into in New York. The making and selling of matches have furnished
employment for hundreds and thousands of boys and girls in all our large
cities. The making of matches is a dangerous employment. Its unhealthy
tendency (owing to the use of sulphur), and the long period of twelve,
and even fourteen hours' confinement, no doubt serve to account for the
sad and woe-begone faces of the poor little operators. At a match
factory where I stopped, girls are paid three cents a gross for cutting
matches and filling boxes. Some can do as many as forty gross a day; but
very few can. It is best for girls to commence early in life, and most
do so. Some girls earn as much as $5 to $6 per week, if we may believe
the proprietor's statement. Girls are paid for filling the frames in
which they are to be dipped, sixty-two cents 100 frames, each frame
containing 1,500 double, or 3,000 single matches. The factory is open
from seven in the morning to ten at night. The business for women and
girls is not crowded. Most learners become discouraged and leave it,
because it is so long before they can become expert enough to earn fair
wages. It is not as healthy, he says, as some occupations. I should
think not, judging from his sallow face, and the pale, spiritless faces
of all I have seen in the match factories. He buys bundles of sticks,
ready to cut for matches, of those who make it a business to prepare
them. They are cut by hand. He pays twenty-five cents a bunch, and a man
can cut a bunch in five minutes. They never stop work, except in
December and January. A brisk hand can earn from $5 to $7 a week. They
make from twenty to forty different kinds of matches, to suit all
climates. At the store of this manufacturer, the bookkeeper told me
that, if a person has a tooth extracted, the phosphorus will be absorbed
by the jaw bone and cause it to decay, if the individual works in the
factory before the gum is entirely well. A lady told me she knows a girl
that earns $6 a week in a match factory. In H.'s factory, I saw small
girls and boys putting matches in the frames to be dipped. They are paid
sixty cents 100 frames, containing 1,500 double matches. They can seldom
fill more than 85 frames a day. They commence work at 6½ in winter, and
work until 8; in summer, they commence at 6, and work until 7½. They are
not obliged to work all the time, as they are paid by the piece; but
with the exception of an hour at noon, which all have the privilege of
taking, they no doubt work the full time. They were poor, dirty-looking
children. In the room where the boxes were filled, large girls worked.
Most match makers are Germans and Irish. A manufacturer told me that he
now employs boys only--that girls he found so wild he could not manage
them. He says some of his girls used to earn $5 a week. He thinks none
but strong, healthy persons should work at the business, as the fumes of
sulphur are injurious. A manufacturer in Vermont writes: "Women are
employed to pack matches. They are paid by the thousand, and their wages
amount to fifty cents per day, of ten hours, after they get accustomed
to it. Women's work in this department is lighter than men's--so will
not yield as good wages. A learner will gain the trade in about six
months. An increase of this business is not flattering. No difference in
the seasons for work. Women are more nimble in the use of their fingers,
and consequently succeed better in this kind of work."
=494. Mat Makers.= Door mats are made of sea grass, corn husks, worsted,
manilla, hemp, and cocoa-nut fibre. At the largest manufactory in the
United States, I saw the process of making several kinds. No girls or
women were employed. The superintendent told us it was too heavy work
for women. In one establishment in Philadelphia, girls are employed as
tenders, which is merely picking the substance to be woven--jute, hemp,
or wool--into bunches of the right thickness, and handing to the weaver.
Some of their mat weavers earn $14 a week--boys, from $1.50 to $3. Mats
are sometimes made by women of osier, rushes, and straw.
=495. Manufacturers of Musical Instruments.= The manufacture of
different musical instruments is engaged in as so many distinct branches
of business. Musical instruments are usually classed as follows: 1. Wind
instruments, of wood or metal. 2. Stringed instruments. 3. Keyed
instruments. 4. Instruments of percussion. 5. Automatic instruments. 6.
Miscellaneous articles in connection with musical instruments. On wind
instruments made of wood and ornamented with metals, as flutes,
clarionets, &c., women might be employed to polish the metal. Those that
are all metal, as horns, trumpets, &c., are polished in making, and
could not well be divided into a separate branch of work. Of stringed
instruments, the ornamental part, as painting, inlaying of pearl, &c.,
would be very pretty work for women of taste. The smaller strings could
be covered by women. Of keyed instruments, some of the smaller and finer
work would be very suitable for women. In instruments of percussion, the
drum and tambourine are probably the only instruments presenting a field
for woman's work. Of automatic instruments, mechanical organs are the
only ones, I think, at which women do work. I cannot learn that women
are employed in making musical boxes, which are imported from
Switzerland, Germany, and France. Women are employed to some extent, in
other countries, in the manufacture of musical instruments. Z. thinks
the reason women are not employed in the manufacture of musical
instruments in this country is, that they do not understand the
business.--1. _Wind Instruments._ Women might polish the metal on
flutes, and even paint the woodwork. I was told by a manufacturer in New
York, whose factory is in Connecticut, that he once employed women in
that way, but they did not succeed, because they did not try.--2.
_Stringed Instruments._ I called on L., engaged in the manufacture of
harps. There are but two harp manufacturers in the United States. Ladies
might do the gilding and ornamental painting on harps. Sizing is put on,
and then gold leaf laid on, and smoothed down with a small brush. The
varnishing could be very well done by women. The same kind of work is
executed on guitar frames, of which a number are made in the United
States. The painting is done as on enamelled furniture. L. employs an
Englishman to do the gilding and ornamental painting. The other
manufacturer, B., thinks there is no part of the work in making harps
that could be done by a lady. The ornamental part is done by the
varnisher, and varnishing requires much strength. It requires a regular
apprenticeship, and some artistic taste. So few harps are made in this
country, that it would not pay a woman to learn. He was evidently
opposed to women having anything to do with the business.--3. _Keyed
Instruments. Accordions._ In making accordions women could put on the
keys and kid, and do so in Germany. Accordions are nearly all imported,
because they can be made more cheaply in Europe than in this country.
L., Philadelphia, says he is in partnership with his brother in Germany,
who has musical instruments made there, and employs a number of women
and girls.--_Melodeons._ C., New York, manufacturer, says he does not
know of any women being employed in the making of melodeons; but much of
the work, I am sure, could be done by women. Cutting the keys,
polishing, gluing them on the board, and fastening the hammers on, are
done by hand, and the work is as suitable for women as men. Men receive
for such work, $2 a day. Women properly trained, and with a good ear for
music could also tune the instruments. Men who do so, earn about $3 a
day. A manufacturer of melodeons writes: "We do not employ women, but
think larger firms might."--_Organs._ I was told by a manufacturer that
in Germany some women assist their husbands in making the action, but
there is lighter work and more of it in piano actions. J., another organ
builder, told me that in England, in some organ factories, women are
employed to gild the pipes. In making the organs turned by a crank, used
in some churches in England, women, he said, are employed in putting the
pins in the cylinders. They are made on the same principle as the music
box. J. seldom makes more than one of these organs in a year, and I
think he is the only one in the United States that does make them. Mrs.
Dall says "there are women, who strain silk in fluting, across the
old-fashioned workbag, or parlor organ front."
=Pianos.= In England, the men engaged in making piano actions used to do
much of the work at home, and their wives and daughters would assist
them. In the United States, each branch in the making of pianos is now
done separately, except in very large establishments, and consequently
most of the work is done at home by the workmen. At a factory in New
York, an apprentice, nearly out of his time, told me that an individual
to learn the business is bound, and must remain until of age. Otherwise
he could not get a certificate, and is not likely to find employment
without one. An apprentice receives $3 a week the first year, $4 the
second year, and more afterward if he is bright and quick to learn. A
journeyman receives from $10 to $12 a week for his work. At W.'s piano
manufactory, New York, we were kindly permitted to pass through and see
the entire process of making. Among other parts that I thought could be
done by women, were those of varnishing and polishing. This work forms a
separate branch of itself, and requires an apprenticeship of three or
four years. It looked to be very simple. The pianos are first rubbed
with pumice stone, to render them smooth and susceptible of a polish,
then with rotten stone. Rubbing with pumice stone all day might be too
laborious, except for a very strong woman; but the other process is
feasible for any woman of moderate health. Indeed, the finest polish
could be better given by women than men, because it is done by the naked
hand, and the softer the hand the better. The ornamenting of the
sounding boards could be done by women that know anything of painting,
and also the gilding on the inside top and outside front. I asked an old
Frenchman, doing that kind of work, how long it would require to learn.
He said he had been at it fifty years, and had not learned it perfectly
yet. It is pretty work, and very suitable for a woman of taste. The
delicacy of woman's touch, with some knowledge of drawing and painting,
would enable her to succeed. Covering wire, and putting it in, is
another branch that might be done by women. Bleaching ivory for the
keys, cutting them, and gluing them on, are also within woman's range.
Cutting leather and buckskin, and gluing it on the hammers, are very
light and simple work. Another branch suitable for women is regulating
the tone of pianos. Men, said W., would oppose women working at the
piano business in large establishments, but a man would not be likely to
suffer inconvenience from employing women in his own house to do the
part he carries on. If he were independent of his business it would be
better. At ----'s, New York, a manufacturer of pianoforte actions, I saw
two girls at work. It is very nice, clean work. Part of the time they
stand, and the remainder they sit. One is paid $3 a week, and the other
less. The young man who showed us through the factory, said much of the
work in making pianoforte action that is now done by men could be done
by women. D----'s girls looked to be Americans. They have work all the
year. It mostly consists in covering hammers. A manufacturer of
pianofortes writes: "Our men are paid both by the piece and by the week,
according to the departments in which they are engaged. The time of
learning is from five to seven years for men. Apprentices (boys) are
paid from 25 cents to $1 per day, beginning with the first amount, and
increasing from year to year. In some departments, physical strength is
required, in others, aptness and ready tact--in others, a cultivated
musical ear. The prospect for future employment is very fine in all
branches for men--in some, equally good for women. The majority of
workmen are below mediocrity, as compared with most all others in
manufacturing." A manufacturer in Meredith, N. H., writes: "We once
employed a lady in our key and action department. She was the wife of
one of our workmen. She earned as much as her husband, and in every
respect did her work as well. She learned her trade in half the time it
took her husband to learn the same. Theirs was jobwork; the two earned
about $3 per day. She did her housework besides. I think there might be
many ladies employed in our business, to the advantage of all concerned.
We expect to test the matter further by employing some in our varnish
rooms soon."
=Seraphines.= A manufacturer writes: "I think women might be employed to
advantage in some parts of the work, and in any part of it, if they
could adopt a different style of dress, something like the Bloomer. The
long dress with hoops, as now worn, must be an insurmountable barrier
against their entering many employments. It is injurious to health, and
prevents a proper development of form."
=496. Musical String Makers.= The manufacture of strings for musical
instruments is carried on as a separate branch. A German violin maker
told me that women are employed in Germany in winding wire for guitar
strings. I find they are also in a factory in Connecticut, and the
manufacturer said they could earn as high as $9 a week. It is rather
severe on the fingers, but that can be avoided to some extent by wearing
a glove finger. In New York, it is mostly done by Germans and French,
who have taken the trade from Americans. The preparing of catgut from
the intestines of sheep and goats, and making it into strings, is
carried on mostly in Germany, and some women are employed at that. Most
metal strings are of steel, and covered with fine wire of other metals.
Mrs. Z., whose husband, when living, manufactured covered strings for
musical instruments, told me, she and her daughters had often assisted
in covering guitar strings and the lighter piano strings. She thinks a
person of good abilities could learn it in from two to four weeks, with
an attentive instructor. She usually rested against a bench while
employed. A good worker will earn from $3 to $5 per week. She has never
heard of any but English and German women being engaged in it. In some
of the up town shops the machinery is moved by steam, but it does not
answer so well, because it is not so easily slackened or checked. Harp
strings and the larger piano strings cannot be made by women, because of
the strength and firmness required.
=497. Netters.= Netting is now generally done by machinery. Seines are
mostly made in that way. When by hand, it is done by old people, who
receive a very inadequate compensation for their labor. The nets so much
used for horses are mostly made in a large factory near the city of New
York. In England, woollen netting is used by some gardeners for the
protection of the bloom of fruit trees from frost. They are also used to
prevent birds destroying currants, cherries, raspberries, and other
small fruit. The making of purses of different kinds, and of hammocks,
have employed a small number of people. Net and seine manufacturers in
Gloucester write me: "We employ one hundred women who work at their
homes, and are paid by the piece. It requires a year to learn. From
October to June are the best seasons for our trade. A few that we employ
to work by the week spend ten hours a day at it. The comfort of the
occupation is good, but the pay poor. We think women better company than
men. Health and strength are the best qualifications for our work." A
net and twine company in Boston write: "We employ women for converting
twine into netting. It is mostly job work, and they have cash for what
they earn. The comparative prices of men and women are the same as those
of factories in general. It requires about as long to learn as it takes
a woman to learn to knit stockings. The business is good as long as the
sea furnishes fish and mankind eat them. The employment of women in the
work is a providential necessity. Nearly all ours are American. Women
are quicker in their work--men stronger. Our women have the leisure that
belongs to nearly all manual occupations."
=498. Oakum Pickers.= Perhaps some one reading this book may not know
what oakum is. It is old rope, pulled to pieces until it is soft and
pliable, like the original material, and used for the purpose of corking
vessels. Ten years ago, the picking was done by hand, and many women
employed. Now, this work is mostly done by machinery in this country,
and very few women are employed. In some factories, women are employed
in teazing, that is, untwisting the pieces of rope that are not pulled
to pieces by passing through the machinery the first time. They are paid
so much per hundred pounds, and do not earn more than $2 a week. It is
dirty, disagreeable work. A firm in Maine write: "We have seen females,
both young and old, at work in oakum mills in the State of New Jersey.
In England (we believe) all oakum is made in their almshouses,
consequently a part by females. The business is healthy. We use many
boys that do work which might be done by females; but we prefer the
boys."
=499. Paper Hangers.= An English lady, who has spent much time in
various parts of Europe, told me she had known of women being engaged in
paper hanging in small towns. I believe it is customary, when papering a
room, to have one person put the paste on, and another put it up. We are
confident women could do the first-mentioned part of the work.
=500. Polishers.= Women are employed in France in polishing furniture.
They are mostly the wives of cabinet makers. It requires art to do it
that some can never learn. A person must be able to put the gum shellac
on evenly. A woman in London earned a very good living by applying
French polish to the furniture of cabinet makers. A French woman that
polished furniture in Paris, told me that the work is hard on the
fingers, and one could not learn it in less than a year. A piano
manufacturer told me that women could be profitably employed in
polishing pianos. It is better learned by women than men, he thought. It
is tedious, however, and requires patience. I have been told that the
finest polish is imparted to furniture by the naked hand, and the softer
and finer the hand the better. For that reason, women are employed in
France to polish piano cases with the palms of their hands, and, when
not employed, wear kid gloves to keep their hands soft and smooth.
=501. Pure Finders.= The finders of dog pure constitute a small class in
this country; but Mr. Mayhew thinks in the city of London there are
between two hundred and three hundred constantly employed. It is used
for dressing leather and kid, and sold at from sixteen to twenty cents a
bucketful. In our country, it is probably carried on with bone grubbing
and rag gathering.
=502. Rag Cutters.= I find nearly all rag cutters are Irish, and they
are mostly old women or young girls. The girls usually earn about 75
cents or $1 a week. I called at a rag dealer's, and was told by a woman
that one cent a pound is paid for cutting the seams off, taking the
linings out, and removing the buttons. A woman can earn, she says, from
$2 to $2.50 a week. It is not unhealthy. They grow fat on it. Theirs are
mostly old women, and all are Irish. For assorting they are paid by the
week, and receive $2.75. They work from seven to five in winter; in
summer, ten hours. The keeper of the wareroom sells his rags for making
paper, and sends many to Europe. The women work all the year. No other
kind of work could be done by women in that business, as the only other
is packing in bales, and that, of course, must be done by men. The
warerooms close at six; so the women have the evenings for themselves.
P., a rag dealer, says he buys and sells according to the quality of the
rags. It is customary to pay by the week for sorting rags. Some get $2,
and some $2.50. Cutting the seams off is paid for by the pound. The odor
was extremely offensive (it was a damp day); but the man said it was not
unhealthy, unless the rags are worked with in a close room; then the
dust is apt to affect the eyes. Occasionally the small pox is taken from
rags. I called at a rag dealer's, and was told by a filthy, squalid,
barefooted girl at work, that for cutting up rags a penny a pound is
paid. She was assorting. For that work, hands are paid twenty-five cents
a day, and their board. It is very dirty work. The dust and sand must
affect the eyes and lungs. Some men can cut as many as thirty-five
pounds a day. Men are paid twice as much as women for assorting. I
inquired why. I was told by a young junk dealer, standing by, that they
could pick twice as much in the same time, the truth of which the reader
can decide as well as I. Some men earn at it, he said, $6 a week. A
woman, who seemed to have some interest in the place, remarked the girls
have work all the year. Called at the door of a large wareroom, where I
saw men assorting waste paper to be sold for the purpose of being made
into new paper.
=503. Rag Gatherers.= The chiffoniers or rag gatherers of Paris are said
to number about 6,000; those of London about 800 or 1,000. The
chiffonier in Paris can collect only from eight in the evening until
early next morning, as the streets are all swept before six o'clock in
the morning, as after that time until eight in the evening the citizens
are passing. A few in Paris have realized fortunes; but we suspect the
most, in all countries, barely gain a subsistence. They all lead a hard
and gloomy life. In the United States, most of the rags collected are
converted into paper. Some are sold at shoddy manufactories, and those
unfit for either shoddy or paper are spread over corn land, or used as a
fertilizer for hops. One of the most handsome buildings on Broadway is
said to be owned by a man that commenced life in the petty business of a
rag collector. So much for economy and industry! Most of the rag pickers
in New York live in the Five Points, and near the Central Park. Scarcely
any person that has seen the old women rag pickers of New York in rain
and snow, cold and driving winds, partially clad, can ever deny that a
woman is capable of very hard and degrading labor, when driven to it by
want. Rag picking and rag assorting are distinct branches. Rag pickers
make the most, and are chiefly Germans. The number of rag gatherers in
New York is very great, and the majority of them are women. I never
observe the face of an American or French woman. Rag gatherers have each
their own province, and none of the rest dare intrude. The majority do
not confine themselves to picking up rags only, but bones and bits of
metal and glass. Some even carry a basket in which they gather waste
vegetables or putrid meat, or the trimmings of uncooked meat, which they
feed on themselves, or give to a pet pig, or trade with some neighbor
better off that has a cow. When the rag collectors reach their homes,
they assort the articles they have collected. They separate the rags
into clean and dirty (the last they wash), into linen and woollen, and
the paper into clean and dirty, white and colored. The life led by rag
gatherers is very laborious, as they must spend all the hours of
daylight on their feet, walking many miles. Their earnings are so scanty
that they must be out in all kinds of weather. The enormous rent they
pay for wretched accommodations is a disgrace to the landlords. Many of
them sleep a dozen in a room, on the bare floor. By the most rigid
economy and unremitting industry, a few are enabled to lay by a small
sum for old age, or purchase a little cottage and a plot of ground, when
they change their filthy occupation for a more healthy and agreeable
one, that of raising vegetables for the market. If I had to make a
living on the streets of New York, I would prefer carrying a wheel
around to grind knives and scissors, or putting window-glass in, to
collecting rags, for the work of neither is so filthy. The children of
rag gatherers begin very early to follow the pursuit of their parents. I
saw some children one day picking rags, that told me they received two
cents a pound. They were at the dirt heaps where carts of dirt from town
had been emptied. They sometimes gather forty pounds each a day. They
cannot do so well in winter. I saw a rag collector who starts at five in
the morning, and is gathering rags until eight in the evening. She eats
nothing during the time. She was German. Her father and mother also
gather rags. Her father sells them at two cents a pound. She did not
know how many pounds she gathered, but said she got three large bags
full every day in good weather. I saw other collectors, who told me they
gather each from ten to thirty pounds a day. Some families succeed in
gathering from fifty cents to $1.50 worth a day, in good weather and
good seasons. "The prices paid for the staple articles of their trade,
purchased exclusively by middlemen, are: bones, 36 cents per bushel;
rags, whether linen or woollen, $1 per cwt.; paper, $1 per cwt.; and
these sell them again to the down-town customers, the rags at $2.50 to
$3.50; the paper at $1.25 to $1.50; with a proportionate advance on
bones, and all the articles in the junk business."