Part 51

=378. Card Makers.= For about eleven hundred years women have been more or less employed in the manufacture of cards. At N.'s, New York, I saw two girls who each earn $6 a week, and work only in daylight, and have work all the year. I went through D. & Co.'s work rooms, and saw the process of making playing cards. A large number of girls were at work, who receive average wages of $4 per week. It requires six months to learn well. They do not like to take any learners with whose character they are unacquainted; for many, when they have learned, will go off where they can get better pay. Six girls that learned with him last summer were drawn off by an employer who offered them twenty-five cents a week more; but when his busy time was over, they came back crying to be taken in again. So he made a rule that none should be taken back that once leave. (Do not men go where they get the best prices?) They keep all their hands at work, because many of them represent three or four others, who are dependent on their labor for bread. They give work all the year, and pay a learner according to what she accomplishes. They sometimes find it difficult to get good hands. They will not take hands from another employer unless they bring a note saying they have been honorably discharged. It is to avoid getting bad and dishonest workers. (If employers in that line of business, or any other, should agree never to receive hands from each other's places of business, it would cast workers entirely at the mercy of employers.) D. says their regulations are strict. I thought the girls looked to be comfortably situated. Some were cutting cards, some assorting, some counting, and some enveloping. Nearly all sat. He thinks the business so limited that it is not likely to furnish employment to many more. He says girls working at bookbinding and hoop skirts are out of employment a great deal; two thirds of the hoop-skirt makers are now out of employment. S. & P. make fancy and business cards. S. told me he pays his most experienced girls $3.50 a week. Learners receive $2.50 a week for four weeks--after that, according to activity and capability. He has hundreds of applicants, and always selects those who seem most destitute. They work ten hours a day. He has had some girls several years. To the small girls he pays less. He often has two or three girls from the same family. Foreign goods are so much preferred by Americans that they put French labels on some.

_Visiting Cards._ A., New York, employs two girls to put up visiting cards, and pays $3 and $3.50 per week. It does not require any time to learn. He now uses a machine for cutting that does the work of several girls. I was told by a very obliging girl, working in a visiting-card manufactory in New York, that to some the occupation is unhealthy, because of the lead inhaled, which injures the lungs. In that factory learners are paid $2 a week. It requires but a week to learn to cut the cards, which is done with a small hand press. The girl knew of two places in the city where the work was paid for by the piece; but in that factory they were mostly paid by the week, receiving $3.50 and $4, working ten hours a day. It requires from four to six weeks to learn. Nimbleness of fingers and ability to count are the most desirable qualifications. They have work all the year, except in November and December. They sit while cutting, assorting, and packing. This work is confined to women, as they are best adapted to it. Those in the brushing room stand. Several hundred girls are employed in New York in the card business.

=379. Card Stencillers and Painters.= A stencil engraver told me he cannot use acids in his work, because his lungs are weak, and it is very injurious. The business is dull in winter, but good in spring and fall. It pays very well when there is enough to do. His work has to be done hurriedly, as it is generally for merchants who are going to ship goods, and frequently do not order the plates until the barrels are headed and the boxes are nailed. The making of embroidery stencil plates, he thinks, would do better for a woman, and that could be done without any regard to seasons. A visiting-card writer told me he charges $1 a package of fifty-two for plain marking. Mrs. H. saw the advertisement of one who writes one hundred cards for $1. I. G., who makes show cards, says a boy for filling the letters is paid six cents a sheet. For designing, a person could get twenty-four cents a sheet. He could both design and fill thirty a day, so earning $1.87½. He knows that the merchants of the South used to purchase their cards in New York, and so there must be openings in the South for writers of show cards, and probably in the West. It requires about one year to learn to design well, and two weeks to learn to fill in neatly. Employees are paid by the piece. I was told that card painting must be done by women, judging from the prices paid--some cards costing but twelve cents a piece. I am sure women could do all the work. Making the letters is very simple, and filling them up is a mere mechanical operation. They can earn, I am confident, over $2 a day, if they have enough of work. It is peculiarly adapted to women, and some of them should learn it. I saw the wife of a German stencil engraver, who assists her husband by cutting out with scissors the parts that form the letters. He is paid three cents a letter. He can cut forty letters in two or three hours. A coat of wax is laid on the plate, and an instrument used for working out the letters, figures, or design, then an acid poured on, and when it has stood for a time removed with the wax. It can then be cut out with scissors, or into large letters and figures with other tools. Writing plates are cut by hand, as they can be most neatly and delicately done in that way. They are twice as high in price as stencil plates. S., who manufactures show cards, has several times thought of employing women. They could with a brush fill the outlines, which is now done by men, who earn from $2.50 to $18 a week. It would require about a year to acquire proficiency in drawing the outlines of the letters and using the brush to fill them. He thinks it a very suitable business for women, and will probably employ some before long.

=380. Cover and Edge Gilders.= I think burnishing the edges of books could be done by women after they are put in the frames, but considerable strength is required in the preparatory processes of shaving and screwing up. The burnishing is done with agates. I doubt whether it requires more strength than many other things women do. Laying gold leaf on the edges could certainly be done by them. Men that gild the edges of books receive from $7 to $9 a week. Men will not fold or stitch, because it does not pay well enough. G. says gilding the covers of books requires a longer apprenticeship than either folding or sewing; and at H.'s, workers are paid at first eight cents an hour, afterward ten cents an hour. It being piecework, the girls are not strictly confined to hours. Book and card edge-gilding is done both in England and France by women.

=381. Electrotypers.= Electrotyping is now more used than stereotyping by those who expect to have many editions of a work published. It costs but little more than stereotyping, and is either four or six times as durable, I forget which. 2,000,000 impressions can be taken from an electrotype plate, but only 800,000 from a stereotype plate. A boy learning the business receives $4 a week the first year, and after that more. A journeyman receives $2 a day, and some $2.50. A journeyman told us he had spent seven years at it, and he felt that he had yet much to learn; in fact, a person could be always learning. Electrotyping would be a useful and profitable occupation for women. An apprenticeship of three or four years is given to it.

=382. Envelope Makers.= At B. & G.'s, New York, girls work by the piece all the year in busy times, and can earn from $3 to $6. Most of those who get in factories, do so through the influence of friends or acquaintances in or connected with the establishment. Their business is increasing. They keep their girls all the year. They give lessons in the busy months, August and September, February and March, and pay from the first. A good hand can earn from $3 to $5. P. & Co. usually employ sixty girls. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to $4.50 a week. The envelopes are made by machines, attended by women. They employ five or six girls making envelopes by hand, as they have not machines of some sizes. P. thinks the occupation is full. They have employed their girls all the year. They used to take learners, and give the teachers their profits. My companion, Mrs. F., inquired if envelopes could not be more easily made where the paper is manufactured. He replied, they could not, because paper (and, I believe, all other goods) are delivered free of freight in New York, and he can make more by being here in the centre of trade, than if he had to send his goods here to be sold, and employ some one to sell them. He prefers the girls that can be obtained in the villages and country, for he thinks them more honest and truthful. He thinks the grade of morals altogether superior in the country to that of the city. He spoke of the want of moral obligation in the lower classes, arising from the want of proper instruction, and the lower you descend the worse you find it. The makers of boxes for containing envelopes they got were such a common set, that they instructed some nice American girls how to make them, and now employ them. He says the box makers are a common set. So I have heard bookbinders, umbrella makers, and hoop-skirt workers spoken of. But I frequently hear one trade speak disparagingly of another. W. told me their girls are paid so much a thousand. The envelopes are cut by a machine attended by a man. They are folded by a machine managed by two women, who of course stand. They are pasted and enveloped by girls who sit. The girls earn from $3 to $5 a week. It requires but two or three weeks to acquire the trade. A learner is paid nothing. The envelopes are tipped or gummed by a girl, who stands. This is the most difficult part of the work done by women, and pays best. There are eight factories in New York, one in Philadelphia, and one in Connecticut. Nine tenths of the business is done in New York. There are probably between two hundred and three hundred girls employed in the business in that city. W. requires references. Some employers are particular in their selection of hands--others advertise, and take them as they come. 2,700 envelopes have been made in an hour by machinery. A manufacturer in Massachusetts writes: "The work is considered particularly healthy. Girls from 12 years up are employed, and earn from thirty-three to seventy-five cents a day of ten hours. Men are paid from $1 to $2.75 per day. Two are machinists, two overseers, and two cutters of envelopes. Women are not strong enough for this kind of work. Some parts can be learned in a month, some in six months, and in others it requires a year to excel. We give the same employment and pay through the year, whether our profits are larger or smaller. I employ about sixty, one sixth of whom are American. The work is light, and we have constant applications from girls, who prefer this to any other manufacturing business in town. Board, $1.50."

=383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers.= The lady at F. & W.'s who directs the papers for them, says the business has been followed by women in New York for fifteen years. I called at the office of the _Independent_, and saw one of the editors, who, on learning my business, kindly invited me into the room where the young ladies were employed in directing strips of paper to envelop newspapers. It is a pretty business, and well adapted to women. Some learn it easily, and some never learn it. Dr. C. remarked: "A person may have a willing mind, but not an obedient hand." They had one young lady who spent five months at it, and then gave it up, because she could not succeed. It requires a peculiar aptitude, aside from an expeditious movement of the pen. It was followed more by women eight or nine years ago than now. Many ladies would like to get employment of the kind, but cannot. I think all the young ladies in the _Independent_ office were American, and were certainly very pretty and lady-like. They have a separate room to write in. They spend about eight hours directing envelopes for papers to send away. One earns $6 a week, another $5, and another $4. The one that first came is permitted to have as much work as she can do. The next has what she leaves, and the third the remainder. The objections made by some men to employing ladies are that they do not like to have women work in the same room where they are. They feel under more restraint, and not so free to say what they please. Such a restraint may be a wholesome one. Many women make the same objection in regard to working with men. Again, if a lady does not work as they wish, or is idle, they do not like to correct her, because women are more quick to resent. The last excuse is a poor one. They also waste much time by having their beaux call on them. Some urge they find a boy more useful, because they can put him to doing something else, when he is not busy writing. In the _Tribune_ office, men are employed because they can do it more rapidly. It is said some direct eight hundred envelopes in an hour. In some offices the girls are expected to seal the papers, but not in all. At the Cosmopolitan Art Association, I saw a lady that is employed in directing the _Art Journals_ that are sent by mail. The covers are put on by a boy. She receives $9 a week, and spends about eight hours writing. At the rooms of the A. C. Association, we saw three ladies directing envelopes for the report of the society. The Association issues a monthly magazine, and at the time of its issue employs the same ladies for the purpose of enveloping and directing them. At other times they employ but one. She has been there ten years, and is very efficient. She attends to the books containing the names of subscribers, assists the treasurer sometimes, writes letters for the secretary, and makes herself generally useful in that way. All the ladies complained of women being so poorly paid. The one who has been there ten years says, for the $350 a year she gets, they could not secure a young man's services for less than $700 or $800. The others are paid 63 cents per thousand for directing, and ten cents per hundred for sealing and directing.

=384. Ink.= A large quantity of writing and printing ink is used in this country. There are factories for making each kind. Making printing ink is hard and dirty work, unsuitable for women. Some persons cut stencil plates and make indelible ink, and employ agents to sell the ink and plates. Indelible, and all writing inks, could be made and bottled by women. Care should be taken that the acids used do not touch the flesh. Common clothes should be worn while at work, as both the ingredients and compound are of a kind to injure clothes. A maker of writing ink in New York, employs three girls in summer for bottling and labelling, and pays $3.50, working from seven till dark. He never employed any in winter, but if his business extends, he will employ his girls all the year, paying the same price in winter. He has found it difficult to get good hands. The prospect for learners is poor. A manufacturer of ink writes: "I have never yet employed female help, though I am satisfied that most of the work in my laboratory might be as well done by women as men. The employment is not unhealthy. My men work ten hours a day, and are paid by the month."

=385. Label Cutters.= At P. Brothers', I was told some of their labels are cut by hand, and some by machinery. The first are square or oblong, the others are of different shapes. Those cut with shears are most neatly done. For cutting by hand the price is one cent per hundred. They take them home. A lady and her two daughters, who work for them, often receive $50 a month. Those cut by machinery could not well be cut by women. It requires practice to make one expert. B. pays a girl by the hundred to cut labels at home. He would employ a girl to cut and attend his store, paying $3 a week from the first, but she must not be absent a day. If her health is such that she cannot always be there, he does not want her. He had one three and a half years, who was absent only ten days during that time. S. says cutting labels is always piecework, and a good worker can earn from $4 to $6 a week. He gives them out, and they are cut by hand. Common ones, for spices, mustard, &c., are cut by machinery. It does not require long to become expert. The business is always dull in December and January.

=386. Lead Pencils.= The young man at the agency for the sale of Faber's pencils, says they are made at Steinway, Germany, and he thinks women there are employed in varnishing the wood of the pencils and tying them up. The pencils are either painted or the simple wood varnished. "A man in New York is reported to have made $60,000 by selling lead pencils about the streets at a penny a piece, and safely investing his profits." Some large pencils, such as are used by carpenters, were some time back made in Massachusetts. The writing part of lead pencils is made of lead and clay, mixed, pressed, and burnt. The wooden part is in two pieces that are united when the lead is put in. In Germany each man has his own part to do. Children do some parts of it, such as joining the wood.

=387. Operatives in Paper Factories.= Paper is of various qualities and colors, and is adapted to different purposes. At least one half of the operatives in paper factories in the United States are females, amounting to several thousand. Water power is used in some paper mills, but in most large mills steam is used. Women are employed in paper mills to sift, sort, and cut up rags. It is dusty, disagreeable work, and we presume not particularly healthy, as much of the dust is no doubt inhaled. In some factories, women attend the picking and cutting machines and calenders. They are also employed for hanging, laying off, reeling, folding, assorting, counting, enveloping, and labelling the paper. The inability to meet fully the demand for rags in the manufacture of paper has led to experimenting with a variety of articles. One agent for the sale of paper made in New Jersey, and the foreman of the same establishment, told me their girls get from $2.50 to $3 a week. The majority receive $2.50. Part work six consecutive hours, have a rest of one hour, then six consecutive hours more, that is from six at night till seven in the MORNING, HAVING ONE HOUR AT MIDNIGHT; THE OTHER HALF FROM 7 A. M. till 6 P. M., having an hour at noon. The day and night workers take week about. They board for $1.50 a week. In Lee, Mass., women get $3.50 and $4, and the men twice as much. Women are paid best in the ruling department. In the paper factories in New York, women receive from $3 to $5 per week. Paper maker's girls, $1.50 to $2.50 per week. S. says, in some paper factories girls are able to earn $6 a week. All the labor in paper mills, except attending to the fires and machinery, could be done by women. All manufacturers report the occupation as healthy, except one in South Adams, who states that small pox is sometimes taken from the rags--_not often_. A paper manufacturer in Lee, Mass., writes: "Women are employed in all countries where paper is made. The time of learning depends upon their skill and developments in certain directions in the business. They are usually paid by the piece. Men are paid more because their labor is greater. Boys learn the business in about five years, girls in about one year. In learning they generally receive enough to pay their board. They work at all seasons--sometimes have nothing to do in July. There is a demand for hands in the loft, a surplus in the rag room." The New England Roofing Co. manufacture a felt, which is similar to sheathing paper, but made of a fine stock. They employ six females in sorting rags and other materials for the felt, and pay from $3 to $5 per week, one half the price of males. They work eleven hours, and pay $2 per week for board. A manufacturer of wrapping and wall paper, in Connecticut, writes "he employs a few females, and pays fifty cents per day of from eight to ten hours. He prefers them because most economical. Those working by the piece can earn from fifty to seventy-five cents per day. He pays men $1 per day for doing like work. They require less attention, and can perform other work when wanted, that is not suitable for females to perform. He usually pays beginners the same as others when they work by the day. His most busy time is when there is most water for power. An active person can usually earn as much in from six to eight hours as a house girl is paid for a full day's work." A manufacturer at Niagara Falls "employs between forty and fifty women, paying each from $2.50 to $4 per week, without board. They are paid about one half less than men, because boys would do. The prospect of employment is good. They are most busy in summer, although they run the whole year, day and night (except Sunday). They are twelve hours on, and twelve hours off. Board, $1.25 to $1.75. A firm in South Adams, Mass., write me: "We pay by the piece and the day. The prices for female labor, we think, compared with work done, better than for male. It requires no time to learn to cut rags, but experienced hands can earn more wages. For finishing, from four to six months are given. Women are paid while learning. We employ women always, when they can do the labor. Women are superior in the neatness with which they do their work. New England, and such States as have abundance of clear _spring water_, are the best. Board, from $1.25 to $2 per week. We think, perhaps, that at present the business of paper making is pretty fully supplied with laborers, male and female, in this section of the country, yet _good_ help finds ready employment, at fair wages." Manufacturers of bank-note paper, in Lee, Mass., inform me by mail, they "pay by the piece, to women, from $3 to $4.50 per week. It would require five years for a man to learn the business, so as to properly superintend it. That portion done by women can be learned in one month." A newspaper manufacturer in Taunton, Mass., writes: "Fifty or sixty women are employed by me, in manufacturing cotton goods and newspaper. I pay by the piece and the week, from $2.50 to $6 per week, depending on the age. I give equal pay to both sexes for the same work. They are employed the year round, and work eleven hours on the average. The climate of New England is best adapted to indoor labor." Paper manufacturers in Dalton write: "We pay women by the piece, from $12 to $16 per month, and they have work all the year. No men are employed for the same kind of work. For other branches of the business, men are paid from $25 to $35 per month. Women are paid while learning for what they accomplish. The prospect for work is good. We employ women because they are cheaper. They pay for board $1.25." A firm in Russell, Mass., write: "We employ from forty to fifty; one tenth are Americans. They can all live comfortably and earn good wages. New England is the best part of this country for fine paper mills, on account of the purity of the water. Board, $1.50 to $1.75."