in making dress trimmings. The children wind the quills, and the women
wind the silk on reels, and weave it, knit covers for fancy buttons,
make fringes, tassels, buttons, and other trimmings. In this country
most of such work is done by women and girls, the majority of whom are
Germans, as are also the proprietors. They are the best for hand work,
but English trimming makers are best for power looms. All large cities
contain more or less manufacturers of dress trimmings, but the business
is mostly confined to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Many who
manufacture, also keep for sale the different varieties of sewing and
embroidery silk, zephyr wool, patterns, and canvas, braid, and such
articles. It is only within the last twenty-five years that fringes and
tassels have been manufactured in this country, but quite a number of
houses are now engaged in it. The goods are said to equal those of
Europe. "There are over 1,000 hands employed in this branch in New York,
at least three fourths of whom are females. Girls at reeling earn $2.50;
at braiding, $3.30; and at weaving, from $4 to $6." I called at a
factory where eighty girls are employed. They earn from $1 to $6 per
week, doing both day and night work. No girl, the foreman said, can earn
$1 a day of ten hours at that work. When the snow is on the ground, the
girls can take work home with them to do at night, instead of remaining
at the factory. He says there are different seasons for different kinds
of trimmings, as buttons, fringes, gimps, &c., and the styles of these
trimmings change. Work is slack in the early part of the winter for a
few weeks. It would take three or four years to learn all the branches
perfectly. Some sit and some stand while at work. At a manufactory in
New York, I was told the season begins in September and lasts through
the winter. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per week. There is an over
supply of hands in New York. At another place I was told the work is
nearly always paid for by the piece. Their hands earn from $3 to $5 per
week. Men receive from $7 to $10. Women's part can be learned in from
four to six weeks, and learners are paid if they do not spoil too much
material. June, July, December, and January are dull months. In busy
seasons good hands are very scarce. The clerk of Messrs. B.'s factory
told us the wages vary greatly. We glanced over the account book, with
his permission, and observed that the lowest wages were about $1 a week,
and the highest $4. It is piece work, and they will not promise
employment all the year. He says, if a girl that learns cannot earn
something in a year, she is not worth having. Their work is for
wholesale houses. At one place I was told the girls work nine hours a
day, and receive $4 a week--six months learning. After the first week
they were paid $1.50 a week for six months. They make up a stock when
not doing ordered work. N. employs from fifty to one hundred women, and
sometimes more. They can learn in fourteen days. He pays from the first,
and pays by the week, they working from six to six, having an hour at
noon. It requires but a few weeks to learn one branch. One girl told me
she works by the piece, and sometimes earns from $3 to $6 a week. She
works from seven in the morning till gaslight. Girls, when reeling and
braiding, stand. To those engaged in this kind of work, there is
employment all the year to twenty-five out of every hundred; the rest
are occupied from July to January. When paid by the week they seldom
receive more than $4, though by taking it home and working more hours
they sometimes make $5. Prices in this kind of work have fallen
considerably in the last few years. I have been told by a manufacturer
that the class so employed is usually of not so elevated a character as
some others. The prices paid and work given for so short a time, prevent
the best class of workers from entering the business. M--s,
Philadelphia, employ about seventy females, including bookkeepers,
saleswomen, and trimming makers. In the dull seasons their operatives
are not likely to be thrown out of work, as the wholesale dealers will
always require them. The workers are paid by the piece, according to the
degree of perfection they have attained. When a girl presents herself
for employment, the foreman immediately sets her to work on some easy
kind of trimming, but she receives no wages until her work is fit for
sale. The loss of time on her part and the risk of materials on the part
of the employer constitute the apprenticeship. A smart girl will of
course soon be able to earn something, and has always the stimulus of
increasing her gains. The class of girls in the store seemed to be
superior to those in the workroom, more intelligent and refined. The
workrooms were large and airy. The weavers, button makers, &c., work
from eight to ten hours a day. Another proprietor said a person to learn
the business should go to a small place, where only a few are
employed--not to a factory, as they will not be troubled with learners
in a factory. Some of his hands work slowly, but execute in a superior
manner; others work rapidly, but make the article in an inferior manner.
At another manufacturer's, one of the firm told me a good hand can earn
from $5 to $6 a week, ten hours a day, when times are good. They pay,
after a learner has spent a week at it, according to what she can
accomplish. The prospect for work is good, but he would not advise a
lady to learn it; he thinks millinery better. In a town not far from New
York, where he lived, a milliner could earn $20 a month and her board.
Crocheting pays better. For crocheting the heads of silk fringes, a girl
may earn $5 a week. I saw the agent of a lady who has trimmings
manufactured. He says girls spend about two weeks learning, and are then
paid by the week, from $1 to $4. He thinks the prospect for work very
poor at present, for their work has been for the South almost
exclusively, and now the Southerners will not purchase, particularly as
such articles can be dispensed with. They have employed hands all the
year, but are most busy spring and fall. The busy season commences in
February. A manufacturer told me he pays his learners $2 a week for a
time. His girls have work most of the year. Good hands can earn $5 a
week. Some of his hands take work home with them to do in the evening.
From the arrangement of the conveniences in the room, I think the air
must be not only offensive but unwholesome. I observed this in two or
three other workrooms. At another factory, I was told it takes but four
weeks to learn, and girls during that time are paid fifty cents a week.
Girls earn from $3 to $5. One man told me he pays as soon as the work is
done well enough to sell. The largest manufactory in the world of dress
trimmings, curtain trimmings, carriage laces, and military goods, is
that of W. H. Horstman & Sons, Philadelphia. They employ four hundred
hands, the majority of whom are females. In R.'s dress-trimming
manufactory, Philadelphia, seventy females are employed, at an average
of $2.75 a week.
=325. Embroideries.= Embroidery was a favorite employment of the ladies
of ancient times. In the days of Grecian prosperity it was a pastime
among all ranks of ladies, and in the middle ages it was no less
popular. The French excel in embroidery. Much of the embroidery sold in
New York is done in Ireland. "A French manufacturer has invented a
process of applying the electric spark to piercing designs on paper for
embroidery." There now exists a machine by which one lady can accomplish
as much as fifteen hand embroiderers. There are one hundred and fifty
needles attached, all of which can be in use at the same time. By it the
most difficult patterns can be executed. Many of the machines are now in
operation in Germany, France, Switzerland, and England. "The canton of
Neufchatel employs more than 3,500 females in hand embroidery, but this
branch of the trade is principally carried on in the eastern parts of
Switzerland, where manual labor is extremely cheap." In 1851, 250,000
females were employed in Great Britain in muslin embroidery, and the
larger number of the women did the work at their own homes. About a
million and a half of dollars then passed out of the United States in
payment for a portion of this embroidery. We would be pleased to see a
greater demand for these articles from a home, and less from a foreign
market. The increased facilities for stamping impressions on the muslin,
and the consequent cheapness of doing so, tends to render the business
more lucrative to those employed. The prices earned depend on the skill
and experience of the worker. Embroidery may be divided into two kinds,
cloth and muslin. The first is used for thick goods, furniture covers,
ottomans, chair seats, tapestry, &c. The other kind consists in the
embroidery of ladies' caps, collars, handkerchiefs, and other light
articles of apparel. The materials used are cotton, linen, silk, and
silver and gold thread. Embroidery is paid for by the piece, according
to the quality of the material and the amount of work. For stamping
muslin to embroider, four, six, and eight cents a yard are paid,
according to the width and style of pattern. Some stamping is done with
wooden plates, some with copper plates, and some by a paper impression.
The wooden plates cost from fifty cents to $2.50. Metal tools for
stamping cost more. It would be well, in establishments where embroidery
is kept for sale, to keep patterns on hand for braiding, needlework, and
embroidery. Such patterns have met with a ready sale, and always will,
when such a pastime is fashionable. I find fifty cents a lesson is the
usual price paid for instruction in embroidery, and a person accustomed
to using the needle can learn in a few lessons. One lady told me she
charged twenty-five cents a lesson. An embroiderer told us but little of
such work is done now. A good deal of money was made at it, when
fashionable for outer garments and for children's flannel skirts. A
gentleman that has such work done told me that good medallion workers
would find employment. B., who employs some embroiderers, thinks there
is not a surplus of such labor. He could employ more hands. He pays by
the piece, from $3 to $7 a week. Taste and skill with the needle are
required. Embroidery pays poorly--one could not make a living at it now,
unless they had constant work, and were rapid with the needle: very few
in New York depend on it for a livelihood. D., a gold and silver
embroiderer, thinks a person of ordinary abilities could not get to
embroidering well in less than one year's practice. He pays something
after a few weeks--as soon as the work is done well enough to sell. Many
Germans and French have taken the custom. The Germans do it for less,
and consequently root out other embroiderers. So there is not much
prospect for work in New York. He has considerable done for cap makers
and flag makers, who send South and West. He pays his girls from $4 to
$5 a week, and they work from eight to six o'clock. I was told at
another place that gold and silver embroidery pays well. The lady that
works for W. earns $25 a week. A man writes: "You are aware that women
are unable to make the very finest kind of needle embroidery, and that
wherever the highest skill is required, men are needed?" We are aware
there are some womanish men in France that embroider, but we must have
facts before we are convinced that women cannot equal men in
embroidering. A young lady, keeping an embroidery store in New York,
told me her father cuts stencil plates with chemicals for embroiderers.
In some establishments they are cut by steam power. Her father made
wooden plates, but it would not pay. It takes but a short time to learn
stamping, which pays better than embroidering. Those that do embroidery
cheapest, get most to do. The greater part of it is done in winter
evenings, as a pastime by ladies. Many ladies have stamping done before
they go to the country in the summer, and embroider while they are in
the country, putting out their plain sewing. Ladies that embroider,
generally do their own stamping. M. knows one lady that embroiders for
two or three stores, and makes a very good living. But she thinks very
few have enough embroidering to do to occupy all their time. The
Broadway stores have considerable embroidery ordered, and get very good
prices; but their embroiderers, I have been told, are not better paid
than those of other people. Some stores give it to ladies who do it for
pocket money. Some of these ladies talk about embroidering for their
friends, but, lo and behold! they expect their friends to pay them. It
requires considerable practice in embroidery to keep the stitches even,
and properly shape the leaves and flowers. A French woman told me she
used to get $1.20 a day for embroidering fine collars in Paris.
=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.