depending on the quality of the material and work, and the house for
which the work is done. There are between eight hundred and one thousand
cap makers in Philadelphia. They are said to average $3 a week. Freedley
says: "In Philadelphia, there are a large number of concerns occupied
exclusively in making caps; those of cloth constituting the chief part
of the business, though plush, silk, glazed, and other caps are also
made. The cap manufacture employs a large number of females, whose wages
in the business will average about $4 per week. Sewing machines are
largely employed; being, in fact, indispensable in consequence of the
expansion of the trade. The annual production is about $400,000." A few
years ago there were five thousand cap makers in New York city. Many of
the cheap caps in New York are furnished by Jews, who get them done very
cheaply. They not only do much to supply the home demand for caps, but
export large quantities. They sell some caps for from $1 to $1.50 a
dozen. B. pays his cap makers, some $5, some $6 a week. When business is
dull the work is divided, so that all hands are retained, and have
something to do. Caps are mostly made by German men on sewing machines.
Some Germans take fifty or sixty dozen a week from a store, and employ
girls to make them up. They are middlemen, and cut out the goods. In New
York, almost every branch of business seems to have its own
locality--that of the hat and cap manufacturers is on the lower part of
Broadway. A good hand can earn about $3.50 a week of 10 hours a day, or
by working fifteen or sixteen hours, which many of them do, can earn $8
or $9. Working girls generally receive about $3 a week. They pay $2 for
board. The remaining $1 is almost consumed in shoes. Nearly all are at
times out of employment. In New York, by constant labor, fifteen or
sixteen hours a day, some cap makers can earn only from fourteen to
twenty-five cents. "We were told by an old lady who has lived by this
kind of work a long time, that when she begins at sunrise, and works
till midnight, she can earn fourteen cents a day. A large majority of
these women are American born, from the great middle class of life, many
of whom have once been in comfortable, and even affluent circumstances,
and have been reduced by the death or bankruptcy of husbands and
relatives, and other causes, to such straits. Many of them are the wives
of shipmasters, and other officers of vessels. Others are the widows of
mechanics and poor men, and have children, and mothers and fathers, &c.,
to support by their needle. Many have drunken husbands to add to their
burdens and afflictions, and to darken every faint gleam of sunshine
that domestic affection throws even into the humblest abode. Others have
sick and bedridden husbands or children, or perhaps have to endure the
agony of receiving home a fallen daughter, or an outlawed son, suddenly
checked in his career of vice." S., of S. & Co., told me they take
learners when they can make good use of them. The business, some time
back, in New York, was over done, but for the last three or four years
the supply has not more than met the demand. It is piecework. A
first-class hand can, in busy seasons, make $10, but many are not swift
with the needle, and cannot earn more than $3 a week. They give out some
of their work. All that can be, he has done by machines. R. & H. have
their caps made by machines. It is piecework, and a good hand can earn
from $6 to $9 a week. In a cloth and fancy cap store, I was told the
girls earn $4, $5, and $6 a week. Few people are willing to take
learners, as the season, six weeks, is nearly consumed by the time the
trade is learned, and the instructor gets nothing for his time and
trouble. Children's fancy caps cannot be made by machine. They are
usually piecework. To make them requires taste. Six weeks is the length
of time usually given to learning the trade. A.'s caps are made by
machines. Good hands earn $5, $6, and $7. His hands are busy only in
spring. He takes learners at that time, and pays from the first, $2 or
$3 a week. D., formerly a cap maker, told me that P--s have some of
their caps made on Blackwell's Island, by the convicts. B. told me the
greater part of the cap is made by sewing machines tended by men, but
the finishing, lining, &c., is done by women, either at home or on the
premises. They are paid by the dozen, and can earn from $5 to $6 a week.
Some have received even more, but as the work was taken home, it cannot
be known with certainty that one person did it all. The first year they
work at caps of an inferior quality, for which they receive fifty cents
a dozen; girls of average ability, can then take the better kind of cap,
and of course the wages increase according to the degree of proficiency.
A cap maker told me, good hands can have steady work all the year. The
best season for work is when manufacturing for the fall trade, which is
generally in the months of June, July, August, September, and part of
October, and, for the spring trade, in March and April. Another told me
he pays by the dozen, and his hands earn from $4 to $7 a week. A maker
of cap fronts, New York, told me he pays his girls from $3 to $7,
working ten hours a day. From July to November are the best seasons--May
and June the poorest months. Cutting out is done by hand, and requires
too much strength for women. Some men cut out fifty dozen caps a day. It
is done with a knife of a peculiar shape, and several thicknesses of the
cloth are out at once. Women are not so employed where the business is
done on a large scale. Some cutters earn $24 a week. A cutter should
have taste and skill, as he is also expected to design patterns. The
English style for caps is sometimes adopted, and the most of gentlemen's
clothing is of the English style, in New York; but the ladies prefer
French fashions for themselves. An extensive manufacturer of cap fronts
and other trimmings, in New York, writes: "I have about twenty-five
females employed, the majority of whom sew at home. The occupation is
perfectly healthy, easy, and comfortable. I pay by the piece, and the
workers earn from $3 to $6 per week. Any woman that can sew and has
ordinary intelligence can learn it in three hours. There is no prospect
for increase, but constant employment for those already engaged. Spring
and fall are the busy seasons, but employment is given all the year. I
can always get ten times the help I require in this branch: four or five
years ago we paid much better wages, but competition regulates
(unfortunately) the scale of wages. Experience tells me women are
inferior to men employées, in regard to promptness in coming to the
shop, and in having the articles completed at stated times, when
required for shipment. But I find them superior to men in refinement,
temperance, decorum, attachment to the interest of their employers, &c.,
when unmixed with the male sex. I formerly employed women on sewing
machines, and when first started in that branch, they made from $8 to
$10 per week, although, since the last three years, goods are sold so
much cheaper, as to reduce the wages from $5 to $8." In Detroit, Mich.,
cap makers get from five to twenty-three cents a cap for making, and can
earn from $2 to $4 per week.
=357. Coats.= We were told by one that ought to know, that many of the
gentlemen's coats seen on Broadway are made by women. We believe that
women of intelligence and judgment, if properly instructed, could make
the greater part, if not the whole of gentlemen's coats. Much of the
tailors' work of New York is distributed through the country, because it
can be made cheaper. Many men make it a business, as agents, to
distribute, collect, and pay for such work. Men press seams and sew the
heaviest cloth, because they have more strength. What magnificent
buildings there are in New York devoted to the sale of gentlemen's wear!
But to think they are made of the sinews and muscles and tears and sighs
of hard-working women, and to see the clerks in the stores, with nothing
to do but receive and wait on customers, while those poor girls on the
fifth floor are toiling from early morn to dark to earn less than one
half of those clerks! What a hard life most women lead!
=358. Cravats.= W. & D. usually employ fifty hands. Part of the work is
done in the store, on the fourth and fifth floors. Cravats pay well, and
a good hand can earn from $6 to $18 a week, piecework. Most of their
work is done by machine and finished by hand. Those of their hands who
take work home, do it when not occupied with home duties. The gentleman
with whom I talked, thought a person would not be able to support
herself by that kind of work alone. They have been able to keep their
hands all the year. Another cravat maker told me he has employed hands
all the year, and had most of his cravats made by machines. A great many
have been made in Baltimore. M. & Co. give some work out and have some
done at the store. They are most busy in spring and fall, but keep some
hands all the year. They can always get plenty of hands. They take
learners, and pay from the first, but not so much, of course. Week
workers earn from $4 to $5--ten hours a day in summer, rather less in
winter. Those that work by the piece can earn from $8 to $9, for they
work faster at home and sew in the evenings. Part of their work is done
by machine and part by hand. They usually import the material. Most of
this work is confined to New York, and has been a separate branch but a
few years. In Detroit, girls earn from $2.50 to $3.50 a week making
cravats.
=359. Hats.= We will give an extract from "The Art and Industry of the
Crystal Palace": "In the manufacture of hats in the United States, there
are twenty-four thousand persons employed: one half of them are men, and
the remainder women. The consumption of straw hats amounts to about
$1,500,000, about half of which are imported. The capital invested in
the hatting trade in this country is little short of $8,000,000. The
number of trimmers in New York are four hundred. There is no branch of
industry in which the rate of wages is so fluctuating; no trade
reflecting so faithfully the depressed or prosperous condition of the
country. There are between fifty and sixty finishing shops in New York.
There is no general understanding between the shops as to a fixed rate
of payment. It is a peculiarity of the trade, that a person seeking
employment never addresses himself to the principal; he goes direct to
the foreman." Silk and felt hats are most worn in the United States. We
find there is great objection by the workmen to the use of machinery.
Some factories confine their work exclusively to the making of hat
bodies. The manufacture of hatters' trimmings forms, in large cities, a
distinct branch of business. "In C.'s hat manufactory, in London,
fifteen hundred hands are employed, two hundred of whom are females.
Among the processes by which a beaver hat is produced, women and girls
are there employed in the following: Plucking the beaver skins; cropping
off the fur; sorting various kinds of wool; plucking and cutting
rabbits' wool; shearing the nap of the blocked hat (in some instances);
picking out defective fibres of fur; and trimming." Women in our country
could be employed in bowing the fur, pressing it with a hatter's basket,
folding it in a damp cloth, rolling, rubbing, working it with the hands,
and dipping it in hot water. The last operation is a very warm one. As
it is, we know of no department in which they are employed, except that
of carding, binding, lining, trimming, and tip gilding. Binding and
lining are much done by them. The work is light, genteel, and rather
profitable, and can be done at home. When done in factories, the workers
cannot be so neat, on account of the dust, the large number of
operatives in a room, and the coloring matter that rubs off the hats.
All employers have reported it healthy, and I suppose it is as much so
as any sedentary occupation, unless from causes mentioned in the
preceding sentence. A hatter in Philadelphia told us he employs girls to
line and bind men's hats. They are paid 75 cents a dozen for felt hats,
and $1.25 for silk hats. Girls can earn as much as $6 a week at it. It
requires a couple of months' apprenticeship. There is work for steady
hands all the year. We have seen it stated that "hat trimmers in
Philadelphia average $3.50 per week. They number from eight hundred to
one thousand females. Hat binders usually spend six weeks learning their
trade." The war department, about two years ago, closed a contract with
S., of Philadelphia, to furnish sixteen thousand felt hats for the army,
at $2.75 each. They make all qualities of hats at P.'s, Brooklyn, from
those at 75 cents a dozen to those at $50 a dozen. The linings of the
cheapest felt hats are put in by machines operated on by steam, the
others by hand. I saw girls also laying gold leaf on muslin, which was
stamped by a machine, forming the ornamental work and figures seen in
the crown lining of cheap hats. These workers were called tip gilders.
All except the box makers and tip gilders sit while at work. Girls at
lining and binding can earn from $2.50 to $7. (I think he set his last
mark high.) It is piecework, as everything, I believe, in that line is.
Some girls have worked in P.'s factory eight years or more. The business
is learned in a short time. Operators are paid at the same rate as hand
sewers; but if any difference is made, it is in favor of operators. For
hand workers, care and ability to sew well are the principal requisites.
The hands have work all the year, but in midsummer and midwinter may do
only three fourths of the usual quantity for a week or two. Hatters who
manufacture in Brooklyn and sell in New York, told me they employ five
hundred women, who are paid by the piece. Those that sew receive from $5
to $6, machine operatives from $8 to $9. A knowledge of sewing and
taste, in finishing hats, is desirable. The business will extend. Three
times as many hats are sold as fifteen years ago. Some parts of hat
making are performed by machinery that could not be managed by women.
The West and Northwest of the United States present good openings for
this business. Manufactories, of course, must be where there is plenty
of water. At a hatter's in New York, I was told that they pay 14 cents
for trimming a hat of any kind, coarse or fine, silk or felt; but
sometimes pay only 10 cents. Their binder often makes $7 a week. At
B.'s, New York, the girls earn from $5 to $7, and are paid by the piece.
They sew in the establishment. Sewing the crowns in and wires on of
plush hats is a distinct business from trimming, yet one in which they
employ some women. It pays rather better than the other part of women's
work, but requires great care and neatness. Sewing the leather linings
in hats is the least profitable part. More women might find employment
in hat work. A lady said to me she has an acquaintance that sometimes
earns $2.50 a day at trimming hats. (?) L. employs some girls for
trimming in the spring and fall. It is piecework, and some earn $9 a
week. It is sometimes difficult to get very good hands. There are some
factories in the West, but none in the South. Another hatter told me he
pays 12½ cents for trimming a hat. He has noticed that the swiftest are
the best workers. A hatter told me a smart trimmer could earn from $8 to
$10 a week, six months of the year; but not more than $3 the other six
months, because work is slack. A salesman in D.'s store told me a brisk
hand can trim a dozen hats a day. The children's hats they have trimmed
for the wholesale trade are not so neatly and carefully done as those
for the retail trade. In selling a single hat, a purchaser examines
closely, and if there is any defect, condemns it. The occupation is well
filled in New York, and the work requires care, taste, and expedition.
D. has constant employment for his hands; but for four months they have
not as much as the hands wish, yet enough to yield most about $4. The
women work above the store, because the blocks are there. They are
allowed to take home and sew in the evening the linings of those hats
that have the rims faced with leather. The plan is, generally, for a
learner to spend six weeks' apprenticeship with an experienced hand,
giving her work for instruction received. At Sing Sing prison, New York,
of the one hundred and fifty female convicts, a majority are employed in
binding hats, at 15 cents a dozen, made by the male convicts. The usual
price in St. Louis is 14½ cents a hat. At this rate, a lady can bind and
line in a day a number amounting to from $1 to $1.25. There are two hat
factories in St. Louis, but they are not enough to supply the demand. A
firm in Danbury write us, they "employ from seventy-five to one hundred
women trimming hats. They pay by the piece, and their hands average $5
per week. Males average $9 a week. By the rules of trade, males spend
four years learning; females, five weeks. Women are not paid while
learning. The prospect for a continuance of the business is good. The
busy seasons are from July 1st to April 1st. Time of work does not
exceed ten hours. The majority are Americans. There are advantages in
being near the great centre of trade in this country, New York. Board,
$2." A firm manufacturing wool hats in the same place--Danbury--write
they "employ ten Irish women in a card room, and sixty Yankee girls in
trimming hats. The first receive $3 per week, the others $5.50. Women in
the card room work ten hours. The American girls are intelligent and
pretty." Another wool-hat manufacturer in Connecticut writes: "My women
earn $1 each per day, on an average. It takes male operatives two years
to learn. Work, on an average, ten months in the year. Board, $2." A
firm in Milford, Conn., write: "Women earn from $3 to $7 per week. The
reason why women are not better paid, is because the supply is greater
than the demand. The employment will last as long as people wear hats.
Fall and winter are the best seasons for work. The nearer you get to the
market, the better the location." In reply to a letter, a firm employing
from sixty to eighty women give the following intelligence: "The females
employed by us are generally from fourteen to twenty-one years of age.
They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to $9 per week. The labor
of women is entirely distinct from that of men. It takes a good
needlewoman about two months to become proficient. Women give their
labor to the person who instructs them, from two to eight weeks. The
business is good six or eight months. The rest of the year, they average
about one half of what they can do. Busy times are from January 1st to
May 1st, and from July 1st to November 1st. The demand is about equal to
the supply, except in very busy times, when we could employ more; but I
think there are plenty, as an increased supply would tend to lower
prices. Most of our women are foreigners. The proximity to large cities
is advantageous to this business, as the goods are mostly sold in New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, &c. I should say there is little difference
between the women employed in hat manufactories and others who have to
earn a livelihood, such as dress makers, tailoresses, &c. Board, from
$1.75 to $2. There is an objection amongst boarding-house keepers to
females generally, and strangers frequently have great difficulty in
obtaining good board. This is certainly the fault of their own sex." A
wool-hat firm in Yonkers, N. Y., write they pay by the piece, and
workers earn from $5 to $7. Male and female labor do not compete. A
gentleman and his son, in New York, who import and manufacture
children's fancy hats, write me they pay from $5 to $12 a week,
according to ability. Women are paid while learning, the time for which
depends upon capacity and taste. There is regular employment with them
in all months but June and December. Good operatives are always in
demand. Large cities are the best localities.
HAT BRAIDERS, &c. Most hats called "palm leaf" are made of straw grown
in the Northern States. P. & Co., of Boston, write me: "The occupation
of braiding hats is one that employs the odd moments and hours of almost
every Yankee farmer's sons and daughters, throughout Massachusetts and
New Hampshire, from one year's end to the other. We employ women, but
not exclusively, and pay by the piece, from $1 to $1.50 per dozen. A
wide-a-wake Yankee girl or boy, with nimble fingers, will learn in a few
hours." A manufacturer in New Hampshire, employing "from 300 to 400,
pays by the piece, and his workers earn from $6 to $8 per month. They
learn generally when children, by seeing others braid. The future
prospect is not flattering, as the demand for palm-leaf hats is
decreasing. The braiders work at home." $60,000 worth of palm-leaf hats
were annually manufactured at Nashua, N. H., a few years ago. C. told me
they never employ women, except, in winter, to bind and put the oil-silk
lining in gentlemen's straw hats, for the spring trade of the South. For
the work they pay 12½ cents a dozen. A woman can do from six to ten
dozen a day. The best workers find employment. The prospect of obtaining
work to those who may learn is good. B. thinks but few American girls
are employed in trimming straw hats. He pays by the piece, and some earn
as much as $5 per week. They should spend about one month learning, and
they do well to earn their board during that time.
=360. Oil Clothing.= I was told at L. & Co.'s oil clothing depot, that
they have their sewing done by women at their homes. It is done by
machines. They do not require any deposit. Since the panic, a number of
girls and women have come in and offered to do their work at under
prices. The oiling is done after the goods are made up. The garments are
laid on tables, and the oil applied with brushes. The clothes are then
hung on frames to dry, and it requires six months. Oiling the goods is
greasy, dirty work, but might be done by strong women. The work is not
at all unhealthy. L. & Co. sell $150,000 suits a year. Their best sewers
can make up six or eight dozen shirts a week, for some of which they are
paid $1 a dozen, and for others, $1.25. The manufacture of oiled goods
is confined to New York.
=361. Pantaloons.= In making pantaloons, as in most other tailor's work,
what is most neatly done commands the best prices. Custom work pays
best. Making pantaloons is not quite so remunerative as making vests.
The prices paid in cities by good-class tailors for making summer
pantaloons, runs from 75 cents to $1.25. For winter goods the prices are
higher, ranging from $1 a pair to $1.50. Some tailors have their
pantaloons made by men, and some even employ men to make their vests.
=362. Regalias.= "Five American women are employed at Chicopee, Mass.,
in stitching military goods. They are paid by the piece. They never get
their work perfect. Learners are paid something. Men are preferable,
because it takes too much time to wait on women. There will be work as
long as there are wars." A regalia maker, in New York, told me her girls
earn from $3 to $5 a week. The sewing is done by hand. Those who
embroider in silk receive about the same; those with gold and silver
thread, something more.