Part 39

=298. Gutta Percha Manufacture.= A manufacturer of gutta-percha goods told me that the firm to which he belongs employ twenty-five girls. One of their girls earns $1 a day, making handles. The others close the seams of coats, and other articles of dress, with cement. Some work by the piece, and some by the week. When by the week, they are paid $3.50 and $4; and those by the piece earn about the same. He thinks, if it is unhealthy, it is because the sulphur used opens the pores and renders the person liable to take cold. I visited a gutta-percha comb manufactory. The girls receive $2 a week, while learning. They can learn in a few days. They polish and pack the combs. They work ten hours a day, and receive $4. Few of them get $4.50. The employer thinks there may be more work in that line hereafter. A woman acquainted with machinery could superintend the machine that cuts the teeth of the comb. Rounding the teeth is done by men, but could be performed by women. I was told there is a manufactory at Stratton, L. I., where seventy women are employed.

HAIR WORKERS.

=299. Artists.= The making of hair ornaments is a distinct branch of labor. Some very beautiful and ingenious pieces of workmanship have been executed. Bracelets, earrings, breastpins, and guards are the most common articles. The work is nicely adapted to the nimble fingers of women, whether engaged in it for pastime or profit. A foreign lady, that does ornamental hair work, told me that it is a right profitable business to one that can do it well, but American women have not patience to learn to do it in a superior manner. A hair jeweller in Philadelphia told me he employs six girls--all Americans, and he thinks they do better than foreigners. He pays a girl seventy-five cents a week, for three or four weeks. By that time she has learned enough to earn $3 or $4 a week. Formerly he required a girl to spend two years learning, and paid her nothing during the time. He mentioned one firm that required three years' apprenticeship. But the girls often became discouraged, and went at something else. Now the business is not so much of a secret. He has now and then paid as high as $12 a week, for a hand that was very ingenious and successful. They pay high for their designs. The gentleman had paid $50, the week previous, for a design. His girls all work in the establishment, and spend about nine hours at their work. It is done altogether by hand. The only disadvantage attending it is the confinement that pertains to it, or any other employment of that kind. An artist on Fifth street gives work out of the house. The average rate of wages he pays is $4 a week. Hair artists, when employed by the week, receive from $4 to $5. At S.'s, New York, they pay a good hand from $4 to $5 a week, ten hours a day. A person of good abilities can learn most of the patterns in three weeks. An ornamental hair worker told me she charges fifty cents a lesson of an hour. A lady was taking lessons who had recently married a jeweller, and was going to Louisiana to live. A good price can be got for such work in the South, for Southerners have had all such work done in the North. A German, who made very pretty ornamental hair work in New York, told me he charges from $25 to $50 for teaching the art--those that wish to learn in a short time, and so require much of his attention, pay $100. It can be very well learned in six months. He pays $10 a week to good hands. The work is the same at all seasons. Strong eyes, nimble fingers, and a clear head are the essentials for a learner.

=300. Dressers.= The business of a barber was performed by females among the Romans, about the time of the Christian era. I have read that there are now women barbers in Paris, Normandy, England, and Western Africa. In the reign of Louis XIV. it was not unusual for ladies of rank and wealth to dress the whiskers of their favorite friends. Both men and women are engaged in the United States in the business of dressing ladies' hair. We think women most suitable for it, and should be patronized to the exclusion of men. The business requires practice and taste. Some ladies of wealth have their dressing maids to learn the art and perform that office of the toilet. Most hair dressers charge 50 cents to $1.50 for dressing the hair. The price is regulated by the style in which it is done and the reputation of the dresser. The demands for a hair dresser are sometimes such, in a fashionable season, that a lady must have her hair dressed as early as noon, to wear to the opera at 8, or to a party at 10 P. M. Mrs. W., New York, charges 50 cents for dressing hair, 75 for shampooing and dressing, and $1 if she sends out. She never sends any one out to dress hair where she is not acquainted. She thinks there are about 200 hair dressers in New York. At an establishment in Broadway they give instruction in hair dressing--price, $1 a lesson. A person of ordinary abilities can learn to dress hair plainly in three or four lessons. C. says he thinks more women could find employment as hair dressers in New York; but I think, from the number of signs I saw, no demand can exist. He thinks it strange that they do not make engagements by the week, as they do in the cities of the old countries, where there are 200 or 300 in every large city that go out daily to the houses of their customers. I have since learned that there are some in New York that do. Mrs. G. goes out by the week, and receives $3 per week. She makes such engagements for the morning only, as she is likely to be called in the afternoon to prepare ladies for parties. From the middle of June until September she is at Saratoga. C. had a woman four years learning the styles of dressing and making up hair. The third year he paid her $4 a week, and the fourth year $5 a week. He says it requires so long to learn it that women generally get discouraged and go at something else. Women employed by the week to dress hair receive from $4 to $5. A lady told me she charges 50 cents a lesson, and a person can learn in from fourteen to twenty lessons. Two years' time is generally given to learn hair work in all its branches, weaving, mounting, &c. It takes time and capital to establish a business for one's self, as hair is a costly article. I saw one lady who teaches hair dressing for $10. A young woman told me it requires two weeks of constant practice to become a hair dresser. Nearly everything at it is done in winter. Practice makes perfect. The best plan is to get regular customers, and go to their houses every day, including Sunday, for which it is usual to charge from $1.50 a week up, for one head. She charges 50 cents a lesson. Some chambermaids at hotels take a few lessons, to enable them to dress hair plainly. For shampooing, most of which is done in summer, she charges 50 cents; for braiding front hair, 50 cents; and with the back hair, 75 cents. Miss S. told me many female hair dressers board with the family of the employer, because of being up late at night, and receive their board and $10 a month and up. For weaving hair her mother pays 6 cents per yard; for the finer kind, 12 cents per yard. Her mother earns from $1.75 to $2 per day. A person that can weave and make front pieces can get work at any time. There are only three months dull time in a city--June, July, and August. Some ladies pay a hair dresser $10 a month for dressing the hair every day but Sunday, when a separate and higher charge is made. For dressing a bride entirely, $5 is charged. One needs taste and ability to please; at any rate, one must be civil and obliging. Fashionable watering places present the best openings. Saratoga and Newport present favorable ones, at the first of which there is but one permanent hair dresser. D., hair dresser and wig maker, requires learners to be bound for four years. The first year he gives a girl her board, lodging, washing, and $4 a month. The next year he gives the same, with an increase of $1 a month; and so continues that increase each succeeding year until the apprenticeship expires. He gives to journeywomen their dinner, supper, and $4 a week. The business is not confined to regular hours, on account of hair dressing, which is done mostly in the evening. He charges 50 cents for dressing a lady's hair at his rooms, and $1 at her house. A Frenchman, under Fifth Avenue Hotel, pays $5 a week to a girl who receives the pay of his customers. She is there at 8, and can leave at dark. He charges 75 cents a head at the saloon, and at the ladies' residences the same. He has rooms fitted up, and has many customers from the hotel. He employs three girls, paying them one half of what they earn. He keeps but one there constantly. The other two live near, and when he needs their services he sends for them. He is going to teach hair dressing, and charge $1 a lesson; forty or fifty (?) lessons are usually taken, according to the extent it is learned. Mrs. B. told me men teach ladies wig making, but ladies give instruction mostly in hair dressing to those of their own sex. It is usual to pay learners something after a few months' or a year's practice. Those that work for others get most to do in winter. Those that have establishments of their own can of course work all the time. Most employers pay by the week. Mrs. Dall has the following sentence in her "Woman's Right to Labor:" "I think there is room in Boston for an establishment from which a woman could come to a sickroom, to shave the heated head or cut the beard of the dying; a place where women's and children's wants could be attended to, without necessary contact with men."

=301. Dyers.= B. will want some nice women to dye ladies' hair. Now he has it done by men. He wants but one at first--one who has worked with hair--for instance, a lady's maid would be most suitable. She must not be afraid to color her hands, or to work. When not working at that, she will spend her time making wigs. He will teach her how to do both, and, if she proves herself competent, he will give her fair wages. For two or three weeks he will board her and pay all her expenses. Then he will pay her $5 a week. He will take another when needed, and so increase the number as he has occasion. He employs some women to put up hair dye and perfumery, and pays $3 a week.

=302. Growers.= Dr. Gardner says: "At Caen, in France, there is a market, whither young girls resort, and stand hour after hour, with their flowing hair, rich and glossy, deriving additional lustre from the contrast with their naked shoulders. This is the resort of the merchant barbers, some of whom come even from England. The merchants pass along among them, examine the color, texture, evenness, and other qualities of the beautiful fleece, haggle for a sou, and finally buy. The hair then, after being cut as closely as possible to the head, is weighed and paid for, and the girl goes home to let another suit grow out for shearing time."

=303. Manufacturers.= The woman at S.'s says they have constant application to receive hands, and have to turn a great many away. They have trouble to get good workers. The girls will not take time to learn to do their work perfectly. They ought to spend some years learning. At C.'s, they employ a number of women in making wigs, scalps, and toupees, who can earn from $4 to $5 a week. It requires six months to learn that branch. At another place I was told it requires but a few weeks to learn to make wigs only. Workers at it earn from $3 to $5. This branch of work is profitable. Mrs. R. told me that those who make wigs can be at work all the year, but hair dressing is mostly confined to seasons. In different stores, the wages of employées vary. It is well for a person to learn all the branches, if she has time, so that if one fails her, she can take up another. Her work is mostly done in the country--no doubt because she can get it done more cheaply. Weaving hair pays best. It is paid for by the yard, and generally done at the home of the worker. If done in the house, it is most likely to be paid for by the week, and ten--the usual number of working hours--spent at it. American women form a majority in the business. It is a good business, for a small capital, when living near the importers. It is extending West and South. A hair manufacturer in Rochester writes: "The occupation is permanent, and my employées have work at all seasons. There is a demand in many places for workers in this line." A hair manufacturer in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who has three women braiding hair for jewelry, and making wigs, pays by the day, of ten hours. They receive from $3 to $8 per week, and work the same at all seasons.

=304. Merchants.= Most of the hair made up in this country is bought in France and Italy. The price paid for each head of hair ranges from one to five francs, according to its weight and beauty. From one of the cyclopædias we learn, that 200,000 pounds of women's hair is annually sold in France; that the price paid for it is usually six cents an ounce." "Whether dark or light, the hair purchased by the dealer is so closely scrutinized, that he can discriminate between the German and French article by the smell alone; nay, he even claims the power, 'when his nose is in,' of distinguishing accurately between the English, the Welsh, the Irish, and the Scotch commodities."

WILLOW WARE.

=305. Willow Ware.= Great quantities of willow ware have been imported from France, but of late years some attention has been paid to the growing of it near Philadelphia. Our climate is said to be well adapted to its growth, and the willow raised to be of a superior quality. Willow grows in damp places. Most basket makers buy the willow, and split it themselves. All the most tasteful and elegant baskets used in this country are imported from France. Basket making is one of the principal employments engaged in by the blind. It requires some strength, but more skill and practice. A basket maker's tools can be bought for $5, and last a lifetime. On looking for women basket makers in Philadelphia, we found a German widow, who could not make herself understood in English, but my companion conversed with her in German, and learned that she had supported herself and son for six years, by making baskets for the trade. She buys the willow ready for use at seven cents a pound. She sells small round baskets, with covers and handles, at $2.25 a dozen. She looked very poor, but clean, and had evidently a room to sleep in besides the one we saw, where she works and cooks. A German woman, in New York, making small fancy baskets on blocks, told me she could earn from fifty cents to $1 per day. Her husband dyes the willow. A German woman asked me $1.50 for a basket she had paid fifty cents for making--at that rate her profits were considerable. I met a German boy with baskets, who said he could make from seventy-five cents to $1 a day by his work. His father, mother, and sisters also work at the trade. I saw a woman who merely colors willow. She could make a comfortable living at it, if she could give all her time to it; but she cannot, as she has two small children, and must give part of her time to them. In Williamsburg, I had a long talk with a basket maker. He says it is best for an apprentice to learn basket making of a practical worker who has not many hands, and who will give instruction himself. He can give the more time to his learners. He spent seven years learning the trade in England. It requires knowledge of form to make the baskets of a handsome shape. He showed me a book giving directions how to proportion baskets. He thinks a right smart person might learn the business in two years, when they could earn from $10 to $15 a week. The basket makers have a society in New York that discourages the work of women in that line, by not allowing its members to sell to any store for which a woman works. The excuse is, it throws men out of work. Yet the man told me that there are probably not more than two hundred basket makers in the United States, and that it is a good business. He has more work than he can do. (Oh, what injustice to woman!) The Dutch, he says, make baskets at a lower price than the members of the society, and consequently they are discountenanced by the members. Inexperienced or careless workers are apt to cut their hands with the willow while at work. A woman who sells baskets told me that basket making is a poor business now. A man that worked for her during the summer said that, working from early in the morning till late at night, he could not make more than $4.50 a week, and if his wife had not worked out, they could not have made a living. She says the duty on willow is high, and transporters ask any price they please, as it occupies considerable room, and does not pay very well as freight. When American supplies are brought in, it is cheaper. The women that supply her do the lighter parts of the work; and their husbands, the heavier. A willow ware manufacturer in Waterbury, Vermont, writes: "The work is light and healthy. It is paid for by the piece. Women are paid less, because they are not so strong, and can live cheaper. It requires about one year to learn the business. Learners are paid by the week, about $2. Ingenuity and some taste are needed for a basket maker. A great many women might advantageously learn the trade, if they would. They can work at it all the year. We should like to employ a few girls to learn the trade and make baskets, but have been unable to do so yet, as it is very difficult finding help enough to do housework in this vicinity." A German, who learned his trade with the basket maker of his Majesty, in Dresden, replies to a circular asking information on willow work: "Women are employed at this trade at several places in Germany. They are paid by the piece. In this country, if they are able to finish the work as well as men, they are usually paid the same wages. Coarse work can be learned in much less time than fine. It is in some places the custom to have five persons to make a basket, each doing a separate part. I think the prospects for work good. Women can make the finer work quicker than men, but men succeed best in making coarse work."

WOOD WORK.

=306. Carvers.= The word "carver" is rather extensive in its application, being applied alike to one who cuts stone, wood, or metal. Carvers of stone and metal we treat of elsewhere. The art of carving is quite ancient. There are five kinds of wood carving: house, ship, toy, furniture, and pattern making; to these we may add the cutting of wooden letters for ornamental signs. Pattern making is the reverse of architectural carving: the first being in bas relief; the other, alto. Architectural carving is mostly done in pine, occasionally in oak. Ship carvers cut figure heads for vessels; some of this carving is done in oak, some in pine. For some kinds of carving the design is drawn on paper and cut out; then it is placed on the block, which is prepared of a proper thickness, and the outline drawn with a pencil. The portions of wood outside the design are then cut off with carving implements. The plan of marking the wood is not practised by all carvers. It may be that it is used for beginners only. Ingenuity in planning and skilful drawing are desirable qualifications for a carver. The tools used by carvers are very simple, being merely a hammer, and gouges of different sizes. When the wood is carved, it is smoothed with sand paper, then gilded or painted and varnished. During an apprenticeship, the usual sum paid a boy is $2.50 a week the first year, and more afterward. A journeyman can usually earn $1.50 or $1.75 a day of ten hours. It requires three years to learn the trade. "In wood sculpture, all that belongs to its simple ornament might receive a special grace from the inspiration of women." We have seen architectural and ship carving done by women; and it is our belief that almost any and every kind of carving could be done by them, if the wood were properly prepared, and they were carefully instructed. Some kinds of carving require considerable muscular strength. An architectural carver writes: "Our employment is healthy. Part of our business is suitable for women, but there is not enough in our establishment to keep one constantly employed." A carver told me that furniture carving is sometimes done by women. Though it is done in harder wood than most other kinds, it does not involve the lifting of heavy blocks, like architectural carving. The widow of a ship carver carries on the business in New York. Her son told me that eight persons could do all the work necessary for that city. There are a few ship carvers in Boston and Philadelphia, but none in the South or West. (Would not New Orleans present a good opening?) A. told me, a boy in learning ship carving is apprenticed for five or six years. He receives $1.50 a week for the first year, then $2, and after that $2.50, but no more. A carver told me that he had an Englishman working for him, that showed him some work done by his daughter, which was superior. He knows the wives of some carvers who finish the work of their husbands by rubbing it with sand paper. "Louisa Raldan, of Seville, was known as an excellent sculptor in wood." "Anna Maria Schurmann, of Sweden, carved busts in wood." "Anna Tessala, an artist of the Dutch school, was eminent as a skilful carver in wood." "Properzia di Rossi, an Italian sculptress, carved on a peachstone the crucifixion of our Saviour." Many toys are made in Germany by women and children. They are purchased very cheaply, we know, from their low prices in this country. Mrs. Dall says: "I would direct the attention of young women to the Swiss carving of paper knives, bread plates, salad spoons, ornamental figures, jewel boxes, and so on. On account of the care required in the transportation, these articles bring large prices; and I feel quite sure that many an idle girl might win a pleasant fame through such trifles." Articles might be cut of wood, as mementos of some great event or pleasant association. The small wooden cages, in which we see canaries for sale, were made by women in Germany. There labor is cheaper, and they probably receive only two or three cents for a cage, while in this country they could not be made for less than a shilling. I saw some pretty wooden toys, made in Switzerland by the shepherds while watching their flocks, and some which were made by women. It is a favorite pastime with them in the evening, when the family is gathered around the hearthstone. The small carved boards, used for the support of music in pianos, are carved by a delicate saw, moving perpendicularly and driven by steam. The carver has the pattern marked on the board, and moves it under the saw, as the workman does the back of shell combs. One species of carving common in Europe is that of saints and virgins for small churches.

=307. Kindling Wood.= Some little boys putting kindling wood into bundles told me they are paid fifteen cents a hundred bundles, and can do from two hundred and fifty to three hundred in a day of ten hours. Most of them take the strings home at night and tie them, to save time in the day. Girls could do it, but they would be liable to accident from the carelessness of those at work.