Philadelphia, I was told they generally employ several women. They earn
about $3 a week, and take their sewing home. The work is sewing tapes on
the main pieces to support the slats. The business is best in the
spring, from January to May, and is good in the fall, but they endeavor
to furnish some employment all the year to their girls, who are
American. A manufacturer of Venetian blinds in Boston employs some women
in writing, sewing, laying out work, &c. They are mostly paid by the
piece, and earn from $3 to $6 per week. Male and female labor is not of
the same kind in his establishment. Men spend two years learning; women,
one month. The last part of spring and the first part of summer are best
for work. He could easily find more sewers, if he had employment for
them. He finds them cheaper and more suitable for the work than men. The
means of mental and moral culture are those common to the residents of
Boston.
=375. Window Shades.= At an establishment in Philadelphia, a few women
are employed in the busy seasons, spring and fall, in laying the gilding
on the borders of linen shades. They earn from $1.50 to $3.00 per week.
The painted linen window shades (landscapes, buildings, &c.) are
executed entirely by men, who receive $12 a week wages. Our informant
said these men could paint (I think) 6 pair a day. I am sure there is no
reason why a lady could not paint landscapes and other ornamental work
on shades, if they would only qualify themselves. It would probably
require two or three years' practice to acquire proficiency, for a
person unaccustomed to painting of any kind. The design of common ones
is invented as the painter proceeds, as he has no pattern to work from.
It requires a knowledge of colors, and some taste and ingenuity. A man
is paid from $1.50 to $2 a day. K., New York, has a number of women
stencilling shades. The women earn about $4 a week. B., New York,
usually employs two girls in putting elastic over the bands of pulleys
and tying them up, for which they each receive $4 a week. I saw a girl
in New York, engaged in stencilling. She is paid by the piece, and can
earn $6 or $7 a week, when she has constant employment. It does not take
long to learn. I called at a factory where they pay three cents a piece
for painting the centres of common shades. It is done with cloths. They
pay $2 a piece for fine ones. The fine ones have the principal parts
drawn before being painted. A smart man can earn $20 a week at that
work, but shades are not much used now. At a store on Broadway, they
used to employ girls for painting shades and putting on the gilding.
They had American girls mostly. German men are mostly employed at that
work. If American men learn this business, they have so much energy and
ambition they are soon able to get an establishment of their own, and
then employ foreigners, many of whom work for less, to obtain
employment, and then cannot raise their prices, and so are apt ever to
retain a subordinate position. Their girls worked in the room with the
men, but it was a large room, and they worked at the far end. Part of
the work ought to be done by men. They had one woman that put on the
flowing colors and earned $9 a week. But they found it necessary to have
the girls wear Bloomer costume, to prevent their dresses touching the
shade while painting; but they would not even then consent to lay down
their hoops, and as their skirts would touch the painting and injure it,
they altogether abandoned the employment of females. L., New York, told
me he met with great opposition when he first employed women to gild
window curtains, and he could not have held out if his house had not
been established and he very firm. He lost one or more of his customers
by doing so. The work is very suitable for women. L.'s men and women
work in the same apartment, but the men are required to be very
respectful. The women have a dressing room attached to their workroom.
They move about on their feet all the time, while at work. Men put size
on, but women could do it. The women receive $5 a week, and never work
over ten hours. The work can be learned in a day. The Southerners are
doing without fancy goods now, so the trade is very poor. L. has saved
about $1,000 the past year by employing women. Men are in such haste to
get through their work, that they are careless and waste the gold leaf.
A window-shade manufacturer in Boston, who employs some girls in
stencilling, informs me by letter that "he pays by the piece from $3 to
$6 per week. A smart, active girl can earn more than a man of medium
abilities. Cleanliness and endurance are the most essential
qualifications. The prospect for continuance is as good as that of any
other fancy business. Best seasons for work are from March to July, and
October to January, but at other times hands can make enough to pay
their board. They work from seven to twelve hours; for over hours, are
paid extra. Board, $2.50; (washing extra) but they have not a room
alone." One shade manufacturer writes: "There are parts of my work that
could be done by girls as well as men, but their style of dress is not
adapted to it." Another in Boston writes: "I would employ women, if my
shop was convenient, as I could get them for less price than men. Men
are paid thirty-three per cent. more than women: one reason is they are
capable of more endurance. We work ten hours in summer, eight in
winter." Another firm in the same city employs from four to eight women,
paying from $3 to $6 per week, working from nine to ten hours a day. Six
months is the average time given by a learner. Spring and fall are the
most busy seasons."
_Wire Window Shades._ Mrs. C. said a lady used to paint wire shades for
her husband. He also employed men. He has most work done in summer. It
requires care to keep from filling the niches with paint. Miss ----
acquired boldness and freedom of execution in oil painting by the
practice. Rapidity and lightness of touch were also acquired. Her hand
had got a stiff, cramped feeling, from painting on canvas constantly.
The price paid for shades depends on the fineness of the cloth, the
size, and design. Miss S. says her father has the landscape painting
done by Germans, and pays good prices. It is paid for by the square
foot. He charges $2 a square foot, for a shade in the frame, ready to
put in the window. The artists take them to their studios. Germans are
preferred because they work most rapidly. One makes a great deal of
money, but he works late at night and on Sundays. Several coats of paint
are put on before the landscape is painted. Some copy engravings, but
enlarge the scale. They make to order. The business is increasing. He
sends a great many to the South, particularly Havana and Baltimore.
MANUFACTURERS OF BOOKS, INK, PAPER, AND PENCILS.
=376. Bookfolders.= I know of no work in a bookbindery that could not be
performed by intelligent women that were properly instructed.
Forwarding, marbling, gilding, stamping, and finishing could be done by
them, in addition to presswork, folding, gathering, and sewing. The
female bookfolders of New York number several thousand. The women in
Philadelphia binderies are between 1,000 and 2,000. The most bookfolding
and sewing, out of New York, are done in Washington and Philadelphia,
and some in Cincinnati. The busy seasons for book makers are from
September to January, and from March to July. In this business there is
a union among the men regulating prices, hours, &c. There is a great
difference in the character of the binderies in New York--every shade
and grade is to be found. In seeing the size and comfort of the
workrooms, and the manners and conversation of the employer, it would
not be very difficult to judge of the pay and condition of the
workgirls. The trade is well filled, and, no doubt, with quite as many
women of worth, self-respect, and education, as any other. At the Bible
House, Tract House, Methodist Book Concern, and Harper's, New York, the
faces of the workers are bright and cheerful. Every precaution is taken
to secure only those who are respectable, and the associations
surrounding them are calculated to elevate, rather than degrade. Most of
them are able to pay enough for their board to secure the right kind of
home associations. These establishments, except in emergencies like the
present, retain their hands all the year; while those in a majority of
other houses fluctuate with their business and are unoccupied three or
four months in the year. Bookfolding is paid for by the 1,000 sheets,
depending on the size of the sheet and the number of times it is folded.
A good, fast folder can earn from 50 cents to 65 cents a day, whether
folding with a machine or by hand. A few can earn as much as $6 per
week. Folding and collating pay the best of woman's work. Collating is
usually paid for at 20 cents an hour. Men in bookbinderies get from $8
to $20 per week. Some employers are much more kind and intelligent than
others. Some bookbinders in New York impose on girls by taking them to
learn the business, requiring that they stay from six weeks to six
months to do so, and paying nothing during that time. During the most of
the time their work is efficient, and they earn money for their
employers. When the time has expired they are turned off, and others
taken on. Some bookbinders employ those who will do their work at a very
cheap rate, often thus exposing them to influences that are pernicious.
Favoritism is often shown by employers and foremen. At H.'s, 200 women
and girls are employed in folding, sewing, and gilding. Either of the
branches is light and pleasant, and soon learned, after which the
remuneration depends upon the abilities of the learner. Their hours are
from 7-½ to 6, but it is piece work. All of his workpeople are
temperance people. The work of bookbinders is not more unhealthy than
any other indoor work. At the Tract House they take a few girls to learn
to fold, and have them work until they earn $6 before they pay anything.
An English woman told me that she used to earn $7 a week, as forewoman,
but they never allowed her to be absent a day. A publisher in
Philadelphia employs about fifty girls in his bindery, but complains
that as soon as they make a few dollars they will take a holiday to
spend it. He says the better he pays the girls in his bindery, the more
they are absent from their work and the more difficult are they to
manage. That, I think, arises from defective moral training. We know
that people of right principle (both men and women), whose wages enable
them to dress comfortably, and provide wholesome food and well
ventilated, healthy apartments, are not only better able to work well
and constantly, but do so. It stands to reason they should. If the poor
cannot make a proper use of their scanty compensation, they are more to
be pitied than blamed, for we know well they have nothing to spare. The
manufacture of blank-books is an important branch of business. A
blank-book manufacturer in Troy writes: "I pay both ways, and the wages
are from $3 to $4.50 per week. Men's wages are from $6 to $12, but their
work is different and heavier. Women's part of the work is learned in
from six weeks to one year. A ready hand and quick eye are wanted by a
learner. Busiest time from December to July. There is a surplus of
hands, so far as I know. When men work at the women's branches (which is
very seldom), they do it more substantially." In France women do much of
the work in blank-book binderies. In M. Maitre's book bindery, Dijon,
France, "No apprentice, boy or girl, is received until after they have
made their premier communion, and received a certificate that they can
both read and write, and also a medical certificate of vaccination. The
workpeople are thus of a respectable class. The young children of most
of the married women are either sent out to nurse in the country,
according to the very common custom of France, or else the married pair
form one household with the grand parents."
=377. Book Sewers.= "Trades in general require a large share of
mechanical ingenuity, in combination with strength, mathematical skill,
and other qualifications. Strength is requisite to the success of a
bookbinder." Women employed in sewing are paid by the piece, and as soon
as they are competent, which requires but a few days, are paid according
to their application from $3.50 to $7 per week. The work of women in
binderies is clean, and about as comfortable and remunerative as any
other of a mechanical nature. At the Methodist Book Concern we saw girls
folding, gathering, sewing, putting plates in books, gilding the covers,
and feeding the presses. They were well dressed and intelligent looking,
and evidently felt an interest in the welfare of the establishment. The
majority were Americans. The superintendent told us, "girls earn, in the
sewing department, from $3 to $9 per week. A good sewer can earn,
without difficulty, from $5 to $5.50 per week. They have about thirty,
most of whom work by the piece. They have one strong woman who sometimes
earns $10 a week. They never work over ten hours, as the house is only
open for work that long. The folding and enveloping of tracts and papers
admit of a change of posture. There is no similarity in the male and
female labor. The comparison in prices is about one-half to one-third.
It requires a lifetime to learn a man's branch; an intelligent woman can
learn hers in a week. The result of a bookbinder's work is not for a
day, but for all time. Bookbinders have more constant employment than
those in most other trades. The work is most dull in summer. There is
constant employment in New York for first-class hands, and always a
surplus of second-class. Large cities offer the best localities--those
in the South and West will probably furnish many openings to
publishers." A. & S. employ girls to fold, stitch, and sew. They are
paid by the piece (customary), and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Sewers
can earn more than folders and stitchers--say from $5 to $7. They work
until six o'clock and commence when they please, as they are paid by the
quantity. A bookbinder told me his girls work from seven to six o'clock.
He gives work all the year. They are paid by the piece, and can earn
from $5 to $6 a week. I have been told folders and sewers are taken as
learners only where the cheapest work is done. At some binderies three
cents 100 is paid for folding, three cents for sewing, and six cents for
stitching. At some places five cents 100 is paid for folding 12mo.
sheets. The proportion of hands employed in the different branches of
bookbinding is somewhat as follows: About two thirds are folders, one
sixth gatherers, and one sixth sewers. A process has been invented by
which books can be strongly bound without sewing. I fear it may be the
means of throwing many sewers out of employment. At W.'s bookbindery I
was told they sometimes take learners. They expect them to stay six
months, and pay them half that they can earn during that time. They pay
workers by the piece, and they can earn from $4 to $6 a week. Some of
the girls are employed to remove the covers from old books and magazines
that are to be rebound. M., who does the printing of the A.'s, informs
me that his girls work by the piece, and average over $4 per week. His
learners receive one half their earnings--the teacher the other half.
Spring and fall are the most busy seasons, but the women are never
entirely out of employment. There is no surplus of good hands, but many
imperfect ones. He employs from 125 to 150. The superintendent at H.'s
told me that the girls in the sewing-room earn from $3.50 to $8. He says
their women are intelligent and lady-like, and would adorn the best
society. They change their dresses when they come to work, and then
before leaving. If they are at all hurried in their work, their hands,
both men and women, come early and stay late of their own free will.
Males average $10, females over $4. The reason of the difference is,
that men serve an apprenticeship of five or seven years--women five or
seven weeks. The former are the mechanics; the latter merely assistants.
The latter cheapen the labor of the former, without having the strength
or physical ability to perform their work. (I cannot see how it should
be so when the branches performed are entirely distinct.) The foreman at
B.'s told me a very brisk worker can earn $6 a week, but few do. They do
not average over eight hours a day. They never light their building.
S.'s girls, in good times, are employed all the year. He pays by the
piece, and his girls earn from $3 to $5. In most small book binderies in
New York men and girls work in the same room. A girl at the Tract House
told me they pay better for sewing there than in most other places, and
have work all the year, in ordinary times. A printer boy told me his
sister earns, in a bindery, from $8 to $10 a week. D. has newspapers
printed and folded, and pays his women for folding from $4 to $5 a week.
A manufacturer in New York, having a bindery in New Jersey, pays his
girls mostly $3.50 a week, besides their board and washing. He boards
them, and he is very particular in having them attend church on the
Sabbath, and keeping an oversight of their morals and habits. Most of
the binding done South and West is that of blank books. There is not so
much machinery at the South and West as at the North. F. says the
binding of blank books pays best. A good folder may earn $6 a week, but
a sewer not so much. The majority of both do not earn more than $4. They
pay from the first. One woman can stitch enough to keep three men
employed. So there are not as many women employed in factories where
blank books are made, as where printed books are. I was told on Fulton
street, at a blank-book manufactory, that their girls earn from $5 to
$7. They give steady work all the year. The binding of blank books pays
best. They have one girl that sometimes earns $9 a week. At jobbing
houses girls generally earn $6 a week, when paid by the week for
binding.
=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.