"Oh, mamma, see how it is raining!" said little Lottie; "and it
looks so dark, too, all around, that I fear it will keep on all the
afternoon."
"And then we can't go for the new kid gloves you promised us,"
chimed in Helen. "Won't that be too bad?"
And the two little sisters--Helen, eleven years of age, and Lottie,
nine--were quite disposed to pout and feel very ill-humored at the
prospect of a rainy Saturday afternoon, and the consequent
postponement of their anticipated walk for the purpose of
purchasing two pairs of new kid gloves.
Mamma smiled at them. "Now, little folks, although you take so much
pleasure in having and wearing kid gloves, I am sure you do not
often think how many nice and careful operations these gloves have
to go through, and how many hands are employed in their
manufacture, before they can be put in the stores for sale. If you
will sit down contentedly by me, with your cork-work or knitting, I
will tell you, while I sew, much that is interesting about kid
gloves, so that we can make this disappointment of a rainy
afternoon as instructive and profitable as possible.
"Well, to begin, then, the materials used in making a kid glove are
either the skins of kids from six weeks to three months old, or the
skins of the little lambs of about the same age; but those of the
kid make the finest glove, while for a cheaper and of course poorer
article the skins of sheep even quite full grown are used. The
first thing to be done with the skins freshly stripped from the
animal is called 'towing'--to get the hair or wool off; the best
and easiest way is to put the skins in a mixture of lime-water,
very strong, where they must remain for some time, after which they
are taken out and placed in running water, to remove all the lime,
and then with a blunt kind of scraper the hair is carefully
removed. This last process has to be repeated two or three times,
until every hair, and every particle of flesh which may stick to
the fleshy side of the skin, is removed. Then the skins are placed
in a mixture (or the 'pudding,' as it is sometimes called) of yolks
of fresh eggs, well beaten, with fine white flour, alum, salt, and
carefully filtered water, and are left in this compound for some
weeks, or about thirty or forty days, until they absorb or take up
as much of this mixture as they can contain. When the skins are
taken from this bath they are white and very elastic and soft, and
are now ready for the dyer.
"The dyeing of kid gloves requires very skillful workers, and a
very fine eye for the making of all the different and varied shades
of color. The coloring matter is put on each and every skin
separately with a brush, each needing from one to four applications
of the dye, according to the shade desired. But the light or
so-called evening gloves do not need quite so much care, as
frequently two hundred or more skins can be put into the vat of
dye, which will soak through every particle of the skin. Then they
are well dried in a large room or space, where the heat must be at
least 180 degrees of our ordinary thermometer.
"And now the cutter begins his task of cutting the skins into
square pieces of a certain size, which must be done very carefully,
as all gloves have to be cut with the grain of the skin, to run
from the head downward, and a great deal of the skin would, of
course, be wasted if any but very skillful hands were employed. One
fine skin will generally cut about three or four gloves, according
to the size required, and often large sheep-skins turn out nine or
ten gloves, but of a much poorer quality. After the squares are cut
they are put up in packages of from six to twelve pairs of gloves,
and by the use of a sharp punch and a very heavy press are cut out
in all the different-shaped pieces required for the entire glove,
usually from about twenty to twenty-three pieces. Then comes the
sewing, which for all the best gloves is done entirely by hand, and
requires the best of needlewomen, as over six thousand stitches are
needed to sew a pair of ordinary-sized ladies' gloves.
"Within a short time a machine has been put in use for sewing
gloves, but even with this, which can only be used satisfactorily
on low-grade gloves, not over a dozen pairs can be sewed in a day.
Then putting on the buttons or hooks, dressing, and packing or
assorting in numbers, colors, and sizes, passes the gloves through
many more hands, until at last, after careful inspection of a
skilled foreman, they are placed on sale, and forwarded to their
many destinations."
"Thank you, dear mamma, thank you," cried both the children in a
breath. "But where does all this take place?"
"Principally," answered mamma, "in France, Germany, and Italy,
although some nice but heavy gloves come also from England; and
here in our own country we are now beginning to manufacture some
gloves which compare quite well with the imported, and as we in
America generally succeed in all our undertakings, I think we shall
soon be able to make first-class kid gloves."