girls, and he employs between two hundred and three hundred. It takes but a few days to learn. The season commences about the middle of November. The twelve o'clock bell rang, and I heard one girl say: "Let's swallow our dinner, and, when we have time, chew it." I called at A.'s factory. He has about two hundred girls, and they receive from $2 to $5 a week—working ten hours a day. They were nice, bright-looking girls. More hoop skirts are manufactured in New York than in any other city. I was in a factory where hoop skirts were woven by hand. The weaver girl we spoke to, said she did not get tired now, but did when she commenced. The girls are paid by the piece, and a good weaver, when industrious, can earn $1 a day. They do not sell so many as formerly. At O.'s, they have employed two hundred girls, but discharged one hundred the day before, and the girls earn from $3 to $4. Last year they sold more than ever before. They pay from the time a learner enters, but of course the pay is small for a time. They begin at the lowest branches and gradually rise. Those at machines sit, and those at frames stand. Some skirts excel in elegance of shape, some in durability, and some in elasticity. Many improvements have been made since their introduction into this country. The prices paid were better at first than since there has been so much competition. At S.'s factory, I was told the girls are paid every Saturday night. They are not paid while learning, but, when they have learned, can earn from $3 to $5 per week. Some of their girls take their work home. The amount of work depends on the market. So they cannot tell what amount will be done next spring. They are making up to send to New Orleans. Prices have fallen for this work, and so a smaller number are employed than formerly. Spring and fall are, of course, the best seasons for work. The bindings are sewed on by machines, and operatives get about $5 per week. A. writes from Massachusetts: "Women are employed in Europe in making hoop skirts, principally in London and Paris. In our country they earn from $4 to $6 a week. I pay my men higher wages, on account of the labor they perform, requiring more exercise both of body and mind. The work of a woman can be learned in a week or ten days, but constant practice for months gives greater skill and success. The employment is very neat and clean, and gives exercise to the whole system. Women are quicker in motion than men, and their powers of endurance greater. A sound mind in a sound body, and ambition to excel, together with a tolerable love of money, are qualifications necessary to render a girl desirable in this business." This branch of business has given employment to upward of twenty thousand women in the city of New York, and States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The business is usually suspended for the winter months. In New York city there is always a surplus of girls seeking labor; they are daughters of the poorer classes, and live in tenement houses, in close quarters—are shabbily clad, and their wages go to support perhaps a drunken father, or a widowed mother and fatherless children. This class of girls contrast sadly in looks and health with country girls, accustomed to breathe the free air of heaven. Their flattened chests, pale faces, and scanty wardrobe tell too plainly of the competition of labor among girls in that great city. I am told by manufacturers, in New York, that the daily applications of girls for employment, at their counting houses, is a source of annoyance, and that they are obliged to paste placards on their doors to avoid them. This business can be best prosecuted in localities where the materials can be purchased, and near markets where they are sold. The fact that workwomen are not paid as well as men, is owing to competition. In New England, men laborers are scarce, but women compete with each other. "Board, $2 for ladies, $3 for men." A manufacturer in Connecticut, employing from fifty to one hundred, writes he "pays from $3 to $4 per week. The best seasons for work are from Jan. 1st to April 1st, and from June 1st to Nov. 1st. They work eleven hours per day. Women are superior to men, in the more ready use of their fingers. Board, $1.50 to $2. Quickness and dexterity are qualities most needed." O. & C., Connecticut, write, their girls, "above one hundred and twenty, work by the piece, and earn from fifty cents to $1.12 per day, in proportion to their skill and industry. A very few in one branch earn more. Living on fashion, is of course uncertain. Business months, May, June, October, November, and December. Women are generally inferior in construction and skill. Board, $1.75 to $2.50." Manufacturers in Ashfield, Mass., write: "We employ about one hundred and twenty women. The greater part of them do the work at their own homes. Some baste the work together, some work the sewing machines, some draw the bastings, and others sew on the buttons and finish the work. Our work is all done by the piece. Those who work the machines can easily earn eighty-three cents a day of ten hours—the others earn from thirty-three to fifty cents, according to age, activity, and capacity. We pay men $1 a day for cutting the work and packing the goods. Neatness and despatch are desirable for workers; and for operatives, sufficient ingenuity to keep the machines in good order and condition. The work is as comfortable and pleasant, perhaps, as any employment whatever. Board, $1.50." I find some firms work ten hours, some eleven.

329. Parasols and Umbrellas.

The parasol was used by the ancients more in religious ceremonies than as a protection from the sun. In some of the warmest countries, they are as much used by men as women. The manufacture of parasols and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in this country, and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella manufactory, Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed—one hundred and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly as many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make and sew on the covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the material and workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn umbrella making. The girls we saw leaving the premises looked tidy and cheerful. S. remarked that those who live at a distance from the workshop, generally arrive earlier than those who live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from excessive use of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They used to employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please. Last summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia, engaged in making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella factories in New York, girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents an umbrella. For silk umbrellas, they receive only two cents more than for cotton ones. Parasols range in price from four to twenty-four cents, according to size, style, and quality of material. Old hands, in some houses, take apprentices for two or three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their work for the time given in instructing them. March, April, and May are the busiest months for making city parasols; and August, September, and October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in New York, the man said he employed two women in spring and one in winter to work. The parasol work pays best. His girls earn, when making parasols, from $5 to $6 per week; but umbrellas seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale parasol work commences about the middle of December, but his, being retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the trade told me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per week. Of course they have not work all the year steadily. She is paid to stay in the store, and is expected to spend any unoccupied moments in sewing for the shop. An umbrella maker told me his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the kind and quantity of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled. In New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm that employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average wages were $4 a week. In the umbrella business the work is invariably paid for by the piece. A gentleman told me that girls in that branch of work become very immoral from association with men while at work; but in large establishments the females have a separate workroom, and there is no need of their ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman. (Why might they not have a forewoman?) S. Brothers say their girls earn from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of the year—their best hands all the year. Most of the work is done at the factories, but some girls run up the covers at home, and come to the factory to put them on the frames. I was told that in Philadelphia, work can be done as well for lower prices, because living is cheaper. My experience as to the price of living was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had been making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of consumption in less than two years, from the long and close confinement; but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust and coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particularly in summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the openness of the pores. A manufacturer told me his hands could earn from $4 to $6 a week. A learner must spend three weeks without remuneration; then she is paid according to the quality and amount of work done. About one fourth of his girls are Americans, that have worked out, but desire to do something they think more respectable. His hands have work all the year, with the exception of six weeks. The busy time commences in January. Most of his girls run them up at home, but put them on the frames at the factory. S., New York, says the business is bad in July, and part of August—also in February. In his factory, some tailoresses, and girls that sew for milliners and dress makers, get employment until the busy seasons of their trades come round. His women get for sewing from $2 to $3 a week; those that cut get from $5 to $8. It requires about two weeks to learn the business. A good use of the needle is necessary in a sewer, and economy in the use of the cloth for a cutter. The business is likely to increase. In busy seasons there is often a demand for good hands. In Paterson, Newark, and other towns where the Irish prevail, they usurp the labor even in umbrella making. In New York city a foreign influence predominates, and many Irish have come into the business there within the last year. The importation from England of umbrellas (like almost everything else) is less and less every year. Some manufacturers have the hemming done by machines. S. will not, because it throws many women out of employment. A Broadway manufacturer informs me he pays the ladies who attend his store, each $5 per week—those who sew are paid by the piece, and average $4.50 per week. He pays while learning, the time of which is one month. A good maker will always find employment. The best season is from January to June. Those who attend store are there from 8½ until 7 P. M. A manufacturer in New York, who employs eighty girls, informs me "he pays by the piece, and each earns about $4 per week. Spring is the most busy season. Men and women pursue different branches. Board, $1.50 to $2." An extensive manufacturer, a Jew, in New York, complained to me that women do not stick to one trade. He has often had women who have been sempstresses, cap makers, &c. Some, too, will not remain long at this work—they want to go at something else. Now, I would ask what a woman is to do, when her trade gives her work but part of the year, and her wages for that are merely enough to keep her alive during that time? Is she to be blamed for going to another trade in the interval? No—she is to be commended for her prudence and good sense. Do men confine themselves to one trade, if they find they can do better in another? The proprietor said he would not receive any applicants but those that are of good families and bring certificates of character. He pays by the dozen, and his women earn from $3 to $4 per week. Some parts of the work, he says, is done by machinery that women cannot manage. They receive enough to pay their board while learning. A woman that has been a milliner has acquired a skill with her needle, a smoothness and softness of touch, that enables her to become a very good umbrella maker. Such a one is best fitted for sewing on silk umbrellas. One that has been a tailoress and accustomed to sewing on heavy cloths is deficient in fineness of touch, and cannot succeed so well. The secretary of the Waterloo Company writes: "The girls of the factory are all paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive $1.25 per day, and are practical mechanics. The work of the females is easy, and requires little or no experience. Work hours average ten, the year through. The women are all American. Men's board, $3; girls', $2.50." A manufacturer in Concord, New Hampshire, "pays his girls from $10 to $12 a month. Women can learn their part in from one to three months. The best seasons for work are spring and summer—the poorest, winter. Board, $6 a month." Manufacturers in Boston write: "We employ one woman the whole year in cutting out covers of umbrellas and parasols, and pay her $6.50 a week the year round—to another, who performs the same kind of work, in busy times, say from November 1st to July 1st, we pay $5.50. A superintendent, who gives out and receives back the work and keeps the pay roll, receives $5.50 part of the year, and $4.50 the other part. From March 1st to July 1st we employ thirty girls to sew up covers and put on frames, and pay by the piece. They average $4 per week. We keep ten girls, for this kind of work, through the winter. It takes four or five years for men to learn the business; women well versed in the use of the needle, two or three years. From December 1st to March 1st, some of our women work on furs, or upholstery, and some are unable to obtain any kind of work. The supply is more than the demand, particularly this year. As a location for this business, the advantages are in favor of New York, because of the large market, and on account of the principal part of the material being made there. Most of our hands board with relations or friends, because they find it difficult to get boarding places at such prices as they are able to pay. Board, from $1.75 to $3.00." Umbrella stitchers in New Britain, Connecticut, "have some girls tending machines, to whom they pay from 50 to 75 cents per day of ten hours. They have some to sort and pack goods. Women can do the light work somewhat cheaper than men, and are somewhat quicker. No other parts of the work are suited to their strength and dress."

330. Sempstresses.

In 1845, there were in New York ten thousand sempstresses, and now there are probably many more. "The following are the prices for which a majority of these females are compelled to work—they being such as are paid by the large depots for shirts and clothing, on Chatham street and elsewhere:—For making common white and checked shirts, six cents each; common flannel undershirts the same. These are cut in such a manner as to make ten seams in two pairs of sleeves. A common fast sempstress can make two of these shirts per day. Sometimes, very swift hands, working from sunrise till midnight, can make three. This is equal to seventy-five cents a week (allowing nothing for holidays, sickness, accidents, being out of work, &c.) for the first class, and $1.12½ for the others. Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms, neatly stitched, are made for twenty-five cents. A good sempstress will thus earn $1.50 a week by constant labor. Fine linen shirts, with plaited bosoms, which cannot be made by the very best hand in less than fifteen or eighteen hours' steady work, are paid fifty cents each. Ordinary hands can make one shirt of this kind in two days. Duck trousers, overalls, &c., eight or ten cents each; drawers and undershirts, both flannel and cotton, from six to eight cents at the ordinary shops, and 12½ cents at the best. One garment is a day's work for some, others can make two. Satinet, cassimere, and broadcloth, sometimes with gaiter bottoms and lined, from eighteen to thirty cents—the latter price paid only for work of the very best quality. Good hands make one a day. Their coats are made for from 25 to 37½ cents apiece. Heavy pilot-cloth coats, with three pockets, $1 each. A coat of this kind cannot be made under three days. Cloth roundabouts and pea jackets, twenty-five to fifty cents. These can be made in two days." In a large town, in Massachusetts, we read, not many months past, of overalls being made at thirty-seven cents per dozen, or three cents a pair, and shirts at forty-eight cents per dozen, or four cents apiece. When the times are hard, prices fall from their usually low standard. Our hearts sicken within us as we read the prices paid needlewomen. The trifling remuneration and wasted health of most needlewomen is a bitter reflection on those who employ them. Some clothing merchants and cap and shirt makers pay their women such prices as enable them to live—better than those mentioned above. They are houses of a more respectable class, that have a position, and deal with a more liberal class of people. The occupation of sempstress is crowded to overflowing in New York. In business times it is impossible to get a working person to leave New York, but in hard times they are very willing to go. One firm told me that they often have applications for operators and sempstresses in busy seasons, but then they will not leave; and when the times are dull there is no demand, and they cannot. The supply of labor has been greater than the demand, and hence the competition that has arisen among clothing merchants, and the low price of made clothing as sold in slop shops. The use of sewing machines has to some extent done away with sewing by hand. Many a woman has been thrown out of employment by it, to which many of our newspapers can testify, and have borne witness during the past two years. We have heard of some slop shops in large cities offering to pay the highest wages to good shirt makers, each applicant to take a shirt and make it for nothing, as a sample of her sewing. From one hundred to two hundred, perhaps, apply, and, of course, that many shirts are made. It meets the demand of the unprincipled shopkeeper, and he has, perhaps, employment for a dozen or more. A man that has a ladies' furnishing store, told me he pays girls that sew neatly by hand 37½ cents a day. Many clothing merchants have their work done in the country, because they can have it done more cheaply. The sewing done by French linen makers is very beautiful. The majority of sempstresses have no time they can call their own. Those that sew twelve or fourteen out of the twenty-four hours, without any relatives or friends even to be protectors for them, and often in bad health, have no time for mental improvement or social intercourse. "The habits of the sempstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward, and the arms being, even in walking, considerably bent forward, or folded more or less upward from the elbows."

331. Sewing Machine Operatives.

There has probably been no invention in which so large a number of persons have realized fortunes as the sewing machine. All the first manufacturers of them have amassed money. In the United States 150,000 sewing machines are in use. Miss P. says, a sewing machine and baster do the work of ten hand sewers and five basters. We hear of some sewing machines in London, each of which can accomplish as much as fifteen pairs of human hands. At several highly respectable establishments we were told their operatives earn from $4 to $7 a week, according to the abilities of the operative, the kind of machine, and the style of work. In houses of lower standing, operatives earn from $3 to $5. I was told of one man who hires a number of girls to work on machines at $2.20 a week. At Y. & Co.'s, operatives earn from $2.50 to $4. Machine stitchers of leather generally get $6 a week. The usual number of hours for operatives is ten. I have been told that the secret of its being so difficult to get basters is, they are paid poor wages. A clothing merchant in the Bowery says he has a family working for him that earn $28, and sometimes $30 per week. They use two machines. The machine-made clothing for men sells at about the same price as hand-made, and is generally liked as well by purchasers. We think, the sewing of ladies done by machine does not pay quite so well as hand sewing; but if we sewed for a living, we would give the machine the preference, because of its rapid execution. C., who employs about four hundred hands, says their dull season begins the 4th of July. L., who sells sewing machines, told me he frequently has applications for operatives to go into clothing manufactories. G. & B. occasionally have applications from other places, but always give the choice to those who have learned with them. L. thinks the employment of operatives will not amount to anything as a permanent reliance out of cities. He thinks in one or two years the sewing machine will be used in almost every family—as much domesticated as the wash tub. In cities where clothing, bagging, &c., are made in large quantities, of course, there will be a demand for some. L., superintendent of E. S.'s machines, employs from three to twelve ladies, and pays from $5 to $10 a week. They stay from eight to ten hours. A lady, who hires sewing machines, and sends out operatives, told me she charges $2 a day for a machine and operative, sending both, and giving twelve hours' time, or from $1.25 to $1.50 for an operator only, according to the number of hours given. If they are hired for a week or more, the prices are still lower. I think the usual hire of a machine only is $2 a day. A man that hires machines told me that he rents for from $3 to $5 per month, keeping the machine in repair during the time, if it is not badly used. Singer's principal machine is a strong, heavy one, most suitable for cloth, and requires much strength to work long at a time. According to D., a clothing merchant, a woman with one of Singer's machines can do all the stitching of twelve pairs of cloth pantaloons in a day; and a coat that formerly required two days to make by hand, can now be made in one sixth of a day. W., agent of W. & W.'s machine, says the lady that has charge of L. & S.'s sewing department, told him ladies prefer to have their sewing done by machines, and that B. will not have his mantillas made by hand. He told me of a woman that takes in $30 a week with the aid of two girls, to whom she pays $6 a week each, leaving the profit of $18 a week; and of another who makes $8 a week with her machine. Now that machines are more plentiful, work done by them is not so well paid. The sellers of machines say it is not unhealthy. Some people suppose the machine to be much more injurious than the needle, if worked as long and constantly. The tax on the muscles of the lower limbs and the weaker parts of the system is certainly very great; yet those with treadles are thought by some to be less injurious than those moved by steam. I talked with a lady keeping a depository connected with an influential church for the supplying of poor women with work. She thinks sewing machines are very injurious—says a girl of seventeen will give out in three or five years at most. It produces a pain first in the hips, and the jar affects the nerves; and the sameness of the stitch on white or black goods produces a constant strain of the eye. She mentioned a young woman who came a few days before to get sewing, who had worked at B.'s five years on a machine, and her sight had so failed her that she cannot see to work now by gaslight. She was but twenty-three, but looked to be thirty years of age. Sewing by machine, I have been told, injures some kinds of goods. The needle being large, threads of the cloth are liable to be broken. Changing the kind and quality of goods in operating injures a machine. The utility and profit of sewing machines have to a great extent been usurped by Jew men, that are tailors and cap makers. I have heard that many respectable men in New York, after coming home from business, spend nearly or quite all the evening in operating on machines, doing the family sewing that has been cut and basted ready to stitch. What can we say of such effeminacy and meanness, when done by those that are able to give such work to poor women? A lady remarked to me: "When sewing machines were invented, it was said new occupations would be opened to women as the machine came in use, and deprived some of a livelihood; but it is eight years since, and I have not heard of one." The sewing machine has certainly thrown many women out of employment. Those who are able to purchase one may get along. It is in this as in every other branch of labor—a capital, however small, is an assistance in business. One advantage always gained by machinery is that it enables the poor to purchase more cheaply the materials used by them. Freemasons often buy machines for the widows they help to support. In some of the large manufactories of Dublin, where sewing machines are used, from fifty to two hundred women are employed.

FUR WORKERS.

333. Sewers.

From conversations with a number of fur dealers in Philadelphia and New York, I find the rate of wages for sewers runs from $2.25 a week to $8. Forewomen get good wages. Some sewers and liners are paid by the piece, and some by the week. Those who work by the week are paid for extra hours. A small number of the women employed in New York are English, but the majority are Germans, who have learned the business in their own country. In Germany most of the men learn to sew, and most of the men engaged in the fur business know how. Quite a number in New York are married women, whose husbands are connected with the business. Furs are sold only in the fall and winter, but made up in the summer. In a few places they give work all the year to a small number of workers, but the majority do not give work more than six months, from May to December. Some fur sewers have another trade for the other six months, as hat binding, &c. It does not require long for a good sewer to learn—from one week to six. There are some kinds of fancy fur sewing that require rather longer. No women are employed in preparing the skins: that is done at different establishments, generally in the suburbs, and exclusively by male hands. The usual number of hours of sewers employed by the day is ten; but many of those who sew by the piece take work home with them to do at night, and so are enabled to earn considerably more. Men working in the fur business in New York earn from $8 to $12 per week. The quilting for linings is done by machines, but the linings are sewed in by hand. Liners are generally better paid than sewers, and earn from $6 to $10. In extensive establishments, a cutter and a certain number of sewers and liners confine themselves to one kind of fur. Some furriers pay their learners enough to board them; some do not pay anything. I think the supply of hands in New York is equal to the demand. The best workers, of course, are most sure of employment. New York is the great fur depot of the United States, but some business is also done in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Furs are sent from St. Louis and Chicago to be made up in New York, and part of them returned to be sold in those cities. Those that sew furs at home can most conveniently take learners. There are a number of middlemen in the fur business, who get work from the stores and make a profit by employing women to do it at lower wages. Mrs. G., an importer and manufacturer, cuts her own furs, particularly ermine and sable. She says furs are sometimes cut in Germany by women, but people in this country think a woman cannot properly cut them. Work at the fur business in England is said to pay better than any other. G—s, the largest firm in New York, write: "We pay women from $2.50 to $6 per week. Some work by the week, some by the piece. Men get about double wages, but their work requires more physical strength. Men do the cutting and matching, and it requires several years to be a good workman. Sewers receive about half price while learning. Some women can learn all that is necessary in a few months. The prospect of employment is not so good as heretofore. The women work the year around. Work hours are 9½. Board, $2 to $2.50 per week." Most furriers report the employment healthy, but it is not, on account of the dust and loose hairs flying, for persons predisposed to consumption. A furrier in New York writes: "I pay mostly by the piece. It takes about one year and a half for women to learn the parts they do. The amount of work hereafter depends some upon fashion and the weather. The best seasons for work are from May until February. We could not shorten the hours of work unless the business had a longer season. Board, from $1.50 to $2." A furrier in Boston writes: "Women are employed for sewing and lining furs here, in England and France, and partially in Germany, Russia, &c. Week hands get from $4 to $4.50, ten hours a day; others, from $2 to $6. Business in future is uncertain. I am busy from July to Christmas. The best location for the business is where furs are fashionable." A fur dealer in New York, who employs from 10 to 15 women, gives the following answers to questions concerning the fur business: "The work is very easy, and not unhealthy. I pay women from $3 to $6 per week, ten hours a day. They are as well paid as males, in proportion to the amount of work done. Any apt female can learn in three months, and is always paid by me $2.50 per week while learning. The business is better and there is more of it every year. Work is steady from May to December; very little at other times. The comfort and remuneration of the employment is satisfactory among working classes. Women are more capable of handling a needle for light, fine work than men. The colder the climate, the better the location for business, provided people have money to buy furs." In some establishments where men and women work in the same departments, they are allowed to talk while at work; but the practice, some complain, is not conducive to good morals. The character of the people and conversation, however, would decide that.