Part 42

=326. Feathers.= Mrs. M., Philadelphia, has served an apprenticeship of five years at dressing and dyeing feathers, and is now (and has been for fifty years) able to perform every part of it herself, including the preparation of the dyes. She employs women, but they do not give themselves the time or trouble to learn enough of it to carry it on on their own account, but are satisfied to acquire enough of it to enable them to earn a day's wages. From the information obtained from this veteran, we concluded that this trade can be very well carried on by women alone; and farther, that there will always be considerable demand for feathers and plumes, at least in large cities. Ladies' plumes pay best. She prepares plumes for the military. At a feather store in New York, the lady said the season commences in May. Learners are paid $1.50 the first week, and, if they become good workers, may in a few months earn as much as $6 a week. Mrs. D. says she would like to teach some one the business, and establish them where she is. She would turn over her custom to them. She would do so for $200. Her location is a good one. She would instruct how to curl, mend, sew, and color the lighter shades, for $5. She says it is not unhealthy, but requires one to be much on her feet. Taste, both native and cultivated, are required for success. I saw turkey feathers made into a light, delicate plume, and those of geese into flowers. Some feathers from the tails of roosters formed large, dark, rich-looking plumes for children's hats. This I mention to show what the poultry of our own barnyards can produce. Mrs. D.'s work was not confined to the feathers of domestic poultry. In dull seasons she prepares feathers for busy seasons. Connected with her business might be the making and selling of artificial flowers and head dresses. She says a superior feather worker can earn $6 a week, and a few even $8. Mrs. N. told me she takes learners, paying $1 a week for one month, then more if the worker is worth it, and so on. She will not teach to dye. All the American feathers used in the United States are sent from New York. A colorer and curler of fancy feathers told me it does not require more than a few weeks to learn, if you can see the process constantly during that time. It is easier to learn to curl than dye. To dye feathers on a small scale is troublesome, for if you have a feather to be dyed one color, another of a different shade, &c., you must mix up just enough coloring matter for each one. A lady, that would learn the business well, might make a living at it in the South or West.

=327. Hoop Skirts.= There are now hundreds of women employed in the manufacture of hoop skirts, that will, when the fashion ceases, be thrown out of employment. What resource will they have? It may be that some other fashion will spring up requiring their services, but we doubt it. D. & S., New York, employ from 600 to 1,000, and once had 1,500 girls working for them. They have large well-aired rooms. We passed through and saw their girls at work. They were neat, well dressed, and cheerful looking. Nine tenths are Americans. Most of the girls have homes. D. & S. have established a free library of two thousand volumes for the girls, but owing to the negligence in not returning books taken out, they lost so many that the library is no longer accessible to them. The trade of D. & S. is Southern. Their girls earn from $4 to $8 per week, and work 9½ hours a day in winter. The girls can change their position frequently. Women are superior to men for this kind of work. While learning, girls receive enough to pay their board. The continuance of this occupation depends entirely on fashion. S. thinks the fashion as likely to last as the wearing of bonnets. Most of the small establishments in this business have been absorbed by the large ones. From December to April are the best seasons for work; from June to September the most slack. T., a large manufacturer, says the average pay is from $4 to $4.50. His forewoman earns $400 a year. Some girls are dull, and some are smart--so the time of learning depends much on that. They pay the girls something from the time they begin to learn. They work ten hours a day. As a general thing the girls and women spend all the money they can spare for dress. The firm have thought of establishing a savings bank in connection with their manufactory, for the benefit of their workwomen, but have never yet found time. Some they pay by the piece; some, by the day; and others, by the week, or year. Some seasons they employ about one thousand work people, of whom nine hundred and fifty are women and girls. I saw, at a factory, some girls covering wire for hoops. The machinery was very ingenious. They are paid $3, and a few $3.50. They have to stand all the time, and watch their work constantly. They work ten hours. The man can always get enough of hands. It requires but a short time to learn. They have work all the year. The spooling, respooling, and covering, are all done by women. Girls can earn from $2 to $6 a week, working ten hours. I saw an old woman who spools cotton for covering hoop skirts. She receives five cents a score, and cords six scores a day, earning thirty cents. At a factory I was told the girls work by the piece, and get from $4 to $5 per week. Owing to the want of proper management on the part of the proprietor, I found the girls do not have work steadily. Sometimes they get out of clasps, or tape, or hoops, and cannot get them immediately, because of their distance from the stores. At B.'s hoop-skirt factory, he told me he pays from $2 to $7 a week to his girls, and he employs between two hundred and three hundred. It takes but a few days to learn. The season commences about the middle of November. The twelve o'clock bell rang, and I heard one girl say: "Let's swallow our dinner, and, when we have time, chew it." I called at A.'s factory. He has about two hundred girls, and they receive from $2 to $5 a week--working ten hours a day. They were nice, bright-looking girls. More hoop skirts are manufactured in New York than in any other city. I was in a factory where hoop skirts were woven by hand. The weaver girl we spoke to, said she did not get tired now, but did when she commenced. The girls are paid by the piece, and a good weaver, when industrious, can earn $1 a day. They do not sell so many as formerly. At O.'s, they have employed two hundred girls, but discharged one hundred the day before, and the girls earn from $3 to $4. Last year they sold more than ever before. They pay from the time a learner enters, but of course the pay is small for a time. They begin at the lowest branches and gradually rise. Those at machines sit, and those at frames stand. Some skirts excel in elegance of shape, some in durability, and some in elasticity. Many improvements have been made since their introduction into this country. The prices paid were better at first than since there has been so much competition. At S.'s factory, I was told the girls are paid every Saturday night. They are not paid while learning, but, when they have learned, can earn from $3 to $5 per week. Some of their girls take their work home. The amount of work depends on the market. So they cannot tell what amount will be done next spring. They are making up to send to New Orleans. Prices have fallen for this work, and so a smaller number are employed than formerly. Spring and fall are, of course, the best seasons for work. The bindings are sewed on by machines, and operatives get about $5 per week. A. writes from Massachusetts: "Women are employed in Europe in making hoop skirts, principally in London and Paris. In our country they earn from $4 to $6 a week. I pay my men higher wages, on account of the labor they perform, requiring more exercise both of body and mind. The work of a woman can be learned in a week or ten days, but constant practice for months gives greater skill and success. The employment is very neat and clean, and gives exercise to the whole system. Women are quicker in motion than men, and their powers of endurance greater. A sound mind in a sound body, and ambition to excel, together with a tolerable love of money, are qualifications necessary to render a girl desirable in this business." This branch of business has given employment to upward of twenty thousand women in the city of New York, and States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The business is usually suspended for the winter months. In New York city there is always a surplus of girls seeking labor; they are daughters of the poorer classes, and live in tenement houses, in close quarters--are shabbily clad, and their wages go to support perhaps a drunken father, or a widowed mother and fatherless children. This class of girls contrast sadly in looks and health with country girls, accustomed to breathe the free air of heaven. Their flattened chests, pale faces, and scanty wardrobe tell too plainly of the competition of labor among girls in that great city. I am told by manufacturers, in New York, that the daily applications of girls for employment, at their counting houses, is a source of annoyance, and that they are obliged to paste placards on their doors to avoid them. This business can be best prosecuted in localities where the materials can be purchased, and near markets where they are sold. The fact that workwomen are not paid as well as men, is owing to competition. In New England, men laborers are scarce, but women compete with each other. "Board, $2 for ladies, $3 for men." A manufacturer in Connecticut, employing from fifty to one hundred, writes he "pays from $3 to $4 per week. The best seasons for work are from Jan. 1st to April 1st, and from June 1st to Nov. 1st. They work eleven hours per day. Women are superior to men, in the more ready use of their fingers. Board, $1.50 to $2. Quickness and dexterity are qualities most needed." O. & C., Connecticut, write, their girls, "above one hundred and twenty, work by the piece, and earn from fifty cents to $1.12 per day, in proportion to their skill and industry. A very few in one branch earn more. Living on fashion, is of course uncertain. Business months, May, June, October, November, and December. Women are generally inferior in construction and skill. Board, $1.75 to $2.50." Manufacturers in Ashfield, Mass., write: "We employ about one hundred and twenty women. The greater part of them do the work at their own homes. Some baste the work together, some work the sewing machines, some draw the bastings, and others sew on the buttons and finish the work. Our work is all done by the piece. Those who work the machines can easily earn eighty-three cents a day of ten hours--the others earn from thirty-three to fifty cents, according to age, activity, and capacity. We pay men $1 a day for cutting the work and packing the goods. Neatness and despatch are desirable for workers; and for operatives, sufficient ingenuity to keep the machines in good order and condition. The work is as comfortable and pleasant, perhaps, as any employment whatever. Board, $1.50." I find some firms work ten hours, some eleven.

=328. Muslin Sets.= Many girls are employed in large cities in making up lace goods, as collars, undersleeves, &c. S. employs two women to make up undersleeves, caps, &c., and pays from $3 to $5 per week to each. They stay from 8 to 6 o'clock. There are too many in that business who are not well qualified. Very few are Americans. Miss A. used to make up sets, and earned $10 a week often (piecework), before the Southern trade became so poor. Girls earn from $3 to $5 a week for this kind of work. It is cut and prepared by a forewoman. Some women sell lace goods on the streets of London. I called on a man who employs a number of girls to make crape collars. He says experienced hands can earn from $20 to $26 a month. They work by the piece. It does not require long to learn. Mrs. H. called on a Frenchman who advertised for hands for that purpose. He offered her $1.50 a dozen for making ornamented ones.

=329. Parasols and Umbrellas.= The parasol was used by the ancients more in religious ceremonies than as a protection from the sun. In some of the warmest countries, they are as much used by men as women. The manufacture of parasols and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in this country, and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella manufactory, Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed--one hundred and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly as many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make and sew on the covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the material and workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn umbrella making. The girls we saw leaving the premises looked tidy and cheerful. S. remarked that those who live at a distance from the workshop, generally arrive earlier than those who live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from excessive use of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They used to employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please. Last summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia, engaged in making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella factories in New York, girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents an umbrella. For silk umbrellas, they receive only two cents more than for cotton ones. Parasols range in price from four to twenty-four cents, according to size, style, and quality of material. Old hands, in some houses, take apprentices for two or three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their work for the time given in instructing them. March, April, and May are the busiest months for making city parasols; and August, September, and October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in New York, the man said he employed two women in spring and one in winter to work. The parasol work pays best. His girls earn, when making parasols, from $5 to $6 per week; but umbrellas seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale parasol work commences about the middle of December, but his, being retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the trade told me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per week. Of course they have not work all the year steadily. She is paid to stay in the store, and is expected to spend any unoccupied moments in sewing for the shop. An umbrella maker told me his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the kind and quantity of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled. In New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm that employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average wages were $4 a week. In the umbrella business the work is invariably paid for by the piece. A gentleman told me that girls in that branch of work become very immoral from association with men while at work; but in large establishments the females have a separate workroom, and there is no need of their ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman. (Why might they not have a forewoman?) S. Brothers say their girls earn from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of the year--their best hands all the year. Most of the work is done at the factories, but some girls run up the covers at home, and come to the factory to put them on the frames. I was told that in Philadelphia, work can be done as well for lower prices, because living is cheaper. My experience as to the price of living was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had been making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of consumption in less than two years, from the long and close confinement; but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust and coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particularly in summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the openness of the pores. A manufacturer told me his hands could earn from $4 to $6 a week. A learner must spend three weeks without remuneration; then she is paid according to the quality and amount of work done. About one fourth of his girls are Americans, that have worked out, but desire to do something they think more respectable. His hands have work all the year, with the exception of six weeks. The busy time commences in January. Most of his girls run them up at home, but put them on the frames at the factory. S., New York, says the business is bad in July, and part of August--also in February. In his factory, some tailoresses, and girls that sew for milliners and dress makers, get employment until the busy seasons of their trades come round. His women get for sewing from $2 to $3 a week; those that cut get from $5 to $8. It requires about two weeks to learn the business. A good use of the needle is necessary in a sewer, and economy in the use of the cloth for a cutter. The business is likely to increase. In busy seasons there is often a demand for good hands. In Paterson, Newark, and other towns where the Irish prevail, they usurp the labor even in umbrella making. In New York city a foreign influence predominates, and many Irish have come into the business there within the last year. The importation from England of umbrellas (like almost everything else) is less and less every year. Some manufacturers have the hemming done by machines. S. will not, because it throws many women out of employment. A Broadway manufacturer informs me he pays the ladies who attend his store, each $5 per week--those who sew are paid by the piece, and average $4.50 per week. He pays while learning, the time of which is one month. A good maker will always find employment. The best season is from January to June. Those who attend store are there from 8½ until 7 P. M. A manufacturer in New York, who employs eighty girls, informs me "he pays by the piece, and each earns about $4 per week. Spring is the most busy season. Men and women pursue different branches. Board, $1.50 to $2." An extensive manufacturer, a Jew, in New York, complained to me that women do not stick to one trade. He has often had women who have been sempstresses, cap makers, &c. Some, too, will not remain long at this work--they want to go at something else. Now, I would ask what a woman is to do, when her trade gives her work but part of the year, and her wages for that are merely enough to keep her alive during that time? Is she to be blamed for going to another trade in the interval? No--she is to be commended for her prudence and good sense. Do men confine themselves to one trade, if they find they can do better in another? The proprietor said he would not receive any applicants but those that are of good families and bring certificates of character. He pays by the dozen, and his women earn from $3 to $4 per week. Some parts of the work, he says, is done by machinery that women cannot manage. They receive enough to pay their board while learning. A woman that has been a milliner has acquired a skill with her needle, a smoothness and softness of touch, that enables her to become a very good umbrella maker. Such a one is best fitted for sewing on silk umbrellas. One that has been a tailoress and accustomed to sewing on heavy cloths is deficient in fineness of touch, and cannot succeed so well. The secretary of the Waterloo Company writes: "The girls of the factory are all paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive $1.25 per day, and are practical mechanics. The work of the females is easy, and requires little or no experience. Work hours average ten, the year through. The women are all American. Men's board, $3; girls', $2.50." A manufacturer in Concord, New Hampshire, "pays his girls from $10 to $12 a month. Women can learn their part in from one to three months. The best seasons for work are spring and summer--the poorest, winter. Board, $6 a month." Manufacturers in Boston write: "We employ one woman the whole year in cutting out covers of umbrellas and parasols, and pay her $6.50 a week the year round--to another, who performs the same kind of work, in busy times, say from November 1st to July 1st, we pay $5.50. A superintendent, who gives out and receives back the work and keeps the pay roll, receives $5.50 part of the year, and $4.50 the other part. From March 1st to July 1st we employ thirty girls to sew up covers and put on frames, and pay by the piece. They average $4 per week. We keep ten girls, for this kind of work, through the winter. It takes four or five years for men to learn the business; women well versed in the use of the needle, two or three years. From December 1st to March 1st, some of our women work on furs, or upholstery, and some are unable to obtain any kind of work. The supply is more than the demand, particularly this year. As a location for this business, the advantages are in favor of New York, because of the large market, and on account of the principal part of the material being made there. Most of our hands board with relations or friends, because they find it difficult to get boarding places at such prices as they are able to pay. Board, from $1.75 to $3.00." Umbrella stitchers in New Britain, Connecticut, "have some girls tending machines, to whom they pay from 50 to 75 cents per day of ten hours. They have some to sort and pack goods. Women can do the light work somewhat cheaper than men, and are somewhat quicker. No other parts of the work are suited to their strength and dress."