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.
=308. Pattern Makers.= The wife of a pattern maker told me it requires
ingenuity, patience, and a knowledge of drawing to become a pattern
maker. C. thought general pattern making would not do for a woman, as it
would require planing, cutting, and turning wood. He said some of the
finer parts of pattern making, as forming models on a small scale for
the patent office, could be done by a woman who is qualified. It would
require a knowledge of arithmetical proportions, ability to turn a lathe
properly, and aptness at catching the ideas of others. A gentleman who
makes models for the patent office, patterns for machinery, steam and
gas fittings, &c., writes: "The varnishing might be done by women, but
in most shops there would not be enough to keep one at work all the
time." S. told me that a part of the work of pattern making could be
done by women, but it would be advisable they should have a separate
apartment in founderies. The variety of ornamental iron work is so great
that it affords scope for inventive talent. We suppose the business of
pattern making is not more laborious and is very similar to block
cutting. If women were prepared for some branches of this business, we
doubt not it would prove remunerative and furnish steady employment. A
pattern maker writes from Hartford: "We do our own draughting, but there
is considerable done independent of a shop. For such work we pay $2 a
day. A knowledge of geometry and mathematics is a prerequisite."
=309. Rattan Splitters.= Formerly, rattan was thrown from the ships that
landed in New York, as something useless; now it sells at from four to
nine cents a pound. The centre of the rattan is used for hoop skirts.
The outside is split off by a strange-looking machine. The strips are
then shaved thin by another machine, for making chair seats and
ornamenting buggies. They are bleached in a close room with ignited
sulphur. The refuse is used in some way in the manufacture of gas--also
for making coarse mats and filling beds. At N.'s factory, I saw girls
shaving rattan. The work was dusty--one sat, but the others stood. The
girls had merely to attend to the strips as they ran through small
machines moved by steam. Each girl received fifty cents a day of ten
hours, for her services. In Fitchburg, Mass., fifty girls are so
employed.
=310. Segar Boxes.= I called in a segar-box factory where the man had
four boys at work. The trade requires care, and some ability to
calculate proportions. The work consists in driving small nails, gluing
on tape, planing the edges, and similar labor. Women could do it, and I
expect do in Germany. If boys from ten to fifteen years of age can, why
cannot girls? After two months, a boy earns something. Two of the boys
had been working at the trade two years, and were earning each $3 a
week. The wood is cedar, and so easily managed.
=311. Turners.= I saw the process of wood turning. The flying of the
chips I thought disagreeable. The trade can be learned in three years
very well. A boy learning is paid $2.50 a week, the first year; the next
year, $3; the next, increased fifty cents more, and so on. A good hand
can earn from $1.75 to $2 a day. Some women do the turning of small
wooden articles in France, and quite a number are employed in bone and
horn turning in the old country, which is not so hard. Turning is more
nearly perfect than most mechanical operations, and consequently is
employed in all those branches susceptible of its use. In most work of
this nature the article operated on is stationary, and the machinery in
motion; but in turning, the article is kept in motion, the tool merely
pressed upon it by the hand. "There is said to be but little difference
in the management of turning different substances. The principal thing
to be attended to is to adapt the velocity of the motion to the nature
of the material." Rosa Bonheur, when a girl, was apprenticed to a dress
maker, whose husband was a turner. His lathe stood in an adjoining room.
Rosa delighted to slip away from her work and employ herself at the
turner's lathe. The making of bone and wooden handles for canes and
umbrellas could be done by women. Removing the surface of the bone is
dirty work, and requires some strength. The polishing could be done by a
girl. The bones are bought at glue factories, slaughter houses, &c. In
New York, for a small new bone, two and a half cents is paid; for a
large one, five cents.
AGENTS.
=312. Express and other Conveyances.= We saw a description, a short time
ago, by some traveller in Scotland, of ladies acting in the capacity of
railroad officials; that is, one sold tickets, another collected them,
and a third was telegraphing at a station. I have been told that some of
the ticket agents in Boston are women. Women are also employed at some
of the railway stations in France and Germany, not only to sell tickets,
but to guard the stations and crossings. I have heard that on those
roads where women are switch tenders no accident has ever occurred. "In
Paris, omnibus conductors submit their way bills at the transfer offices
to women for inspection and ratification. Women book you for a seat in
the diligence. Women let donkeys for rides at Montmorency, and saddle
them too." The St. Louis _Republican_ mentions that there is one feature
about the steamer _Illinois Belle_, of peculiar attractiveness--a lady
clerk. "Look at her bills of lading, and 'Mary J. Patterson, Clerk,'
will be seen traced in a delicate and very neat style of chirography. A
lady clerk on a Western steamer! It speaks strongly of our moral
progress."
=313. General Agents.= "The walks of business become more manifold and
extended as the luxuries of civilization and the skill of human
inventions become more multiplied and more widely displayed. Every
description of commercial, mechanical, and executive business excited
and created by the new wants and new imaginations of advancing society,
will call for the creation and extension of new agencies to accomplish
the labor which they must demand. Thus the variety and number of
business agencies of every kind must spread out in a constant increase."
We think there is great imposition practised by some people who secure
lady agents, and we would advise ladies who can undertake an agency to
learn something of the parties who would employ, and the character of
the article, before they engage in any undertaking of the kind. A
conscientious agent is likely to have her interests suffer by a want of
honor in those whom she represents. With a liberal discount on the
retail price of most goods, agents might be enabled to make a handsome
return for their services. I saw a man that manufactures indelible ink,
and employs agents to sell it and stencil plates. He allows them half
they receive. One lady in Boston, he said, made $20 one day. I think it
probable it was in a large school. Ladies, he says, will not stay long
at it, because it tires them very much to go up stairs a great deal. An
agent should be one that can talk well and has tact and judgment. She
should select those parts of a city where she will be most likely to
meet with success. If her article is something for ladies' use, let her
go where the best dwellings are. If it is something for universal use,
if she selects but part of a city, the largest quantity will probably be
sold in those parts most densely populated. A manufacturer of fancy
soaps and perfumery told me he has employed ladies as agents to go
around selling those articles. Some have cleared $2 a day. He allows one
hundred percentage. C., of Boston, manufacturer of needle threaders,
wick pullers, and pencil sharpeners, offers a liberal discount to
agents; but we presume it would require some Yankee tact to make the
sales amount to much. He states that some of their agents make from $200
to $300 a month. A stencil cutter in New Haven writes: "I have made
tools for ladies to do the work of making embroidery stencils. It is
necessary to travel to sell them. One lady may make the work at home,
and another sell it. One young man, whom I furnished with tools, told me
that he sold $14 worth of plates in five hours." Dr. B. employs twenty
ladies making shoulder braces, and pays them from $3 to $4 a week. The
sewing is done by hand. He allows lady agents to have the braces at $1 a
pair, which can be retailed at $2 a pair. Boarding agencies have become
common in some of the large cities. Some agents charge the keepers of
boarding houses a percentage for every boarder sent them, but do not
charge the applicant. In some offices a person records his name and pays
$2, for which he has the privileges of the office one year. The
boarding-house keeper pays a percentage to the agent in proportion to
the rate of board, without regard to the length of time the boarders
remain. One agency charges $2 for registering a name, and fifty cents
for each boarder it secures. Some agents in New York have purchased
articles of every kind on commission for Southerners, receiving a
commission from both parties. Southern ladies have always preferred New
York goods, but we suppose they will now wish to patronize their own
people.