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Title: The Employments of Women - A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work
Author: Penny, Virginia
Language: English
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Transcriber's Notes:
Text originally marked up as bold is surrounded by =, text in italics by
_. All footnotes can be found after the Appendix, before the Index.
Obvious printer's errors have been remedied, a list of all other changes
can be found at the end of the document. Note: There are many opening or
closing quotation marks missing in the text. As in most instances, it is
impossible to say where the quotation was meant to begin or end, those
errors have not been corrected. Only instances where quotation marks
were obviously missing or superfluous, were such added. Equally,
"Employee/s" is found in various different spellings throughout the
book; this inconsistency has been retained.
THE
EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN:
A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work.
BY
VIRGINIA PENNY.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY WALKER, WISE, & COMPANY,
245 WASHINGTON STREET.
1863.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
VIRGINIA PENNY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
TO
WORTHY AND INDUSTRIOUS WOMEN
IN THE UNITED STATES,
STRIVING TO EARN A LIVELIHOOD,
This Book
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
It is very easy to obtain book after book on "The Sphere of Woman," "The
Mission of Woman," and "The Influence of Woman." But to a practical mind
it must be evident that good advice is not sufficient. That is very
well, provided the reader is supplied with the comforts of life. But
plans need to be devised, pursuits require to be opened, by which women
can earn a respectable livelihood. It is the great want of the day. It
is in order to meet that want that this work has been prepared. The few
employments that have been open to women are more than full. To withdraw
a number from the few markets of female labor already crowded to excess,
by directing them to avenues where they are wanted, would thereby
benefit both parties.
At no time in our country's history have so many women been thrown upon
their own exertions. A million of men are on the battle field, and
thousands of women, formerly dependent on them, have lost or may lose
their only support. Some of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters
of soldiers, may take the vacancies created in business by their
absence--others must seek new channels of labor.
An exact estimate of woman as she has been, and now is, furnishes a
problem difficult to solve. Biographies and histories merely furnish a
clue to what she has been. Prejudice has exaggerated these portraitures.
Woman as she now is, save in fiction and society, is scarcely known. The
future position of woman is a matter of conjecture only. No mathematical
nicety can be brought to bear upon the subject, for it is one not
capable of data. More particularly is it difficult to define what her
future condition in a business capacity will be. Man will have much to
do with it, but woman more. I know of no work giving a true history of
woman's condition in a business capacity. Socially, morally, mentally,
and religiously, she is written about; but not as a working, every-day
reality, in any other capacity than that pertaining to home life. It has
been to me a matter of surprise that some one has not presented the
subject in a practical way, that would serve as an index to the opening
of new occupations, and present the feasibility of women engaging in
many from which they are now debarred. It is strange there is no book on
the subject, in any language, for it is a world-wide subject. Its roots
are in the very basis of society--its ramifications as numerous as the
nations of the earth--yes, as the individual members of the human
family. The welfare of every man, woman, and child is involved in the
subject. For who is entirely free from female influence--who is devoid
of interest in the sex--who exists free from relationship, or any
connection with woman? There is no man that is not involved in what
affects woman, and the reverse is also true. It should therefore be a
subject of paramount interest to all. Particularly does the subject
appeal to the heart of woman. If she does not need to make a practical
use of information on the subject, she will find its possession no
disadvantage. It may assist her, from motives of friendship, or
benevolent feelings, to advise and direct others. Is there any woman,
not entirely devoid of all sensibility, but desires an amelioration in
the condition of the working class of her sex--those who earn a mere
pittance, scarce enough to keep body and soul together?
The work of single women has never been very clearly defined. Those that
are without means are often without any to guide them; and the limited
avenues of employment open to women, and the fear of becoming a burden
on others, have poisoned some of their best hours, and paralyzed some of
their strongest powers. There is a large amount of female talent in the
United States lying dormant for the want of cultivation, and there has
been a large amount cultivated that is not brought into exercise for the
want of definite plans and opportunities of making it available. It
exists like an icicle, and requires the warmth of energy, thought, and
independence to render it useful. It shrinks from forcing itself into
notice, like the sensitive plant, and may live and die unseen and
unknown. Widen, then, the theatre of action and enterprise to woman.
Throw open productive fields of labor, and let her enter.
Of those who speak so bitterly of women engaging in some pursuits now
conducted by men, we would inquire, What would you have destitute single
women and widows do, by which to earn their bread? You surely would not
have women steal, that cannot obtain employment. What, then, can they
do? Why may they not have free access to callings that will insure them
a support? Those that oppose them, generally do so from selfish motives.
Many men would banish women from the editor's and author's table, from
the store, the manufactory, the workshop, the telegraph office, the
printing case, and every other place, except the school room, sewing
table, and kitchen. The false opinion that exists in regard to the
occupations suitable for women must be changed ere women have free
access to all those in which they may engage. Yet I would love to see
thrown open to women the door of every trade and profession in which
they are capable of working.
"Women have not devoted their time and talents to mechanical arts,
except to a very limited extent, and only within fifty years. How then
could they be expected to equal men in proficiency, who have from the
creation of the world been so employed, and who have had the advantage
not only of their own exertions, but the experience of their fathers and
forefathers to profit by? The superior mechanical talent of the United
States is becoming known throughout the civilized world, and some of the
work dictated by that talent is executed by women.
Some persons complain that women would become more material--less
spiritual--if engaged in manual labor. We think not, if it is of a kind
suited to their nature. Contact with the world does not always wear out
the fineness and delicacy that we love in woman. She does not
necessarily lose that softness and gentleness that render her so lovely.
A few women may by nature have a fondness for masculine pursuits; but
the number of men that have from training and circumstances a partiality
for feminine pursuits, is much greater. It has been estimated that there
are 95,000 females earning a livelihood in New York city and its
vicinity, by their labor, aside from those engaged in domestic pursuits;
and I am confident there are at least 100,000 men in the same city
engaged in pursuits well adapted to women.
As women become more generally educated, their energies will be
increased--their limits of thought expanded. They will seek employments
consistent with honor and delicacy. They will desire the elevation of
their sex, and do what they can to bring it about, regardless of the
shafts of ridicule sent by selfish men and heartless women.
"By elevating the standard and augmenting the compensation of woman's
labor," a complete revolution would be wrought in the social and
political standing of woman. Let woman once surmount the difficulties
that now oppose her, and take her stand with dignified reserve, laboring
and claiming what is her right as much as men--free labor and fair
wages--and liberal men will applaud and admire her.
As a friend of my sex, I have made investigations, and obtained
statistics that show the business position of woman at present in the
United States. I present such employments as have been, are, or may be
pursued by them, and give what information I can obtain of each one. I
may have omitted a few, and there may be some that are not yet
recognized as a distinct business. I have made the study a speciality
for three years, and spent an almost incredible amount of labor and
money in doing so. I have visited factories, workshops, offices, and
stores, for the purpose of seeing women at their vocations. I have gone
through wind and snow, cold and rain. If I could have had the time and
opportunity, I would have endeavored to see, also, something of their
home-life.
Much of the verbal information I give is impartial, as it has been given
by those with whom I talked in a casual way, they not knowing I had any
object in view; and frequently it was done in a respectful, yet off-hand
way, when making purchases. I have often bought articles merely for an
excuse to talk with people, and gain information on their occupations.
I desire to present to those interested a clear and succinct view of the
condition of business in the United States, the openings for entering
into business, the vacancies women may fill and the crowded marts they
may avoid, the qualifications needed for a selected pursuit, and the
pursuits to which they are best adapted; also the probable result
pecuniarily of each calling honorably pursued: in short, it is intended
as a business manual for women. I wish to make it a practical
work--useful, not ornamental. It is more a bringing together of facts,
than a presentation of ideas--more a book of research than reflection.
Yet the statements given are important, not merely as facts, but as
being suggestive of things essential to or connected with occupations.
The limits of each subject must necessarily be short, as I wish to form
a volume to come within the reach of every one that would desire a copy.
Any female who has in view the learning of any occupation mentioned in
this book, would do well to go and see the process before making
arrangements to that effect. And she should exercise her own judgment in
making a practical use of that information. Many pursuits are now
followed by women for which it was once thought they were incapable.
My book is not sectional in its feelings. It is intended to benefit
women of the North, South, East, and West of this vast Republic. In the
large cities of the North, most working women are acquainted with others
engaged in different occupations, and so may learn of places to be
filled in them. In the South, a smaller number of women have been
dependent on their own exertions, owing to the existence of slave-labor,
and the comparative smallness of immigration.
I strongly advocate the plan of every female having a practical
knowledge of some occupation by which to earn a livelihood. How do men
fare that are raised without being fitted for any trade or profession,
particularly those in the humbler walks of life? They become our most
common and ill-paid laborers. So it is with woman's work. If a female is
not taught some regular occupation by which to earn a living, what can
she do, when friends die, and she is without means? Even the labor that
offers to men, situated as she is, is not at her disposal.
No reproach should be cast upon any honest employment. The dignity and
value of labor in the most menial occupation is superior to idleness or
dependence upon others for the requirements of life. What destitute but
industrious woman would not be glad to earn for herself a snug little
cottage, to which she may resort in her old age, from the cares and
conflicts of life; to enjoy the independence of a competency, earned by
remunerative and well-applied labor?
I will not be responsible for all the opinions advanced by those who
have furnished me with information. The reader will often have to form
her own deductions from the statements made. My work may not accomplish,
by a great deal, the end proposed, but I hope it may be the means of
securing, by honest industry, a livelihood to many now dependent and
desponding. If it does not in itself accomplish any visible good, it may
be the means of bringing forward some better method by which the desired
end may be effected. It may perhaps impart information by which the
philanthropic may best employ their time and means in advancing the
welfare of others, by pointing out the wants of dependent women, and how
best to meet those wants. It may open the way of usefulness to women of
leisure and talents. If it saves any of my sex from an aimless and
profitless life, I will feel that something has been done. In that way
some may be kept from despair and sin. And it is certainly better to
prevent evil than to cure it. Some have means, and if a plan were
presented to them, they would engage in its execution.
Connected with this subject is a fervent desire on the part of the
writer to see houses of protection and comfort provided in our cities
for respectable and industrious women when out of employment. Wealthy,
benevolent people might build them, and appropriations be granted by the
cities in which they are planted. Such a structure in each of our cities
and towns would be a refuge to the weary, a home to the oppressed, a
sanctuary to the stranger in a strange land.
When the place of gaining information is not mentioned in this work, it
will be understood that New York city was the place. It will be
remembered that most of the information was obtained from October, 1859,
to February, 1861.
I hope much anxiety of mind, and uncertainty in the selection of a
pursuit, will be prevented by my book, and many precious hours thereby
saved for active, cheerful employment. If there should seem to be a want
of practicability in any of the subjects I have treated upon, I think,
after some reflection, it will disappear. Some of the employments
presented may not find encouragement and proper compensation until our
country becomes older, and calls for more variety in labor. I hope I may
not hold out any unreasonable expectations of employment, or excite any
hope that may not be realized. My ideas may appear vague and indefinite
to some, but even such may perhaps pick out a few grains from the pile
of chaff. But we must be doing, not saying--moving, not
sitting--accomplishing something, not folding our hands in indolent
ease. The active, restless spirit that pervades our people calls for
action. It will not do to rest passive and let events take their own
course. The progress of the age calls for earnest labor.
INTRODUCTION.
The great, urgent, universal wants of mankind, in all classes of
society, are food, clothing, shelter, and fuel. After these come the
comforts and luxuries pertaining to the condition of those in easy
circumstances. Above and beyond these animal wants, but of nearly equal
importance, are those relating to the mind--written and printed matter,
oral instructions, as lectures and sermons, and the handiwork of the
fine arts. These, in addition to health, freedom, and friends, comprise
the greatest blessings man enjoys. I would add that the means of transit
are necessary to make him entirely independent. Nearly all honest
occupations are founded on these wants; but they have been divided and
subdivided until their name is legion.
The contents of this volume might be arranged in the same way that the
articles exhibited in the Crystal Palace of London were, under the
heads--Producer, Importer, Manufacturer, Designer, Inventor, and
Proprietor. But we think the arrangement pursued, though rather
irregular, may be quite as convenient. So great is the variety of
subjects treated, that it is difficult to condense the contents in a
smaller compass.
The general difference in character and habits of those engaged in
various occupations--their comparative morality and intelligence, the
effects of a decline in wages, the effects of trades-unions, are all,
more or less, involved in this subject of employments; also the opinions
of the working classes on machinery and its results. Employments that
have for their object the health, comfort, and protection of
mankind--those that produce the necessaries and the luxuries of
life--those for amusement and capable of being dispensed with--are all
treated of to some extent.
Numbers of women have been lost to society from the want of a systematic
organization for their employment, and by a deficiency in the number of
remunerative pursuits open to them. The destinies of thousands are daily
perilled, mentally, morally, and physically, by the same cause. The
disease has raised a great and turbulent cry; but, strange to say, few
means, and they limited and inefficient, have been used as a cure.
Indeed, a remedy has scarcely been devised. To open new and suitable
occupations to women, and secure for them fair wages, would, I believe,
be an effectual mode of relief. But to bring about a favorable change,
not only must more occupations be opened to women, but, as Mr. Walker
says, "employments of an equally indispensable character with those of
the other sex." Many persons would be surprised to find the large number
of people employed in such occupations as pertain only to civilized
life--such as could be dispensed with in an emergency; and the small
number employed in such occupations as really furnish us with the
necessaries of life. In the first class, aside from those engaged in
domestic duties and labors, the majority of women are employed.
In the selection of a pursuit, it would be well to take into
consideration what occupations are most likely to increase in this
country. Those absolutely necessary for the preservation of life are
permanent. Those essential to the health and comfort of mankind must be
pursued by some. The steadiness of employment the year round should also
be considered. Another item is the danger attending a trade, and the
effects of the occupation on the health of the individual. A better
compensation should be given to those prosecuting either a dangerous or
unhealthy pursuit. There is at present more danger of women suffering
from either an excess of work, or the entire want of it, than from any
peculiarity pertaining to an occupation. A matter of some importance is
the ability of an individual to furnish herself with the implements of a
trade, goods for merchandizing, or the appurtenances of a profession, if
she intends to conduct business on her own responsibility and at her own
expense. If she has friends to advance her the money, she might perhaps
make an arrangement to refund as she advances in business.
It is a matter of doubt with us whether the labors of women are on an
average less laborious than those of men. That they are generally
performed indoors, is not saying anything in their favor as regards
health. If we include domestic employments, we cannot say they are
neater on an average. They may be better adapted to the constitution of
the female sex, but the question arises, Are those in which women now
engage, except domestic duties, more congenial to their taste, more
acceptable to their feelings, more likely to develop their mental
powers, and rightly direct their moral nature, than many others in which
they might engage?
We find that the class of workers, both men and women, having the most
steady employments, are the most steady and reliable people.
There are some employments in which it is well for a man and his wife to
unite, as bankers, picture restorers, house painters, &c.
There is probably as much diversity in the abilities of individual men
to acquire a trade, as in those of women. We doubt not but women,
generally, are as capable of acquiring a knowledge of any vocation as
men, if they spend as much time and application in doing so. Could not
women learn those occupations quite as thoroughly that require of men an
apprenticeship of three, five, or seven years, if they could give the
same time? We are confident the majority of women could, particularly
those who have had equal advantages in the way of education and society
with men engaged in the same pursuit.
We think the time spent in acquiring a knowledge of different
occupations is not at all proportioned to the variety of work and the
skill required for proficiency in each. For instance, an occupation that
could be learned in six months, must have three years' labor given;
while an occupation that it requires twenty years to excel in, has the
usual apprenticeship of three years. By the way, could not the most of
those pursuits now requiring three years' time of serving be mastered in
a shorter period?
Supply and demand must ever regulate, to a great extent, the wages of
women as well as men. We think, in the different departments of woman's
labor, both physical and mental, there exists a want of harmony of labor
done and the compensation; also, between the time given and the
occupation. For instance, a gilder in a bookbindery gets $6 a week, or
$1 a day of ten hours, which is equal to ten cents an hour. A girl, at
most mechanical employments, receives, for her sixty hours' labor, $3 a
week, which is equal to five cents an hour. A cook, who requires as much
preparation as either, for ninety hours' labor will receive her board
and washing, say $2, and $2 a week as wages, $4, equal to four and a
half cents an hour. Confectioners' girls, in some of the best
establishments in New York, spend seventeen, and some even eighteen
hours, attending to their duties, and receive only $2, and board and
washing, $4.50, equal to two and a half cents an hour. Some seamstresses
sew fifteen hours a day, and earn but thirty cents, equal to two cents
an hour, without board.
Where there are discrepancies about the seasons for any particular kind
of work, as given by different parties, it will usually be found to
arise from some of the number being engaged in the wholesale business,
selling to people from the South and West; others selling to city
traders, or retail merchants selling to city customers.
When there is a repetition of statements on the same subject, it will be
observed that it arises from the information being given by different
individuals.
I have used the words girl and woman indiscriminately, except when
mention is made of the age of the girls.
I would take this opportunity of returning my thanks to all who have
been so kind as to furnish me with any information, or directed me how
to obtain it.
Some errors will no doubt be observed by persons in their special
branches of labor. By writing to the author, attention will hereafter be
paid to the correction of such errors.
NATURE OF THE CONTENTS.
This work contains five hundred and thirty-three articles, more than
five hundred of which are descriptions of the occupations in which women
are, or may be engaged--the effect of each on the health--the rate of
wages paid for those carried on in the United States--a comparison in
the prices of male and female labor of the same kind--the length of time
required to learn the business fully, and the time required to learn the
part done by women--whether women are paid while learning--the
qualifications needed--the prospect of future employment in each
branch--the seasons best for work, and if in any season the women are
thrown entirely out of work--the usual number of hours employed, and, if
the working time exceeds ten hours, whether it could be shortened
without serious loss of profit--and the comparative superiority or
inferiority of women to men in each branch. Also, openings in the
Southern States for certain branches of business--the prices of board
for workwomen, and the remarks of employers--with a list of the
occupations suitable for the afflicted. In addition are articles on
unusual employments in the United States, England, France, and other
countries--minor employments in the United States, England, and France.
Also, a notice of the occupations in which no women are engaged in any
country--those in which none are engaged in this country--those in which
very few are engaged.
HEADS OF SUBJECTS.
Professional Women. Artists. Those in Mercantile Pursuits. Employments
pertaining to Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables. Raisers,
Makers, Preparers, and Disposers of Articles of Food. Textile
Manufacturers--Cotton, Linen, Woollen, Silk, Lace. Metal
Manufacturers--Iron, Brass, Steel, Copper, Tin, Britannia, Silver,
Silver Plating, Bronze, Gold. Miscellaneous Workers on Indian Goods,
Inkstands, Lithoconia, Marble, Mineral Door-Knobs, Paper Cutting, Papier
Maché, Pipes, Porcelain, Pottery, Stucco Work, Terra Cotta, and
Transferring on Wood. Glass Manufacturers. China Decorators. Leather
Manufacturers. Whalebone Workers. Brush Manufacturers. Ivory Cutters.
Pearl Workers. Tortoise-Shell Workers. Gum-Elastic Manufacturers.
Gutta-Percha Manufacturers. Hair Workers. Willow Ware. Wood Work.
Agents. Manufacturers, and Colorers of Ladies' Apparel. Fitters,
Cutters, and Sewers of Ladies' and Children's Wear. Upholsterers.
Manufacturers of Books, Ink, Paper, and Pencils. Chemicals. Those who
serve as a Communicating Medium between Employers and others. Those that
contribute to the Comfort or Amusement of others. Mistresses and
Domestics. Miscellaneous Occupations. Employments for the Afflicted.
Unusual Employments. Minor Employments. Occupations in which no Women
are engaged, &c. Openings in the South for certain branches of business.
Prices of Board for Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers. Number of Work
Hours. Extracts from the Census Report of 1860. Industrial Statistics of
Paris.
CONTENTS.
=Professional Women.=
PAGE
1. Amanuenses, 1
2. Astronomers, 1
3. Authors, 2
4. Bankers and Clerks, 7
5. Bible Readers, 5
6. Brokers, 8
7. Colonizationists, 9
8. Colportors, 9
9. Copyists, 10
10. Deaconesses, 11
11. Dentists, 14
12. Editresses, 14
13. Government Clerks, 16
14. Lawyers, 17
15. Lecturers, 18
16. Librarians, 19
17. Magazine Contributors, 21
18. Missionaries, 22
19. Medical Missionaries, 23
20. Physicians, 24
21. Preachers, 30
22. Proof Readers, 30
23. Publishers, 31
24. Readers to the Working Classes, 32
25. Reporters, 33
26. Reviewers, 34
27. Teachers, 36
28. Bookkeeping, 39
29. Calisthenics and Dancing, 41
30. Drawing and Painting, 41
31. Fancy Work, 42
32. Horsemanship, 42
33. Infant Schools, 43
34. Languages, 44
35. Music, 44
36. Navigation, 45
37. Swimming, 45
38. Translators, 45
Artists.
39. Actresses, 47
40. Aquaria Makers, 50
41. Architects, 51
42. Cameo Cutters, 52
43. Copperplate Engravers, 53
44. Daguerreans, 53
45. Design, Schools of, 55
46. Designers (Miscellaneous), 59
47. Calico Prints, 60
48. Wall Paper, 61
49. Draughtswomen, 61
50. Employés in the United States Mint, 61
51. Engravers and Chasers of Gold and Silver, 62
52. Equestrians and Gymnasts, 64
53. Etchers and Stamp Cutters, 65
54. Herbarium Makers, 65
55. Lapidaries, 66
56. Landscape Gardeners, 67
57. Lithographers, 68
58. Map Makers, 71
59. Medallists, 73
60. Modellers, 73
61. Modellers of Wax Figures, 74
62. Mineral Labellers, 75
63. Musicians, 75
64. Music Engravers, 77
65. Opera Performers, 77
66. Painters, 79
67. Animals, 81
68. Banners, 81
69. Crayon and Pastel, 81
70. Flowers and Fruit, 82
71. Fresco, 82
72. Historical, 82
73. Landscape, 82
74. Marine, 83
75. Miniature, 83
76. Panorama, 84
77. Portrait, 84
78. Water Colors, 85
79. Painters of Dial Plates, 85
80. Picture Restorers, 85
81. Piano Tuners, 86
82. Plaster Statuary, 87
83. Painters of Plates for Books, 88
84. Photographers, 90
85. Preparers of Scientific Plates, 94
86. Seal Engravers, 94
87. Sculptors, 94
88. Steel and other Engravers, 96
89. Bank Note, 97
90. Card, 98
91. Door Plate, 98
92. Map, 98
93. Pictorial and Heraldry, 99
94. Telegraph Operators, 100
95. Vocalists, 102
96. Wax Work, 102
97. Wood Engravers, 103
Mercantile Pursuits.
98. Merchants, 104
99. Bookkeepers, 106
100. Book Merchants, 108
101. China Merchants, 109
102. Clothiers, 110
103. Curiosity Dealers, 115
104. Druggists and Clerks, 115
105. Keepers of Fancy Stores, 119
106. Gentlemen's Furnishing Stores, 119
107. Furniture Sellers, 120
108. Grocers, 121
109. Junk Dealers, 122
110. Music Sellers, 122
111. Sellers of Artists' Materials, 123
112. Seeds, Roots, and Herbs, 124
113. Small Wares, 124
114. Tobacco, Snuff, and Cigars, 125
115. Saleswomen, 125
116. Street Sellers, 131
117. Toy Merchants, 134
118. Wall Paper, 134
119. Worn Clothes, 134
120. Variety Shops, 136
Employments pertaining to Grain, Birds, Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables.
121. Agriculturists, 136
122. Bee Dealers, 137
123. Bird Importers and Raisers, 137
124. Bird and Animal Preservers, 138
125. Florists, 140
126. Flower Girls, 142
127. Fruit Growers, 142
128. Fruit Venders, 143
129. Gardeners, 144
130. Makers of Cordial, &c., 144
131. Root, Bark, and Seed Sellers, 145
132. Seed Envelopers and Herb Packers, 145
133. Sellers of Pets, 147
134. Wine Manufacturers and Grape Growers, 147
Raisers, Makers, Preparers, and Disposers of Articles of Food.
135. Bakers (Bread), 148
136. Brewers, 150
137. Candy Manufacturers, 150
138. Cheese Makers, 152
139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers, 153
140. Cracker Bakers, 154
141. Fancy Confectionery, 154
142. Fish women, 158
143. Macaroni, 159
144. Maple Sugar, 159
145. Market Women, 159
146. Meat Sellers, 161
147. Milk Sellers and Dairy Women, 162
148. Mince Meat, Apple Butter, &c., 163
149. Mustard Packers, 164
150. Oyster Sellers, 164
151. Pie Bakers, 164
152. Picklers of Oysters, 166
153. Poulterers, 166
154. Restaurant Keepers, 167
155. Sealed Provisions, 168
156. Sugar Boilers, 170
157. Tea Packers, 170
158. Vermicelli, 171
159. Vinegar, 171
160. Yeast, 172
Textile Manufactures.
161. COTTON MANUFACTURE, 172
162. Batting and Wadding, 175
163. Calicoes, 175
164. Canton Flannel, 176
165. Carpet Chains, 176
166. Cord, 177
167. Dyers, 177
168. Factory Operatives, 180
169. Gingham, 183
170. Hose, 184
171. Men's Wear, 186
172. Print Works, 186
173. Spinners, 189
174. Spool Cotton, 189
175. Tape, 190
176. Weavers, 190
177. LINEN MANUFACTURE, 191
178. Thread, 193
179. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE, 194
180. Blankets, 195
181. Carpets, 195
182. Carpet Bags, 196
183. Cassimeres, 197
184. Cloths, 198
185. Coverlets, 201
186. Dry-Goods Refinishers, 201
187. Flannels, 201
188. Gloves, 203
Woollen, 205
189. Linseys, 205
190. Shawls, 207
191. Shoddy, 207
192. Yarn, 207
193. SILK MANUFACTURE, 208
194. Ribbons, 209
195. Sewing Silk, 210
196. LACE MANUFACTURE, 211
197. " Menders, 212
198. HAIR CLOTH MANUFACTURE, 213
Metal Manufactures.
199. IRON MANUFACTURE, 214
200. Files, 215
201. Guns, 215
202. Hinges, 215
203. Locks, 216
204. Nails, 217
205. Rivets, 217
206. Screws, 217
207. Skates, 218
208. Shovels, 218
209. Wire Workers, 218
BRASS MANUFACTURE, 219
210. Candlesticks, 219
211. Hooks and Eyes, 220
212. Lamps, 221
213. Pins, 221
214. Rings, 223
215. Scales, 223
216. Stair Rods, 224
217. STEEL MANUFACTURE, 224
218. Buckles, 224
219. Edge Tools, 225
220. Electrical Machines, 226
221. Fire Arms, 226
222. Knives and Forks, 226
223. Needles, 227
224. Pens, 228
225. Philosophical Apparatus, 229
226. Saws, 230
227. Scissors, 230
228. Spectacles, 230
229. Surgical Instruments, 232
230. Telescopes, 232
231. Thermometers, 232
232. COPPER MANUFACTURE, 232
233. TIN MANUFACTURE, 233
234. Lanterns, 233
235. BRITANNIA WARE, 234
236. SILVER MANUFACTURE, 234
237. Burnishers, 234
238. Thimbles, 236
239. SILVER PLATING, 237
240. BRONZE MANUFACTURE, 237
241. GOLD MANUFACTURE, 237
242. Assayers, 238
243. Enamellers, 238
244. Gold and Silver Leaf, 239
245. Jewellers' Findings, 240
246. Pencils, 241
247. Pens, 241
248. Watches, 242
249. Watch-Case Polishers, 244
250. Watch Chains, 246
251. Watch Jewels, 248
=Miscellaneous Works.= 248
252. Indian Goods, 248
253. Inkstands, 248
254. Lithoconia, 249
255. Marble Workers, 249
256. Mineral Door-Knobs, 250
257. Paper Cutters, 250
258. Papier-Maché Finishers, 250
259. Pipes, 251
260. Porcelain, 251
261. Pottery, 252
262. Stucco Work, 253
263. Terra Cotta 253
264. Transferrers on Wood, 253
265. =Glass Manufacture.= 253
266. Blowers, 255
267. Beads, 255
268. Cutters, 256
269. Embossers, 256
270. Enamellers, 256
271. Engravers, 257
272. Painters, 257
273. Stainers, 258
274. Watch Crystals, 259
275. =China Decorators and Burnishers.= 260
276. =Leather.= 261
277. Currying, 262
278. Harnesses, 262
279. Jewel and Instrument Cases, 263
280. Morocco Sewers, 263
281. Pocket Books, 264
282. Saddle Seats, 265
283. Tanning, 265
284. Trunks, 266
285. Whips, 266
286. =Whalebone Workers.= 267
287. =Brush Manufacturers.= 268
288. =Ivory Cutters and Workers.= 269
289. Combs, 271
290. Piano Keys, 271
291. Rulers (Paper), 272
292. =Pearl Workers.= 273
293. =Tortoise-Shell Workers.= 273
294. =Gum-Elastic Manufacture.= 274
295. Men's Clothing, 276
296. Shoes, 276
297. Toys, 276
298. =Gutta Percha Manufacture.= 277
299. =Hair Workers.= 277
299. Artists, 277
300. Dressers, 278
301. Dyers, 280
302. Growers, 281
303. Manufacturers, 281
304. Merchants, 281
305. =Willow Ware.= 282
Wood Work.
306. Carvers, 284
307. Kindling Wood, 285
308. Pattern Makers, 286
309. Rattan Splitters, 286
310. Cigar Boxes, 286
311. Turners, 287
Agents.
312. Express and other Conveyances, 287
313. General, 288
314. Literary, Book, and Newspaper, 289
315. Mercantile, 291
316. Pens, 291
317. Sewing Machines, 291
318. School, 292
319. Telegraph Instruments, 292
320. Washing Machines, 292
Manufacturers and Colorers of Ladies' Apparel.
321. Artificial Flowers, 292
322. Belts, 295
323. Bonnet Ruches, 295
324. Dress Trimmings, 296
325. Embroidery, 298
326. Feathers, 300
327. Hoop Skirts, 301
328. Muslin Sets, 304
329. Parasols and Umbrellas, 305
330. Sempstresses, 308
331. Sewing Machine Operatives, 310
Fur Workers.
332. Dyers, 312
333. Sewers, 312
Fitters, Cutters, and Sewers of Ladies' and Children's Wear.
334. Bonnets, 314
335. Bonnet Frames, 319
336. Bonnet Wire, 320
337. Children's Clothes, 321
338. Cloaks and Mantillas, 321
339. Costumes, 323
340. Dresses, 324
341. Dress Caps and Headdresses, 326
342. Fans, 328
343. Ladies' Under Wear, 329
344. Over Gaiters, 330
345. Patterns of Ladies' and Children's Clothes, 330
346. Shoes, 331
347. Stays, 334
Straw Workers.
348. Bleachers and Pressers, 335
349. Braiders, 336
350. Sewers, 337
Renovators.
351. Gentlemen's Wear, 339
352. Ladies' Wear, 340
Gentlemen's Clothing.
353. Army and Navy Uniform, 340
354. Buttons, 340
355. Canes, 342
356. Caps, 342
357. Coats, 345
358. Cravats, 345
359. Hats (Hat Braiders, 349), 345
360. Oil Clothing, 350
361. Pantaloons, 350
362. Regalias, 350
363. Shirts, 350
364. Suspenders, 354
365. Tailoresses, 355
366. Vests, 356
367. =Upholsterers.= 357
368. Beds, 358
369. Carpets, 358
370. Curled Hair Pullers, 359
371. Curtain Trimmings, 359
372. Furniture Goods, 360
373. Mattresses, 360
374. Venetian Blinds, 361
375. Window Shades, 361
Manufacturers of Books, Ink, Paper, and Pencils.
376. Book Folders, 363
377. Book Sewers, 365
378. Card Makers, 367
379. Card Stencillers, 369
380. Cover and Edge Gilders, 370
381. Electrotypers, 370
382. Envelope Makers, 370
383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers, 372
384. Ink, 373
385. Label Cutters, 373
386. Lead Pencils, 374
387. Operatives in Paper Factories, 374
388. Paper Bag Makers, 376
389. Box Makers, 376
390. Marblers, 379
391. Rulers, 379
392. Press Feeders, 380
393. Printers, 380
394. Sealing-Wax Makers, 385
395. Stereotypers, 385
396. Type Rubbers and Setters, 386
397. Wall-Paper Gilders, 387
398. =Chemicals.= 389
399. Baking Powder, 390
400. Bar Soap, 390
401. Blacking, 390
402. Candles, 391
403. Chalk, 392
404. Emery Paper, 392
405. Fancy Soap, 392
406. Fire Works, 392
407. Flavoring Extracts, 393
408. Glue, 394
409. Gunpowder, 394
410. Oils, 394
411. Paints, 394
412. Patent Medicines, 395
413. Pearlash, 395
414. Perfumery, 395
415. Quinine, 397
416. Salt, 397
417. Soda, 399
418. Starch, 399
419. White Lead, 400
420. Whiting, 400
Communicating Mediums between Employers and Others.
421. Assistants in Benevolent Institutions, 400
422. Commissioners of Deeds, 402
423. Housekeepers, 402
424. Keepers of Intelligence Offices, 403
425. Lighthouse Keepers, 405
426. Pawnbrokers, 406
427. Postmistresses, 407
428. Sewing-Machine Instructors, 408
429. Shepherdesses, 409
430. Toll Collectors, 409
Contributors to the Comfort or
Amusement of Others.
431. Bathhouse Attendants, 409
432. Brace and Truss Makers, 410
433. Chiropodists, 411
434. Cuppers and Leechers, 413
435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers, 413
436. Fortune Tellers, 415
437. Guides and Door Attendants, 415
438. Lodging and Boarding House Keepers, 415
439. Makers of Artificial Eyes, 416
440. Limbs, 418
441. Teeth, 418
442. Nurses for the Sick, 419
443. Steamboat and Railroad Newsvenders, 421
444. Street Musicians, 421
445. Tavern Keepers, 422
446. Travelling Companions, 423
Mistresses and Domestics.
447. Mistresses, 423
448. Domestics, 424
449. Chambermaids, 426
450. Cooks, 428
451. Dining-Room Waiters, 429
452. Ladies' Maids, 430
453. Nurses for Children, 430
454. Saloon Attendants, 431
455. Washers, Ironers, and Manglers, 431
Miscellaneous Occupations, and Workers therein.
456. Backgammon-Board Finishers, 433
457. Balloon Makers, 433
458. Billiard-Table Finishers, 434
459. Bill Posters, 434
460. Block Cutters, 434
461. Boatwomen, 435
462. Bone Collectors, 435
463. Bottlers and Labellers, 435
465. Broom Makers, 436
464. Bronzers, 436
466. Canvas and Cotton Bag Makers, 437
467. Car and Carriage Painters, 438
468. Carriage Trimmers, 489
469. Chair Seaters, 440
470. China Menders, 441
471. Cigar Makers, 442
472. Cigar-End Finders, 444
473. Cinder Gatherers, 444
474. Clear Starchers, 444
475. Clock Makers, 444
476. Clothes-Pin Makers, 445
477. Clothes Repairers, 445
478. Cork Assorters and Sole Stitchers, 445
479. Daguerreotype Apparatus, 446
480. Feather Dressers, 447
481. Flag Makers, 447
482. Furniture Painters, 448
483. Gilders of Mirror Frames, 449
484. Globe Makers, 450
485. Hobby-Horse Finishers, 450
486. Horse Coverings, 451
487. House Painters, 452
488. Japanners, 452
489. Knitters, 454
490. Lace Bleachers, 457
491. Lacquerers, 458
492. Life Preservers, 458
493. Lucifer Matches, 458
494. Mat Makers, 460
495. Manufacturers of Musical Instruments, 460
Melodeons and Organs, 461
Pianos, 462
Seraphines, 463
496. Musical-String Makers, 463
497. Netters, 464
498. Oakum Pickers, 464
499. Paper Hangers, 465
500. Polishers, 465
501. Pin Finders, 465
502. Rag Cutters, 465
503. Rag Gatherers, 466
504. Rope and Twine Makers, 468
505. Sail and Awning Makers, 470
506. Shoe-Peg Makers, 470
507. Shroud Makers, 470
508. Sign Painters, 471
509. Snuff Packers, 472
510. Stencil Makers, 473
511. Street Sweepers, 473
512. Tip Gilders, 473
513. Tobacco Strippers, 474
514. Toy Makers, 475
515. Varnishers and Varnish Makers, 476
516. Water Carriers, 476
Employments for the Afflicted.
517. Blind Women, 477
518. Deaf Mutes, 477
519. The Lame, 477
Unusual Employments.
520. United States, 477
521. England, 478
522. France, 481
523. Other Countries, 482
Minor Employments.
524. United States, 484
525. England, 484
526. France, 485
527. =Occupations in which no Women are Engaged.= 486
528. None in the United States, 486
529. Very few, 486
530. OPENINGS IN THE SOUTH FOR CERTAIN branches of business, 487
531. PRICE OF BOARD FOR WORKWOMEN, AND REMARKS OF EMPLOYERS, 488
532. NUMBER OF WORK HOURS, 489
532. EXTRACTS FROM CENSUS REPORT OF 1860, in advance of
publication, 490
=Industrial Statistics of Paris.=
France, in 1848, 492
THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN.
PROFESSIONAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS.
=1. Amanuenses.= Amanuenses are employed to write from dictation,
generally by authors. Prescott, who was nearly blind for several years,
employed one or more. Editors whose papers have an extensive
circulation, sometimes require the services of an amanuensis. Female
secretaries, or writers out of books, were not unusual in Rome.
"Origen," says Eusebius, "had not only young men, but young women to
transcribe his works, which they did with peculiar neatness." Some
persons in London (whose employment, perhaps, scarcely brings them under
this title, yet we know not where else to place them) make it a business
to write letters for beggars, for which they are paid a small sum by
each applicant. Amanuenses are usually employed by the week, month, or
year. Some education is of course necessary, and will doubtless
influence their pay. Experience increases their value still more; and
those who have to exercise their brains, are of course best paid. I have
been told by competent authority, that amanuenses are usually paid
according to agreement; that authors of distinction can afford to pay a
good price, and that the most common salary is $600.
=2. Astronomers.= Maria Cunitz is mentioned as an astronomer of the
seventeenth century in Germany. Miss Caroline Herschel discovered two
moons and several comets. Miss Maria Mitchell, of Nantucket, Mass.,
discovered a new planet, and received, in consequence, a medal from the
King of Denmark. She formerly observed for the Coast Survey, but was not
officially recognized. She computes for the _Nautical Almanac_. She
writes: "I know of no lady astronomers who are practical observers. Very
good works have been written on the subject by women. An observing room
is never warmed by a fire; and as a small part, at least, of the roof
must be opened to the air, the exposure is according to the weather, as
the observations must be made in clear evenings. I do not consider the
danger to the health great. I know of no way in which astronomical
observations can be made to pay women. They could, without doubt, make
better observers than men, with the same amount of practice. The same
delicacy of touch and of perception that makes them good at the needle,
would make them efficient in the delicate manipulations of the
micrometer. But I know of no man well paid as an observer only. There
are always volunteer candidates in this department of an observatory.
Women can make as good computations as men, and do their work more
neatly; but here, also, the field is occupied by men, although, I think,
never as volunteers without pay. I have no doubt many of the
computations professedly made by men, are really the work of women
employed as assistants. This has always been the case in the long and
tedious computations made for astronomical objects in the early efforts
of the science. My own observatory is wholly a private affair, and
supported entirely by my own means, which are my daily earnings as
computer to the _Nautical Almanac_. I employ no assistant." I am happy
to say Miss Mitchell receives the same salary for the observations and
reckonings of the _Nautical Almanac_ that would be given to a man. In
1856, at the Smithsonian Institute, a paper was read by Professor Foote,
on the heat of the sun's rays; after which a paper by Mrs. Foote was
read by Professor Henry, giving an account of experiments made by
herself on the same subject. Miss Harriet Bouvier (now Mrs. Peterson)
has written a very good work on astronomy for schools. Mrs. Somerville,
a distinguished astronomer of England, has added much information to the
science by her discoveries. "Miss Anne Sheepshanks, sister to the late
astronomer, has been elected a fellow of the Astronomical Society."
=3. Authors.= Many superior works of fiction have been written by ladies
of America, some of which have been translated into the languages of
Europe and introduced into those countries. Many of our fair
countrywomen have distinguished themselves by their poetical effusions,
and quite a number have published their poems in book form. Mrs. Everett
Green, author of the "Lives of the Princesses of England," is now
employed by the English Government upon state papers. Research into
historical data, and the nice, careful arrangement of details, are well
fitted to the patience of woman. Several years ago, Queen Victoria
granted to Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Jamieson each $1,000 a year as pensions.
These are not by any means the only instances of her liberality to
literary women. During the year ending January, 1860, she granted
pensions to thirteen ladies, either for literary merit of their own or
that of some relative. The French Academy awarded to Madame Louisa
Collet, in 1851, the prize of $1,000 for poetry; also one to Mlle.
Ernestine Druet, a governess in a school at Paris. Mlle. Royer received
the prize, a short time ago, from the University of Lausanne, for a
philosophical essay. The labor of authors is not rewarded as well as
other kinds of intellectual labor of the same extent: for instance, a
physician or lawyer, with the same abilities, amount of learning, and
application, would derive a greater reward pecuniarily. In the United
States an author can retain the profits of his work a certain number of
years, being at liberty to make any arrangement with his publisher he
sees proper. In France and Russia he possesses the profits arising from
the sale of his work during his life, and his heirs receive them during
twenty years. The following is an extract from H. C. Carey's article on
the Rewards of Authorship: "Mr. Irving stands, I imagine, at the head of
living authors for the amount received for his books. The sums paid to
the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously great; but what has
been their extent, I have no means of ascertaining. Mr. Mitchell, the
geographer, has realized a handsome fortune from his school books.
Professor Davies is understood to have received more than $50,000 from
the series published by him. The Abbotts, Emerson, and numerous other
authors engaged in the preparation of books for young persons and
schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, has
received more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French series
of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upward of $20,000. The school geography of
Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to its author. A
single medical book, of one octavo volume, is understood to have
produced its authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given
its author probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books must
have been very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already
yielded her from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps as much more. Mr.
Headley is stated to have received about $40,000; and the few books of
Ik Marvel have yielded him about $20,000. A single one, 'The Reveries of
a Bachelor,' produced $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has
been very largely paid. Miss Leslie's cookery and recipe books have paid
her $12,000. Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for
the copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received
not less than $6,000 for the duodecimo volume published but six months
since. Mr. Prescott was stated, several years since, to have received
$90,000 from his books, and I have never seen it contradicted. According
to the rate of compensation generally understood to be received by Mr.
Bancroft, the present sale of each volume yields him more than $15,000,
and he has the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge
Story died, as has been stated, in the annual receipt of more than
$8,000, and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. Mr.
Webster's works in three years can scarcely have paid less than $25,000.
Kent's 'Commentaries' are understood to have yielded to their author and
his heirs more than $120,000; and if we add to this, for the remainder
of the period, only one half of this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or
$45,000 as the compensation for a single octavo volume--a reward for
literary labor unexampled in history." It is necessary that the reader,
in considering the figures given, remember that the reputation of an
author has much to do with the price paid by a publisher for
manuscripts. The number of women authors is much greater than one
unacquainted with the statistics in regard to the subject would suppose.
"In 1847 Count Leopold Feni died at Padua, leaving a library entirely
composed of works written by women in various languages, the number of
volumes amounting to nearly thirty-two thousand. Whether the English and
American lady writers were included in his list we do not know, but we
wish some woman of taste and fortune, in our country, would make a
similar collection." It is said that two thirds of the writers in
_Chambers' Edinburgh Journal_ are women. Some of the writers of our best
periodicals are women. The success of women in works of fiction is
unquestioned. This class of books requires less time, less study, and
less money, and rewards the authors pecuniarily better than any other
kind of work, considering, of course, the comparatively small amount of
application required. As the females of our land become more generally
educated, and have more leisure for the cultivation of their minds, no
doubt more attention will be devoted to literary effort. The easy,
natural manner of female authors is a marked feature. Different motives
prompt to authorship--love of fame, wealth, influence, and a desire to
do good. Persons are generally prompted to write by feeling that they
know more of some particular subject than most people, or something
entirely unknown or unthought of by any one save themselves. Some
collect and arrange information obtained from books, observation, or
experience, or all combined. E. Hazen says: "The indispensable
qualifications to make a writer are--a talent for literary composition,
an accurate knowledge of language, and an acquaintance with the subject
to be treated." Good health and freedom from care are necessary for one
who would give him or herself up to the severities of mental labor. Dr.
Wynne says: "With him whose occupation is either intellectual or
sedentary, or both, the nervous energy necessary to digest food is
already abstracted by the operations of the mind; and the meal taken
under the circumstances is but partially digested and appropriated to
the use of the body. The remainder acts as an irritant, and, if the
practice be persevered in, terminates in dyspepsia, followed by that
Protean train of nervous diseases which destroys the equanimity of mind,
and finally terminates the life of so many of our most efficient and
worthy business men, at the very time when their services are most
valuable to their families and the community. The cares of business
should be dismissed with the termination of the hours devoted to their
pursuits, and their place supplied by those exercises or amusements
which bring with them cheerfulness and exhilaration." Of all studies,
the quiet and contemplative kind are most favorable to long life. Those
of an exciting nature produce a reaction, sometimes, of the physical as
well as intellectual powers.
=5. Bible Readers.= An incalculable amount of good has been accomplished
by this class of persons. The originator is Mrs. Raynard, the L. N. R.
of the "Missing Link," "The Book and its Story," &c., who lived in
London. "One hundred ladies have joined her as managers and
superintendents. The ladies each select from among the uneducated class
the best women they can find, and send them out to read Bibles and sell
them to their own class. They have now two hundred such Bible women in
England, Ireland, Scotland, and France, and they are meeting with
unheard-of success. Mrs. Raynard told me they made soup for the poor in
winter, and sold it to them very low, and in such a way that the poorest
could have his bowlful for some trifling service; and while one is
serving the soup, others serve them with portions of God's word. Then
the lady superintendents have tea meetings without number, and sewing
meetings, and clothing meetings. Beside, the ladies must first instruct
their readers every week or day in the Scriptures, in teaching, in
meekness, in manner, in helping the sick, and sympathizing with all
suffering, and, above all, teach them to lean only on God. They must
also pay the Bible women, who give up their time to this work, and keep
an account with each one. These lady readers or superintendents in
England publish a monthly of their own, conducted by dear Mrs. Raynard,
so that they can all communicate with one another; and God sends them
funds to the amount of $35,000 the year." A lady of Baltimore writes me:
"The Maryland Bible Society employs three paid Bible readers--all
women--at eight dollars per month each. These are purposely selected
from the poorest class of pious women, because it is thought that
persons of that class have readier access to the homes and hearts of the
poor, beside the aid it affords to honest poverty. Independently of this
Bible effort, another has originated from the London charity, unfolded
in the 'Missing Link.'" The lady of Baltimore (Miss W.) wrote from the
Maryland Bible, &c., through the _Word Witness_: "Just one year ago, I
engaged a pious poor woman, at two dollars per week, to labor among the
destitute, vicious poor--a class that could not be reached by ordinary
methods of voluntary effort, dwelling in localities that ladies might
not safely visit. The work was to humanize these people; to wash and
clothe the children, and put them in Sabbath and public schools; to read
and pray, and teach their mothers; and to relieve personal suffering.
She has done a good work. Another woman has been employed in South
Baltimore, in the same calling. Recently, the ladies of the First
Presbyterian Church have formed a union, and raised the salary of one of
these female colportors, and thus the experiment promises to expand
itself into a permanent benevolent organization. I may say that the plan
adopted, if vigorously and efficiently carried out, would rid our
crowded alleys of half the suffering and nearly all the vices and
impositions that now render them intolerable to the refined. On
Christmas, I assisted to serve up a supper, provided by a good lady for
the poorest of the poor. It was given in the district, and at the house
of a widow, and under the care of our colportors. There were forty-eight
women and children present, not ragged and hopeless, as they were one
year ago, but tidy and bright, looking hopefully to the future, as
though they felt there is kindness in the world. It was a pleasant sight
to witness." The New York Female Auxiliary Bible Society now employs
thirteen Bible readers. A brief but interesting account is given of them
in the last report of that society, from which we copy: "From the
reports of the Bible readers for only a part of the year, we find that
they have paid more than seven thousand visits, gathered more than two
hundred children into the Sunday school, sold and distributed Bibles,
induced many to attend church, ministered to the wants of the destitute,
established sewing schools, and, in more ways than we can enumerate,
have gone about doing good." A Bible reader is now employed in
Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Bible Society.
=4. Bankers and Bankers' Clerks.= Before the existence of savings banks,
the poor had no safe place of deposit, where they could receive
interest, and whence they could withdraw their deposits at pleasure. If
they loaned their money, there was no certainty of recovering it. If
they tried to accumulate by saving what they had, it was not always
secure from depredation. Consequently they were tempted to spend any
surplus money they had, and often no forethought of the future could
save them from anxiety and misery. Now, by industry and perseverance,
they are enabled to accumulate something for contingencies--to provide
against want, sickness, old age, and slackness of employment. The idea
of a savings bank was originated by a woman--Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield.
It is a most worthy institution, and deserving of support and patronage.
Holding office in a bank is a very responsible situation. The numerous
men defaulters that have disgraced themselves in the last few years, are
sufficient proof that the temptation to appropriate unjustly is very
great. It requires men and women of fixed principle, whose honor is
dearer to them than life itself. We think women could very well manage
savings banks. They could at any rate attend in the female department,
and in some parts of Europe do. We find in the census of Great Britain
two female bankers reported. In the _Englishwoman's Journal_ we read:
"At St. Malo, a few years ago, the wife of a rich banker, during his
absence, took her place at his desk amid the numerous clerks, received
checks, and gave to the writer of this article French money in return.
They are frequently found in offices, and often mainly conduct a
husband's or a father's business." One of the Mrs. Rothschild, I have
been told, even now spends two or three hours every day in her husband's
banking house. Mrs. Mary Somerville says: "Three of the most beneficial
systems of modern times are due to the benevolence of English
ladies--the improvement of prison discipline, savings banks, and banks
for lending small sums to the poor." Not many years ago a banking house
was conducted by a lady in Nashville, Tenn. She was a widow, but had
during her first husband's life attended to some of the duties of the
bank, and accompanied her husband when he visited New York on business.
She is now the wife of one of the late candidates for the highest office
in this nation--that of chief magistrate. A lady was employed in a
savings bank in Boston a few years back. A gentleman who has been
cashier in a bank for many years writes me: "I have no doubt that women
might be qualified for bank and brokers' clerks as well as men. In the
offices of cashier and teller, they would have to come in contact with
so many rough characters, I doubt whether it would do. I do not know the
salaries paid in Europe, either in stores, shops, banks, or brokers'
offices, but suppose it varies as it does in this country, according to
the size of the city, the bank or broker's capital, the qualifications
and character, and the situations the persons occupy. The cashier
receives more than the teller; the teller often more than the clerk, and
the clerks are graded. In large banks in the city of New York, the
cashiers get from $4,000 to $6,000 per annum, while in the country banks
they scarcely get half that amount. In the city their situations are
very laborious, and very responsible, and many of them have been
twenty-five or thirty years in the business before they got to be
cashiers. Tellers receive in large cities from $2,500 to $3,000, and in
small places from $1,200 to $2,000. Clerks get in New York banks from
$600 to $3,000, taking the whole range from boys of seventeen to men of
sixty with families and great experience. In smaller towns they receive
from $300 to $2,500, taking the same range, many of them getting not
more than $1,500 at any time during their lives. In stores and shops the
salaries are much less, say not much over one half in very many
instances; but persons in stores and shops have this advantage over bank
clerks: when they learn the business, they are often taken into
partnership with the proprietor, or they may set up in a similar
business for themselves. But bank clerks have no such prospects before
them. There may be salaries, in a few instances, over those mentioned,
but very seldom; and on the other hand, some young men are placed in
business sometimes without any remuneration for the first year. I would
also state that the situation of bank clerk, although very much sought
for, is certainly not desirable, as $1,200 or $1,500 will not support a
family in any city of the United States, without the most rigid economy;
and then they have little or nothing to lay up for a rainy day. Many
bank clerks in this city are no better off now than they were twenty
years ago, though they have lived poorly and economized all the time.
So, in some respects, the store clerk or salesman has the advantage. One
reason why young men prefer becoming bank clerks to mercantile clerks
is, that they have more time for themselves. Say, they commence by seven
o'clock in a store, and nine at bank; they get through by two or three
o'clock in bank, and they have to work until night in a store.'
=6. Brokers.= This is a business in which very few, if any, women engage
without the aid of the other sex. We are not aware that any women are
stock brokers, exchange brokers, or insurance brokers. We suppose women
could not very well conduct the business without having to mix
promiscuously with men on the street, and stop and talk with them in the
most public places; and the delicacy of woman would forbid that. But the
wife, the sister, or daughter of a broker might perhaps conduct the
indoor business of the house, or keep the books at least. In Paris,
where women are extensively employed in various departments of business,
it would, perhaps, be more practicable for a woman to carry on the
business than in this country. There are respects in which women of
well-disciplined minds would be well suited for the vocation: they are
their observance of order and method, and their close attention to
details.
=7. Colonizationists.= This is a business that would never have entered
our minds for women to engage in, had it not been for the course pursued
by Caroline Chisholm. Says the author of "Women and Work:" "Ask the
emigrants who went out to Australia year after year, under the careful
and wise system of Caroline Chisholm's colonization, how women can
organize, and what professions they should fill. I think they would
answer: As organizers of colonies, promoters of emigration, secretaries
to colonies, &c." Many a husband and wife may thank her for the comforts
of home life. Some years ago, Mrs. Farnum proposed taking from New York
a shipload of women to California. The matter was laughed at and passed
by; but if we may believe the reports that came from California of
miners wanting wives, perhaps it would not have been a bad plan to have
taken out a supply (in case they could have been had). In the early
history of Virginia, women were brought over from England as wives for
the men. "A society exists in England for the promotion of female
emigration to Australia. Under the auspices of this society, about
eleven hundred women, mostly distressed needlewomen, of respectable
character, have been sent to Australia, where they find employment, and,
we presume, the most of them, husbands."
=8. Colportors.= "This is an important field of missionary labor in our
own land, where women might be employed to great advantage--namely, as
colportors, or distributors of tracts and books. The Boards of
Publication now employ men only, whose services must be paid at a much
higher rate than women would require. There are widows who need this
employment for support, and single women who need employment for health,
and many women would like this way of doing good. In every place, women
would be found suitable and willing to undertake this profession. It is
one exactly suited to them. It enters into their domestic circle of
feelings and pursuits; and honorable women, not a few, would be found
ready to engage in the work. A number of men would be needed to
penetrate the wild places of our land; but throughout all the settled
portions, women would be found the most effective agents. By this
arrangement, a double gain would be secured. The talents of pious women,
now allowed to be wasted on trifles, would be employed in the cause of
moral improvement; and those men who now give up their time, often at a
great pecuniary sacrifice, to the colportor's duty, would be at liberty
to enter into other pursuits more beneficial to themselves and to
society." Are there none among the gentler sex consecrated to the work
of promoting the glory of God and the good of their fellow beings? Are
none of those that owe all their privileges and blessings to the Bible,
willing to make a sacrifice for its extension? Are all so selfish, that
the desire of personal gratification is the ruling, the only object for
which they live? a display in dress and style of living, the acquisition
of property, or notoriety? Are these the only objects of woman's
exertions? No: most women are too conscientious and unselfish to live
for such a purpose. There are many that would gladly do what they could,
but they have no definite plan in view. They know not exactly how to
shape their course. If they were once started, they would neither lag
nor faint in the race. Let such become colportors, deaconesses,
physicians, painters, engravers, whatever best accords with their
inclinations and abilities. Let them go forward. The mist will gradually
disappear, the way be made clear, and they followed by others. It is
best for one of strength and vigor to engage in the labors of a
colportor. Walking from house to house all day is very fatiguing to
persons not accustomed to being much on their feet. It requires a person
that has at heart the good of her fellow beings, and is willing to
converse with all classes and ages. It calls for a person of piety, and
one of tact and judgment.
=9. Copyists.= Law copying is done by young women in charge of the
society in London for promoting the employment of women. Miss Rye, who
is superintendent of the class, says: "Of course it took the writers
some weeks to unlearn the usual feminine spider-legged fashion of
inditing; some weeks more to decipher the solicitors' signs,
contractions, and technical terms. We dare not pretend, in defending the
opening of this trade to women, that there is here, as in printing, a
deficiency of workers, a cry among the masters for more; or that woman's
work here, as in the telegraph offices, is intrinsically more valuable
than that of the other sex." In France, lawyers often employ women to
copy for them, and a number of women are employed by the French
Government to write. At Washington, ladies have been employed to copy,
not only for congressmen as individuals, but to copy government
documents; and received the same salaries as men. A friend told me many
ladies are thus employed at Washington. She knows two who each receive
salaries of $1,200 per annum. Miss N. says some ladies in Washington
make from $500 to $600 a winter, copying speeches and other documents
for members of Congress. She knew a lady who wrote all the year at a
salary of $1,200. "In Cincinnati, some lawyers employ women as copyists,
when the work can be sent from the office." Ladies employed by lawyers
must write a very clear, round, legible hand; if any mistake is made,
the writer must copy the manuscript anew. A young lady told me she used
to write for a lawyer, and received three cents for every hundred words.
One day she earned two dollars and a half. She wrote in the office of
the lawyer. Many ladies, she says, are so employed in New York. Mrs. N.,
copyist, charges twelve and a half cents a page of foolscap, for
copying, estimating her time at nine cents an hour. She writes mostly
letters in English for foreigners, and receives twenty-five cents a
letter, usually of one page and a half. She is very careful, she says,
never to divulge the business of the individual for whom she writes--a
something very essential. Mrs. Blunt used to earn in Washington $700 or
$800 a year for copying. One copyist charged $5 per week if she wrote at
home, and $6 if away from home. I find that in the Western cities the
prices for copying vary from eight cents to thirty-one cents a page.
Ladies are occasionally employed at the Smithsonian Institute for
copying, and are paid 5 cents per 100 words. I believe in New York a
very common price for copying is 4 cents per 100 words. Miss W., an
English lady, copied music about three years ago, and sent it to London
to be sold. She often earned $12 a week.
=10. Deaconesses.= The order of deaconess was instituted at the same
time as that of deacon, and corresponds in duty with that office. We
read of deaconesses in the last chapter of Romans, Phoebe, Priscilla,
Aquila, &c. The establishment of institutions for deaconesses affords a
home to the unmarried women of our land, and widows without children,
and furnishes them with such work as their health and previous
employments fit them for. It carries out the principle, "Unity is
strength." It is founded on that true spring of success--sympathy
arising from similarity of circumstances and sameness of employment.
Ministering to the sick and poor is so well adapted to women, that their
time might be pleasantly as well as profitably spent. The desire in
women to be employed is thus gratified, and the good of others as well
as themselves thereby promoted. Those received as members would find it
most harmonious to be of the same religion, and they should be willing
to come under the regulations of the institution. Such an institution
would have to be conducted by a person of discretion, piety, and wisdom.
The members usually dress in uniform. Comfortable clothing is always
furnished, boarding of course being provided in the establishment. The
duties of deaconess in Protestant institutions are the same as those of
sisters of charity in nunneries and convents. The institutions are
usually commenced by public or private contributions, and some by both.
When once firmly established, the members might receive a fair
compensation for their services from the sick that are able and willing
to pay. It might go to the support of the institution, and those who saw
proper to devote themselves to teaching might throw their profits into
the general fund. But such institutions should be secured on such a firm
basis that those women who joined the order would ever be certain of a
home, and of a kind and careful attendance in sickness and old age. If
institutions are established in various parts of the United States, an
inmate of one, if tired of remaining at that, might, by request, and
after consideration by the principal, or a board of trustees, be
permitted to remove to another. There are a number of institutions in
Europe for preparing women for the duties of deaconess. The first
institution of modern times was established by Pastor Fliedner, at
Kaiserwerth, Germany. "It has for its object the training of
deaconesses--that is, female students to take charge of the sick and the
poor, and superintend hospitals, infant and industrial schools, and, in
short, to be the educators and preservers of humanity." An association
has lately been formed in London of this order. Its object "is the
diffusion of sanitary knowledge and promotion of physical training." "In
Russia, the system for the practical training of deaconesses has spread
in all directions. In Paris, Strasbourg, Echallens (in Switzerland),
Utrecht, and England, the institution exists." Kings have not thought it
beneath them to assist in the support of such institutions. Miss Bremer
mentions several going to Jerusalem to take charge of a hospital, which
the King of Prussia founded at an expense of $50,000. We find two or
three such institutions exist in the United States--one in New York,
another in Pittsburg, and one in an incipient state in Baltimore. The
one in New York is conducted by Sisters of the Holy Communion
(Episcopalians). Five of them make their home at St. Luke's Hospital.
One or two of the number are engaged in a parochial school connected
with Dr. Muhlenberg's church. Those of the hospital nurse the sick
during the day. They employ nurses to do the night nursing, except in
very serious cases that require especial attention. Their dress is
simple, black, with white collars and undersleeves, and, when in full
dress, a Swiss muslin cap. They do not take vows like the nuns of the
Roman Catholic church, nor do they give up all their property, but make
a quarterly payment, according to their means. One devotes herself to
the measuring out and dispensing of medicine. There is a hospital in
Pittsburg in charge of some deaconesses from Kaiserwerth. They belong to
the Evangelical Lutheran church. The institution was commenced by the
Rev. W. A. Passavant, but is now incorporated by the State, and the
"members are empowered to engage in all works of mercy, such as the care
of the poor, sick, fatherless, insane, and the education of the ignorant
and the orphan. The sisters live in community--dress simply, and
generally alike, so as to avoid any unnecessary distinction and useless
expenses. Applicants for admission go first for a month merely as
visitors, and pay their own expenses going and returning. If both
parties approve, they then enter on probation for three months, and
afterward for nine months, or longer, as the institution may deem best.
Then, if their purpose is still the same, they are received by a vote,
according to the charter, as members. It is distinctly understood, that
if a change in their views and purposes, or nearer or family duties
require them to leave after this, they are at perfect liberty to do so,
but always, only, after giving the institution a due notice of three
months, unless such a notification is impossible from the circumstances
of the case. Those who are preparing for the work among the sick learn
the duties of an apothecary. All the sisters know how to mix medicines."
Miss E. Blackwell says: "In the Catholic church the wants and talents of
all classes are met. Single wealthy women become nuns, and so devote
their riches and talents and time to good works. They associate with the
most refined and best educated of both sexes. Poor single women find a
home and social pleasures. It requires practical business habits to
become even a successful sister of charity. They should enter with an
active interest and zest into the duties of every-day life. These orders
can never succeed well among Protestants, particularly until female
physicians are introduced." The Minister of the Interior, writing from
Italy to Mrs. Jameson, says: "Not only have we experienced the advantage
of employing the sisters of charity in the prisons, in the supervision
of the details, in distributing food, preparing medicines, and nursing
the sick in the infirmaries; but we find that the influence of these
ladies on the minds of the prisoners, when recovering from sickness, has
been productive of the greatest benefit, as leading to permanent reform
in many cases, and a better frame of mind always: for this reason, among
others, we have given them every encouragement." Many young ladies of
education, wealth, and influence would, on becoming pious, or when
disappointed in their hopes and aspirations, be likely to join such
societies. At such times, many are willing to give themselves up
entirely to works of active benevolence. Such a life, of course,
involves some self-denials. Bishop Potter warmly advocated the
introduction of such orders, and delivered an address in favor of it.
The Bishop of Exeter recommended the establishment of such orders in
England, and an institution for deaconesses has been opened in London.
=11. Dentists.= Some time ago, in New York, a few ladies prepared
themselves for the practice of dentistry. We believe only one really
practised, and she but a short time. We find her name in a New York
directory as a dentist. It would be more agreeable to most ladies to
have their teeth cleaned and plugged by a lady. They would not feel the
same hesitancy in going alone at any time to a dentist of their own sex.
Extracting teeth would require more nerve and strength than most ladies
possess. Yet, if a woman has nerves sufficiently firm, and ability to
control her sympathies, she may succeed. There are dental schools in
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. A professor in the dental
school at Philadelphia writes: "I would suggest that if any ladies
desire to become efficient practitioners in some branches of dentistry,
it would be better for them to apply to a reputable practitioner, and
with time and attention become thoroughly familiar with those branches.
In doing so they will prove to the world their capability, and the rest
in time will follow. Dentistry has been humorously called a 'woman's
profession.'" "There is nothing even in the surgical part of dentistry,
to which she is not adapted. In this profession she will have a fair
opportunity to foil her enemies and accusers; and her children's _teeth_
would not be set on edge without the possibility of instant relief.
There is no mystery in the dental structure, which the turnkey, in her
magic hand, could not _unlock_; and no terrible pain in tooth
extraction, which her mystic power could not exceedingly mitigate." Most
profit arising to dentists is from making and inserting artificial
teeth. It is a lucrative business, when properly understood, and one
which affords constant employment.
=12. Editresses.= The most powerful instrument for disseminating general
knowledge in the United States is the newspaper press. It does a great
deal for promoting a love of letters; and the cheapness of the papers is
such as to render them accessible to almost every one. The literature of
the day penetrates the most remote corner of our country. Obscure,
indeed, is the place that knows not the printer's power. Even in
California, more than a year ago, there were published 81 newspapers. In
New York city alone were published 154 newspapers, and 114 magazines.
But this is not strange when we remember that no less than eighty
languages are spoken there. A newspaper states that there are printed in
Austria 10 newspapers, 14 in Africa, 24 in Spain, 20 in Portugal, 30 in
Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in Denmark, 90 in Russia and Poland, 320 in
other German States, 500 in Great Britain, and 1,800 in the United
States. Taking merely newspaper and magazine literature into
consideration, does not our republic offer inducements to intellectual
culture? Does she not reward talent and encourage industry? Yes. Her
general diffusion of knowledge and the learned men of her press give a
positive reply. The dignity of man should be elevated, his affections
purified, and his pursuits ennobled by the mighty influence of the
press. Editors should live as ministers to the welfare of humanity. The
aspiring character of our people and their thirst for knowledge will
long make a heavy demand on the talent and taste of those who wield the
editor's pen. There are several publications in the United States
conducted exclusively by ladies; some in which the assistant editors are
ladies; and a small number devoted to the interests of women alone.
Several ladies have entered the editorial corps within the last few
years. The Harpers, in their Magazine, state there are about six hundred
literary and miscellaneous periodicals published in this country. If all
the labor, as type setting, binding, &c., was done by women, what a
fortunate thing it would be for many of the poor! I have been told that
when an article is sent to a newspaper, and is known to have come from
the brain and the pen of a woman, ten to one, her compensation will be
smaller for it, and in many cases it will be rejected. There are a few
exceptions. Fanny Fern, for instance, receives, we have seen it stated,
at the rate of $100 a column from Mr. Bonner for a contribution to the
_Ledger_. The sum total he will pay her for the amount he has engaged
will be $6,000. Mrs. B. receives $600 for editing a monthly paper. Some
time back contributors to the _Independent_ were paid $3 a column, and
to the New York _Observer_ at the same rate. Mr. L. told me that a man
is paid $20 a week for making out an index for the New York _Tribune_,
which could be done by any lady with a cultivated and well disciplined
mind. The man that was employed not long since had been a wood engraver,
and had received no special training for his duties in the _Tribune_
office. The papers to be sent away are directed by machinery, which a
lady could attend. Some one writes me the qualifications for his
business are strength of mind and body. We think there is generally a
heavy draft on either one or the other in every occupation successfully
pursued, and in some on both. Émile Girardin was a French editress that
died recently. Mrs. Johnson, of Edinburgh, was for years editress of the
Inverness _Courier_, which was published in her husband's name. Miss
Parkes conducts the _Englishwoman's Journal_. Mrs. Swisshelm edited the
Pittsburg _Visitor_ with much vigor and ability. Mrs. Virginia L. French
has charge of the literary department of a paper issued in Nashville,
Tenn. Miss McDowell might have succeeded with the _Woman's Advocate_, if
her noble efforts had been appreciated as they deserved.
=13. Government Officers.= "Many Government offices could be creditably
filled by intelligent and experienced women. Miss Wallace and Miss
Thomas were employed as computers on the Coast Survey at Washington in
1854, with salaries each of $480, with perquisites making it $600. A man
to do the same work would probably receive twice as much." "Mrs. Miller,
at one time, was engaged in making observations of the weather--the
thermometer, barometer, direction of winds, quantity of rain, &c., in
which she was assisted by another person appointed by a society of which
both sexes were members." Computations of this kind could be made at
home. Mr. Blodgett, who had charge of the Smithsonian Institute in 1854,
wrote: "The discussion of observations in physical science,
meteorological observations particularly, has never been undertaken in a
general manner until attempted in this department of the Smithsonian
Institute, and I have found that accuracy and despatch require
well-trained minds of great endurance. Only the best minds can
successfully undertake scientific calculations and computations; and
these must possess a sort of half masculine strength and endurance." Yet
we would not offer this as a discouragement. If it has been done, it can
be done again. "During Mr. Fillmore's administration, two women wrote
for the Treasury Department at Washington, at salaries of twelve and
fifteen hundred a year." Several ladies are employed in different parts
of the United States for copying by registers of deeds; but the majority
are relatives of the registers. In some towns of the East, however,
other ladies than relatives are employed, who receive $1 per day for
their services. Miss Olive Rose has performed the duties of the register
of deeds, at Thomaston, Maine. She writes: "I was officially notified of
the election, required to give bonds, &c. I am unable to state the exact
amount of salary, as it is regulated by whatever business is done in the
office. Perhaps it may average between $300 and $400 yearly." The
Duchess of Leuchtenberg was elected to preside over the Imperial Academy
of Science, in Russia, a few years ago. An acquaintance told me that in
the warehouses at the London docks, silks, shawls, and such goods are
exposed for sale, and many ladies go down in their carriages and
purchase. If any female is suspected of concealing on her person goods
that she has appropriated in the warehouse, the watchmen who guard the
place remark they would like to detain her for a few minutes, and convey
her to a room, where a woman is in attendance to search her. The present
collector of customs at Philadelphia writes: "The only instance of
employment of women in connection with the custom house here has been,
while Liverpool steamers were coming to this port, some years ago, when
one or two were employed to search female emigrants, to prevent
smuggling on their persons. The employment was only for a day or two at
a time, and is now discontinued." Some time ago it was feared that large
quantities of precious stones and laces were concealed on the persons of
some women, and so smuggled into New York. Consequently "two American
female searchers were inaugurated in the revenue service as aids. They
each receive $500 per annum, and are paid by the month. Men receive
$1,095 (or $3 per day) for similar services. The qualifications needed
are intelligence, tact, and integrity. They spend but one or two hours
on the arrival of each steamer or passenger received from abroad." I
think, in European countries, female police, who examine the persons and
passports of women, receive the same salaries as men.
=14. Lawyers.= We cannot question the right of woman to plead at the
bar, but we doubt whether it would be for her good. She might study law,
to discipline her mind and to store it with useful information. She
might profitably spend, in that way, time which would otherwise be
devoted to music, painting, or the languages. But the noisy scenes now
witnessed in a court room are scarcely compatible with the reserve,
quietude, and gentleness that characterize a woman of refinement.
Theodore Parker said: "As yet, I believe, no woman acts as a lawyer; but
I see no reason why the profession of law might not be followed by women
as well as men. He must be rather an uncommon lawyer who thinks no
feminine head could compete with him. Most lawyers that I have known are
rather mechanics at law than attorneys or scholars at law; and, in the
mechanical part, woman could do as well as man--could be as good a
conveyancer, could follow precedents as carefully, and copy forms as
nicely. I think her presence would mend the manners of the court--of the
bench, not less than of the bar." A lady lawyer would not be without a
precedent, for we read from a note in "Women Artists:" "Christina Pisani
wrote a work which was published in Paris, 1498. It gives an account of
the learned and famous Novella, the daughter of a professor of the law
in the university of Bologna. She devoted herself to the same studies,
and was distinguished for her scholarship. She conducted her father's
cases; and, having as much beauty as learning, was wont to appear in
court veiled." We suppose this is the same young lady of whom we read
elsewhere: "At twenty-six she took the degree of doctor of laws, and
began publicly to expound the laws of Justinian. At thirty she was
elevated to a professor's chair, and taught the law to a crowd of
scholars from all nations. Others of her sex have since filled
professors' chairs in Bologna." While we would not encourage women to
act publicly as counsellors at law, we would claim for them the
privilege of acting as attorneys. Writing out deeds, mortgages, wills,
and indentures, would be a pleasant occupation for such women as are
qualified and fond of sedentary life. We know that the hearts of most
women would prompt them to relieve the poor and oppressed: but might
they not do it in some other way as efficiently as by pleading at the
bar? If the weak seek their aid, let them bestow the benefit of their
legal lore. If the helpless seek their protection, let them bring their
information and counsel to bear upon the case, but not by public
speaking. By personal effort, or by applying to the good of the other
sex, they may accomplish much. If a woman involve herself in the
intricacies of law, may she not lose those tender traits that endear her
to the other sex, and in time discard those graces that render her
gentle and lovely at home? The profession of the law is one suited to
the inclinations, nature, and taste of but very few women. But if a lady
will practise law, she will need great clearness of mind, a good insight
into the motives of others, fearlessness in expressing her convictions
of right, and ability in refraining from saying more than she should.
=15. Lecturers.= Lecturing is addressing people through the sense of
hearing; writing is addressing them through the sense of sight. An
individual can address a larger number by the latter plan than the
former. Many people that would not devote the time, trouble, and expense
to investigate books, will give their twenty-five cents to hear a
lecture on a given subject. Rev. Mr. Higginson says: "We forget that
wonderful people, the Spanish Arabs, among whom women were public
lecturers and secretaries of kings, while Christian Europe was sunk in
darkness." "In Italy, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, it
was not esteemed unfeminine for women to give lectures in public to
crowded and admiring audiences. They were freely admitted members of
learned societies, and were consulted by men of preëminent scientific
attainments, as their equals in scholarship." Theodore Parker felt the
importance of public lecturing, and expressed gratification that women
were occupying the field so successfully. In the Female Medical College
of Philadelphia, great attention is given to the study of physiology;
and several graduates from that institution have lectured upon this
subject, one or two of them with great success. It is thought best that
a lecturer upon physiology should be a physician, all the branches of
medical science being so intimately connected, that the separation of
one from the whole is like the dismemberment of the human body,
producing almost the same effect upon the severed member. "The field for
competent female lecturers on physiological subjects is as broad as the
nation, and promises a rich harvest for as many as can possibly be
engaged in it, for the next half century." Dr. Gregory, of the New
England Female Medical College, writes: "Some of the graduates of this
college have lectured to ladies more or less on physiology, hygiene,
&c., and with good success. One in particular has given courses of
lectures, illustrated with the apparatus of the college, to the young
ladies in our four State Normal Schools, with great satisfaction to the
principals and pupils. One of our graduates is resident physician, and
teacher and superintendent of health in the Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary, where there are almost three hundred pupils." Other female
seminaries throughout the country ought to be thus supplied. Among those
who lecture on physiology are Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Johnson.
In cities, a number of ladies might deliver lectures in private schools,
academies, and colleges, on physiology and hygiene. Quite a number of
ladies have delivered temperance lectures, and some were employed at one
time by the State Temperance Society of New York. Lecturers of note
receive from $50 to $500 for a single lecture, beside having their
travelling expenses paid. When lecturing on their own responsibility,
the entire proceeds are theirs, save expenses for room, gas, and (in
winter) fuel. Lectures are most generally given before societies, that
pay the lecturer a specified sum. Lucy Stone was paid $263 for her
lectures in Bangor, Maine. Miss Dwight lectured on art, a few years ago,
charging at first ten dollars for a series of six lectures, but
afterward she reduced the price to five dollars.
=16. Librarians.= There is a Woman's Library in New York. The object is
to furnish women--particularly working women, who are not able to
subscribe to other libraries--with a quiet and comfortable place to read
in, during their leisure moments. A lady in Darby, Pennsylvania, attends
a town library that was established in 1785. It has always been kept in
the house of her family, and she has had no occasion to employ
assistance outside of her family. In the Mercantile Library of New York,
two ladies have charge of the reading room. One receives $200, and the
other $250 a year. Lady librarians receive from one third to one half as
much as men. The librarian says they are not physically so capable, and
otherwise not so well qualified. They could always do the lighter work
of a library. They are employed all the year, and spend about eight
hours in the reading room. The secretary of the Apprentice's Library in
Philadelphia writes: "Both our principal librarians are ladies, and we
have two assistants of the same sex. The principals receive $308, and
the assistants $90 each, per annum. The girls' library, in which one of
the principals and the two assistants are employed, is open five
afternoons in the week, from three to four hours each afternoon and
evening. It is only lately we have employed a lady for a librarian for
the boys' department, and we find the change to be a happy one. The boys
are more respectful, more easily managed, and kept in better order than
formerly, and the number of readers has increased." The gentleman who
has charge of the public library in Boston writes: "We employ eleven
American ladies, who do all the work of a library in its various
branches, under the direction of the superintendent, and subject to
revision by him or an able male assistant. Some cover and collate books,
some go from place to place to get books, and some are occupied entirely
with writing and copying catalogues, shelf lists, records, &c. The
ladies are paid $7 per week. Some spend eight and some ten hours in the
library. Much of the labor performed by males is the same as that
performed by females; but in every instance, save one, paid for at
higher rates. Why, I cannot say. The office of superintendent requires
learning and experience. In Boston, the rate of wages for men is higher
than for females. Ladies are paid pretty well here, in comparison with
what they are paid for work elsewhere. Teachers are paid higher than in
other places. A competent person soon learns the duties of a library,
but experience adds to her value. Ladies are employed in preference to
men because they are competent, because it is a good field for female
labor, because they have a good influence on those who transact business
with the library, and, I doubt not, because their work can be had at
less rates than men's. Our schools are graded, and in schools of a given
grade there are divisions. Of course a graduate from the highest
division of the highest grade, other things being equal (that is talent,
&c.), is the person for us. A qualified lady is as good for work as a
qualified man. The work of a librarian cultivates the mind. All
advantages, aside from education, depend upon the taste of the lady
employed. If fond of reading and ambitious to excel, she can, by
faithful application out of library hours, succeed. Three dollars is the
lowest price for which a lady can be comfortably boarded in Boston." "In
the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, a lady is permanently employed
as librarian. She receives a salary of $500 per annum, and is employed
six hours a day. The qualifications needed for the post are reading,
writing, some knowledge of French, German, &c."
=17. Magazine Contributors.= Some of our periodical literature is futile
and unsatisfying. It is light and trivial in its nature. It may delight
a few hours, but then follows the reaction--a dull and heavy sinking of
the heart--a sluggish dreariness--a neglect of duty--a disdain for the
actual realities of life. The prose of most magazines is only love
dreams--the poetry froth. Such light nutriment is unfit for the souls of
women--such ethereal diet can never satisfy the cravings of an immortal
mind. But some improvement has taken place in part of our magazine
literature, and a few of our reviews equal those of any country.
Subjects are as numerous as the objects around us, and suited to all
moods and diversities of mind. To the contributor, I would say: Your
writing will be likely to find readers--whether it be grave or gay--sad
or sprightly--witty or jovial; whether one making a draught on the
imagination or the judgment; whether one displaying your own
attainments, or calling to aid the opinions and acquirements of others;
in short, one of thought, fancy, or facts. Your friends may like your
ideas draped in poetry, or the more substantial dress of prose. One is
like gold, the other like iron. One serves for ornament, the other for
use. The true poet is a gifted person; a heaven-born talent does he or
she possess. If you have good descriptive talents, you can write
stories, laying the scenes in far-away countries that are not much
known, and yet eliciting some interest. And as to the subjects of a
moral caste, their name is legion. Magazine writing furnishes a
palatable way of drawing attention to individual foibles, or furnishing
a satire on the inconsistencies and exactions of society in general. If
you attempt to write natural stories, let your scenes and events be such
as occur in every-day life. It has been suggested that a good
publication, like the _Atlantic Monthly_, conducted entirely by women,
would do great good, but we fear it would not be supported. I was told,
however, by the gentleman who has charge of _Harper's Magazine_, that
two thirds of the articles are contributed by women, and they receive
better prices than men would. The _Saturday Press_ says that _Harper's
Magazine_ pays its writers $7.50 to $10 per page; the _Atlantic
Monthly_, from $6 to 10; the _Knickerbocker_, $3, which is equal to $5
for _Harper_ and $6 for the _Atlantic_; the _North American Review_,
$1.50 per page. The prices mentioned are said by one supposed to know,
to be exaggerated, and made the exception, not the rule. Mr. H. C.
Carey, in an article styled "Rewards of Authorship," writes: "I have now
before me a statement from a single publisher, in which he says that to
Messrs. Willis, Longfellow, Bryant, and Allston, his price was uniformly
$50 for a poetical article, long or short--and his readers know that
they were generally very short; in one case only fourteen lines. To
numerous others, it was from $25 to $40. In one case he has paid $25 per
page for prose. To Mr. Cooper he paid $1,800 for a novel, and $1,000 for
a series of naval biographies, the author retaining the copyright for
separate publication; and in such cases, if the work be good, its
appearance in the magazine acts as the best of advertisements. To Mr.
James, he paid $1,200 for a novel, leaving him also the copyright. For a
single number of his journal, he has paid to authors $1,500."
=18. Missionaries.= Miss Rice, a missionary in Constantinople, has a
large school for girls. Some of her scholars live in Constantinople, but
most of them are from abroad--different parts of Turkey and Western
Asia. "In England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany, females organize
societies of their own, and send out teachers and readers of their own
sex. Ladies in England have had a society there twenty-five years,
expressly for sending out and sustaining single ladies to work for
heathen women, and they have already themselves sent two hundred into
the field, at a cost of many thousands of pounds. If any of the lady
missionaries sent out by the ladies' society in England desire to leave
the work within five years, they shall be at liberty to do so, but shall
refund to that society the cost of sending them out." Mrs. Ellen B.
Mason, a missionary of Burmah, is now in New York, endeavoring to obtain
female missionaries to return with her. A lady (Mrs. Bigelow) was
employed among the city missionaries in Boston, at a salary of $350.
From the last reports of the American Board of Foreign Missions, the Old
School Presbyterian, the Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist, and Dutch
Reformed, we find 451 lady missionaries were supported by their Boards
at the time of making out the reports. The American Board had in charge
185 among foreign nations, and among the Indians 41 = 226. Of those sent
out by this Board, 26 are unmarried. The Old School Presbyterian has 78
among the Indians (33 unmarried), and among heathen 53 (3 of the number
single) = 131. The Baptist Foreign Missions number 34 (none unmarried).
The American Baptist Union require every lady and gentleman that go out
as missionaries from their Board to marry before they go. The Dutch
Reformed have 11 among foreign nations. The Protestant Episcopal have 26
foreign missionaries (all married). The Methodist 17 (2 unmarried). In a
manual for the use of missionaries and missionary candidates in
connection with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
Church, we find the laborers needed for the foreign field are: 1st,
ordained ministers of the gospel; 2d, physicians; 3d, school teachers;
4th, printers; 5th, farmers and mechanics; 6th, unmarried female
teachers. In referring to all the other classes but the first mentioned,
it reads: "Though not called to preach the gospel, their Christian
profession requires from them the same devotedness to the cause of
Christ, according to the circumstances in which the providence of God
has placed them, that is required from the ministers of the gospel. The
application should be in writing, and the candidate should state briefly
his age, education, employment, the length of time he has been a
professor of religion, his motive and reasons for desiring to be a
missionary, the field he prefers, and the state of his health. For a
female this information may be given through a third person. No person
will be appointed to the service of the Board until the executive
committee have obtained as thorough a knowledge as possible of his or
her character. For this purpose a personal acquaintance is very
desirable. In all cases, written testimonials, full and explicit, must
be forwarded." The treasurer of the Presbyterian Board said the salary
depends on place and qualifications. The Treasurer of the Dutch Reformed
Missions said a single lady receives from $300 to $400, according to her
qualifications. Piety and a good common education are all that is
necessary. They learn the language after arriving at their place of
destination. None go without a certificate from a physician, saying they
are free from organic disease. If their health fails so that they cannot
recover, their passage home is paid, and they are supported for one year
after. The minister connected with the Methodist Board said the salary
depends on the places, and no particular preparation is requisite. They
have many more applicants than they have places for.
=19. Medical Missionaries.= An association in Philadelphia educates a
limited number of ladies to go out as medical missionaries. Any
information in regard to this association may be obtained from Mrs.
Sarah J. Hale, 1418 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. The enterprise
opens to such missionaries a wide field of usefulness, that cannot be
reached in any other way. A number are now wanting in foreign countries.
Rev. Mr. Dwight, writing from Constantinople in 1852, very highly
commends the plan of giving to some female missionaries a medical
education. He refers to the secluded lives of the females in oriental
nations, to their ignorance, and the superstitious reverence felt by the
people for those acquainted with diseases and their remedies. He thinks
that in Constantinople, among all ranks of people, and even among the
Mohammedans, a female physician would find constant practice, and gain
an access to the female portion of the community that missionaries
cannot. And, if pious, in the capacity of physician, she could do much
to promote their spiritual welfare. A knowledge of the Turkish language
would be indispensable; and some acquaintance with French and Italian,
Dr. Dwight recommends. And it was thought by some of the missionaries in
India, before the rebellion occurred, that medical missionary ladies
could accomplish much good there, especially at Calcutta. Missionaries
in various other countries have also given it as their opinion that a
great deal of good might be done in heathen countries by medical ladies.
=20. Physicians.= It is only within the last few years that women have
received any preparation for the practice of medicine in our country.
But it is now advancing in a way that is very gratifying to the friends
of the cause, and is beginning to be appreciated by the people. Many of
the most learned and talented men in the profession approve of women
devoting themselves to the practice of medicine on their own sex and
children. The mildness and amiability of woman, her modesty, her
delicacy and refinement, all tend to make her acceptable at the bedside.
Her quick insight into the ailments of others and her promptness in
offering a remedy enhance her value. Some think the modesty and delicacy
that should characterize a physician are lost to a lady in acquiring a
knowledge of the profession. We would think not any more than by a
gentleman. Why should the result be different? And surely a woman wants
in her physician, whether male or female, a person of pure thoughts and
feelings. Some say women have not firmness and nerve enough to perform
surgical operations--that if they have, it is only animal force. What is
it but animal force that gives the superiority to men (if they are
superior)? Some say that such a profession may call woman among an
objectionable class of people. "The fact that the practice of medicine
draws its support from the miseries and sufferings of the world is no
objection to its respectability. What profession is there that does not
draw its support from some suffering, necessity, or disability?--unless
it be that of the mountebank." Another objection urged is, that women
lose their delicacy by the study and practice of anatomy under a male
physician. This offensive feature is removed in the Female Medical
College of Philadelphia, where that post has been filled by a woman for
six or seven years. It is filled, writes one of the professors, to the
full satisfaction, I believe, alike of the class and the faculty. In
1758, Anna Manzolini was professor of anatomy in Bologna. We believe, if
a lady acquires a knowledge of medicine, it should be a thorough one.
Undoubtedly too much strong medicine has been used in the United States,
and that will account to some extent for the bad health of American
women. Night practice and the inclemencies of the weather are the
greatest difficulties a woman must contend with in the practice of
medicine. If a lady has means, she can command a conveyance of her own.
As to practising at night, she can have some one to accompany her, if in
the city. If in a town, village, or the country, she will be likely to
know who the people are, and have a conveyance sent for her. If a woman
acquires a thorough knowledge of medicine, she can better promote the
well-being and preserve the health of herself and children. No lady
should undertake the practice of medicine unless she feels competent in
every way to do so. If she does, let her enter with her soul into it,
and keep constantly in view her object to relieve the suffering and
bring health to the diseased. The practice of medicine is more
renumerative than teaching. Mrs. Hale, who strongly advocates the
practice of medicine by ladies, says: "Teachers grow out of fashion as
they grow old; physicians, on the contrary, gain credit and reputation
from length of practice." There is one department of medicine that we
think belongs to women, and women alone. It is midwifery. In the feudal
times many ladies of rank and wealth prescribed and measured out
medicines for their tenants, and many women practised midwifery. It is
proved by Dr. Saul Gregory, of Boston, founder of the New England Female
Medical College, that the practice of male physicians in the department
of midwifery is not only injurious, but destructive of human life. He
writes: "I have within the past six months made an effort to ascertain
the number of lady graduates, having written to the different schools
where they have graduated. From the number certainly ascertained, with
the addition of a probable number of others, I should say that there are
at least two hundred graduated female physicians in the United States.
The number from this (the New England Female Medical College) is
thirty-four. The field is broad enough, of course, for many thousands;
and to women of good natural abilities and suitable acquirements there
is a prospect of success in all of the cities and large villages of the
country. They will more readily find professional employment now and
henceforward than they have during the past ten years, inasmuch as the
idea of female medical practice has become more familiar to the public
mind, and the custom is becoming gradually established. The tuition in
medical colleges generally is from $60 to $80 a term. Board is from $2
to $4, according to circumstances. About $30 worth of medical books are
needed. This college has a scholarship fund, affording free tuition to a
large number of students from any part of the world." Dr. Gregory
expresses our views in regard to more unoccupied women entering the
profession of medicine, so much better than we could do, that we will
transcribe what he says on the subject: "Man, the lord of creation, has
the world before him, and can choose his profession or pursuit--war,
politics, agriculture, commerce, mechanic arts, mercantile affairs (not
excepting ribbon and tape), and a thousand vocations and diversions.
There are said to be 40,000 physicians in the United States. 20,000 of
these ought to give place to this number of women, and turn their
attention to pursuits better adapted to their strong muscles and strong
minds. In addition to providing for the self support of 20,000 or more
women, this change would relieve that number of men, and secure to the
country the benefit of their mental and manual industry--quite an item
in our political economy and national wealth. Of course, this very
desirable change cannot be brought about so suddenly as to create any
great disturbance in the established order of things, even if the
enterprise is carried forward with all possible vigor; so that
physicians now in the field need not be greatly alarmed in prospect of
female competition." We think, all diseases peculiar to women, or
surgical operations on women requiring any exposure of person, should be
treated and performed by women alone. Many a woman suffers for months,
or years, and often a lifetime, because of that instinctive delicacy
that makes her rather suffer than be treated by a male physician. Those
that prepare themselves as physicians should be ladies of honor,
education, and refinement. In most families, after the minister of the
gospel, the physician holds the next highest place in the esteem of the
members. Other subjects than those of medicine are often discussed, and
the advice of a physician sought on matters of vital importance to those
interested. The free, unembarrassed entrance of a physician into the
sanctum of home, gives an opportunity of learning much that should be
sacredly preserved in their own hearts. A lady physician needs firmness
and dignity in the maintenance of her rights and opinions. When a woman
is weak both in body and mind, timid and fearful, how much better can
one of her own sex soothe her! It may be the nurse has not time, in a
charitable, or even in a pay institution. But if her physician is a
woman, well acquainted with her profession, and possessing discernment,
sympathy, and some knowledge of the human heart, how readily may she
read the inner as well as the outer wants of her patient! She will treat
her gently and tenderly; and if the patient be a mother, the physician
will see her family now and then, to relieve her patient's anxiety. If
she is poor, she will speak to some of her rich patients, or
acquaintances, to see that she is furnished with suitable employment
when she is well. And so she will interest herself about those matters
most male physicians would never think of, or, if they did, would
consider beneath their attention. "In Paris, for a long period, women
have studied medicine with the best physicians, who used them as
supplements, to attend the poor and do some of the hospital practice."
Two lady physicians became quite distinguished in Paris, and a hospital
was in the entire charge of one. The statistics and professional reports
of these ladies are now accepted by the best physicians in all
countries. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell has lately established a hospital in
New York city, where ladies studying medicine can have the benefits
arising from the observation and experience acquired in a hospital. This
has long been considered almost essential in the education of male
students. In the same city is a preparatory school of medicine conducted
by professors connected with the medical schools of the city. They give
separate instruction to a class of ladies, who are admitted to the
clinical teachings of two of the largest dispensaries in the city. These
dispensaries furnish upwards of 60,000 cases of disease annually. In
1850, a charter was granted to the Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania. A college was commenced in Boston about the same time.
Both of these schools are for females exclusively, and each has
graduated about fifty pupils. In the Pennsylvania Medical University
both sexes are received. In some branches the presence of mixed classes
is embarrassing to both professors and pupils, and that free
communication desirable for acquiring and imparting information is
partially checked. This difficulty is done away in some female colleges
by employing competent lady professors. In Europe, women are not
permitted to receive instruction with the male students, but in hospital
practice they have excellent opportunities of gaining information as
nurses and physicians. I know of no pursuit that offers a more inviting
field for educated women than the practice of medicine. The ability of
woman to study and practice medicine has been satisfactorily
demonstrated. Some ladies have graduated at both the allopathic and
homoeopathic schools in Cleveland. The allopathic school in that place
was the first to admit ladies. Different motives actuate ladies in the
study of medicine. The wives of some manufacturers, planters, and
others, who reside where medical advice is not easily obtained, study
medicine that they may prescribe for their husbands' employées. Some
study medicine that they may have something to rely upon in case other
resources should fail them. Some teachers have studied that they may
instruct their pupils in the laws of hygiene and remedies for disease.
Quite a number of lady physicians are employed in female boarding
schools. The benefit resulting from having the advice of a physician at
any hour of the day or night is very great, and must relieve the
superintendents of schools and absent parents from much anxiety. Some
ladies prefer giving advice at their residences. A lady that devotes
herself to a speciality should endeavor to keep posted in all the
branches of her profession, so far as she can without neglecting to
acquire all the information possible in her speciality. "In the United
States there are 40,564 physicians, 191 surgeons, 5,132 apothecaries,
456 chemists, 923 dentists, 59 oculists, 59 patent medicine makers.
There are 35 medical colleges, 230 professors, and about 5,000
students." Dr. Ann Preston, of the Pennsylvania Female Medical College,
writes me: "Of those in practice who graduated with us, quite a number
have found it very remunerative, and the prospect for others to secure
practice is most encouraging, if they only possess the requisite
qualifications. The desire to employ ladies as physicians is constantly
extending, and my faith in the triumphant and extensive vindication of
the movement deepens from year to year. There are openings in perhaps
nearly all the cities and villages of our land--certainly in Eastern
Pennsylvania; but in choosing a physician, people must have confidence
in the sound judgment, good character, and professional ability of those
they employ. A woman settling among strangers is more liable to
suspicion than a man; and in such a case it takes _time_, and a long
continuance in well doing, to become established in a lucrative
practice. It also requires _means_; and unless these are abundant, it is
much better for the lady physician to settle where she is already known
and respected, and where, among her friends, she can live at small
expense. Still, in one or two cases, our students have gone
_successfully_ among strangers, earning enough to bear their expenses
during the first two years. The cost of fitting a lady of moderate
abilities for the practice of medicine varies. The whole cost of two or
more courses of lectures and graduation is $175. Board here is from $3
to $5 a week for students, everything included. The needful text books
would cost from $20 to $25; then travelling expenses, clothes, &c. I
have known ladies commence with only one or two hundred dollars in
advance, teach school during the summers, and graduate in three or four
years. Sometimes these have come as beneficiaries. Still it is much more
comfortable to have six or seven hundred to depend upon during the
course of study. The time also varies, but we think no person should
graduate who has not studied two years and upward. A large proportion of
our graduates have studied medicine three years, and several have spent
the next year in the hospital in New York. We are about opening a
hospital here, which, in case of some, will obviate this necessity. I
believe ladies in practice here generally make the charges common among
men physicians; and several of them realize a handsome competence, and
are gladdened by seeing, year by year, that prejudice is passing away,
and that medicine is proving a fitting and glorious sphere for the
exercise of woman's best powers." There are several regularly educated
female physicians engaged in the practice of medicine in Philadelphia,
some in New York, and some in Boston, with a few in other cities of the
North, South, and West, and here and there scattered through towns,
villages, and the country. There is an opening for one or two
well-qualified physicians in New Orleans that can speak the Italian and
Spanish languages. Many physicians find it an advantage to have a
knowledge of the French and German languages, on account of the large
foreign population in our country. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell writes: "It
is very difficult by letter to answer your question about medical
education. It is almost impossible for a lady to get a _good_ medical
education without going to Europe. Philadelphia or Boston would give a
woman the _legal right_ to practise medicine, and that is the chief
value of what is given, for the exclusively theoretical instruction of
those colleges could be as well obtained by reading and private tuition.
New York can furnish much valuable practical instruction, but not the
legal right. Between the two places, a student who will spend four years
may become a respectable young physician, without going to Europe; but
fully that period of time is necessary to pick up scattered knowledge,
&c. A lady should be able to command $2,000 during the four years. She
is otherwise very much crippled in her studies. There is a real
necessity for women physicians; therefore, in course of time they will
be created; but the imperfect efforts and most inadequate preparation of
those who now study, rather retard the movement, and the creation of
practice is a very slow thing." I called on Mrs. ----, M. D. She goes
out at night when called--sometimes alone, sometimes takes her female
student. She thinks there must be openings South and West, and that the
prospect for lady physicians is very good. She supposes the cost of a
medical education would be about $1,500. I called on Mrs. ----, M. D.,
who practises medicine, and often lectures on diseases and their
remedies. She walks to see her patients, or rides in stages, but the
majority come to her dwelling in office hours. She never goes out at
night except where she is acquainted. She has a small number of
students. She has a speciality, but does not confine herself to it. She
attends several families by the year, charging, I think, $200 a year.
She thinks many intelligent ladies might, if they would qualify
themselves thoroughly, succeed in establishing themselves as physicians.
=21. Preachers.= A friend once said "the professions of ministers and
lawyers ought to accord. One is the interpreter of the divine law, the
other of human law. A preacher is a lawyer for heaven." The promptings
and workings of the human heart must be well understood by a minister.
One in this holy office should not connive at the faults of her
congregation, or give herself up to the acquirement of popular applause.
We think one half the good accomplished in a church is done by the
ladies of the church, particularly single women. And we know well that
ministers are aware of this, and readily enlist the ladies of their
congregations in good works. In old times, Angela de Foligno was
celebrated as a teacher of theology. "In Spain, Isabella of Rosena
converted Jews by her eloquent preaching, and commented upon the learned
Scotus before cardinals and archbishops." In modern times, two or three
ladies have studied theology, and preached with success. Mrs. Blackwell
and Mrs. Jenkins are both said to be ladies of literary merit and
genuine piety. Their mild, amiable, and lady-like deportment make them
beloved by all who are sufficiently acquainted with to appreciate them.
Some one writes: "It seems to me that woman, by her peculiar
constitution, is better qualified to teach religion than by any merely
intellectual discipline." Women are more susceptible to religious
impressions than men. Two thirds of the communicants of our churches are
of that sex. The Quakers, Shakers, and Methodists, we think, are the
only denominations in which women speak in religious meetings. The
founder of the Shakers was a woman--Ann Lee--who established her faith
in 1776.
=22. Proof Readers.= The reading of proof has become a regular branch of
business. Many of the large houses in cities where publishing is done,
employ persons expressly for this purpose. We think proof reading opens
a charming prospect to the employment of cultivated women. Girls could
just as well be trained to read manuscripts aloud, for proof readers to
correct their first sheets by, as boys. A proprietor of one of the
largest publishing houses in this country kindly furnished us a reply to
the question, what are the duties of a proof reader, and are ladies ever
so employed? Hoping it will not be considered a breach of courtesy to
use the reply, we give it in the words of the writer: "Proof reading
consists in the reading of proofs, marking the errors, and making the
work typographically correct. A good proof reader ought to be a
practical printer, as there are a thousand minute details which one can
hardly learn except by daily experience at the composing case and
imposing stone. In addition to this he should have more or less
knowledge of various languages, ancient and modern, and be well informed
in history, art, and science. Proof reading is considered the best
situation in a printing office; and the most intelligent printers
usually gain and hold these situations. We know of no case in which this
duty is performed by a woman; the cases must be rare indeed in which one
has had an opportunity to qualify her for performing its duties.
Moreover, it is a position the duties of which must be performed in the
printing office." It is true that proof reading must be done in the
printing establishment; but separate rooms, we believe, are always
provided for proof readers. So ladies need not be frightened by
supposing they must do their reading in the composition room. One of the
firm of the Boston Stereotype Foundry writes: "We employ but three young
ladies to read proof, and pay from $3 to $5 per week. They are
Americans, and work nine hours. At one time we employed women in the
type-setting department, who received two thirds of the price paid to
men. Women are paid less than men because they are _women_, and because
plenty can be found. Women possessing a good English education can learn
in two months--if apt, become expert. They commence at $3, and finally
get $5. The prospect of employment is good for a few. Occasionally there
is a dull time, which affords opportunity for a little sewing, &c.
Unless very dull, the occupant retains her position and wages. Good
workmen consider women an innovation. To sum up the whole matter in a
few words, women (barring the heavy work) can perform the labor
appertaining to proof reading and type setting as well as men." A lady
told me that one of her daughters assists her father with his newspaper.
She reads the proof, looks up articles he wants, helps select matter for
the paper, and translates French stories for his paper. Her services are
worth to him from $500 to $600 a year. On visiting the Bible House, I
learned that a lady is there employed as proof reader. She corrects both
in English and German. Four or five male proof readers are employed, but
she is the only lady. She gets $5 or $6 a week. The principal proof
reader gets $12 a week. "Accuracy, quickness of eye, thorough knowledge
of orthography, grammar, and punctuation, with a knowledge of languages,
and a vast deal of learning and general intelligence, are necessary for
a proof reader. An intuitive perception, arising from this cultivation,
enables one to detect errors immediately, often without knowing how and
why."
=23. Publishers.= We find in the census report of Great Britain, 923
women reported as booksellers and publishers. What the number of
publishers alone is we cannot tell, nor do we know whether any of them
conduct the business on their own responsibility, or whether they are
widows, and have men to conduct the business for them. We know of two
large publishing houses in New York that pay 10 cents on the dollar to
an author for the manuscript of any book they see proper to publish;
that is, for a book they will sell at retail for $1, and at wholesale
for 60 cents, the author receives 10 cents, which gives the publisher 50
cents for getting up the book and running the risk of selling it. If the
author incurs the expenses of getting the book up, they may allow 15
cents. They will pay no larger a percentage for any subsequent edition
than for the first. But they will not undertake a book unless they think
they can make money out of it. The same book might be printed and
stereotype plates cast at 85 cents a volume. The author could then sell
it for 65 cents a copy to the book merchants, and they would sell it at
90 cents a volume. After the first edition of one thousand, the author
could probably get it printed at 40 cents on the volume less. If the
book takes, the merchant may allow the author twelve to fifteen per
cent. Some publishers purchase the copyrights of books they think may
succeed, paying a specified sum, as agreed on with the author.
Publishers calculate to have two out of every three books fail that are
brought into market. Some publishers sell for authors on commission. The
authors get up their own books, and the publisher sells, receiving forty
per cent. from the retail price. He sells to the trade at a discount of
from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent., according to amount and
distance. The average discount would be thirty per cent. This leaves the
publisher ten per cent. to transact all the business, advertise, &c.
From the first edition the publisher will not be likely to derive any
profit; but if the book takes, the publisher will make a handsome profit
from the subsequent editions.
=24. Readers to the Working Classes.= In China, at almost every store
where cups of tea are sold, a number of men make it a business to read
to those that come in to buy or drink tea. A gratuity is bestowed by
such as feel disposed. The working classes that are not able to read and
buy books, are thereby enabled to have the benefit of those that can.
Now we do not see why the same principle may not be carried out in this
country. Shakspearian readings, it is true, have been popular and
fashionable for a few years. We have seen it stated that "seven of Fanny
Kemble Butler's recent Shakspearian readings in New York city netted the
fine sum of $6,000." Beside, lectures have been delivered and poems
recited, mostly of the readers' composition. Now might not competent
ladies make it useful to the working classes of their own sex, or even
both sexes, to spend an evening, occasionally, in reading to them?
Charging a small entrance fee, if there is a good attendance, would
support the reader, and enlighten the audience. It would be better if
the poor, hard-working classes had more elevating and refining
amusements. We know of none better calculated to improve while it
entertains than reading. Might it not be done in saloons?--properly
qualified men in the gentlemen's department, and properly qualified
women in the ladies' department. In our large cities, where time is so
precious, many a lady, we doubt not, would give an additional sixpence
to have a book she carries with her or the papers of the day read aloud
while she eats her lunch. The only difficulty is, the prices paid would
scarcely justify one sufficiently qualified for the undertaking.
=25. Reporters.= This is rather a new arena for the exercise of female
talent. A reporter must be a close observer of matters and things in
general that pertain to individual or public affairs. A verbal or
written account is furnished to the publication in which the reporter is
interested. A reporter attends public assemblies of any kind, and writes
down or stenographizes the proceedings of said assembly. In a city,
places of amusement, lectures, political and church meetings, form
subjects of interest to a newspaper reporter. Noting the proceedings of
legislative and other legal assemblies forms the most regular and
reliable employment. In London, there are seven publications that employ
from ten to eighteen reporters each, during the meetings of Parliament.
Two from each paper are always in attendance--one in the gallery of the
House of Lords, and another in the gallery of the House of Commons. A
reporter seldom remains more than two or three hours. His place is taken
by another, while he writes out his notes and prepares them for the
press. The reporters are well remunerated, and give very faithful
reports. In the United States, the subscription price of even the very
best papers, and their comparatively limited circulation, will not
justify so great an expense for the reporter's department. Yet most good
papers have one or two reporters. Not long since, a lady stenographer
received $1,000 damages from a railroad company, for an accident that
occurred on the car, which unfitted her for her calling, as it deprived
her of the forefinger on her right hand. A lady reporter, in Boston,
writes me: "The art of reporting needs constant drilling, like music,
dancing, &c. Few women have the education and nerve for professional
reporting." A lady teacher of phonography writes: "A person of common
capacity could learn phonography in from four to six months, studying
three hours per day; but to practise for reporting is quite another
thing: that depends upon the unremitting industry of a person. I know of
but two ladies whose business is reporting. It is hard work, but pays
well." This lady also states that her terms of tuition are seventy-five
cents per lesson of one hour. "Phonographers generally receive from ten
to twenty dollars an hour; and it takes about five or six hours to write
out what may be spoken in an hour, if done by one person. With an
amanuensis, it takes about four hours of writing to one of speaking."
Several ladies are acting in Ohio and Michigan as phonographic
reporters. Mr. James T. Brady, in a public speech in New York, said:
"Without disparagement to his friends who were here engaged in catching
the extemporized words of the speaker, he really would be happy to see
the day when women, who had the capacity, should be engaged in making
reports." "Among the American Indians, the women, being present at
councils, preserve in their memories the report of what passes, and
repeat it to their children. They have traditions of treaties a hundred
years back, which, when compared with our writings, are always exact." A
telegraphic reporter told me a first-class reporter can earn from
twenty-five to thirty dollars for three or four hours' labor. It
requires a knowledge of stenography, of which there are several teachers
in New York, and which can be learned in a short time. Some reporters
are paid by the week; and some by the page of foolscap, which is
considered, I think, as counting eighty words. Mr. B., a reporter of New
York, had a sister in Washington with him, ten years ago, who attended
the sittings of Congress, and took notes, and wrote them out fully. Her
brother then revised and sent them to the press. Another lady attempted
it for the _Tribune_, but was ridiculed, and very foolishly gave it up.
I was told that Mrs. W., wife of a reporter for the _Tribune_, took
notes of Dr. Chapin's sermon on Thanksgiving day, and made a report for
the _Tribune_, with which the readers of the paper were well satisfied.
The reply of Mr. Webster to Mr. Hayne was saved by Mrs. Gales, the wife
of one of the Congressional reporters, by writing out her husband's
short-hand notes, which he for the lack of time found it impossible to
do. Otherwise that remarkable speech of an eminent orator would have
been lost. Mr. L. remarked to me: "A reporter in New York has to move
and write with railroad speed. Everything needs to be done with a rush;
and so dense are crowds, that a woman would have to lay aside hoops to
make her way."
=26. Reviewers.= A reviewer of new books should be a rapid reader and of
quick understanding. A reviewer should also be a person of judgment. The
vast number of books now published might afford employment, and a good
compensation, we suppose, to those so engaged. But too often publishers
use a moneyed influence in giving a false reputation to their
publications. Frequently the editors of magazines and newspapers are
their own reviewers. We heartily wish that reviewers would endeavor to
check the circulation of some of the light literature of the day. We
refer not so much to that which is vapid--unsubstantial--wanting
stamina--as that which is impure--immoral. Much is of a kind to open the
floodgates of vice and crime. Stories cast in the old-fashioned mould of
hair-breadth escapes, marvellous incidents, and impossible events, are
less popular than formerly. No doubt much reading is done as a
recreation--to forget one's self--to banish care--to unbend from severe
study: let such reading at least be pure and chaste. Books undoubtedly
exercise a great influence over the disposition, taste, and character;
and reviewers have it much in their power to direct the general taste
for books. They can do much toward forming a high and correct literary
tone in society. The number of those who devote themselves to the review
of new books in England is small--in the United States, still smaller.
How they are paid I am unable to learn.
=27. Teachers.= Teaching, in its various branches, would form a large
volume; but we will endeavor to take as general, yet comprehensive, a
view of the subject as our limits will permit. The instruction of youth
has ever been an honorable and useful calling: in an enlightened and
refined community an institution of the first class always stands high.
The influence of a teacher over her pupils is almost unbounded. Pupils
watch the looks and actions of their teachers with a closeness of
observation surprising to those unaccustomed to children. A teacher
should strive to be consistent, for any palpable inconsistency will
greatly lessen the respect of scholars. There are many systems of
teaching; many plans; many theories. Much may be learned from visiting
schools, and selecting, for one's own use, such improvements as suggest
themselves. But the most valuable assistant in teaching is a thorough
and extensive knowledge of mental and moral philosophy. They bear
directly on the subject. They will prove the best guides, if penetration
and judgment, patience and perseverance are used in the application.
There are laws governing mind just as there are laws governing matter.
Learn the opinions and wishes of parents as far as possible, but always
act independently. Never permit yourself to be trammelled by them. The
European method of giving instruction is by lectures. The plan is used
in the professional schools of our country, and to some extent in our
colleges, but in our seminaries, academies, and high schools the method
is seldom practised. The inability of a hearer to apply to a lecturer,
in case the subject is not understood, or the meaning of the lecturer
not rightly apprehended, renders the method as a general thing
objectionable to the young and inexperienced. Where students are
instructed by lectures, a thorough examination on the lectures should be
made the day after, and an explanation given if any parts are not
rightly understood. One difficulty with a lecturer to the young is
likely to be in gaining their entire attention, and presenting ideas to
them in a clear, forcible manner. In the majority of girls' schools no
oral instruction is given. Recitations are heard from text books, and
frequently the pupils are unable to understand what they, parrot-like,
recite in class. We think a combination of the two plans mentioned is
best; that is, for the teacher to deliver lectures on some subjects, and
hear recitations from text books on others. The more oral instruction
given by a competent instructor the better. A teacher needs ability to
command order, to promote discipline, and work systematically. A teacher
should endeavor to produce harmony and a proper balance among the mental
faculties, while they are being expanded. No unnatural and undue
prominence should be given to any one of the faculties. Too many
exercise the memory only. Those studies that will be most serviceable to
a pupil should be pursued. Religious principles, common sense, good
health, and a uniformly cheerful disposition are necessary to make a
good teacher. A teacher should well understand the springs of human
action. Add to these, ability to discriminate, perfect command of
temper, unwearied perseverance, patience that never flags, and tact for
imparting knowledge, and you have the desiderata for a most excellent
teacher. If there is any office in life that calls for the exercise of
every virtue, it is that of a teacher. It is the most responsible office
in life except that of parent. Teaching is a vocation peculiarly fitted
to women, and will ever be open to women of superior talents and
extensive attainments. In worth and dignity it is inferior to none of
the professions of men. It is finally taking its place among the learned
professions. Female education has been too superficial. A more thorough
and extensive course is needed in most of our schools. Woman must be
taught to think for herself, and to act for herself. She needs to depend
more on her own abilities--requires more self-reliance. Miss Beecher
maintains that there is no defect in temper, habits, manners, or in any
intellectual and moral development, which cannot be remedied. There are
said to be more than 2,000,000 of children in our land out of school,
and requiring 100,000 teachers to supply them. We would not give the
impression that if 100,000 ladies were to prepare themselves to teach,
they would find 100,000 places awaiting them. No; we believe the supply
now fully meets the demand; and we are sorry to see the impression being
so often given by editors and others, that teachers are needed and in
demand; because we think many ladies of limited means are thereby
induced to spend what little they have in preparing themselves to be
teachers; and when they are qualified, ten chances to one, if they get a
school, it is only for three months out of the twelve, and that not
regularly. A precarious subsistence is obtained, and, to those without
homes, certainly a most unreliable one. We love to see ladies educated,
and would gladly see them all qualified to teach; but we do not like to
see inducements thrown out to qualify themselves, under the impression
that there are hundreds of places vacant only because they cannot obtain
teachers. There is no employment more uncertain than that of a teacher.
Many causes tend to produce this. Among them are dissatisfaction on the
part of teacher or people, low wages, the fluctuating condition of
country schools at different seasons of the year, a large mass of people
not knowing the advantages of an education, and the want of endowed
institutions of learning. If a lady has sufficient capital to establish
herself permanently as a teacher, she will be far more likely to
succeed. As new places are settled and population advances there will no
doubt be openings, but they will require teachers willing to endure the
hardships and privations incident to a new country. Some lady teachers
might get employment if they would go to the country, but the variety
and excitement of the city they are not willing to relinquish. An active
life is happiest, and none, if well filled, affords more constant
employment than that of a teacher. Evening schools are established in
most of our large cities, for the accommodation of those that labor
through the day. In New York these schools are in session two hours, and
a teacher receives one dollar an evening. Some lady teachers are
employed in schools for the blind and for the deaf and dumb. In Germany,
teachers are treated with a degree of respect and delicacy that should
serve as a model to other countries. The acquisition of knowledge has
long been too mechanical an operation. Girls are expected to receive as
undoubted truths all they meet with in their school books. They are not
taught to pause and consider if statements are grounded on certain or
uncertain premises. They are not taught to exercise their own thoughts
and judgment. School agencies in the large cities of the North are
establishing branches in the South and West. Where there is no
established organization of this kind, families and neighborhoods are
often at a loss how to obtain a governess or teacher, while a teacher is
equally at a loss to know of such situations as she desires. There is
considerable difference in the character and qualifications of the
teachers sent out by the different agencies of New York. Connected with
these agencies might be a means of communication for obtaining
amanuenses, copyists, and translators. Few parents are willing to
intrust their children to those who are not trained for their business.
The establishment of schools for the preparation of teachers is one of
the great inventions of the age. There is one in almost every State.
There was, and probably still is, an educational association, that
centres in New York city, which has for its object the _free_
instruction of a limited number of young ladies desirous of preparing
themselves for teachers. One of the institutions is in Dubuque, Iowa;
the other in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The principal of the Normal School,
New York, receives $600 a year, and he does not hear a single
recitation. He spends five hours in the room every Saturday, which, for
all the year of 48 weeks, equals 240 hours--nearly $3 an hour, merely
for the light of his countenance. The number of governesses in England
is very large. Their duties are more severe and their remuneration less
than in any other country. In the United States, governesses receive
higher salaries in the Southern than the Northern States, and are
treated more like members of the family. The salaries of teachers are
also higher, but it costs more to live in the South. One way in which so
many men get situations as teachers to the exclusion of females, "may be
attributed, in a degree, to favoritism of Odd Fellows' and other social
and political bonds." As time advances, more attention will be given by
the ladies to special branches of education. There will be professors of
mathematics, languages, &c., just as there are in male institutions.
Each one will cultivate most highly a knowledge of that science to which
her talents and wishes incline. In the public schools of New York, there
are thirty-nine gentlemen conducting the male departments, who receive a
salary of $1,500 per year; while, of the lady principals of the female
departments, there are only ten getting a salary of $800, the highest
salary paid a lady in the public schools of New York. There are said to
be 1,183 female teachers in New York city. In Louisville, Ky., the
gentleman principals of the grammar schools receive a salary of $1,000 a
year, the lady principals $650. In the male and female high schools, the
principals receive $1,600 a year. The lady preceptress in the female
high school has a salary of $900. The lady who teaches mathematics in
the Female Presbyterian College of Louisville receives a salary of $900.
In Chicago, the maximum salary of female teachers is $400 a year. In the
Cleveland Female Seminary, in 1854, the lady teacher of rhetoric and
English literature received a salary of $500 and board; of English
branches, $500 and board; of history, $500 and board; of mathematics,
$500 and board. We have seen it stated that female teachers are growing
scarce in Maine, because the wages are so low. "At the New York Central
College for students of both sexes, there is one female professor in the
faculty, and she receives the same salary as the other members, and has
the same voice." It is a manual labor school, where the same justice is
not exercised in regard to the pupils, as the "male students get eight
cents per hour for labor, females but four cents an hour." In the
twelfth ward of New York city, the subject of paying lady teachers the
same salaries as those of the other sex was agitated last winter: the
result I did not hear. Higher prices are paid to lady teachers in Boston
than any other city of the United States, except the cities of
California, where ladies conducting the same branches as gentlemen
receive as good salaries. The majority of teachers in San Francisco are
ladies. In the United States there are 150,000 teachers in the public
schools, and 4,000,000 scholars. "There is one scholar for every five
free persons; in Great Britain there is one scholar to every eight
persons; in France, one to every ten persons." According to an estimate
made by Rev. T. W. Higginson, there are in fourteen of the United
States, in all schools, both public and private, 152,339 male teachers,
and 162,687 female teachers. In the New England States, according to his
estimate, there are 45,619 male teachers, and 87,645 female teachers. In
the Western States, settled mostly by New Englanders, we find the
proportion of lady teachers greatest. We hope the number of lady
teachers may increase in the different States in proportion to the
increase of the population. In Brooklyn, L. I., there is a female
seminary endowed by Mrs. Packer, which usually, we believe, has an
attendance of between 300 and 400 pupils. "Matthew Vassar, Esq., of
Poughkeepsie, it is said, has devoted a sum which will soon amount to
$400,000 to the endowment of a college for girls in that city. He hopes
to make it a rival of Yale, Brown, and Harvard. It is not to be free,
but the tuition rates will be very low. In the plan provision is made
for a library, cabinets, apparatus, galleries of art, botanical gardens,
and the like. If well carried out, this institution may be a lasting
monument to the wisdom and benevolence of Mr. Vassar."
=28. Teachers of Bookkeeping.= In the catalogue of Comer's Commercial
College, Boston, we find the following statement: "As an inducement to
ladies to prepare themselves for mercantile employments, a discount of
twenty per cent. from the terms for gentlemen is made, although the
course of instruction is precisely the same." Twelve free scholarships
have been founded in the institution for deserving cases of either sex.
With all large commercial schools is now connected a separate department
for ladies; and efforts are made by the principals to obtain situations
for their pupils as they leave school. A letter from Misses McIntire and
Kidder, Boston, states: "We have been engaged in preparing ladies for
bookkeepers, saleswomen, &c., for the past ten years. It was at first
difficult for ladies to obtain such situations; but as those who did
succeed gave entire satisfaction, others were induced to give them a
trial; and now they are very generally employed in our retail stores, at
prices varying from four to eight dollars per week, and a few at a still
higher salary. The time required for a person who has received a common
English education, is from six weeks to three months. The terms for the
complete course in bookkeeping, which embraces improvement in writing,
with rapid methods of calculating interest and averaging accounts, are
$14; and for bookkeeping only, $12; and three months' time is allowed.
The chances for obtaining employment are very favorable, as more
situations are opened to them every year. Each student is instructed
separately and assistance rendered in obtaining employment. Bookkeepers
are usually employed ten hours a day. The employment is not so unhealthy
as needlework. Women are superior to men in faithfulness in the
performance of duties." The principal of a mercantile college in
Brooklyn says he thinks "many ladies might obtain employment as
bookkeepers, if they would only properly qualify themselves for the
duties. He had six or seven lady pupils that are now employed as
bookkeepers in New York. Their compensation depends on their abilities
and the amount of labor they have to perform. They are not so well paid
as male bookkeepers. Much depends on the kind of friends a lady has to
secure her a place. It is the same case with a young man. If he acquires
a reputation for integrity and faithfulness, he may get even as much as
$2,500; while one more obscure and unknown may be as competent, but not
able to command more than one third as much. So, one may have to work
but a few hours; another, from eight in the morning until twelve at
night. Some have a great deal to do in some seasons, and but little in
others; while some are kept nearly equally busy all the year." This
gentleman charges $10 for instruction. Mr. D., who teaches writing,
bookkeeping, and arithmetic, in New York, gives private instruction to
ladies at his rooms. They are comfortably fitted up. He charges for
bookkeeping, practical course of twenty lessons, $15; unlimited course,
$25;--arithmetic, commercial course of twenty lessons, $10; of sixty
lessons, $20. His charges for all branches required to prepare pupils
practically for business are, for one month, two or three hours per day,
$15; three months, $30; for twenty lessons in writing, public room, $10;
private room, $15. Mr. B., of the firm of B. S. & Co., says a person of
good abilities could learn bookkeeping in one month, by spending most of
the day at it. His price for ladies is $25. It entitles them to an
attendance at one of their branch schools, of which there are eight in
the Northern and Western cities. They endeavor to secure places for
those who learn bookkeeping with them. They also assist their pupils to
open books when they have obtained situations. Millinery establishments,
trimming and fancy stores, &c., are the kind that mostly employ women as
bookkeepers. Many wives of business men learn bookkeeping, that they may
keep their husbands' books.
=29. Teachers of Gymnastics and Dancing.= Dancing, calisthenics, and
gymnastics furnish excellent exercise for young people, and in many
boarding and day schools for young ladies gymnastics are now taught. A
lady teacher of calisthenics and gymnastics told me that in winter a
fire is kept in the dressing room, and in very cold weather the
practising room is warmed a little. Gymnastics are performed with
apparatus. Calisthenics are arm exercises. The terms of this teacher are
$6 for one month, $15 for three months, and $20 for six months' tuition.
In New York and Philadelphia there are schools where instruction is
given to girls as well as boys in gymnastic exercises. At one gymnasium
in New York the terms are $16 a year for tuition, $10 for six months,
and $7 for three months. At a ladies' gymnasium in Brooklyn, I was told
by the instructress that her prices for tuition are $4 a quarter in
summer, giving three lessons a week. A physician prescribes the kind and
amount of exercise necessary.
=30. Teachers of Drawing and Painting.= There is scarcely any branch of
mechanical labor in which a knowledge of drawing is not an advantage.
Correct drawing is essential to the success of an artist; but coloring
is something very difficult and desirable, particularly the coloring of
the flesh. It is indispensable to the portrait painter. A lady artist of
some note told me that artists do not ground themselves in drawing as
they should; that drawing tells almost the whole story of a picture:
coloring only gives beauty and adds strength. She thinks there are many
openings in the South and West for first-class teachers of drawing and
painting. Miss G. received a salary of $800, as teacher of painting in
the School of Arts in Baltimore. It is folly for any one to devote
herself to art as a career, unless she has some genius and a fondness
for it. Mrs. H., of Boston, the wife of the sculptor, has supported her
family by painting and giving instruction in the art. Teachers in oil
painting are well compensated, if they have pupils enough to occupy all
their time. Prices vary in cities from fifty cents a lesson of one hour
to two dollars. Art classes have been formed, both in New York and
Philadelphia. Some artists receive pupils, but the time required for
instruction renders it objectionable to most. Miss G. charges $15 a
quarter of twenty-four lessons, two hours each. In ordinary times, she
gives but one hour's instruction at a lesson. Miss J. charges $10
dollars for instruction in oriental painting. Mrs. C. was profitably
engaged, in Providence, in teaching drawing and taking crayon portraits.
One lady, who taught for several years with success, charged fifty cents
a lesson, the pupils attending at her room. Those working in crayon in
the New York school draw almost entirely from casts; those in the
Philadelphia school, from plates. There is now a life school in New
York, where instruction is given at $20 per quarter of eleven weeks--two
lessons a week. For instruction in drawing from plates, $12 per quarter
of eleven weeks. In some of our public schools, drawing is taught free
of expense to the scholars.
=31. Teachers of Fancy Work.= The accomplishments of women are useful in
their times and places. Music and drawing are elegant accomplishments,
the earliest as well as the most universal pastimes known. Those
teachers of accomplishments that have acquired a reputation can command
in a city a high price. At Madame D.'s, crochet work and embroidery are
taught at 25 cents a lesson of one hour. Misses H., Philadelphia, give
five lessons in leather work for $6, and charge, for giving instruction
in wax fruit and flowers, paper and rice paper flowers, &c., $1 a
lesson; in embroidery in silk, gold bullion, &c., $15 for twenty
lessons--the same for hair flowers and bead work; for the arrangement of
shells with mosses and grasses, $1 a lesson. Madame N., who teaches
crochet work and fancy knitting, charges 50 cents an hour. One stitch
can be learned by a quick person in an hour. She thinks there is plenty
of that kind of work to supply all and even more hands than are so
occupied. She employs a number, and pays by the piece. They work at
home, and can earn from $3 to $4 a week.
=32. Teachers of Horsemanship.= The prices of the riding school, New
York, attended by the most aristocratic classes, are: 16 lessons, $20;
10 lessons, $15; 5 lessons, $8; single lessons, $2; road lesson, one
pupil, $5; two or more pupils, each $3. For exercise riding, single
ride, one hour, $1.50; single ride, half hour, $1. After taking 16 or
more lessons, the prices are somewhat reduced. At another riding school
in New York, the terms are: 20 lessons for gentlemen, $25; 20 lessons
for ladies, $20; 10 lessons for gentlemen, $15; 10 lessons for ladies,
$12; single lessons, $2. The rules are very good, and laid down in the
circulars. At another riding school in New York the prices are: $20 for
20 lessons, $12 for 10 lessons, $7 for 5 lessons; single lessons, $1.50;
road lessons, one person, $5; road lessons, three or more, each $3; 20
exercise rides for $15; evening rides for $1; road rides, 10 for $8;
single, $1; road ride to a lady, $2.50. The regulations are very good.
The expenses for keeping up a riding school are considerable; so it may
not prove as profitable as the prices would seem to indicate.
=33. Teachers of Infant Schools.= Teaching is interesting to those that
love children. But I would say, let not those without patience and
tenderness, or those whose feelings can in an hour change from the
boiling to the freezing point, attempt to teach young children. In
ordinary schools, young children are liable to be either cramped or
stunted. If children must be placed at school early, let it be where
they can exercise their little bodies frequently, and not be confined in
school long at a time. To accomplish this, we think the infant school
the most efficient. Lord Brougham gives it as his opinion that a child
learns more the first eighteen months of its life than at any other
period; and that it settles, in fact, at this early age, its mental
capacity and future well-being. Mr. Babbington fixes the period of the
first nine years as the seedtime of life. Some object to infant schools,
on the ground that they divert the mind, and unfit it for continued and
concentrated thought in after life. But we cannot think so, unless the
course is pursued an unreasonable length of time. The first two years of
a child's schooling may be passed profitably in an infant school; at any
rate, if the child enters as early as six years of age. Indeed, we think
the variety embodied in the infant-school system is one of its most
pleasing and useful features. The minds of children cannot rest long on
any one subject, any more than their bodies can retain the same posture
long at a time. It stagnates thought, prevents boldness of spirit, and
stunts the growth of a young child to sit quiet hour after hour. Some
mothers send their children early to school to have them out of their
way. Such children could be more pleasantly and more efficiently taught
in an infant school than in any other. Yet, we are rather inclined to
the opinion that a child should be taught the alphabet at home. Gentle
but firm treatment is necessary for children, who need much sympathy and
affection; and it therefore requires the greatest patience on the part
of a teacher, in order to conduct an infant school successfully. Infant
schools are scarce in the United States; but still they exist in some
parts of New England. There was an infant school in Troy, some time ago
(and perhaps it is still in existence), in connection with one of the
public schools. The infant-school system has been partially adopted in
some of the public schools of our Western cities; and the same system
applied to Sabbath schools has been extensively and happily carried into
effect, both in the South and West. There are several infant Sabbath
schools, of which we know, numbering considerably over one hundred
children. These schools are usually conducted by ladies. The exercises
are varied, as in day schools, and consist generally of chanting
responses, catechism, memorizing from cards, telling Bible stories,
lecturing, explaining pictures, singing, &c. This order of exercises,
sustained in a lively manner, cannot fail to interest children, and make
the school room for them a happy and longed-for place. Nature itself
points out the course to be pursued in the education of a child: first,
physical training; second, moral training; and third, mental training.
Mind and body are so closely united that an injury to one is resented by
the other. One is placed as a protector to the other, and will not
permit injury to its companion with impunity.
=34. Teachers of Languages.= A knowledge of Latin is desirable for
ladies that expect to devote much time to books. The study of it is fine
discipline for the mind. The German and French are studied by many
ladies: the French more for the purposes of light literature and
conversation; the German by those that wish to dive into metaphysics.
These languages are, both, useful to ladies engaged in stores: the
French mostly in New York city and in the South; the German more at the
North and West. In Italy, at different times from the fifteenth to the
nineteenth century, learned women occupied chairs in the universities,
as professors of music, drawing, philosophy, mathematics, and the
languages, both ancient and modern. The author of "Women and Work" says:
"Women should teach languages and oratory. Aspasia taught rhetoric to
Socrates. The voice of woman is more penetrating, distinct, delicate,
and correct in delivering sounds than that of man, fitting her to teach
both languages and oratory better." The prices paid for private
instruction in the languages are higher than when received in a class,
and run from 25 cents an hour to $1. A language is best taught by a
native of the country in which said language is spoken.
=35. Teachers of Music.= Vocal music is taught in most of our schools,
and is required to be taught in the public schools of Germany and
Prussia. In Germany, instrumental music is also taught free of charge.
It is not uncommon to see a German mechanic performing on the piano.
Instrumental music is probably the most expensive accomplishment
attending the education of a young lady. Music is more generally
cultivated in the United States than any other accomplishment. It is
better appreciated by the mass, and, consequently, becomes more
ingrafted in the national element. In a few years our musicians will
probably equal the most celebrated of Europe. A skilful musician need
never suffer in America. If competent to give instruction in music,
there will be opportunities to do so in our cities. Most seminaries
require one teacher of music, and often two or more.
=36. Teachers of Navigation.= "One of the best and most popular teachers
of navigation and nautical mathematics and astronomy in England is a
lady, Mrs. Janet Taylor. Her classes are celebrated, and numerously
attended by men who have been at sea as well as by youths preparing for
the merchant service." Not long since, she received a gold medal and a
premium of £50 annually from the British Government.
=37. Teachers of Swimming.= There is a swimming school in Paris,
containing as pupils ladies of all stations in life. Swimming schools
for both sexes have been established in New York. In the one for ladies
and girls instruction is given by one of their own sex, and a charge
made of 25 cents a lesson. From the New York _Observer_ we copy an
article: "A few years ago, a gentleman well known in the philanthropic
world established a school in New Jersey, not far from New York, with
the intention of making physical training a prominent part of his
educational system. He began with his own children and a few others. The
school has gradually grown until it numbers eighty pupils, both boys and
girls. Every pupil at this school is a gymnast; every one can row a
boat; and every one, down to the smallest girl, can swim. The boys and
girls are formed into separate boat clubs, seven to each club, rowing
six oars, with the seventh for coxswain. So they row races whenever the
weather permits, and they do not mind a little rough weather. Every day,
too, during the warm season, they all have a swim. The boys swim by
themselves; and the girls, in suitable bathing dresses, go elsewhere,
with a teacher. One year of such training and exercises will lay up
stamina for a lifetime." A school has been commenced in New York for
teaching swimming out of the water, by machinery. The prices are 25
cents a lesson in a class, and $1 a lesson for private instruction.
=38. Translators.= Translations published in the United States are
mostly made in England. Some languages are susceptible of a much more
correct and graceful translation than others. It requires study to get
the exact meaning of some authors, and taste and genius to convey that
meaning. A literal interpretation will not always convey the meaning of
an author as well as a looser translation getting more the spirit of the
original. A person should have general information on the subject to be
treated. A translator of history must be a good historian. It requires
time to establish a reputation as a translator, but even a translator's
career must have a beginning. Dr. G., who has charge of the editorial
department of one of the most extensively circulated magazines in the
United States, says translations from French and German are not so well
liked in magazines as original matter, and anything to be translated for
his magazine he does as a recreation from more serious duties. Owing to
the international copyright law of England and France, a French author
will send his manuscript over to England and have it rendered, securing
the right to the translation. The translation often makes its appearance
very nearly as soon as the original. Most of the valuable works in
French have been translated. Mr. W. told me, however, that there are
some scientific French works that might be rendered into English, and
some on mechanics; but it would require some one acquainted with the
subject, on account of the technical terms. Dr. G. thinks the chances a
thousand against one that an individual could find constant employment
translating. He has frequent applications from translators for work in
that line. So we have reason to think translating is a very precarious
occupation. The best way is to find some French book that will be
popular in America, and translate it, and offer it to a publisher. Some
translators look over catalogues of foreign books and examine such as
they think will be likely to please. They take it to the publisher, who,
if he thinks it will be available, gives the individual the task, if
they can settle on satisfactory terms. A lady, who translates
considerably, told me that she receives $5 a page for a finished
translation from the French for magazines. Books are generally done for
so much, according to the contract of the parties. The price charged for
verbal translation would doubtless depend on the amount of time
consumed; but for a written translation, the charge would be made by the
page or volume. In most of the Government departments translators are
employed, and their salaries are no doubt good. Interpreters are also
employed in some of the courts, but they usually unite their occupation
with that of copyist. In some private establishments interpreters are
employed. Where there is sufficient business to occupy all the time of a
lady, she would doubtless find her services as an interpreter lucrative.
ARTISTIC PURSUITS, AND EMPLOYMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE FINE ARTS.
=39. Actresses.= The circumstances under which a play-actor's life are
seen are calculated to please the young and susceptible. They put a
false estimate on the pleasures it affords. They are apt to forget that
the moments in which performers appear on the stage all sparkling as the
diamond sands and crystal pebbles of a brook, are the principal, perhaps
the only bright ones of their lives. Many a sad spirit, many a broken
heart is concealed under the glittering tinsel. We are not among those
who denounce the theatre as a school of vice and infamy--nor could we
conscientiously laud it as a school of virtue. We think the influence
and effects depend very greatly upon the character of the plays; much,
too, depends upon the individuals of the audience. There is no amusement
that may not suffer in the abuse. Late hours, intoxicating drinks, and
bad companions, in many cases form the curse of regular theatre-goers;
and for these the plays (perhaps harmless in themselves) are charged
with being demoralizing. Good plays have an intellectual fascination. We
think the drama might be made more a school of instruction and innocent
pastime--less a school of evil tendencies. In China and Japan, the
female parts in theatrical performances are never executed by women. No
women ever appeared on the stage of the Greeks or Romans. Even the
female characters in Shakspeare were not represented by women in his
time. The first lady that appeared on the stage took the parts of Juliet
and Ophelia in 1660. The publicity attending the life of an actress
makes it repulsive to many, and the egotism that the profession
engenders is an objectionable feature. That there are good and virtuous
people connected with the theatre we cannot for a moment question; but
some of the men are worthless and dissipated, and many of the girls and
women engage in it because they see no other way of earning their bread.
Many a ballet girl has danced to support an infirm mother or orphan
brothers and sisters. The roving life of an actress and want of home
influences are not conducive to the growth of domestic virtues. Yet some
actresses have married advantageously in Europe, and been respected in
social life, not less for their virtues than their talents. The craving
of admiration incident to the calling is apt to make an actress vain.
Her fondness for excitement, and her consciousness of importance in the
eyes of those who patronize her, furnish additional fuel to the fire. If
she makes a failure, she may die of chagrin. Mr. B., a dramatic agent,
thinks there is always a supply as soon as there is a demand for
dramatic performers. They cannot enter and leave the profession, like
any other. They must be actively engaged in it all the time, or leave
it. Their talents must be carefully considered, and they placed in the
company that requires them, and in such places as suit their talents. If
a play in which they excel is to be performed in a distant city, they
accompany the troupe to which they belong. A company consists of a
combination of various talents. The number employed is not fluctuating,
but they change their localities often; that is, go from city to city
and town to town, shifting their place as seems best. They are
compensated according to talent and proficiency--from $3 a week to $150.
They are usually paid according to the contract made with them. I think
the voice of actors when off the stage is peculiar. It is deep and
hollow, as if trained to be thrown to a distance. By the drama two of
the senses which afford most pleasure are entertained--the eye and the
ear. Madame Celeste made $50,000 clear in this country; Essler, $70,000.
The play, "Our American Cousin," is said to have cleared $40,000 in New
York. Mr. P., a dramatic agent, told me that actresses are paid
according to their position and talent. A ballet girl is paid from $3 to
$6 a week, if by the season. Wallack pays $5 or $6. Utility people are
paid from $6 to $10. Prices depend very much on who and what the people
are, and the class of theatre by which they are employed. Those of the
better class are paid from $25 to $60 a night. When they are not
required they are not paid anything. In Europe, some of the theatres are
open during the summer. In New York a paper has lately been commenced,
devoted almost exclusively to the drama. "Our great star actors, Mr.
Forrest or Miss Cushman, command their hundreds of dollars a night. The
handsome Brignoli or the ponderous Amodio will not dispense their silver
notes short of fabulous thousands of golden dollars per month. Those who
try the life of an actor speedily discover that, of all hard-working
men, few render more constant, wearing, unceasing labor for their money,
than those who conscientiously do their duty in a theatre. Multitudinous
and constantly varying requirements are made of an actor who has
achieved a leading position. He _must_ be a linguist, an elocutionist, a
fencer, a dancer, a boxer, a painter (for the proper coloring or 'making
up' of his own face and figure is no small part of his art), a soldier
(so far as a knowledge of military drill and the manual exercise is
concerned); and he should be a singer, and a bit of an author. In a
theatre where a drama unfamiliar to the company is produced every night,
or in case of a new 'star,' who plays his own pieces, a day's work of an
actor may be set down as follows: To learn by heart a part not exceeding
six 'lengths' (a length is forty-two lines), attend rehearsal from ten
to one or two, and act at night in one or two pieces. That is, six
lengths new study, rehearsal, and playing at night, is what may be
required of an actor for a day's work, without giving occasion for
grumbling at the managers. There are many actors who, upon an urgent
occasion, will study from ten to fifteen lengths in a day, besides
attending to their other duties. This, however, is never required except
in case of sudden sickness of another performer, or some similar
extraordinary event. In provincial theatres the actors are worked much
harder than in New York, and paid much less. The starring system
universally prevails, which necessitates a constant succession of new
plays, most of which have to be studied from night to night, as a play
is not often acted two nights in succession in small cities. But when a
piece has a successful 'run,' the actors have no new study for several
weeks. Actors are usually engaged for certain lines of business; that
is, each one engages to perform only such style of characters as he is
best qualified to personate. The remuneration of actors comes next into
consideration, and the scale has a wide range, from $3 a week up to $200
a night. This last sum was for years the demand of Mr. Edwin Forrest.
Other stars are generally content with certain 'sharing terms;' that is,
the gross receipts, after a certain specific amount has been deducted
for the expenses of the theatre, are equally divided between the star
and the manager. Thus, for example, if the expenses of the house are
$300 per night, and the receipts $400, the lucky star and the fortunate
manager pocket $50 each per night. This is the fairest basis on which to
conduct the starring system, because, by this plan, the salaries of all
the stock company are assured _first_, and the profit of the star
depends on his own power of attracting the public to the theatre. In New
York the salaries paid to stock actors are higher, on the average, than
those in any other city in the United States. The managers ignore, to a
great extent, the technical 'lines of business,' and engage the best
artists that can be had, and then have plays especially written, in
which each of their leading actors shall have a part suited to his
peculiar powers. While this plan secures to the New York public the
finest acting that can be seen in the country, it also entails upon the
managers a salary list of dimensions that would swamp a provincial
theatre in a single week. The leading actors, as Messrs. Lester, Blake,
and Walcot, at Wallack's Theatre; Messrs. Jefferson, Jordan, and
Pearson, at the Winter Garden; Messrs. Mark Smith and Vincent, at Laura
Keene's Theatre, receive from $50 to $100 per week. Salaries for women
are about half, or perhaps two thirds of what are paid to men holding
corresponding positions. General utility men, supernumeraries, and
ballet girls receive from $3 to $10 per week. When an unusual number of
'ladies of the ballet,' or supernumeraries of the other sex are
required, on some extra occasion, they are specially engaged, at 50
cents a night, or sometimes for even less money. The salaries on the
east side of the city, at the Bowery Theatre, are lower than on
Broadway, the principal actors seldom receiving more than $35 or $40 per
week, and the others are in proportion. In smaller cities, as Buffalo,
Detroit, Chicago, &c., the highest sum paid to a performer seldom
exceeds $25 per week. Actors who have achieved a position which warrants
them in demanding it, stipulate for a 'benefit' in addition to their
salaries. On these occasions, a third or a half of the gross receipts of
the evening is paid over to the performer, according as his agreement is
for a 'third clear' or a 'half clear' benefit."
=40. Aquaria Makers.= One of the most innocent and pleasing amusements
that has attracted attention for some time is the making of aquaria. The
cases are formed of plate glass, square, oblong, circular, or any shape
to please the fancy of the owner. The glass is tightly sealed when
joined. The aquaria are of two kinds: one is formed of salt water, and
contains marine plants and animals; the other contains fresh water, and
such plants and animals as are found in rivers and smaller streams. They
form a beautiful addition to a garden, conservatory, or drawing room.
Rocks form the foundation, and the soil on them furnishes subsistence to
the plants. Zoophytes, mollusca, and fish form the inhabitants of the
aquarium. Insects also find a place in this miniature "ocean or river
garden." The size for parlors is from one foot to three in length. The
largest aquaria in this country are now on exhibition at Barnum's
Museum, New York. "They comprise over one thousand specimens of living
animals and vegetation. In these tanks the water is seldom changed, the
natural operations of the plants and animals keeping it always pure."
They are made to order in New York, and we think might afford a pleasant
pastime to some, and pecuniary profit to others. A work giving
directions for making them has been published in New York. The author is
a Mr. Butler, who has got up the mammoth aquaria in Barnum's Museum.
There are two establishments in New York where they may be ordered, and
specimens seen. "Before we leave the margin of the sea, we must just
glance at the smaller occupations pursued there by women. The most
considerable of these was once the gathering and burning of kelp; but
chemical science has nearly put an end to that. There is still a great
deal of raking and collecting going on. In some countries half the
fields are manured with small fish and the offal of larger, and sea
weeds and sand. Then there is the gathering of jet and amber, and
various pebbles, and the polishing and working of them. The present rage
for studies of marine creatures must afford employment to many women who
have the shrewdness to avail themselves of it."
=41. Architects.= We scarcely know to what extent this branch of
business can come within the province of woman. Yet it is as
practicable, perhaps, as some we mention. Civil architecture is the only
one open to women. In this art we are as a people little more than
novices; yet great improvements are going on. In a century's time,
perhaps, the art in this country will have obtained the perfection of
ancient nations. Properzia di Rossi, born in Bologna, 1490, is said to
have furnished some admirable plans in architecture. The author of
"Women Artists" mentions as designers in architecture, Madame Steenwyck,
of the Dutch school, and Esther Juvenal, of Nuremberg. She also gives
the name of a lady who was a practical architect in Rome, in the
seventeenth century--Plautilla Brizio--who has left monuments of her
excellence in that species of art. The villa Giraldi, near Rome, is the
joint work of this lady and her brother. "The wife of Erwin von
Steinbach materially assisted her husband in the erection of the famous
Strasbourg cathedral; and within its walls a sculptured stone represents
the husband and wife as consulting together on the plan." The most
varied and general information is desirable for a first-class architect.
A knowledge of drawing and the first principles of geometry are the most
important requisites. Some architects select the materials for the
building, which of course requires a knowledge of the different kinds
and conditions of wood, their fitness for various parts of a building;
also, the qualities of iron, stone, brick, and whatever goes toward
making up the building. An architect should also select the most
suitable site for the erection of the intended structure, which would be
decided, to some extent, by the way in which it was to be used. He also
should be able to judge the nature of the soil, and the way in which a
want of fitness may be remedied. Then he must see that the foundation is
securely laid; and, as the building progresses, that the workmen carry
out the details of the plan which he furnishes. Much of this work seems
unsuitable for women; but the making and executing of plans could be
very well done by them. It would give exercise to their taste and
inventive talents. Men employed in architectural drawing earn from $1.25
to $3 a day of ten hours. Miss H. told me of a wealthy lady in New York
who is quite an architect by nature. Mrs. D. told me of a young lady of
her acquaintance who is gifted with talents that would make a superior
architect. She has planned several houses for her father, who has sold
them at an advance of from $3,000 to $4,000, on account of the
convenient arrangement of the rooms and their tasteful decoration. She
displays exquisite taste in the selection and arrangement of furniture.
She is withal economical in her expenditures. She is a close calculator
of the cost of materials, and a great economist of space.
=42. Cameo Cutters.= There are two kinds of cameo cutting--one with a
lapidary's wheel, of hard stones, as the onyx and the sardonyx. The
shell cameos are cut with small steel chisels, from the white portion of
the shell, leaving the chocolate color for the background. The figures
are in relief. The stone is prepared by the lapidary, and the artist
arranges his design according to the capabilities of the stone. He makes
a drawing in paper on an enlarged scale, and a model in wax of the exact
size, and the latter is carefully compared with the stone, and such
alterations made as the markings on the stone seem to require. The
outline is then sketched on the surface, and cut with tools prepared for
that purpose. After it has been properly cut, it is smoothed and
polished. In Mrs. Lee's "Sculpture and Sculptors" we find an account of
those that have engaged in cameo cutting in the United States. Mrs.
Dubois, of New York, cut several cameo likenesses of her friends, and so
well did she succeed that she went to Italy to acquire proficiency in
the art; but the artist to whom she applied said he could teach her
nothing--she had only to study the antique. John C. King, a sculptor of
Boston, has also engaged in the art of cutting cameos; and Peter
Stephenson, of Boston, had cut in 1853 between 600 and 700 cameo
likenesses. He writes me: "Cameo cutting might be done by girls,
especially the finishing process--polishing. When in Italy, some years
ago, I employed girls to polish my cameos, and paid from 12 to 50 cents
apiece. I think they earned about $1 a day. The employment is not
unhealthy, but confining." Margaret Foley, formerly a member of the New
England school of design, resided in Lowell, and cut cameos at $35
apiece. She was kept busy in filling orders. The Misses Withers, of
Charleston, S. C., are said to cut cameo likenesses with beauty and
skill. I saw Mr. L. a Frenchman, in New York, copying a likeness from a
daguerreotype. He also copies from life. He learned the business in
Paris. He charges $15 for those large enough for a breastpin, and which
it requires him about three days to make; smaller ones are lower in
price. He imports the stones, and furnishes without extra charge to
those for whom he works. A good intaglio worker can make cameos, but a
cameo worker cannot make intaglios. Some men can never learn the
business. It would form a beautiful pastime and a profitable and refined
occupation for a lady, if sufficient work could be obtained.
=43. Copperplate Engravers.= In a hasty reading of "Women Artists," we
find mention made of a number of ladies occupied at various times, in
different European countries, as copperplate engravers: in the sixteenth
century, one in Holland, and one in Italy; in the seventeenth century,
Germany produced seven, France one, Spain one, and Italy three; in the
eighteenth century, Italy two, France one, and Denmark one. It may have
been that some escaped my notice. Mr. S. told me he knew a family of
copperplate engravers; but the daughters are now married. I saw a lady
who engraves on copper; she had an office in New York. She was willing
to instruct a lady on these terms: after the pupil had acquired about
six months' practice, she would allow her half for all the work she did
in six months more; then she could be at liberty to work for herself.
She thinks a year sufficient time to acquire a good knowledge and
practice of card engraving. She had spent a year at it irregularly,
having no instructor, but asking advice and assistance now and then. In
that way she did not obtain the custom she would have done by being
known to others. The patience and careful attention to details
requisite, and the sedentary nature of engraving, render it a more
suitable occupation for women than men. To make a good card engraver, an
educated eye, a steady hand, and ability to form letters gracefully, are
the principal requisites. A card engraver told me he knew a lady who
assisted her husband in his work, that of copperplate engraving. As the
people of the United States become wealthy, and cultivate a taste for
the fine arts, engravers will be more patronized. There is a collection
of old and choice copperplate engravings in the possession of Mr.
Plassman, who has a school of art in New York; there is also such a
collection at the Historical rooms in the same city.
=44. Daguerreans.= The process consists in concentrating the light of
the sun on a metal plate, so prepared by chemicals as to retain the
impression of an image that falls upon it. The shadow catcher has become
almost interwoven with the every-day realities of life. Prof. Draper
speaks of daguerreotyping as introducing a beautiful work, in which "the
fair sex may engage without compromising a single delicate quality of
woman's nature." Some artists, not content with moving in the ordinary
way from place to place, have cars built that roll on wheels and are
drawn by horses. The daguerrean sleeps in his little home, and, on the
road, far away from a good tavern, can even do his own cooking, or have
it done, in his car. The business has also been carried on by men in
small boats, floating down rivers and stopping at villages and farm
houses. It requires taste and judgment both to make an operator and to
color. Colorers of photographs could, if skilful and constantly
employed, earn $30 a week in large cities. An operator, if busy, works
from 9 to 5 o'clock in winter. A wonderful improvement has taken place
in the daguerrean art since its discovery. A lady daguerrean and
photographer writes me: "Ladies are employed in the business as
operators, and to superintend; also to repaint and retouch photographs.
With care in the use of chemicals, I do not consider it particularly
unhealthy; less so, I think, than sewing by hand or machine. No person
will do well for himself, herself, or patrons, who commences business
without a good knowledge of it. The time of learning will depend upon
the individual's knowledge of the sciences bearing on photography, and
their talent for the business. It would vary from two weeks to three
months. The labor of the learner is usually given while learning, and
from $25 to $100 besides. Spring and fall are the best seasons, summer
the poorest; but there is no time during the year in which there is not
something to do. I operate and superintend in my own establishment, and
hire a boy only, who does chores. The principal discomforts of the
business are the heat to which we are exposed in summer (being usually
and necessarily near the roof), the smell of chemicals (which do not
unpleasantly affect any one), and the soiling of clothing, which is more
unavoidable with women. The amount of business, and consequently the
location, decide the profits of the business. As the business is
attended with considerable expense, it is necessary, in order to make it
pay, to seek a good location. It is profitable when a person is well
established in a desirable location. I think ladies and children usually
prefer a lady artist. Upon the whole, I think the business quite as
suitable for women as men. There is generally more or less spare time,
but a woman is most apt to occupy such time with fancy work or reading."
A daguerrean writes: "Women are sometimes employed in the reception room
to receive ladies--occasionally, in the operating room. They receive
from $3 to $8, according to capacity and address. Men generally command
better prices, because they can sometimes perform labor out of a woman's
sphere, such as unpacking goods, carrying packages, and other jobs, not
suitable for women. I think the business as healthy as any indoor
business. It requires from six to twelve months to learn the duties of
the operating room; for the reception room, from one to three weeks.
Industry, patience, perseverance, shrewdness, and suavity of manners,
are the necessary qualifications. Prospect for employment poor, as
prices are reduced to almost nothing. All seasons are nearly alike.
November and June are dull. Our women work in summer from seven A. M. to
six P. M. The work averages about eight hours per day the year through.
Men are superior in patience (?) and force of character. Women are
easily discouraged, and liable to be petulant. In many instances, there
is much running up and down stairs, which is harder on women than men.
And there is too much standing for a woman's health."
=45. Schools of Design.= Schools of design were established 444 B. C.,
for the purpose of improvement in making statuary. The arts declined
when Europe was overrun by barbarous tribes, but in the eleventh century
began to recover, and in 1350 several painters, sculptors, and
architects formed an academy of design at Florence. In Paris there are
seven schools of design for males, and two for females, supported by the
city. There are seventy schools of design in Great Britain, and there is
an annual exhibition of their work in London, where premiums are
awarded. It is about twenty years since the schools were commenced in
England. In 1854 nearly I,500 students had been educated in the School
of Arts in Edinburgh. There are schools of design in New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston. The object of these schools is to
give a knowledge of some industrial branches of the fine arts. "The
greater part of the higher order of designs are practically unavailable,
for want of knowledge, on the part of the designer, of the conditions of
the particular manufacture in question. The economic possibility and
aptitude are not studied; and hence, the manufacturers say, an enormous
waste of thought, skill, and industry. This want supplied, a field of
industry practically boundless would be opened to female artists, as
well as artisans; and it would be an enlightened policy to look to this
while the whole world seems to be opening its ports to our productions."
Mrs. Alice B. Havens writes of the school of design in Philadelphia:
"When novelty and jealousy shall have ceased to excite envy and
suspicion among those who would keep our sex from honest independence, a
wide sphere of employment will be opened by this and similar
institutions to educate intelligent women; for surely, if English
manufacturers are not content to be under the control of foreign
influence, our own countrymen can never be." The largest class of wood
engravers is in the school of New York; the largest for designing on
wall paper, in Philadelphia. More time has been devoted to instruction
in drawing in the New York than the Philadelphia school. Without some
practice in drawing, nothing can be accomplished in either wood
engraving or designing. Designing, in some of its branches, is taught in
all of the schools. Designs for paper hangings, calicoes, and wood
engraving receive most attention. Designs for carpets, silks, ribbons,
furniture, lace, plated ware, silver, jewelry, &c., have received but
little, if any attention--those for casts and moulds, no more. If women
of taste and cultivation attain superiority in designing, we doubt not
they will reap a very fair harvest for their work. Lithography, wood
engraving, drawing and painting, are also taught in schools of design.
There are now in the school of design, New York, between 200 and 300
pupils: some are wood engravers, some designers, and some painters. "The
earnings of the pupils in the classes of drawing and engraving are as
varied as their skill and experience, but are about the same as those of
men who have been at those branches of art the same length of time.
Engravers and designers are generally qualified to work on orders the
second year of their practice. With industry and the use of their _whole
time_ during school hours, pupils may expect an increase of about a $100
a year for several years. The income from the branches of art taught in
the school must always be proportioned to the talent, experience, habits
of application, and rapidity of hand shown by the artist. The engravers
in the school who best understand drawing have the best work, and even
the highest wages. The pupils have the entire benefit of their
earnings." "At Lyons, France, the manufacture of divers stuffs absorbs
the hands of thousands of men and women; but the men, only, enjoy the
privilege of inventing combinations of forms and colors destined to
inveigle the eyes of fashionable caprice." In the school of design,
Philadelphia, a charge of $9 per quarter is made to amateur pupils for
instruction, and a charge of $4 per quarter to professional pupils. In
the school of design, New York, a charge of $4 per quarter is made to
pupils who acquire instruction as an accomplishment: to those fitting
for a profession, no charge is made. A lady teacher in the New England
school of design had a salary of $400. We will copy an article placed at
our disposal on the artistic employments of women in America. It was
written by a former principal of the school of design in Boston: "The
artistic employments of women in this country may be divided into three
classes: 1st, those devoted to the fine arts; 2d, those engaged in
designing and the business departments of the arts; 3d, teachers of
drawing, painting, &c.--1. Under this head comparatively few will be
found; the number, however, is fast increasing, and as avenues of sale
for their works are found, I doubt not that there will be a marked
improvement both in the quality of their work and in the amount paid for
their labor. Most who pursue this department are confined to portrait
painting or crayon portraits. I have seen beautiful portraits in colored
crayons executed by ladies. I regret to say a comparatively small price
was given, varying from $10 to $25, while works executed by men not a
whit superior in any respect would command from $25 to $50, and even
more.--2. _Designing, and the Business Department of the Art._ This
admits of several divisions, and first we will take designing for
textile materials. When women are engaged in the mills, their labor is
very poorly paid for, compared with the payment made to the other sex. I
know of about twenty women who are so engaged. The prices paid for their
labor varies from $1 to $2 per day--men receiving from $800 to $1,200
and even $1,500 per annum. The difference here, however, is not so
great, when the time given by the two to the necessary study is
compared. Many of the male designers serve an apprenticeship varying
from three to seven years before they are supposed to be fitted to take
the situation of designer in a mill, and even this does not include the
preliminary instruction in the school. Women, on the contrary, after a
year or little more of study, enter the mill on equal terms with the
prepared designer, his pay at the commencement of his engagement usually
being from $1 to $1.50 per day. The employment of women at all in this
department is almost a new thing, and is not yet countenanced to any
great extent. Time, however, will remove all difficulties in the way,
and, by steady perseverance I think woman will be able to show herself
superior to man in this branch, because it is more in her own domain
than in that of man. When the designs of women are presented to
manufacturers and found acceptable, they will command a price equal to
the designs of men. This I speak from experience, having disposed of
designs for silver ware, printed coach linings, coach lace, paper for
walls, calicoes, delaines, and muslins, and other articles of like
nature. These have commanded the same price as the designs of men, but
it is difficult at times to find a market for them. I remember
presenting some designs to a manufacturer, about two years since, which
were very much praised; but when I stated they were made by ladies, at
first it was said to be impossible, and then they sunk in value, were
wrong in the mechanical detail, were not adapted to the purpose for
which they were intended; but, unfortunately for the truth of the latter
statement, they were disposed of to another manufacturer in the same
street, who had formed rather a different idea of the powers of women as
compared with men. A second branch of business art is drawing for
mechanical purposes and patent inventions. There are in this city many
ladies who earn quite a handsome income by drawing for the patent
office, patent agents, &c., the drawings chiefly linear mechanical ones,
the remuneration varying according to ability. Some are paid by the
piece, and others by the day. The day laborers earn from $1 to $2, and
in two instances $2.25 and $2.50 per day. The price of work varies
according to size, intricacy, finish, &c., the rate being nearly that
which men receive, in some instances the same. This requires mechanical
knowledge which is not very often possessed by women, but is a branch of
study that would be found both pleasant and profitable, especially if
they were prepared for it by an elementary course in the public schools.
It is not a branch that admits of much display, and is therefore almost
entirely neglected, or taught in such a way as to be utterly futile for
all practical purposes. A third branch is architectural drawing. I know
of but one instance of a woman pursuing this branch, which is both
delightful, useful, and very profitable. Perhaps there is not any
department of the fine arts to which woman might more successfully
devote herself than to this. Such a devotion of woman's power would tend
to abolish the gross deformities we so often see paraded before our eyes
in the streets, in the form of buildings presenting every possible
incongruity of shape and every perversion of the beauty of form. This
requires much study, but would eventually repay for all the time and
trouble that would be bestowed upon it. A fourth is wood and other
engraving. This commands as high a price as men's labor, when brought
into the market; but when women are employed in engraving
establishments, the grossest injustice is shown them in the inequality
of the payments made. A woman will receive, in the same place, for the
same amount of labor, a sum not exceeding half of that paid to the men
in the same employment. In England this department stands on a perfect
equality as regards sex. The quality of the work being the test of
price, it is the same to men as to women, if the quality is the
same.--3. _Teachers of Drawing and Painting._ This is always most
profitable when pursued independently of the schools. When it is so
pursued, the rate of payment varies from $5 to $25 per quarter, for each
pupil, excepting in the case of very small children, when the prices may
be a trifle lower, but the same would be the case with men as with
women. In most academies the service of teaching in this department is
given by preference to women, and at the same price. When they are
engaged simply as assistants, then a gross inequality begins. A man
would be paid say $200 or $300 per annum for one half day a week--a
woman $100 or $150 at most. The reason for this lies deeper than I can
divine, but in other instances when a lower price is paid, it is
generally the fault of the individual employed. There should, if
possible (and I conceive it to be so), be a fixed rate for teaching a
certain number of pupils, and so much more additional for every one
added: this would give a general rate for all to make their demands
upon. If more branches, or extended time, or any other demand was made
upon the individual teaching, then they would have some standard whereby
to regulate the extra charges. There is only one feature which requires
to be somewhat changed, and that is a tendency to superficiality. Women
oftentimes commence to teach before they themselves have taken more than
the most elementary steps for their own improvement. Time will, however,
regulate this deficiency; and as the resources of improvement open to
all, those who devote themselves to the honorable employment of teaching
will take all proper steps to fit themselves for the office.--There is
no department of the fine arts--painting, sculpture, architecture, or
manufacturing design--in which woman may not run an equal race with man,
if she takes the same trouble and care to fit herself for it, and, when
fitted, is faithful to her own interests and her profession. This will
never be accomplished by schools of design as at present instituted, for
they lose their character and become designing shops. This must be laid
aside, and culture, with a general or specific object, be alone attended
to for the time necessary to learn properly and thoroughly what they are
about to practise. Men and women both, now expect to learn the art of
designing fully in the course of six or twelve months. This can only be
done to a limited extent, depending on the powers of the pupil, the mode
of instruction, and the capacity of the teacher to win and to guide
those committed to his or her care. If the profession is entered upon
with unfitness and want of knowledge, then the prices of labor will be
necessarily reduced to a low scale; if with fitness, and a certainty of
our own capacity, we can demand 'a fair day's pay for a fair day's
work.' The interests of this nation demand the production of native
designs, and whenever her children are fully fitted to produce them, are
competent to put their designs side by side with those of other nations
and challenge a comparison, every other obstacle will dwindle into a
shadow, and every difficulty that now stands in the way of woman's
_natural_ place, in art at least, will be finally removed--to which end
'may God speed the plough.'"
=46. Miscellaneous Designers.= Designing is a peculiar, and more a
natural than a cultivated talent. A few years ago, Miss M. drew on stone
for the New England Glass Company. She received $10 a page, which she
could generally do in four days, working only four hours per day. Two
men had at different times done the work for the company, one receiving
less, and the other more than she. Misses L. and R. drew and designed in
the carpet factory at Lowell. They received $1.25 per day. A young lady
who designed at the Pacific Mills, in Lawrence, was said to receive $3
per day. Miss S., who had given but eighteen months' practice to
drawing, designed for ground and painted glass, and received $6 per
week. Designs for toys, dissected pictures, games, puzzles, &c., are an
appropriate filling up of spare moments for a designer. I was told by an
English seller of embroideries, that, in England, designing and making
patterns for embroideries is a distinct business. He has been at it many
years, and does not feel himself perfect yet. It is not made a distinct
branch in this country yet, because there is not enough of it done. Here
a few primary patterns can be arranged and rearranged so as to answer
all the demands of trade. A great deal of money is expended on
monuments, but there is a want of variety in the designs. A wide field
is here opened to operators in this department. Some designers in Boston
write me: "Only a few ladies are employed in our business, for there are
not many who are willing to devote the time necessary to become
proficient. Some are employed in Europe. The employment is not more
unhealthy than sewing. Women are paid according to their proficiency,
and earn from $3 to $15 per week. Women receive the same compensation as
men, if they do the work as well and as fast, but they ordinarily cannot
do either. They are not paid until they have spent two or three years
learning. A combination of artistic and mechanical talent is required.
The prospect for employment is good. There is not much variation in the
seasons for work. Ten hours is the average time required. There are now
as many in the business as can find lucrative or constant employment. It
requires not less than five years, generally more, to be a fair general
workman in this business. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are about
the only places where there is a demand for designers. A first-class
education and cultivated taste are absolutely necessary to success."
=47. Designers for Calico Prints.= This employment is well adapted to
women. It requires taste and ingenuity. Its labors are light, but rather
confining. A person of lively fancy and nice powers of discrimination
succeeds best. The gay, rich, dark colors of winter clothing are not
suitable for summer; nor are the light, delicate ones of summer suitable
for winter clothing. This inviting field of labor, now that it is
unbarred to woman, we hope will be well improved. Let her enter, and she
will find sufficient to "reward a careful gleaner with a valuable sheaf
or two." We do not speak of inventing and preparing designs for calico
prints particularly, but of the general field for designers. Some
proprietors engage a designer (here and there a lady) to stay at their
establishments, and devote all their time to the preparing of
designs--paying a fixed salary for the month, year, or any time
specified. Some adopt the same plan in wall-paper establishments. The
price generally paid for a design pattern for calicoes is from $1 to $3.
=48. Designers for Wall Paper.= One of the most important branches of
designing is that of preparing patterns for wall paper, fire screens,
&c. In the report of the Philadelphia School of Design it is stated that
one of the ladies of that school received $60 for a design some time
ago. They seldom bring that much, and all designs prepared will not
sell. The usual price for a good hall design is from $12 to $20; and of
paper for a room, from $12 to $16. We fear it will be long before the
beautiful designs of the French are equalled by Americans. Their taste
must be more highly cultivated before such is the case. Mr. C., of New
York, employs a designer (Frenchman), paying him $1,000 a year, who
receives in another manufactory a salary of $3,000 a year. N. C. & Co.
get some of their patterns from the school of design in Paris, because
the French have more taste in designing, or, rather, that taste has been
more cultivated. Brande gives the merits of designing as follows: "Every
work of design is to be considered either in relation to the art that
produced it, to the nature of its adaptation to the end sought, or to
the nature of the end it is destined to serve; thus its beauty is
dependent on the wisdom or excellence displayed in the design, in the
fitness or propriety of the adaptation, and upon the utility of the
end."
=49. Draughtswomen.= There are several kinds of draughting, or drawing
on stone: architectural, mechanical, letter, figure, and landscape. Very
few women have undertaken draughting in any of its branches. But we do
not see why it should be confined to men. We suppose the minds of some
women are as well adapted to the business as those of some men. Our
ideas of the fitness of women for architectural drawing are given under
the article Architects.
=50. Employés in the United States Mint.= A very interesting description
of the employment of ladies in the United States Mint at Philadelphia
will be found in _Godey's Lady's Book_, of August, 1852. Col. Snowden,
Director of the Mint, writes to me as follows: "Women are employed to
adjust the weight of the blanks or planchets, preparatory to the
coinage--each piece for the gold coinage being separately weighed and
adjusted. So also are the larger coins of silver; namely, the dollar and
the half dollar. They are also employed in feeding the coining presses.
There are about fifty women at present employed. This force is amply
sufficient for our present operations, and for any additional amount of
work that the mint may be called on to perform. The employments in which
they are engaged are healthy and pleasant. Some years ago the women
received seventy-five cents a day in the adjusting room, and eighty-five
cents for those employed in the coining room. Since that time I have
increased their per diem compensation to $1.10 in both departments. They
are paid monthly. Men employed in labor of a similar character secure
about $2.20 per day. A day's work is about ten hours; ordinarily the
women do not work more than seven or eight hours; sometimes more,
sometimes less, but never beyond ten hours. There are no other
occupations in the mint, than where they are now employed, suitable for
women. I am greatly in favor of employing women, and I have extended the
employment of them as far as it is practicable. For adjusting the weight
of coins, and attending or feeding the coining presses, I consider women
as not inferior to men, except that they cannot endure work for as great
a number of hours." The adjusting room is kept very close, as even the
breath of a person may affect the gold dust. The windows are kept closed
on that account all the year. Visitors are not permitted to enter this
room. I have been told that the adjusters wear chamois dresses, which
they change before leaving the mint. They are required to wash their
hands and clean their nails before leaving the premises, lest gold dust
should be in them. A great many applications are made for situations in
the mint. None but a thoroughly honest person should occupy so
responsible a place."
=51. Engravers and Chasers of Gold and Silver.= I was told by a lady in
Philadelphia, that had been engaged with her husband for some years in
chasing the backs of gold watches, and had laid by quite a snug little
fortune, that from $5 to $6 is paid for engraving a watch case. It
requires many years to render one a competent gold or silver chaser--I
think about five years. A general engraver told me he thought women
could very well engrave jewelry, silver, and card plates. The superior
taste of women could be exercised to advantage. He thinks a woman of
good abilities could obtain sufficient practice to earn good wages at
the expiration of six months. It is a very confining business, but one
that pays well. It requires more skill in drawing than beauty of
penmanship, though the last is a desirable item. A good engraver
calculates to earn $1 an hour. The kinds most suitable for a lady are so
clean that she need not have her clothes soiled by her work. Mr. C. knew
a lady once in New York who was a beautiful engraver. She learned the
business with her father. A watchmaker can soon learn to engrave,
because he uses similar tools, and knows how to handle them. A person
that can engrave watches could easily engrave coarser work. Engravers,
when employed by the week, earn from $12 to $25; and $15 a week is a
fair average of an engraver's wages. An engraver cannot well work more
than nine hours a day. Ornamental engraving is done in some jewelry
manufactories by women. Engraving is done with gravers, but chasing is
executed with punches and a small hammer. Engraving is more on the
surface than chasing. An article chased is indented on the inner side,
one engraved is not. It requires some time to excel in chasing and
engraving. There are two kinds of watch engraving--that of landscape and
that of borders. I was told by an Englishman that some silver-plate
chasing is done in England by women. A jeweler writes: "We occasionally
employ women in engraving--on brass, and we do not find any difficulty.
In this branch of business, we believe, they are more suitable than
men." Mr. S., who engraves on gold, silver, and other bright metals,
told me that a long time back all the engraving in his branch was done
in England by women. It is light work. The designing is like a lawyer's
work--hard on the brain. Most engravers in this country do their own
designing. His father was the first engraver in New York. He takes
apprentices for five years, not paying anything the first year, the
second, $2 a week and clothing, and increases according to the
attainments of the learner. There are two kinds of engraving in his
branch: the line engraving can be done with one tool, the other kind
requires several. He can obtain foreigners who can do both kinds
(usually called mongrel engraving), and who would be glad to get work.
Chasing and polishing are about as good mechanical pursuits as a woman
can follow. Some silver chasing is done by filling the article with
sand, and striking with proper tools; some is pressed with heavy
machinery. Soft chasing is done on metals, but the chasing of plated
ware requires some strength in the wrists, and is done before being
plated. The patterns are placed before the workers. It requires a long
time and application to acquire proficiency. More women could find
employment as chasers, if they would apply themselves long and closely
enough. A chaser, who employs eight girls in Providence in making and
chasing jewelry, writes: "They earn from $4 to $5 per week, but men from
$15 to $18. Women cannot do their work as well as men. Men spend from
two to three years learning, women from one to two months. Spring and
fall are the best seasons. The prospect of employment for women in this
branch is good. There are other parts of the jewelry business in which
women could be employed, and I think they will be. I prefer to employ
women, because they are cheaper." A jewelry engraver writes: "In some
branches of our style of engraving, women are employed in France and
Germany. The occupation is sedentary. The average rate of workmen is
$12. I think women could command the same prices as men. It requires
about one year to learn. There are but few first-class engravers. A bold
and steady hand, a ready and quick ingenuity, which would qualify a
person to be a good draughtsman and designer, are the qualifications
most needed for an engraver. About fifteen years ago there was no demand
for engraving, but it is now on the increase, and considered a necessary
finish to jewelry. About the Christmas holidays are the best seasons for
work. Ten hours a day are required. In the Western and Southern States
are openings--in large cities a surplus. I think, women are peculiarly
adapted to engraving, but they would be likely to marry, and then we
would have our trouble to repeat in teaching new learners."
=52. Equestrians and Gymnasts.= In equestrian entertainments, much
depends on the accessories. Without music, artificial light, and
paintings, they would be rather tame. The principal requisites for a
circus rider I take to be agility, grace, and fearlessness. Size and
form have not so much to do in making a successful rider and gymnast as
one would suppose. The athletic exercises require vigor and firmness of
muscle. One should be trained from the earliest childhood. Children
usually begin as early as three years old. In former times, these
children were, many of them, picked up in the streets, and there is no
doubt that these human waifs had a hard time of it; but now many of the
professionals bring up their own children to the business. All the
performers, in addition to their several "star" or "single" acts in the
ring, are required to appear in any capacity assigned them in the scenic
pieces and spectacles, and to attend the rehearsals of the same; also,
to appear and remain on the stage in proper dresses, for the purpose of
filling the scene, and giving a gay and animated appearance to the
stage. Mr. Nixon's establishment, New York, being the most complete in
the country, and being thoroughly systematized in every department, will
serve as the best source from which to derive information concerning the
routine duties required, and the weekly moneys paid there to circus
performers. "The principal performers in Mr. Nixon's company are paid as
follows: Ella Zoyara, equestrian, in addition to first-class passage
from England and back for self and two servants, medical attendance for
self and servants, carriage and horses whenever required, and a benefit
every two weeks, receives per week $500; Mr. William Cooke, equestrian,
manager, passages for self and wife from England and return, and per
week, $500; James Robinson, equestrian, for self and three horses, $305;
the Hanlon brothers, six persons, gymnasts, per week $300; Mr. Charlton,
stilt walker, passage, &c., $125; Mr. Duverey, contortionist, passage,
&c., $125; Mlle. Heloise, equestrienne, $100; Mlle. Clementine,
equestrienne, $100; M. and Mad. Du Boch, equestrians, $100; Master
Barclay, equestrian, ten years old, $75; Mr. Whitby, ringmaster and
equestrian, $100; Mr. S. Stikney, equestrian and general performer,
$100; Mr. J. Pentland, clown, $100; Mr. Ellingham, ringmaster and
general performer, $40; Mr. Armstrong, equestrian and general performer,
$40; W. Kincaid, do., $40; W. Pastor, do., $30; W. Bertine, do., $30;
Brennan, do., $25; Niel, do., $25; F. Sylvester, do., $20; A. Sylvester,
do., $20; W. Ward, slack rope and clown, $30; Prof. Yates, ballet
master, $25; Mr. Stark, general performer, $25; S. Ruggles, $20;
Davenport, $20; Foster, $20; Peterson, $20; four lady equestrians, per
week, each $20; and twenty ballet girls and twenty supernumeraries." We
extract from an English paper the following statement: "In Paris, no
less than 15,000 persons were admitted yesterday, although the prices
were doubled for the occasion, to witness the performance on the tight
rope of a woman--Madame Blanche Saqui--who is entering her eighty-fifth
year."
=53. Etchers and Stamp Cutters.= In England, in the seventeenth century,
Anna and Susannah Lister were regarded as having much skill in the noble
art of etching. They illustrated a work on natural history written by
their father. A century later, the Countess Lavinia Spencer and a Miss
Hartley became noted for their skill in etching. Rosa Elizabeth
Schwindel, of Leipsic, worked at the business of a stamp cutter in the
beginning of the eighteenth century; and two Frenchwomen during the same
century--M. A. de St. Urbin and E. Lesueur.
=54. Herbarium Makers.= Herbariums are collections of dried plants. They
are formed by gluing to sheets of paper the flowers and leaves of
plants, after they have been pressed and dried. To botanists, they are
useful; and a choice collection is a frail, but pretty ornament, for a
centre table. The largest public herbaria are at Berlin, Paris, and
London. It is supposed that some of them may contain as many as 60,000
species. There is not much of beauty or interest in such a collection,
but for scientific purposes they may be valuable. It is not unusual to
see them made of the plants and weeds of the sea; and a very pretty
collection do they make, if got up with taste. A book has been lately
printed containing plates, with explanations for making them into
pictures and other fanciful arrangements. The making of herbariums of
both earth and marine plants, would furnish a pleasant pastime to ladies
of leisure, and a source of revenue, perhaps, to those who might wish to
make it a matter of profit.
=55. Lapidaries.= A skilful manipulation is necessary to the business of
a lapidary. If woman has sufficient firmness of nerve to perform the
duties of surgeon, we see not why she would not have for the cutting of
precious stones. It is a business conducted on a limited scale and by
few persons in this country. Mr. R., of New York, told me that a lady in
Birmingham, England, had a large establishment, and employed women and
girls to work for her. He knew of no lady that worked at the business in
the United States, except one that used to be in an establishment on
Broadway. The employment, he thinks, is not unhealthy. After a lady has
learned, she would probably earn from $4 to $5 a week, working for
others. He received $12 a week when working as a journeyman. He spent
seven years as an apprentice in England, but he learned the manufacture
of jewelry in connection. The prospect of employment depends much on the
condition of the money market, but there is reason to think the business
will increase as the country grows older. All seasons of the year are
alike. Money matters only make a change. He says there are many books
written on the precious stones and the art of cutting and polishing
them. He mentioned a book by a lady of London on the subject. Mr. H., an
importer and manufacturer of cornelian and other fancy goods, told me
that grinding precious stones is very hard work. Men lie across wooden
benches to apply the agate, cornelian, or whatever it may be, to the
grindstone. There are eight grindstones, weighing twenty tons each, on
one axle. The polishing is done by boys, who sit at small wooden wheels,
some of which are covered with leather. Sometimes women do this work. As
this method of grinding stones is done by water power, it is done more
cheaply than by steam. In Germany, a man who works at precious stones or
makes up jewelry at home, has his wife and daughters to assist him, and
hires a peasant girl to do his housework. The women and girls make the
fastenings for earrings, and file and polish the rings. He pays seventy
cents a gross in Germany for them. He says, in the country and villages
of northern Germany daughters are considered treasures, for they remain
at home, and by their handiwork maintain themselves; but in the south of
Germany, where there are no manufactures, girls are a burden on their
parents. B., of Philadelphia, used to employ girls to set up jet,
garnet, and turquoise for grinding; but those stones are now out of
fashion, and so girls are not employed. He says an old lady, whose
daughter is connected with the Home Mission, wished them to give
instruction to her daughter in cutting stones, that she might, as a
pastime, cut those brought by members of the family from the seashore
and watering places. He thought it likely she would also teach the art
in the Mission School. Cutting facets he thought pretty work for women.
They can either sit or stand at the tables. There is nothing unhealthy
in the grinding, as the stones are kept wet all the time. But the dust
used in nipping glass and stones is injurious to the lungs. When a man
has been nipping all day, his nostrils are nearly closed. The amount of
work depends on fashion. There are seven establishments in Providence,
and the work is done by steam. Some stones cannot be cut by steam
machinery, as the wheel must every few seconds be graduated in motion.
In hard times, the jewelry business and employments connected therewith
are dull, as people dispense with superfluities. Southerners buy most
jewelry, but now they do not indulge in such purchases.
=56. Landscape Gardeners.= Mrs. R. often goes and looks at gardens,
directs how to lay them out, and what to buy for them. She then orders
the plants of others, and sells on commission, having them arranged
according to her own taste, influenced by that of the purchaser. Her
purchases are made of a German, living some distance from town, who can
raise them cheaper than she could in the city. Her compensation, of
course, varies greatly. A landscape gardener writes: "What a lady could
do as landscape gardener at the West, I do not know. I am rather
inclined to doubt her success at the East. It would require too much
time and space to enter here into the details of what are required to
constitute a landscape gardener: First, one must have a decided love for
it, and a willingness to sacrifice much to the pleasure of the
occupation. Nor can I say a great deal in favor of the profits. I have
never been able to make a living by the profession, although I have
often thought if I had gone to New York, or farther West, the case might
have been different. In pages 381 and 382 of 'Country Life,' and in many
other parts of the book, you will see what I consider essential to the
making up and preparation of a landscape gardener, and better expressed
than I can condense into a letter." Mr. C., of Massachusetts, writes: "I
have never known a lady to undertake the profession of landscape
gardening; and much of the labor which I find it necessary to perform,
would be impossible for a lady. Still, there is much in which female
taste would find abundant field for exertion, if the labor could be so
divided as to make it profitable. My first work on any estate is to make
an accurate topographical survey of the ground, and draw a plan of it in
its natural state, and then proceed to make my designs for its
arrangement; and when that is done, if required, I undertake the
superintendence of the work at the ground. A lady would have to employ a
surveyor, in the first place, and would labor under many disadvantages
in directing the operations upon grounds; and, to judge from my own
experience, the business could not be made profitable under such
circumstances. Loudon's 'Encyclopædia of Gardening' will give the best
directions I know of for the necessary operations of designing and
executing plans, and Downing's work, with Sargent's appendix, comprises
enough suggestions, on matters of taste, for the use of any person who
is possessed of innate natural taste, without which I would advise no
one to attempt to be a landscape gardener."
=57. Lithographers.= The impression for chalk drawings is made by
delicate manipulations with crayon pencils; for ink drawings, with steel
pens and camel-hair brushes. It requires one skilled in the use of her
pencil, for every stroke of the pencil or pen on the stone remains, and
cannot be erased. Consequently, any defect on the stone is conveyed to
every copy of the paper. In answer to a letter of inquiry, respecting
the time necessary for preparation, the writer says: "A person who draws
well upon paper would, I should think, with six months' practice on
stone, become proficient. The process differs little from crayon drawing
on paper; and the progress of pupils depends entirely on their previous
attainments in drawing. The different kinds of lithography are black,
chromo, and gold illuminated; also, lithography combined, or uncombined,
with embossing. In a report of a British school of design, it is stated
that the chromo-lithographic class for females "exhibit the commencement
of a series of useful labors." An immense number of cheap lithographs
are colored by women; such as are hung in taverns, country houses,
sailors' homes, servants' rooms, &c. At Mr. C.'s establishment, I was
told that in France the females are quite as successful as the male
artists in lithography. He says lithographs require to be more highly
colored than the colors we see in nature. Mr. C. thinks of sending to
France for lithographers, as he cannot get enough in New York well
qualified. A correct eye, skilful manipulation, and an appreciation of
art are required to make one skilful in lithography. Germans excel,
because they have so much patience. An American would become nervous at
the slow work that they prosecute with the greatest pleasure. At Mr.
C.'s they have a forewoman, who superintends the girls, who are paid by
the quantity and kind of work they do. He finds that small girls are
usually the best workers. Their fingers are more nimble, and they enter
into it with more zeal. He thinks it best for them to commence at ten or
twelve years of age. Prospect good for employment in that branch. The
coloring of all the finest pictures is done by men. It requires some
time to become sufficiently expert to earn much. Their girls earn from
$3 to $7 a week. The work requires care, and is wearisome, because of
sitting long and steadily. Mrs. P., Brooklyn, an English lady, learned
to draw when eight years old, and studied lithography with a
distinguished artist of London, who executed entirely with his left
hand, having lost three fingers on his right when he was a child. She
has spent twenty-two years in lithographing--seventeen of them in this
country. She is probably the only lady professionally engaged in this
business in the United States. She has earned almost constantly, I was
told, from $12 to $30 a week. Lithographing is very lucrative to a
skilful artist. The remuneration is better than women often receive for
their handiwork. We believe some women could find employment in it, if
they were prepared. Mrs. P. excels in architectural drawing. She thinks
one must have the talent of an artist, and great practice with the
pencil, to succeed. She has given instruction to several youths, but
never to one of her own sex. One must be articled, and pass through a
regular course of advancement, to follow it advantageously. To an
apprentice, after two or three years' practice, a small premium is paid.
She had one youth to learn of her, who, after four years' time, received
$7 a week from her for his work. She thinks there will be employment to
a few well qualified. She has always been kept busy. The employment is
not more unhealthy than any other of a sedentary kind. Mr. M. says they
have no difficulty in finding enough of crayon lithographers, but that
there is more lithographic engraving done than crayon lithographing. It
is done on stone with instruments, very much as engraving is done on
copper. We have read "that an improved method of transferring copies of
delicate copper and steel plate engravings to the surface of
lithographic stone has been invented. One copy taken from the steel or
copper plate, after being transferred to the stone, is capable of
producing 3,000 prints." "Lithography, engraving, and especially
engraving on wood, would gain in quality by passing from men's hands to
the hands of women." "Lithographic works are produced which rival the
finest engravings, and even surpass them, in the expression of certain
subjects." The first lithography executed in the United States was in
Boston, 1826. W. & S. used to employ girls to color lithographs, but
found it did not pay. They paid from $4 to $5 a week to women, who did
the common part of the work. Men did the finer parts, and earned from
$12 to $25 a week; but only those who are expert, have artistic taste,
and understand the business, can earn so much. French lithographs are
prepared and the coloring done so much cheaper in Europe, they have
ceased to have it done in New York. B., lithographer, Philadelphia,
employs many ladies--about twenty--in the house. Some associate in
companies, and take their work to the house of one of their number; but
the greater part are educated women, who do not wish it known that they
earn money by their labor: these carry the plates to their own homes
(and even have them sent to the fashionable places of resort in summer),
so that many a fair damsel trips along Chestnut street with a roll of
something, which seems to be music, but is, in fact, work. The coarse
handed take no part in this employment. Very few have ever attained the
highest degree of proficiency in it. The most delicate work is done by
men. Americans have most aptness for coloring, although the Germans
excel in drawing on stone. Women seldom attempt the latter art. It
requires long practice for girls to excel in coloring. Many grades of
skill are required to color lithographs, and there is much difficulty in
making all the copies exactly like the first. Some need a treatment so
nearly approaching the artistic, that scarcely any one who has the skill
can be found to give his labor for the price, which is necessarily
limited. We gained no information as to the amount of wages paid to the
colorists, but, judging from the price of a very beautiful specimen (29
cents), it must be sadly inadequate. The scientific societies are the
main support of this business. The Government, indeed, gives very
extensive orders, but there is always so much competition to obtain
them, that the profit is small. Audubon was the greatest encourager of
this branch of industry. This employment is very desirable in every
respect for educated women; and although machinery for printing in
colors is fast encroaching on it, yet it will long offer a field for
female enterprise. Our informant employs from 100 to 300 hands,
according to the prosperity of the times. A commercial crisis affects
this as well as all other trades. One of the firm of the best
lithographic establishment in New York, told me they pay their men for
drawing on stone from $25 to $30 a week. The time required to learn
lithography, he thought, would depend much on natural talent. A good
knowledge of drawing is necessary. He thought men would soon get over
the opposition of women entering the business; but they did not like the
restraint of working where women are. They would soon become accustomed
to it; and if they were women of the right kind, it might be a very
beneficial restraint. But, as to that, women could do the work at home.
Many Germans, well acquainted with the art, are engaged in crayoning.
When they first come to this country, they work for lower wages than
Americans, but after a while learn their value, and ask as much as any
one else. On account of the low wages for which foreigners can usually
be had, but few Americans have prepared themselves for this occupation.
But when work is plenty, and the individual industrious and skilful, he
can earn good wages. Seven eighths of the work done for this country is
executed in New York. The agent of a lithographic company writes:
"Drawing on stone could be done by women as well as men; and would open
to them a very genteel and remunerative branch of business. The drawing
is now done mostly by Germans and Frenchmen; but ladies who have a taste
for drawing could soon learn this art. The usual price for such artists
now is from $12 to $35 per week." Prof. P., of New York, gives
instruction in lithography, charging $12 per quarter of eleven
weeks--two lessons per week. Special arrangements are made with pupils
who intend to devote themselves to the profession as artists or
teachers. A gentleman remarked to me that Mr. S., a certain
distinguished lithographer of this city (New York), would make an
excellent teacher in that art. His forte is heads. A few strokes from
his pencil always give a beautiful finish to a piece of work.
=58. Map Makers.= Women could not well travel about to obtain
information of localities for the making of maps, but nearly all the
manual labor connected with the business would be very suitable for
them. Lithographing maps is said to be a profitable branch of the art,
and opens a field to competent women. Attending the machines for making
impressions from the stones might very well be performed by women. "In
Philadelphia, map coloring gives employment to about 175 females, some
of whom display exquisite taste in this delicate art." There used to be
150 girls in New York painting maps, but there are very few now.
Freedley tells of a map-manufacturing establishment in Philadelphia that
"turns out 1,200 maps weekly. Connected with it are two lithographic
printing offices, having twenty presses, and coloring rooms, in which 35
females are employed." I was told by a lady who had colored maps, that
it is trying on the eyes and poorly compensated. A map maker said he was
always most busy in the fall, and then employed from 12 to 16 women. In
winter he employed about half that number, and they principally married
women, who have worked for them several years. Mr. W. pays two of his
best and most experienced lady workers a certain sum by the week, and
they hire girls and women to work for them. The profits of these
forewomen, aside from their own work, amount to $1.50 to $2 a week the
year round. Girls receive $1.50 a week while learning. It requires from
six months to one year to become proficient. Neatness, a steady hand,
knowledge of colors, and fineness of touch, are the principal requisites
for a good map colorist. It requires no artistic knowledge. An
expeditious and experienced hand can earn $1 a day. There is at present
a need of hands in New York, and a surplus in Philadelphia. All seasons
are alike in this business, except as monetary affairs are concerned.
All Mr. W.'s hands work in the house. They work about nine hours a day
all the year, and never take maps home with them, as they are mostly
large and heavy maps. Map making is mostly confined to Philadelphia and
New York. None are made in the South and West. There is one map
publisher reported in Richmond, but he has his maps made in New York.
Mr. C. gives his maps to a map mounter, who employs a girl to sew the
bindings on with a sewing machine. She is paid at the same rate as any
other operator. The paper bindings are of course pasted on. Mr. C.
employs one girl to paint the outlines, but all the other painting is
done by stencil plates. Map coloring formerly gave employment to many
females, but now it is very rare that a map is colored by hand. The
stencilling process introduced by the Germans has superseded it, as they
are thereby rendered cheaper. Girls used to earn 75 cents to $1 a day
for painting maps. If girls would learn stencilling and work on their
own responsibility, they might compete with the Germans. The process is
very simple and soon learned. At Mr. H.'s, I saw a large room full of
Germans stencilling. Men earn $8 or $9 a week, and do it faster and
better than girls, as they have more strength. I saw one girl shading,
who earned $1 a day. A map manufacturer writes me: "In map coloring I am
compelled to employ men to a large extent. A curious fact is, that
respectable middle-aged women, who have been coloring for years on
piecework, make from $4 to $5 per week; while young men, comparatively
unpractised, earn at the same prices, say from $9 to $10." A
manufacturer who employs about 80 females, writes: "I employ women in
pasting and putting down maps, who receive from $3 to $4 a week, being
paid by the week, and working ten hours a day. The difference in prices
of male and female labor is about one half. One can learn the business
in a few weeks; the only qualifications requisite are sobriety and
strength. The prospect for work in this branch is good. There is no
difference in the seasons. Some parts of the work can be done more
cheaply by women. A supply of hands can always be had. The women do
their work less carefully than men." A map publisher in New Hampshire
writes: "I employ 28 women and girls in binding, mounting, stitching,
and coloring maps, and pay from $3 to $6 per week, working eight hours a
day. The engraving is done by men, who receive from $6 to $20 per week.
Women's labor can be learned in a few weeks, and is not so hard or
difficult as men's. Engravers spend three years learning. I employ women
to color, because they have better taste than men. Draughting surveys,
engraving, and lithographing have never been attempted by women. New
York is preferable as a locality." A gentleman in Boston writes: "We
employ from four to eight women in our map-mounting department. They
could not be employed in any other branch, which is varnishing and
polishing all kinds of hard wood. There are a large number employed in
New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo. Pay varies from $3 to $5 per
week--ten hours a day. We employ no men in this branch. There is
something new to learn every day. Business is the same all the year. We
pay our girls nothing while learning." A lithographer in Boston writes:
"I employ women to color maps and pictures, paying by the piece, the
workers earning from $3 to $6 per week. The employment is not
unhealthy."
=59. Medallists.= "Beatrice Hamerani worked at medallions, and in 1700
elaborated a large medallion of Pope Innocent XII., highly praised by
Goethe." "Toward the end of the seventeenth century we hear of Madame
Ravemann, who executed a beautiful medal, an exquisite specimen of
cutting." In the school of design in New York, we saw two very
creditable medallions, executed by one of the members of the school.
=60. Modellers.= An ornamental designer and modeller writes me: "In
England I attended my lady pupils at their own residences, except one to
whom I gave instruction at my residence. One was the daughter of the
Lord Mayor of the city, another the daughter-in-law of the Earl of H.
Very few ladies learn any of the higher branches of art, except those
that do so for recreation. A person that has some skill in drawing
would, without the slightest doubt, soon acquire a knowledge of this
beautiful art. Some persons have a natural gift for modelling, while
others would not learn it with all the cultivation arising from
education and good society. Probably the best source of employment in
New York would be to design and model for the silversmiths--such as Ball
& Black, Tiffany, &c. One of the most fertile departments in Europe to
lady modellers is not carried on to any extent in this country--the
making of fine pottery. The fingers, of course, must be soiled in
modelling; but such an inconvenience is trifling compared with the
pleasure of forming fruit, flowers, and foliage, or modelling the
medallions of friends." The modelling of gas fixtures might afford
employment to a small number of qualified women. We know of one
establishment in Philadelphia where part of the designing for fixtures,
lamps, and chandeliers, is done by a lady, and all the copying done for
illustrated catalogues of those which are finished. She receives $6 a
week, and goes about 9 o'clock A. M. and remains until 4 P. M. Mr P., at
his school of art in New York, has a very large collection of casts. He
gives instruction to boys and young men in modelling and drawing,
charging 25 cents a lesson of 3 hours in the day or 2 in the evening.
They are instructed in classes. Some of his casts are gigantic. In one
of his rooms is a beautiful, but small model, in wax, for $300,
representing a hunting scene. We have been told that some ladies in
Germany model wax patterns for the ornamental work on china. Few tools
are used by a modeller--the only ones are for the sharp and delicate
parts that cannot be formed by the fingers. As clay does not shrink
uniformly in drying it is moulded before drying in plaster of Paris, and
a cast of the same material taken from that, which serves as a model for
the workman. Some artists model in wax. Women might be employed in
modelling ornamental and scroll work for brass founderies, &c., and get
good wages.
=61. Modellers of Wax Figures.= Catharine Questier, who lived in
Amsterdam about 200 years ago, besides possessing many other
accomplishments, was a modeller in wax. Joanna Sabina Preu, who lived in
Germany not long after, was noted in the same way. A daughter of a
Danish king also modelled in wax. "Professor Anna Manzalius, an Italian
lady, modelled excellent portraits in the beginning of the eighteenth
century." In England, in the early part of the eighteenth century, Mrs.
Samore modelled figures and historical groups in wax. Mrs. Patience
Wright, born in Bordentown, New Jersey, 1725, made a great many
likenesses in wax. Some were full length and some were busts. They were
mostly of the statesmen that were conspicuous in the American colonies
at that time--yet some were of Englishmen, as she resided in London,
after she became a widow, and supported her family by her handiwork. Her
daughter, Mrs. Platt, modelled in wax in New York in 1787. I saw a maker
of wax figures who said he had supported his family by his work, and
thought a few others might make a living at it. One must be able to draw
a model before undertaking wax figures. It requires good perceptive
powers, ability to distinguish colors, and a peculiar taste. One must be
able to work from life, and it is well to know how to do so from
pictures. Mr. G., interested in Barnum's museum, told me that it was
impossible to get such wax figures made in this country as they want. He
spoke of the miserable imitations that are made, and thought a person
well qualified would be patronized. Most of the groups in Barnum's
museum were made by Mrs. Pelby, of Boston. Mr. Barnum wrote to Mr.
Tussaud, whose mother made those so famous in London (and who is living
now), to know if he would instruct some one to send to America; but he
is not willing to give any one instruction. He employs persons to make
the different parts; one set of workers make the bodies, another the
heads, another the feet, &c. The world-famed group of his mother, Madame
Tussaud, was first opened in Paris about 1770. After being exhibited in
the large towns of Great Britain, it was taken to London, where it still
remains. The figures are so life-like that now and then one is mistaken
for a living person, while a person is as often mistaken in the group
for one of the figures. More than forty persons are kept in charge of
the exhibition.
=62. Mineral Labellers and Arrangers.= A lady could not easily make
collections of minerals, but she might find it an absorbing occupation
to arrange and label them. Few ladies in our country have given any
study to mineralogy, and very few would be competent to form cabinets.
Yet, for those that are, we doubt not employment of that kind could be
found. The individual wealth of our country has not been sufficient to
enable many to make extensive collections. The most that exist are
connected with universities and other institutions of learning. They
have been collected at different times--in fact, mostly formed by single
specimens, added now and then. Individual collections have been formed
in the same way. Individuals add to the cabinets of their friends, as
they have it in their power. The most extensive collections in the
United States are at the Patent Office, Washington, and in the National
Academy of Science, Philadelphia. Mr. H., a mineralogist from Berlin,
says: "In Berne, Switzerland, a man and his wife are mineralogists. On
the husband's death the wife will continue the business." It must
require many years' study and an extensive knowledge of chemistry to
become a superior mineralogist. I would think considerable time and
capital were requisite for a mineralogist to establish himself. Mr. H.
makes exchanges of minerals for others, receiving, I suppose, a
commission for doing so. A geologist writes me: "No women are employed
in my business. It requires one half of a lifetime to become fitted for
the duties of a geologist. A knowledge of engineering, and most of the
natural sciences, is needed. Draughting in the office is the only part
suitable for women."
=63. Musicians.= Madame Romeau says: "Few women have been engaged in
musical compositions, and they have rarely undertaken important works.
In painting and literature one is pre-occupied only with the work of the
author. In music, it requires the coöperation of two persons--the
composer, and the performer. Books and paintings act upon us without any
intermediate objects, while the piece of the composer, to be understood,
needs the flow of harmony noted on the paper in hieroglyphic signs, and
must escape under the fingers from the instrument. It is necessary to
animate the inert matter--to make it yield to the wish of the performer
and reproduce the inspirations of the composer. Few women compose songs.
A musician leads a different life from an artist, who lives in her
studio and has few expenses. A musician must face the crowd, and hear
its dissatisfaction, and smile at its applause. A cantatrice, or
songstress, often travels from town to town like an actress." Some
persons think none of the arts can be purely religious except music.
"Mozart in music, and Raphael in colors, have taught us the spiritual
ministry of the senses." A comparatively small quantity of music has
been composed in the United States. The study of a lifetime is bestowed
by very few on music. Some American ladies have gone to Europe to
perfect their musical taste, and a few have acquired distinction. With
musicians, as with vocalists--those who, in this country, have reaped
the greatest profits in the shortest time were foreigners. Some were
pianists, some flutists, some violinists--some one thing, and some
another. The composition of music for soirées, fancy balls, masquerades,
tableaux vivants, private theatricals, operas, dramas, musical farces,
ballets, &c., might occupy all the spare time of musicians capable of
composing. There is a circulating library in London of 42,000 volumes.
There is, also, one in New York and one in Brooklyn. Subscribers to the
one in Brooklyn pay in advance for one year $12, with the privilege of
selecting from the catalogue $6 worth of music at the termination of the
subscription; for six months, $6; for three months, $3; for a single
piece worth less than $1, 6 cents per week; less than $2, 9 cents per
week. Mr. G. thinks a lady can never become a good violinist, because it
requires great strength in the right arm. The muscles of violinists are
as rigid as a blacksmith's. I have heard that occasionally a pianist
acquires such strength in his hands that he could almost prostrate you
with one of his fingers. A gentleman told me, ladies could not become
superior organists; that they cannot have sufficient power developed. It
requires much strength of hands and feet. He remarked, the organist, at
the church he attended, was a lady, but made no comments on her
qualifications. I have known two lady organists, who were considered
superior performers, and received as good salaries as gentlemen would
have done. One received $500 for playing twice on Sabbath. On week days
she gave instruction. I was told that she supported her whole family for
years by her musical talents, and laid by money with which she purchased
a comfortable dwelling in a city in New York State. The salaries of
organists are small considering the amount of talent and practice
required; but most organists teach music, or stand in music stores, or
act as agents for manufacturers of musical instruments. "In the summer
of 1860, among the Marblehead band of female shoe strikers in the
procession at Lynn, Mass., was Miss Margaret Hammond, fifteen years old,
who beat the drum in martial style the whole line of march." "In Ohio
they have a lady drummer, who has received a diploma for her skill. Her
name is Minerva Patterson, a daughter of Major Elisha Patterson, a
wealthy farmer of Jersey, Licking Co." The French papers have given some
insight to the prices paid great musicians, Malibran received in London,
for every performance at Drury Lane, $750; Lablache, for singing twice,
$750, and for a single lesson to Queen Victoria, $200. At a soirée in
London Grisi received $1,200. Paganini charged $400 a lesson. "Herz and
Thalberg each made about $60,000 in this country." There is a female
musical society in London which gives concerts for benevolent objects.
=64. Music Engravers and Folders.= Mr. L. engraves and prints music, and
employs two ladies to fold it. There are but few music engravers. The
smaller the number of persons in any one kind of business the higher the
prices they can command. A lady in New Orleans engraves, whose husband
is a music printer. It would require but two or three years to learn it.
Some ingenuity, a knowledge of the value of notes in music, and judgment
in the arrangement of them are necessary to make an engraver. In New
Orleans, eight months are usually considered a year, I believe, in
business arrangements. At a music engraver's the young man told me that
he never heard of a woman engraving music in this country, but he knows
that some do in Paris. The work they turn out, he added, is not good; it
will not wear, because women have not sufficient strength in the wrist
to engrave as deeply as a man. A person who engraves plates for music
can earn from $3 to $5 a day. German work is considered the best,
because the quality of the ink used is better. Music engraving is
divided into two distinct branches--one is lettering and engraving the
title page--the other is engraving the notes. No steam machinery has
ever been invented for printing music, because the ink must all be put
on the way the work is done. Music is one of the first things dispensed
with in hard times.
=65. Opera Performers.= The first opera of modern times was performed
about the close of the fifteenth century. At the first introduction of
the opera into France and England, it was much ridiculed by wits and
critics. Voltaire, however, and others, came to its rescue, and with
what success may be known, when it is acknowledged to be one of the
favorite amusements of the fashionable world. The want of adaptedness of
the opera to the English language has to a great extent excluded
successful efforts at translation. Yet some operas have of late years
been performed in English. "In Paris, the Italian opera is patronized by
the Government, as a school of vocal music; and the managers are careful
to maintain a complete and skilful company." In an opera, the music is
the most important part, while at the theatre the music is subordinate
to the play. The orchestra in some parts of the opera accompanies, and,
in others, seems to respond to the sentiments of the piece. The operatic
performance is not so warm, so impassioned, so abandoned, as that of the
theatre. The trilling and sudden starting, so common in operas, is
rather too artificial to please the unsophisticated. A conversational
style is seldom used, but the words are expressed in a recitative style
that is graceful and effective. In Germany, however, dialogue has been
introduced. Good imitative powers are essential to success. The noble
talent of music has been desecrated, in some operas, by the impure
thoughts and language expressed. In the United States probably not more
than thirty, out of the entire audience of several hundred, sufficiently
understand the Italian, to follow the play without considerable effort;
but it is so much of a pantomimic character that much is gained by the
sense of sight. Much of the zest and interest are lost to those who are
indifferent to the accessories. On this account, we suppose it can never
become a favorite amusement with the generality of people. The French
papers give some curious statements in regard to the salaries paid to
great musical artists. We learn that Hummel left a fortune of $75,000,
and twenty-six diamond rings, thirty-four snuff boxes, and one hundred
and fourteen watches, which had been presented to him at various times.
In modern days musicians are quite as extravagantly paid. Alboni and
Mario get $400 every night they sing; Tamberlik, every time he sings a
certain high note, demands $500; Madame Gazzaniga was paid $500 a night
recently in Philadelphia; Lagrange, at Rio Janeiro, is now receiving a
princely salary; and Piccolomini cost her manager over $5,000 a month;
and these prices are said to be moderate, compared with those often paid
in Europe to distinguished musical artists. At the opera house in Paris,
for the present season, Mr. Colzado, the manager, pays as follows: to
Tamberlik, for seventeen representations, $8,000; Alboni, $2,200 for
seven representations; Mario, $15,000 for a season of five months;
Grisi, $5,000 for two months; Madame Perer, $14,000 for the season; the
Grazioni brothers, $15,400; Corsi, a baritone, $4,000; Galvani, $3,600;
Nantin Didere, $4,000; Tecehini, $3,600; Mlle. de Ruda, $3,400. The
chorus and orchestra cost for the season $17,600. "Parodi, the American
prima donna, receives no less than $30,000 per annum, a larger salary
than that paid to the President of the United States." "Miss Hensler,
the American prima donna, has been engaged by the manager of La Scala
for fifteen months, at the rate of $170 a month." "Sophie Curveth
receives $2,500 a month, for eight representations; for every
representation beyond eight in the month, $300 more."
=66. Painters.= "Less prejudice exists against artists than teachers in
France. They have privileges that teachers have not. Painting is
considered the most desirable profession by parents for their daughters.
The girl begins early in life to fit herself for her profession. The
work is less severe than that of an author. Painting does not require
such close application of mind, nor is it necessary to spend so much
time in solitude, nor are the expense and anxiety so great as that of
authorship. Gratuitous schools of art exist in Paris, where instruction
is given principally in perspective. Most students prosecute the art in
studios, paying from $4 to $6 a month. Most of them spend the whole day
in the studios, from eight in the morning until six in the evening. The
artist that instructs them visits the scholars only two or three times a
week. The studio is a sort of mutual school, where pupils teach each
other; they are of all ages. All conditions of society are represented.
Three kinds of painting are done by them--face or portrait, landscape,
and flowers. Most of the girls of the higher classes prefer landscape.
Female artists compete with men, and wear their hair short. Few women
like the physical fatigue of a painter's life. There is not the same
play for coquetry in artists, as in singers or actors. It requires great
perseverance for a female artist to acquire firmness of execution; she
does not possess it to the same extent as man. Some artists are willing
merely to copy paintings, paint portraits, and give lessons. The school
of landscape painting is one well fitted for young and original talent.
Women succeed in painting portraits; also, in painting flowers and
fruit; very few have tried historical paintings." Painting is certainly
a profitable employment for a lady artist of superior ability, if she
can have enough to do. Miss F., New York, established a life school for
lady artists. One subject is used at a time; the classes are
limited--two classes--eight or ten pupils in each. Those that need
instruction will pay $12 for twenty-two lessons; those without
instruction, $6. There will be two sittings a week, of from three to
four hours. A person of sensitive, nervous type, susceptible to every
impression of a pleasant kind, is most likely to succeed as an artist.
Mr. R. Peale told me that many ladies in Europe paint portraits. He
considered it a higher style than landscape, or still life. He thinks
painting itself not injurious to the health. The turpentine used is
sanitary, and the white lead is deleterious only when taken into the
lungs. What is inhaled in breathing can do no harm. Mr. Peale thought
that the principal reason of artists being so poor in health, is because
of their long and close confinement indoors. In painting the first coats
are often applied by an assistant, employed by the artist; and in some
cases, by the students of the artists. Miss Merrifield, of England, has
written a work on the art of painting. A number of ladies in England,
and in the United States, are winning a reputation as artists. The
prospect to lady artists in the United States is very encouraging.
Ladies are allowed the privilege, on proper application, to copy
paintings in the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, the Düsseldorf, and
the Bryant galleries, New York. According to the census of 1850, there
were 2,093 male artists; but there are said to be not more than 600 or
700 superior artists in the United States. The patronage the best
receive is such as to keep them well employed. A meagre support and a
long life of labor are necessary to establish a reputation as an artist,
even to one that has talent. But the way in which most of our
first-class artists live, that are prudent and steady in their habits,
and possess any business qualifications, contradicts the opinion, quite
common, that an artist's life must always be one of self denial and
poverty. We think artists fare as well as most people, and we do think
it a life very inviting to the young ladies of our country. Those that
have the time, the means, and the talents, will find it an absorbing, a
fascinating employment. Women succeed best in painting pictures of their
own sex, and of children. The more tender and delicate organizations are
best suited to their talents. Most of our artists live in the
metropolis, New York; the Western country is too new and crude. There
are materials enough, but not much appreciation of talent. Besides there
is less wealth, and another thing is, that artists must keep themselves
where mention will now and then be made of their pictures, to bring them
into notice, and where the most ready sale will be found for them.
During the last few years a taste has been developed in St. Louis, that
promises some golden fruit. A gallery of paintings has lately been
opened there. Why is it that a talent for painting and poetry is so
often combined? Is it that the quiet, contemplative state that produces
poetical inspirations also favors the visible expression of beautiful
thoughts? A poet painter is more frequently to be seen than a poet
musician. One, I suppose, of a quick, lively disposition, and very
impressible, might be more likely to possess musical talent than one of
a quiet, thoughtful nature. But genius is not fettered by temperament.
There is a society of female artists in London; the first public
exhibition of their paintings took place in June, 1857. It is managed by
a committee of eight ladies, and bound by twenty-three articles. A
portrait painter writes: "The artist requires a high, well-developed
anterior brain, a healthy body; and a brain and body well regulated and
balanced; a love of the beautiful that inspires the character with
patience and indomitable perseverance, and a contempt for applause; for
'art is long,' and, unless one is willing to 'scorn delights and live
laborious days,' he can never meet with real success. If women can
attain to excellence as artists, they can command the same remuneration
as men receive. Art knows no sex." A professional artist remarked to me:
"Amateur painters never attain excellency, because it requires not only
talent, but constant application." I think if there is anything that
should have its full value, it is a painting, because of the patience
and perseverance necessary for an artist to excel, and the long and
costly preparation requisite. It commands, too, a certain style of
talent that many do not possess. In addition to this, those who can
afford to buy paintings are those who can afford to pay a good price.
=67. Animals.= We know of no artist in this country whose talents have
been devoted to the painting of animals, and of but one lady, in any
country, that has distinguished herself in that line--the far famed Rosa
Bonheur.
=68. Banners.= We saw an ornamental sign painter decorating a large
flag. Stars are painted on the silk, and then sized and gilt. The flag
was stretched on a frame like a piece of tapestry, but upright like an
easel. Mr. M. had never known of any women being employed in the trade.
He decorated banners for processions, political campaigns, &c. This is
evidently a field for female industry.
=69. Crayon and Pastel.= Crayon drawing seems to have been much in vogue
in Italy in the seventeenth century; and we read of an Italian lady, as
far back as 1700, devoting her time to pastel painting. The soft, light,
dreamy effect given by the use of pastels, peculiarly fit the style for
the portraits of ladies and children. Mrs. Dassel, of New York, was
noted for her excellency in the use of pastels. Mrs. Hildreth, of
Boston, is very successful in her crayon portraits. She charges from $30
to $40 a head. Mrs. M. A. Johnson, of Massachusetts, has spent some
years working in crayon. "Her indefatigable patience in the execution of
details, the fidelity of her likenesses, and the delicate perfection of
finish in her pictures, are remarkable." Miss Clark received $20, and
over, for crayon portraits in Boston, a few years ago. Before Miss
Stebbins, of New York, became a sculptor, she drew crayon portraits,
charging $50 per head. Her execution was said to be clear and forcible.
=70. Flowers and Fruit.= During the latter part of the eighteenth and
the first half of the present century, a number of lady artists have
distinguished themselves in flower painting. During the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, a few devoted themselves to it in Holland,
Germany, Denmark, and France. For a few years past some American ladies
have turned their attention to flower painting with marked success. A
number in England have also obtained distinction.
=71. Fresco.= The wife of an artist told me her husband knew of a fresco
painter in England, whose daughter would assist him when he was hurried.
But the lady thought working with men was objectionable. I heard of a
young lady in New York, who assisted her father, by filling up the
outlines, as he drew them on side walls. Mrs. Ellet states that Angelica
Kauffman assisted her father in the interior decoration of a church, in
Schwarzenberg. She painted, in fresco, the figures of the Twelve
Apostles. Her success in an undertaking so difficult excited
considerable attention. Mrs. N., wife of a fresco painter, thought the
work unfit for women, because they would be compelled to work with men,
and stand on platforms to work on ceilings; consequently are liable to
exposure of person. They might paint the side walls, and let men paint
the ceilings.
=72. Historical.= But few ladies have devoted themselves to historical
painting. The most lived during the latter part of the last century, and
the commencement of the present. Catarina Vieira painted several church
pictures, after the designs of her brother.
=73. Landscape.= In the past century Holland gave to the world the
largest number of female landscape painters. America and England bear
away the palm for the present century. American scenery opens as wide a
scope for the talent of the landscape painter as any on the globe.
Mrs. ----, one of the first landscape painters of our country, thinks
landscape requires more care and talent than portrait painting, but the
latter pays best. She says there are some ladies in Boston, who are very
good landscape painters. She thinks it would be very difficult for a
young artist to become established in New York, without influential
connections, and the means to keep her until she does become
established; but would be more likely to succeed in cities in the South
and West. She thinks there are good openings in Baltimore, for artists
of every kind. She says art is much more encouraged in the United States
during the last few years, and a good artist need not fear starving. The
artists of New York have three receptions during the year. The object is
to make known their paintings, with a view to selling. At the last
annual sale of pictures for the New York Artists' Fund, $2,000 were
received. Some artists copy a landscape exactly as they see it; some
select the most beautiful parts of different landscapes, and combine
them; and a few draw entirely from imagination. Good painters of scenes
for theatres, I have been told, often receive from $25 to $40 per week.
=74. Marine.= Some very good marine views have been executed in this
country, but none by ladies.
=75. Miniature Painters.= "We may run back as far as the twelfth
century, and find a few miniature painters among the fair sex.
Margaretta von Eyck devoted most of her time to painting miniatures, in
the fifteenth century. In the seventeenth century, an Italian lady of
Palermo distinguished herself as a painter in oils. Mrs. Wright, an
English miniature painter, died in 1802; and Maria Conway was a noted
miniature painter, living in London, who died in 1821. In the
seventeenth century, Maria Rieger was employed to paint miniatures in
the aristocratic circles of Germany. In the same century, a Swiss lady,
Anna Wossar, began at the early age of thirteen to win a name in the
same branch of painting. In the same century, almost every country in
Europe gave birth to one." Mad. Goldbeck, of English birth; Mrs. Hill,
of Boston; Miss C. Denning, of Plattsburg; Miss Anne Hall and Miss
O'Hara, in New York, are the principal miniature painters in the United
States. It was reported that Miss H. occasionally received as high as
$500 for a miniature. Mrs. Hill received from $75 to $100 for a
miniature. The popularity of photographs has caused many portrait and
miniature painters to devote themselves to that branch of art. Some
artists succeed in giving an ideal, _spirituel_ beauty, truly
astonishing. I think it is more observable in miniatures on ivory than
any other style. Mr. W. writes: "In the department of miniature painting
women find profitable employment and are ofttimes very expert at the
work. I know a lady in Washington who paints very beautiful miniatures,
for which she receives from $10 to $15. This is very nearly the same
rate paid to men. Woman's delicate sense of touch and facility of
expression make it a branch for which she is especially fitted."
=76. Panoramas=, we suppose, have pretty well paid their way,
particularly the first that were exhibited; but we know not that any
lady has ever engaged in this branch of painting. Mr. D., a scenic and
panoramic artist, says the "decorative workshops" of Paris are 250 feet
long, and 50 feet wide. The cloth for panoramas is laid on the floor,
and the paint then applied, as it would run if hung up. There are
galleries around the walls, some distance above, from which the artist
may judge of the effect of his painting. Many dioramas are used, and
might be colored by ladies. Panoramas have not been so common since
Banvard painted his. Painting them does not always pay for the trouble
and expense. It requires a certain order of talent for painting
panoramas, and probably as high an order as any other.
=77. Portrait.= "Lala, though not a native of Rome, exercised her
profession in that city during the youth of Marcus Varo, painting
portraits of women. Her pictures were better paid for than those of any
other painter of her time. Portrait and character drawing have ever
exercised the talents of the first-class artists." Mary Beale was a
celebrated portrait painter, who lived in the reign of Charles II.; and
Anna Killigrew painted the portraits of James II. and his queen. An
artist told me that it requires the most intense mental application to
bring out a variety in the expression of the countenances of some
sitters, and difficult to seize the most happy expression. An ambrotype
copy should be kept for the colorist to look at occasionally, while
progressing with his work. He thinks seven hours a day enough for an
artist, when his mind is exercised with his work. After so long an
application, he might turn his attention advantageously to some style of
painting more mechanical in its nature, that will be an occupation to
his body and a relief to his mind. A portrait painter writes me in
answer to some questions: "The artist's labor cannot well be intrusted
to another. In France there are female portrait painters, who are said
to execute such works with more delicacy and profit than men. The
employment is not unhealthy, unless the laborer confines herself too
long in a poorly ventilated room. Women are paid by the piece, when
employed by artists. I would say, in general terms, why women are not
better paid is owing, doubtless, to a very foolish idea that, in all
respects, they are not so reliable. Perhaps a remnant of a more
barbarous period has something to do with it. In inferior conditions of
society women are always looked upon as inferior creatures. Women have
done great things in art. See the career of Rosa Bonheur, Angelica
Kauffman, Miss Sharp, of London, and, in our own country, Mrs. L. M.
Spencer and Miss Hosmer." Some people are gifted with a love for, and
success in, one style, and some in another. Our nation, composed as it
is of representatives from all lands, will give fair play to the best
powers of the portrait painter. Miss G. thinks a lady of talent, by
close application, with an extensive respectable connection, can
establish herself in New York as an artist, and earn a livelihood by the
products of her pencil. She charges as much for a crayon portrait as for
one in oil. She succeeds best in crayons. $60 is her price for a large
portrait; $10 or $15 more, with hands. "Mademoiselle Rosée, born in
Leyden, in 1632, deserves a place among eminent artists for the
singularity of her talents. Instead of using colors, with oil or gum,
she used silk for the delicate shading. It can hardly be understood how
she managed to apply the fibres, and to imitate the flesh tints,
blending and mellowing them so admirably. She thus painted portraits, as
well as landscapes and architecture."
=78. Water Colors.= Much improvement has taken place in this style of
painting during the last few years. Fanny Corbeaux is mentioned as a
superior English painter in water colors, of the present century.
=79. Painters of Dial Plates.= This is rather an artistic employment,
but poorly paid. All the clock faces used in the East are said to be
painted by women. Men would not do it for the prices that are paid. In
Boston is a large factory where a number of girls are employed in
painting hard dial plates--that is, enamelled. I saw a Swiss lady in New
York who paints silver-faced dial plates. She and a gentleman in Hoboken
(she told me) are the only persons in this country who paint that style.
The drying of hard dial plates she thought to be bad on the health,
because of the great heat to which a person is exposed in placing the
enamel in the furnace, and attending to it while there. Mixing the
enamel could be done by women. When learning to paint dial plates in
Switzerland, she paid $3 a week for instruction and board, but for a
sleeping room separately.
=80. Picture Restorers.= E. says he has been thirty years engaged in
restoring paintings and engravings. He thinks it is more of a natural
gift than anything else. He has made money by it. His sons, who have
been ten years employed as draughtsmen, cannot succeed, with all the
instruction he has given them. To succeed requires the talents and
experience of an artist. He never adds paint when any is left, but
merely restores it. If it is gone, he supplies it. B. says, restoring
paintings is a work of all time. The prospect of a lady succeeding is
poor. She cannot use the heavy iron (twenty-five pounds) necessary for
ironing the lining on the picture. (But that part is merely mechanical
work, and can be done by a man.) The greatest aim with most restorers is
to imitate the old masters. Mrs. C., whose husband is a picture liner,
says there is a great wear and tear of mind in that business. A restorer
may injure a picture, and have it thrown upon his hands, and have to pay
ten times its value. Restoring is the most difficult, lining the most
laborious. She never heard of any one being taught. I should think a
restorer would find it desirable, if not essential, to visit the
galleries of Europe, and study the works of the old masters. The
business requires considerable artistic taste and knowledge, but, in our
large cities, may after a while present a field for qualified women.
=81. Piano Tuners.= I think a piano tuner might form a class of ladies,
and give instruction in the art. $1 is the usual price for tuning a
piano in the city. One should have an acute sense of hearing, to
succeed; and he should commence early to cultivate that sense. It is
very necessary to know how to make a nice discrimination of sounds.
Practice in that is best gained in a piano factory. Some could learn the
principles in half a day. More depends on practice, and a native talent
for it, than anything else. At Mr. W.'s is a very superior tuner, and he
has been at it but a few months. It requires strength of wrist, and a
rather long arm. The change of posture and strain on the back is
considerable. There is not one good tuner in fifty. Mr. W. thinks a lady
might be a tuner. He says it is not necessary that a person should know
how to play on an instrument, but it is better. A tuner in his factory
receives $3 a day. Regulating is done by the touch, tuning by the ear.
If a lady could obtain the tuning of the pianos of her friends, they
might speak to others, and in that way she might succeed in obtaining
sufficient custom to make a very comfortable support. It might also
bring out any musical talent the individual possesses. While piano
tuners are learning, if they practise long at a time, they often
experience a confusion of sounds, and are not able to distinguish
correctly. I was told by another manufacturer, it is not at all
necessary to be a player to make a good tuner, as the two are entirely
distinct. There is a great difference in the abilities of tuners. There
is much difference naturally in the sense of hearing in different
individuals: there is much from training, there is much from the aptness
of a pupil, and in the application. When they take a boy as an
apprentice, they keep him at first to sweep the room, and go errands,
and give him instruction, probably an hour at a time, in tuning. Longer
time would confuse a learner. They have had a tuner for three years,
that they can now send to tune pianos for concerts; but, a year ago,
they could not. Two piano tuners (women) are mentioned in the census of
Great Britain. Mr. W. had two or three ladies to learn piano tuning in
his factory. They were music teachers, living in villages and the
country, who could not engage a tuner oftener than once in two or three
months, when the tuner would come around. He thinks ladies could not
make very good tuners, because it requires great strength in the hand or
wrist, and complete control of the key; for if the key is turned ever so
slightly more than it should be, the wire will break. A manufacturer of
musical instruments writes: "I think women could be placed in a
situation profitable to themselves and the community by learning to tune
pianos and melodeons, which I believe they have the skill and capacity
to do. They would also find it profitable, in some places, to instruct
juvenile classes of both sexes in sacred music."
=82. Plaster Statuary.= The few women in this country who work in
plaster of Paris, are, as far as we know, natives of other countries.
There is an old Italian woman in Baltimore who makes and sells works in
plaster. Casts are sometimes taken by women, but rarely. Casts of living
persons are taken by having the individual breathe through iron tubes
placed in the nostrils. Casts are also taken from reliefs, statues, and
models. They require less care than the first mentioned. Fruit is
imitated in this material, and colored exactly like the original. I saw
a case that had been prepared by a lady for the rooms of the American
Institute, New York. The librarian thought several collections might be
disposed of to agricultural societies and farmers. It would pay well,
and take but little time to learn. It would require a nice discernment
of colors and shades, and neat, careful workmanship. In Brooklyn, I was
told by a boy, that did not look to be more than 14 or 15 years of age,
that he had been working in plaster of Paris for three years. His was
the architectural branch. The first year he received $1.50 per week;
next year, $2; and the next, $3. He thinks a woman could do any of the
work. The moulds for some parts are made of wax and rosin; some of
sulphur, and some of plaster of Paris. The moulds are tied together, and
the liquid plaster poured in. It hardens in half an hour. Mr. W., a
plaster of Paris worker, says the whole of the work could be done by
women. Modelling requires practice in drawing, and a knowledge of
geometrical figures. Inventive talent finds a ready field for exercise.
A good moulder is paid $2.50 a day. The study of architectural ornaments
and books much facilitates the advancement of the art. Modelling and
casting are distinct branches. Most employers pay boys thirty-seven
cents a day for casting; but to learn modelling, it is customary for the
learner to pay a premium. Another maker of house ornaments said
modelling could be learned in six months, and when a person has learned,
he can earn from $3 to $5 a day of ten hours. One must know how to draw
in order to model. Another proprietor told me he had thought of
employing girls to break off the edges of architectural ornaments. They
now have boys, and pay from $3 to $9 per week. Modellers can earn $2,
$2.50, and $3 per day. He paid $2.50 a day, for a year, to one man. At a
large store for the sale of plaster of Paris articles in New York, the
proprietor, a gentlemanly Italian, said he would be willing to give
instruction to a class of ladies in modelling, moulding, casting, and
polishing. He would charge $2 for two hours' instruction, and thinks,
after a lesson every day for three months, and some practice in the
intervals, his pupils would have no difficulty in prosecuting the work
alone. It soils the clothes very much. His daughter learned it, but
prefers embroidery. One of the Pisani brothers told me that in Italy and
Paris women work at the business. Much ornamental work is executed in
alabaster, spar, composition, and plaster of Paris. None of them are
unfit for women. A more desirable occupation, with the exception of its
want of cleanliness, a woman could not engage in, than plaster of Paris
modelling. An Italian plaster image maker in Boston writes me: "We
employ about 60 women. Women are employed at this business in Florence,
Rome, and Milan. I get about $10 per day, and pay women $3 per day,
working ten hours. I pay both by the piece and by the day. As a general
thing, we pay men better than women. It requires some genius and a
lifetime to learn the business. The prospects for employment are good in
Boston, and there is a pretty lively demand for hands. All the women I
employ are Italians. Women are decidedly superior workers. The business
can be carried on in any part of the United States. Women might be
employed in taking casts from the dead, if they have sufficient nerve. I
have a peculiar fancy for this branch of the work, and do not consider
it unhealthy."
=83. Painters of Plates for Books.= Hundreds of thousands of plates are
annually colored in London, and some in this country. The neatness and
patience of women fit them admirably for this work. It is an agreeable,
but at present not a very constant or profitable employment. The
coloring of lithographs in printing has done away with much hand
coloring. The painting of stereoscopic plates has given employment to
some ladies, and does not require much skill or taste. The gentleman who
prepared stereoscopic plates for the Messrs. A., employed several
ladies, to whom he paid on an average from $9 to $10 a week, working by
the piece. Botanical plates are mostly colored by hand. The gentleman
who prepares the fashion plates of the _Ladies' American Magazine_
employs women, paying from $4 to $7 a week, according to application and
rapidity of execution. They work from eight till dark, in winter, and by
the week, not the piece. It requires but a few weeks to learn. He has
stereoscopic views also painted by women. They receive rather better
prices, as it requires some artistic taste and more care. The universal
complaint among employers is, that their best workwomen will get married
and leave them. If women were better paid, employers would not be so
likely to lose them. A few years ago, we saw a newspaper statement to
this effect: When maps were colored by hand in New York, girls were paid
from three cents to ten cents a sheet, and they earned from $3 to $5 a
week. A few years back, it was estimated that there were two hundred
female paint colorers at the top of the profession, who made excellent
wages by coloring costly engravings. The colorers of plates in _Leslie's
Magazine_ pay by the hundred or thousand. The first year, a learner is
paid but little. If she succeeds right well in that time, she is then
paid according to the quality and quantity of her work, earning from $3
to $5 per week. They must work in the shop, so the superintendent can
see if it is properly done, or reject and have altered such plates as
are not. All seasons are alike. A manufacturer of children's toy books
told me he employed girls for coloring, paying by the piece. They earned
each from $3 to $3.50 a week. They used stencil plates. He generally
kept them employed all the year round, but the occupation is full. A
German print colorer told me he employed thirty girls till the panic,
paying by the piece from $3 to $3.50 a week. Stencil plates of varnished
paper were used. He paid his workers from the first, and they could
either sit or stand while at work. Another paint colorer told me his
girls earned from $4 to $4.50 a week, for coloring the finest prints,
working only in daylight. A manufacturer of valentines and children's
toy books told me his girls painted valentines in winter, and toy books
in summer. He pays two of his girls by the week $7 each, and none of the
rest less than $4 a week. They work from nine to ten hours a day. The
use of stencils by Germans has reduced the price of such work. He could
get girls to do book coloring for $2 a week, but prefers to retain his
old hands constantly. Most colorers of prints work at home. A getter up
of gentlemen's fashion plates told me he pays ten cents for coloring a
large sheet containing several figures, and the worker finding her own
materials. No one could earn the salt of her bread at such rates.
Another print colorer told me it requires from two to six weeks to
learn, according to the ability of the learner. Sometimes he has
Government work that must be done hurriedly. They have least work from
New Year to March. Some print colorers pay by the week; $5 is a good
price. I saw an engraving on the wall representing an English barnyard,
for which the proprietor was paid $3 for coloring, while he pays the
lady who does it, $2.25. Some ladies, he says, can earn from $10 to $12
a week.
=84. Photographists and Colorists.= Mr. F. says they would employ good
lady artists, if they could get them; but ladies do not succeed so well,
because they do not have such an efficient course of training--do not go
through the same gradations in a preparation for the work. They mostly
employ men that are foreigners to color. A colorist of photographic
views for stereoscopes says he pays a lady to color for him $6 a gross.
English ladies color best. The firm with which he is connected cannot
get their coloring done in New York, so have most of it done in London;
and as work is cheaper, it costs them no more with the addition of
transportation. At one photographic establishment in Philadelphia, the
proprietor told us that several artists now devote their time to the
coloring of photographs. He pays one lady at the rate of $12 a week. She
is employed on the low-priced pictures, such as are sold for $5,
exclusive of frame. The portraits range from $75 up. The lady painter is
daughter of an English artist. She works all the hours of daylight, when
required--sometimes only six hours. B. has at different times encouraged
and employed female artists; has never met with any one who excelled,
but does not doubt they might do so if properly trained. He had a lady
partner in daguerreotyping and photographing. She was very poor when she
commenced, but, while engaged in it, supported herself and children, and
educated them, and left $3,000. He told me of two ladies making a
handsome support by coloring photographs. His best pictures are painted
by gentlemen artists. He thinks the taking of photographs not so
suitable for women, because it is dirty work; that is, the nitrate of
silver that gets on the fingers stains them like indelible ink--a small
difficulty, I think, in the way of a woman that has a living to make.
There are several ladies in Philadelphia who make their living by
painting photographs. Some ladies have quitted the profession of
teaching to become photographers. Ladies are sometimes employed in
photographic galleries, to wait upon company, agree upon prices, deliver
the work, and receive pay. For such services they are paid from $3 to $5
per week, according to the amount of business done. Photographers work
from eight to ten hours. Some think the business unhealthy, because of
the gases that arise from the combination of chemicals. Women that have
had practice in drawing and painting can give a pretty and delicate
touch in the coloring of photographs. L., photographist, employs two
ladies to color photographs in water colors. He teaches it for $10. A
good colorist, with constant employment, can earn from $10 to $15 a
week. He thinks there are openings in the South. Some prefer water
coloring to oil, because you can see the pictures in any light. Oils are
better for large pictures that you see at a distance. Painting in water
colors does not pay the artist so well as painting in oils. Misses E.,
New York, are busy all the time. They execute different styles of
painting, but have lately found it more profitable to color photographs.
They each earn from $12 to $15 per week coloring photographs, when busy.
Their work is all brought to the house. They have had several offers to
go South, and better prices than they receive in New York. Miss E., with
whom I talked, thought if any ladies would learn thoroughly, and could
not obtain painting to do, they could easily obtain situations as
teachers of painting. I saw the wife of an artist who gives instruction
in drawing and painting. She told me her husband is very conscientious
and will not recommend any one to spend their time and money learning to
draw and paint, if he finds they have not talent of that kind. Some
people think they possess genius, and can excel in painting, even if
they commence when thirty or more years of age; but it is best for an
artist to commence early in life. The talent of some is developed in a
shorter time than others. One may learn in three months what another
could not in six. Her husband can advance an American pupil as far in
two years as he did his German pupils in four. He thinks the Americans
are more apt, and acquire more rapidly. She thought a lady would not
find any difficulty in obtaining constant employment as a painter. Miss
J., Philadelphia, has as much to do at coloring photographs as she
wishes. It takes her about a day to color a small one, for which she
receives $1. For those pictures on which there is more work, the prices
are higher. The painting of ivorytypes is more expensive. An ivorytype
the size of a $1 photograph would cost $10. Most photographers send
their coloring out of the establishment to be done, and pay by the
piece. In several States, women have been successfully engaged as
daguerreans and photograph colorers. Some have travelled through the
country, stopping in various towns to carry on their business. Some
knowledge of chemistry is necessary for a photographer. One photographer
writes: "Women are employed in every country where there are first-class
galleries. It is unhealthy in the operating rooms, on account of the
acids and poisons. We pay $4 a week to ladies to attend the show case
and wait upon customers. We pay men $6 and $7, because they can do more
by one third of the same kind of work than a woman. Any part of the
business can be performed by a woman. We pay girls $4 from the
commencement. They spend eight or ten hours at the gallery, but are not
employed all the time. They are as comfortable as in their own parlors
receiving visitors. Ladies prefer one of their own sex in the reception
room. There is always demand for superior work in our line;
consequently, a prospect of employment so long as the world stands. In
Syracuse, fall and winter are the most busy seasons." Mr. A. says the
occupation of portrait and miniature painters is gone since the
discovery of the photographer's art. He thinks ladies are as capable of
arriving at great excellence as men in painting, if they will only apply
themselves as closely. Their knowledge of colors probably makes them
excel in that respect. He teaches photographic coloring, charging $1 a
lesson of one hour. A mechanical execution in coloring is gained in a
short time, but a good photographist ought to be an experienced artist.
Mr. R. told me his girls are engaged in painting and mounting. He pays
one $7 a week, and the other $5. An individual that is bright,
intelligent, and capable of rapid tuition, could learn in six months.
They spend from eight to six o'clock in the gallery. They have but a few
minutes recess at noon, as that is the most busy time. He prefers women
for some parts of the work. Men are more powerful artists, give a better
expression; women are more careful, and give a finer finish. I talked
with a photographic colorist, who gives instruction to a few ladies in
coloring, and employs four. He thinks women are generally better judges
of colors than men, but some women never learn the shades. (I think,
unless it arises from some physical defect, it is because they are not
taught to distinguish colors when children. It is difficult to teach a
person the careful use of any of the senses if they are neglected in
childhood.) The work requires some artistic taste. A knowledge of
drawing and colors, and a good education, are essential to success. A
young lady in the business should be social in her nature, and of
pleasing address. I would think an artist of any kind would need the
talent of drawing to the surface the soul of his or her sitter, for much
of the beauty of a picture depends upon expression. Mr. G. thinks water
colors neater for ladies than oil. The employment is now in its infancy.
The taste for photographs is increasing. There are now one hundred
engaged in the business where fifteen years ago there was but one.
Photographists are usually employed from nine to six, or from eight to
five. The remuneration is good when constant employment can be had. The
best locality is a growing place. The business would grow up with the
place. The prices paid enable ladies to obtain boarding in houses that
possess the comforts, and even the luxuries of life. Summer is the
dullest season, but much depends on weather. French women generally
succeed well in coloring. Some English ladies, also, do well. Mr. G.
gives a lady colorer $12 a week. Mr. B., a photographist, writes: "Women
are employed in my branch of art in England. I would like to find
competent assistance, but have been unable to do so. The work is not
unhealthy, but it is very trying to the eyes. I should think that in
many respects the work would be well adapted to females, but think, from
trials that I have made, that the mathematical precision of the work is
a feature unfavorable to the feminine mind. Were I to find such
assistance as I would be satisfied with, I would pay according to
capacity and work. Thorough artistic education and natural talents are
essential. In point of taste, as regards color and elegance, I think
women might be superior; as regards precision and firmness of minute
work, I am uncertain. It would require considerable time and patience to
learn the art." One of the proprietors of a photographic establishment
in Philadelphia writes: "I employ from two to four ladies in painting
photographic pictures, and pay by the week from $3 to $6. They work
eight hours a day. I pay men about twice as much, because the men, being
longer at the business, work better and quicker. It requires several
years' practice to gain a moderate acquaintance with this branch. It is
our opinion, that women are well adapted for most branches of
photographing, and for some they would be superior to men, provided
always, that they bring to the work a certain degree of education, and
some natural talent. We suppose the reason they are not more employed in
this and similar pursuits, is, that young women of a certain degree of
education, are seldom eager for any sort of employment. Besides, in this
business, it requires years of earnest application to master it, and
before this is accomplished, many marry. The employer feels little
security in retaining a woman at the business after going through years
of instruction, because in many, or most cases, they marry, and must
attend to their domestic duties. With a man the reverse takes place. He
becomes a better and more steady worker after marriage." "We have a
great improvement in photography by its combination with lithography. By
the process adopted, the object to be represented is photographed at
once on the stone, and thus the intermediate operations are avoided." In
times of excitement, like the present, when soldiers are going from
their homes, there is much for the artists to do.
=85. Preparers of Scientific Plates.= Mrs. B. has supported herself for
some time by making drawings of fossils for works on geology. She is now
doing one for a work on Niagara. It requires a great deal of care. It is
very trying to the eyes as the engraver imitates every line made by the
pencil, and a magnifying glass is of course much used for presenting
enlarged views of the smallest fossils. I think she is paid by the piece
or set, for the work. Of course this pursuit must be limited.
=86. Seal Engravers.= Seal engraving is cutting in a precious stone,
letters or a device. The cutting is done by means of a lathe and sharp
cutting tools. Diamond dust and oil are used. The lathe is moved by
treadles. The finer the work, the smaller the tools. Taste, good
eyesight, and a knowledge of form are necessary. No pattern is used. The
hand and eye must serve as guides. It would be a very pretty occupation
for women, but would require time, patience, and practice. Seal
engravers in New York earn from $10 to $12 per week, but the occupation
there is filled. Mrs. Ellet, in her "Women Artists," mentions a Prussian
and a German lady as being noted for their skill in cutting precious
stones. A seal engraver told me he does not pay apprentices the first
year, but the second year $2, and from that up, according to the
abilities of the worker. It requires from four to seven years to learn
all the branches thoroughly. Another engraver told me the business is
not worth learning now that gum mucilage has done away with sealing wax,
and consequently the use of seals. The designs for seals are usually
taken from a heraldry book; always when for a coat of arms. Such seals
are in greater demand in Europe. Seal engravers in this country do not
have constant employment. They cut fancy seals when not otherwise
occupied. The work can be done at night by a good light.
=87. Sculptors.= Properzia di Rossi, Maria Domenica, Anna Maria
Schurmann, Maria von Steinbach, Anne Seymour Damer, Falicie de Faveau,
and in our own country and time Miss Lander, Harriet Hosmer, and Miss
Stebbins, are among those who have proved the ability of woman to
succeed in sculpture. Sculptors, it should be understood, seldom, if
ever, labor with the chisel. They prepare models, which are made in a
composition of clay or wax, and then superintend the imitation of these
in marble. Sculpture is the chastest imitation of nature and the highest
expression of the form and spirit of beauty known to art; and while
woman is possessed of the finest sensibility and most exquisite
perceptions, there can certainly be no reason why she should not succeed
in it. Mr. Lagrange, in urging the establishment of Government schools
of design in France, says: "Painting, engraving, and sculpture,
encouraged as music and dancing are, promise equal success; they provide
a more assured support in its being better acquired, and a more
substantial renown, and especially a calmer and chaster existence.
Painter, engraver, or sculptor, it is her _works_ alone that claim the
public eye. Her person is sacred; no one dares to lift the veil that
conceals her countenance; no one presumes to call upon her to courtesy
to feeble applause. A young girl, chaste and pure, she may watch by the
lonely hearthside; a wife, she may not see her smiles and caresses in
dispute as the seal of a purchased rite; a mother, she may educate her
children under a name they will never be tempted to despise.
Exhibitions, open to everybody, will afford the public an opportunity to
measure her talent or genius; critics will confine their attacks to her
works; and praise, if she deserves it, will reach her eyes and ears in
terms that she will be able to listen to or peruse without the
accompaniment of a blush." Mrs. Wilson, wife of a physician living in
Cincinnati, has executed busts of her husband and children that are said
to be excellent likenesses. Mrs. Dubois, of New York, has sculptured in
marble several specimens. Misses Lander and Stebbins, and Miss Hosmer,
we believe, find their art lucrative. Sculptors should attend anatomical
dissections; should learn the structure of the human frame, and the
appearance of the muscles under the various conditions to which
circumstances may subject them. Indeed the study of anatomy is essential
to success. In sculpture, we closely imitate the parent, nature. The
most superior specimens of statuary are said to be modelled after
nature, as seen in the unlaced, unpinched, unaltered original--just as
nature's own hand has chiselled. In sculpture, modelling is the
inventive part of the work, and requires taste and genius; copying is a
merely mechanical operation. A pursuit of this kind, if followed from
the love of it, becomes a soul-engrossing study. Means or friends to
rely upon, for at least two years, during the time of study, will be
necessary in most cases; for if the artist is to support herself while
she studies, only the highest earnestness can sustain her; but then
those that are not in earnest should not undertake this art--for "it is
better to pursue a frivolous trade in a serious manner, than a sublime
art frivolously." Without very decided talent it will be some time
before a sculptor comes sufficiently into notice to sustain herself
entirely by the filling of orders. "Sculpture has become almost a
fashion in Paris; but a woman finds it difficult to devote herself to
studies pertaining to the art. Though greater in number than painters,
they have accomplished scarcely any remarkable works." Many women who
might not undertake sculpture, might learn to work in marble for
sculptors. A marble worker in its various branches, writes me: "I think
women might be very well employed in the lighter parts of finishing. I
suppose they are not so employed, because there has not yet been any
organized and extended effort made to introduce them into this line of
business. I am not sure, but think it likely, women are employed to a
limited extent in _chiselling_ marble in Italy and France. Miss Hosmer
has done more than mould for others to copy. She has herself handled the
mallet and chisel. The employment in general is healthy; but lettering,
and indeed fine chiselling of any sort, requiring the eye to be brought
near to the work, raises a dust, which is breathed into the
lungs--though the injury is not very apparent till the lapse of years
reveals it. The qualifications desirable are a good judgment, and eye
for form, and a certain slight of hand. The prospect for marble workers
is good in all departments." On the other hand, another writes:
"Sculpture is too laborious for women, and if women practise the art,
they hire all the work done." In Rome, two thousand women serve as
models to painters and sculptors.
=88. Steel and other Engravers.= Steel and copper engraving require a
very good knowledge of drawing, and careful manipulation. A great
advantage has been gained by substituting steel for copper plates. One
beauty of steel engraving is that it can be done at home. Men like easy
employments, and so have appropriated this one. An engraver must learn
to convey the feelings of an artist. Lithography has seriously
interfered with steel engraving, and photography has to some extent.
There are very few journeymen engravers. Most go into business for
themselves. Some women are employed in engraving copper cylinders for
calico prints. Line and stipple are the most expensive engraving.
Mezzotint is cheaper. Boys practise on copper, and do not work on
anything valuable until they are able to engrave well. One reason that
engravers do not like to take apprentices is, that they cannot do any
thing under two or three years, of any value to their employer, but
expect to be paid from the first. Besides, an engraver seldom has enough
of such engraving as a learner can do to keep him constantly employed.
Those who receive apprentices in New York take them for five years, and
pay something from the first; but very few men in New York, in any
branch of work, are willing to take apprentices. Much of the success of
a learner depends on his inclination, taste, and individual exertion;
and when he possesses these, they render him valuable to his master--so
it proves a matter of mutual interest. All engraving is mechanical to a
certain extent, but requires some artistic taste. In "Women Artists" we
find the names of some ladies distinguished as engravers in Italy,
France, Germany, and England, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth,
and nineteenth centuries. Jane Taylor and her sisters paid their share
of the family expenses by engraving. Miss Caroline Watson was an
engraver of portraits to the queen in the reign of George III. Angelica
Kauffman and Elizabeth Blackwell both engraved on steel. We read: "In
London, recently, one accomplished female engraver has turned her steel
plates into a pleasant country house, which she means to furnish with
the proceeds of her delicate painting on glass." In Paris, during the
last thirty years, quite a number of ladies have earned a livelihood by
steel engraving, and several are now employed there in card engraving,
and engraving fashion plates. There are some engravers in the South and
West, but there are openings for more. A card, seal, medal, and
door-plate engraver writes: "The usual number of hours for engravers are
from eight to ten. The business may be learned in from one to two years,
to be of use; but to learn thoroughly requires three or four years. The
business generally pays well by jobs, and I see no reason why females
may not engrave as successfully as males with the same application."
=89. Bank Note Engravers.= "Steel engraving was first practised in
England by the calico printers; but it was first employed for bank notes
and for common designs by Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, Mass." The
American Bank Note Company, New York, employ about sixty girls,
forty-seven of whom are engaged in printing or making impressions; the
others in drying, assorting, and laying together the sheets to be placed
under a hydraulic press. It requires but a few weeks to learn the part
done by girls. Some are paid $3 and some $3.50 per week. They are mostly
American girls. A lady told me that she heard a girl, who had been
employed to cut up bank notes (done with scissors), say she often earned
$9 a week. The company pay a boy $3 a week from commencement until
through his apprenticeship, which is usually four or five years. Here a
man can earn $100 a week, if a first-class bank note engraver; but in
England not more than $10 or $12. There, however, paper money is but
little used; a £5 note being the smallest in value. Bank note engraving
is both mechanical and artistic. At the office of the National Bank Note
Company, a gentleman showed me the various processes. He had often
thought ladies would do well to learn bank note engraving. I saw two or
three gentlemen engraving. The process is simple, but requires a good
deal of patience and practice. Their girls are employed to place the
sheet for an impression under a roller, and, after the impression is
made, remove it. Some receive $3, and some $3.50 a week. It is dirty
work, on account of the oil and ink used. Their girls wash every evening
the blankets used on the cylinders. Bank-note engravers of the first
order receive a salary of $4,000. Some receive from $2,000 to $3,000 per
annum. Bank note engravers work but eight hours a day. Mr. M. thinks
there would not be much difficulty, if a lady wanted to learn bank note
engraving, from the prejudices of men, for some of them are not only
just but generous. One of the gentlemen engraving knew several ladies in
England that were bank note engravers.
=90. Card Engravers.= I was told by a card engraver that it was not
usual to pay a learner anything. He gives his apprentice only his board
the first year. A card engraver may draw letters well, and not be able
to write well, and _vice versa_. One should be steady and patient to
draw and form letters, and possess some natural taste, to succeed. It
requires also much practice. A card engraver can earn $5 a day, if he is
industrious, and has sufficient work. A journeyman is paid in proportion
to his abilities, from $5 to $25 per week. Some card engravers earn
$2,000 a year, clear of all expenses. The older a city, the more
engraving is done. In Europe, first-class merchants never use type
cards, but engraved ones.
=91. Door Plate Engravers.= I was told by a door plate engraver that a
skilful person, who would apply himself closely, could learn the
business, so that, at the end of one year, he could make a living. For
door plate engraving, it is necessary to form letters well. The size of
the letters for a given space must be divided by the eye. It requires
great care, as one badly formed letter would spoil the whole plate.
Engraving of any kind fatigues the back from stooping, and the eyes from
straining. In door plate engraving the eyes suffer least fatigue. Of
course less strength is necessary for plate engraving if the tools are
of a good quality and in proper order.
=92. Map Engravers.= Map engraving is divided into two kinds: the
lettering and plain work. The last can be learned in six months by a
person of taste and talent. The most that is needed is practice. A
knowledge of drawing is not necessary for this branch. There is not much
map engraving done in this country, because of the expense. Most is done
in New York and Philadelphia. The best map engraving done in Paris is
executed by ladies. There are also some ladies employed in map engraving
in London, and card engraving is there quite common for ladies.
=93. Picture and Heraldry Engravers.= Engraving pictures pays well--a
man often earning $10 a day. A superior landscape engraver calculates to
earn $2,500 a year. Mr. R. historical engraver, does the engraving for
the _Cosmopolitan Art Journal_. He says: "In England, better prices are
paid for historical engraving than here. Those who do the work receive
less, but the employer has a greater profit than in the United States.
More time is allowed the engraver in England to execute a piece of
work." Mr. R. pays his hands from $7 to $10 a week, and the best
historical engraver never gets in this country over $30 a week. In
England the work hours of an engraver are nine; here seven. He says the
art is dying out both here and in England. It is a something in which we
can always be improving. Seven years was formerly the length of
apprenticeship in England, and there an apprentice was paid nothing
while learning; on the contrary, the parent usually pays a premium of
£100. When an apprentice has finished, he will earn £1 a week, and
continue to receive more according to his skill and ability. Some people
send pictures from the United States to England to be engraved, saying
they cannot do such work in this country as in England; while, if they
would pay the same price, and allow the engravers as much time, it could
be done just as well. Such an engraving as you would pay $150 for here,
in England you would pay $200 for. In England it is customary for an
engraver to confine himself to one style; for instance, in "Falstaff
Mustering his Recruits," one engraver would do the wall, another the
figures, and another the drapery. Mr. R. was paid only $2,000 for
engraving "Falstaff Mustering his Recruits," and it took three men two
years. The business is not unhealthy, and not injurious to the eyesight,
although a glass must be used constantly. Mr. J., historical engraver,
used to have persons employed that did the different parts of a picture,
and he paid them each from $15 to $25 a week. He thinks, of those who
learn metal engraving in Europe, not more than fifty per cent. pursue it
as a vocation, and not above four per cent. attain perfection. Some
engraving, both picture and letter, is done by etching, but the best and
most expensive with a graver. Mr. J. M. Sartain writes in answer to a
circular: "I have no females in my employment, because I work alone. To
direct others or alter what they do wrong, takes longer than doing the
whole work myself. Neither do I know of females being employed by others
in my branch of business. But if I were willing to be troubled with the
teaching of any one at all, I should choose a female. This is from my
experience of the males I taught in times past. Women have the
requisites more than men--patience, neatness, delicacy; and the
occupation is as suitable for them as any other they are accustomed to
adopt. An unmarried daughter of mine is about to learn from me, with a
view to follow it as a profession. The chance of employment is however
very limited, for the reason that the cost of printing plates separately
necessitates, in an extensive class of pictorial embellishments, the use
of woodcuts. This wood engraving is equally suited for females, and to a
limited extent they are thus employed. The field in that branch is a
wide one already, with a constantly increasing demand. In my own branch
of engraving, the kind of skill required is that of _drawing_. The mere
mechanical skill required in _any_ kind of engraving is easily attained;
but the art of _drawing_ is the great thing, and positively demands
aptitude and taste--at all events, quite close application and
earnestness. _Skill in drawing_ is a key that admits to a wider range of
arts than I can readily enumerate, and successful and profitable
employment in any engraving depends on _that_. I am chairman of the
committee on instruction of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts, and in that capacity do all I can (as do also
the other directors) to encourage female talent. We have seven or eight
ladies among our students, and they _certainly_ are fully equal to the
males in capacity for acquiring art. Some model, others only draw. The
whole of our academy studies are gratuitous. For whatever branch of the
fine arts is to be followed, the first requisite is _drawing_, and the
next is _drawing_, and the third and last is _drawing_." Mr. B.,
heraldic chaser, says there are several processes in making heraldry
plates, sketching, engraving, embossing, chasing, and burnishing. He
used to employ girls to burnish. The making of patterns for heraldry is
never taught in this country to women, as it would cause the labor of
men so employed to depreciate. He pays a man from $15 to $20 a week for
chasing. He charges $1 for finding the coat of arms of an individual or
family.
=94. Telegraph Operators.= A new source of employment has been opened by
the invention of the electric telegraph. Most of the telegraphing in
England is done by women, and in the United States a number of ladies
are employed as operators. To a quick and intelligent mind it requires
but a short time to learn. An English paper says: "Here women do the
business better than men, because of the more undivided attention they
pay to their duties; but considerable inconvenience is found to result
from their ignorance of business terms, which causes them to make
mistakes in the messages sent. However, a short course of previous
instruction easily overcomes this impediment." We have been told that,
in one telegraph office in London, several hundred women are employed. I
hope the application of steam to the operations of the electric
telegraph may not interfere with the entrance of women into the
occupation. In New Lisbon, Ohio, a young woman was employed, a few years
ago, as principal operator in a telegraph office, with the same salary
received by the man who preceded her in that office. "I was told by
her," writes my informant, "that several women were qualifying
themselves, in Cleveland, for the same occupation." The
ex-superintendent of a line writes: "I have long been persuaded that
ultimately a large proportion of the telegraphists, employed exclusively
for writing, would be females, both because of their usually reliable
habits, their ability to abstract and concentrate thought upon their
engagements, their greater patience and industry, and the economy of
their wages. In offices where there is a large amount of business, and,
consequently, much intercommunication with customers, I have supposed
the arrangement would be to have a clerk to receive and deliver
communications, and the corps of operators and writers, composed
exclusively of females, in an adjoining or upper room, apart from public
inspection. And to this arrangement, I think, there is at this time very
little to oppose, except the antagonism naturally felt by male
operators, who see in it a loss of employment to themselves, and a want
of proper facilities for teaching and obtaining a complement, in number,
of female telegraphists. Any female proficient in orthography, with an
inclination to useful employment, would make a good telegraphist, and
might readily command, under a system above indicated, a salary of from
$300 to $500, and be profitable to her employers beyond the ordinary
male telegraphists employed under the present arrangement of office. It
is in operating by the Morse system that ladies are mostly or entirely
employed. The Morse is the easiest. They telegraph in small towns, where
there is not much to do, and the compensation is small." The Electric
Telegraph Company in London suggests that women should be employed in
preference to men, as working more rapidly. All the lady telegraphists
we have heard of gave satisfaction to all parties concerned. To Mr. A.,
connected with the New York and Boston telegraph line, I am indebted for
the following information: "Women are employed in operating the Morse
instrument. They are paid from $6 to $25 per month, and are paid by the
month. For the class of offices in which females are employed, about the
same wages are paid both sexes. It requires from three to six weeks to
learn, and nothing is paid while learning. The qualifications needed are
a fair knowledge of orthography, arithmetic, geography, and ordinary
mechanical ability. We may want a few operatives, say six annually. The
employment is constant, and about ten hours a day are devoted to work.
We employ about fifty women, and they only at small offices. Nearly all
are American. The employment is comfortable. There are no parts of our
occupation suitable for women in which they are not engaged. They are
generally more attentive and trustworthy than men. The price they pay
for board depends on the locality, say from $1.50 to $2 per week."
=95. Vocalists.= This is an important and profitable employment--one
that has secured to many a poor foreigner visiting this country a snug
little fortune. We have only to cite the cases of Jenny Lind, Garcia,
Sontag, Parodi, and Catherine Hays. It was stated in the New York
_Tribune_ of December, 1853, that Catherine Hays had sent $50,000 to
purchase an estate in Ireland. American talent is in some cases very
highly cultivated; but we fear the Scripture verse applies to the
substantial encouragement of native vocalists amongst us: "A prophet is
not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house." Too
much money and attention, we think, are lavished upon foreign vocalists,
while home talent is depreciated. An American singer must often go to
other countries and acquire a name, before she is received with eclat in
her own. It may be that other countries have the same failing, but, we
think, not to the same extent. Let us love American talent, and
encourage it before every other. Adelaide Patti, Miss Hinckley, and Miss
Kellogg are at present the most noted singers of American birth. Mr. C.
told me, that in New York, lady singers receive from $100 to $400 per
annum for singing in churches. One lady choir-singer of whom we knew,
received $500 a year, singing twice on Sabbath. Not more than from
twelve to fifteen lady singers in New York receive over $350. One lady
in a fashionable church receives $1,000; but she is a widow, and
somewhat favored. Another lady, leading the choir in a Broadway church,
receives a salary of $1,000, I have been told.
=96. Wax Work.= I called on two Italians that make wax fruit; their
baskets vary in price from twenty-five cents to $2. It would take a day
and a half to make a $2 basket. The Italian that could speak some
English told me that when he goes out to work, he charges $2.50 a day;
but to give lessons, he would charge $2 a day. He thought an individual
might learn in eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen lessons, according to
abilities and taste. Miss W., teacher of wax flowers, charges $1 a
lesson, and thinks eight or ten lessons sufficient. She thinks in
country places there would be openings for teachers. I think, where
there are large seminaries, a teacher would do better. She says there is
an opening in Troy. If a person has enough to do, it pays well. She
makes by hand; they are more natural than those made by moulds.
=97. Wood Engravers.= Much and long-continued toil is requisite for
success in wood engraving. A great deal depends, also, on the talent of
the individual. Wood engraving is a business adapted to women, as it
requires mostly patience and application, and but little physical
strength. Mechanical skill is the most that is requisite, yet, as in
everything else, it bespeaks the soul and taste of the originator.
"Women's nimble fingers, accustomed to wield the needle, lend themselves
quite easily to minute operations in the use of small instruments and
the almost imperceptible shades of manipulation that wood engraving
exacts." As more publishing is done in our country, of course there will
be a greater demand for wood engravers. A great many newspapers now
contain a large number of woodcuts, as _Harper's Weekly_, _Frank
Leslie's Illustrated News_, &c. Wood engraving has been called into use
for Government reports and scientific works, aside from its extensive
demands for periodical literature. A lady engaged in the business writes
of a class in wood engraving: "The pupils vary so much in ability,
application, perseverance, and in the number of hours devoted to it,
that it is impossible to judge what any one may do who has not made a
trial. My own experience is that the practice of wood engraving brings a
sure return for all the outlay of time and trouble spent in acquiring
the art. It would hardly be safe to rely entirely upon the proceeds of
the second year; the third may make up for it. The best wood engraving
is done in England and the United States. In classes of wood engraving
in the schools of design in England, the students are required to
produce the drawing as well as to engrave it." "For a quarter of a
century past, many hundreds of young women, we are assured, have
supported themselves by wood engraving, for which there is now a demand
which no jealousy in the stronger sex can intercept. The effort to
exclude women was made in this, as in other branches of art; but the
interests of publishers and the public were more than a match for it."
"In 1839, Charlotte Nesbit, Marianne Williams, Mary Byfield, Mary and
Elizabeth Clint, held honorable positions among English wood engravers."
Miss F., at Elmira, New York, carries on business for herself in wood
engraving. She learned it at the Cooper Institute, four years ago. The
pupils of that institute canvassed for work, some two and two, but she
went alone, and principally in the lower part of the city. They visited
publishers mostly--she went to manufacturers. She got an order for $500
worth of engraving at a gas-fixture manufactory. I have heard that
ladies in the school of design, New York, receive the same price for
wood engraving that men would receive. N. Orr, the wood engraver, thinks
the prospect very good for a woman to earn a livelihood at it. He knows
a lady who has not only supported herself but partially supported her
parents by her work. For wood engraving, women usually receive as good
prices as men. The business is increasing. There are none West, except a
few in Cincinnati, and I believe a still smaller number in St. Louis and
Chicago. A person that has any talent for it can earn a living at it in
less than two years' practice. A knowledge of drawing is not essential,
as the drawing is usually put on the wood by the designer. Mr. Orr takes
apprentices, but pays nothing the first year. They are bound to him for
five or six years. Some engravers require a premium. I have been told
that designing requires a very different and much higher order of talent
than wood engraving. One designer can do enough in a day to keep a man
busy a week. New York is the principal city for wood engraving. I think
most men, while engraving, stand; but all the ladies that I have seen at
work sat. "A wood-engraving office in Cleveland employed three girls in
1845, at wages varying from $3 to $7 per week, according to the
experience of each in the business, being the same that men receive in
the same office."
MERCANTILE PURSUITS.
=98. Merchants.= Occasionally we hear such complaints as these: "Women
who keep stores of their own ask higher for their goods than men, and
saleswomen are less obliging than male clerks." Women, as a general
thing, do not understand their business as well as men, and that is the
reason they are not so well liked. Those inclined to be bold, may become
pert; and those in poor health, peevish. "If women were more employed in
stores," said Mr. P., "there would probably be less shopping, but as
many goods sold. Young girls that go shopping to whisper in the ears of
clerks, would then find something else to do." Woman has a power of
adaptedness that fits her admirably for the vocation of a merchant. A
friend remarked to me that Mr. Stewart, of New York, she thought, would
employ women in his store, if a large number of fashionable and
influential ladies would petition him to do so. If the retail merchants
of our large cities and towns would combine and employ only saleswomen,
how greatly would they promote the welfare of the nation! Young men
would no longer waste their health, strength, and talents selling
gloves, tape, and dress goods, but would cultivate the soil, or find
openings as traders, speculators, mechanics, and manufacturers, in
cities, towns, and villages of our Western country. They might do
something more creditable to their physical powers, while they gave
their half-starved sisters a chance to earn an honest livelihood. If
ladies would patronize those stores only in which there were saleswomen,
and influence their friends to do so, employers who now engage the
service of salesmen would soon learn what was to their interest, and
make a change. Promptness and regularity are desirable qualifications in
a shopkeeper. The business brings those engaged into intercourse with
all classes of people. Mrs. Dall makes this statement: "It is a singular
fact that there are a great many more women in England in business for
themselves than employed as tenders or clerks; while in America, the
fact, at the present day, is directly the reverse." A lady who has lived
in New York all her life said, if the merchants of the city would employ
women, they could find twenty thousand to-morrow, ready and willing to
enter their stores. In Paris large stores are owned and conducted by
women, and even the importing and exporting of goods is in the hands of
some. The tact and address of French women admirably fit them for
shopkeepers. Many of the smaller fancy and variety stores in our cities
are owned by women, that have by long-continued industry earned a
competency. Lady merchants can to some extent control the taste of the
community where they are; for such articles as they purchase and keep on
hand will be likely to find sale. The taste of the best keepers of
dry-goods and fancy stores, millinery establishments, and embroidery
shops will be displayed in the dress of their patrons. To merchandize
extensively, requires much experience and knowledge of business; but to
those that are qualified it presents an extensive opening for
enterprise. Barter, or the exchange of one kind of goods for another, is
very common in the villages and towns of our country. The Gothscheer
(Austrian) women often follow the trade of peddlers, and are absent from
their homes many months, travelling about the country with staff in hand
and a pack at their back. "Advertising and politeness are the main
levers to get customers. Advertising will draw them; ability to fill
their orders will satisfy them; and politeness will induce them to buy."
Quick perceptive powers and judgment are also essential to the success
of merchants. It is very desirable to have a good location for a store.
A lady keeping a small dry-goods store told me she sells $100 worth of
goods a week on an average. She has been nine years in the business, and
constantly gaining trade. She likes rainy Saturday evenings, as she then
sells most. She said one must use judgment in the amount of profit to be
made on various articles. A person must regulate her prices by others.
On some goods she can make but five per cent., and on some others fifty.
Many of the fortunes in Boston are said to have been founded by women
engaged in trade. And the ladies on Nantucket Island during the
Revolutionary war conducted the business of their husbands, fathers, and
brothers. A lady wrote, some years back, of some stores in one of our
large cities: "The proprietors say they give from twenty-five to fifty
per cent. more to the males than to the females of equal talent and
capacity, but can give no reason why they should do it, except that it
is the custom, and some parts of the business require more physical
strength, as some articles are too heavy to be handled by women." Yet
why not, we would ask, place women in the lighter departments, and pay
them exactly what would be paid a man for the same work? The average
wages of females in Philadelphia are $4.50 per week, though some get as
high as $7 or $8, but very few above $6. In a few of the stores of New
York and Philadelphia the business is conducted entirely by ladies.
There is a school of commerce for women at Perth, France. We read an
account some time ago of a colored woman on the Island of Hayti, who is
a wholesale dealer in provisions, and worth from $15,000 to $20,000,
that she has made by her own industry and business tact. She can neither
read nor write, but trusts entirely to her memory. She sells on credit
to retail dealers, and to girls whom she has trained. The merchants have
such unlimited confidence in her, that they will trust her to any
amount. Nearly all the commercial business of Hayti is done by women.
=99. Bookkeepers.= The employment of female accountants is gradually
extending in our cities. In female institutions of learning, and in
benevolent institutions, lady bookkeepers might be very well employed.
Indeed, we think, they would find no difficulty in obtaining situations.
We know that many merchants would employ them, if they were properly
qualified. We know of some that now occupy lucrative situations in fancy
dry goods and millinery stores. We have no doubt but the books of most
mercantile men would be more accurately kept, if their wives and
daughters had charge of them. In all European countries women keep the
books of the majority of retail stores. The books of nine tenths of the
retail stores in Paris are kept by women. They are fenced in, and
separated from the saleswomen by a framework of glass. A number of women
are employed as accountants at hotels in Europe. There is a large school
for instruction in bookkeeping in Paris, where the pupils are
practically trained. An exchange of articles of a trivial nature, and a
cheap coin of some kind, are used as a medium of circulation. At one of
the largest wholesale warehouses in Boston, the head corresponding clerk
is a young woman, who writes a beautiful, rapid hand, and fulfils the
duties of the situation to the complete satisfaction of her liberal
employer. A practical knowledge of arithmetic is necessary for
bookkeeping and selling goods--two of the most inviting openings now
presented to women of ordinary intelligence. The lady who keeps the
books of T----'s skirt factory, New York, receives a salary of $400. Mr.
M. prefers lady bookkeepers, because they are more particular in keeping
accounts, and they are more patient in their calculations. They are, as
a general thing, more honest and conscientious. Women are just as
capable of becoming good financiers as men. Industry, honesty, and
promptness, with the ability to write a plain, correct business letter,
ability to calculate rapidly and correctly, with a knowledge of
bookkeeping, certainly should insure a situation to a lady, where there
is a vacancy. It is well, however, for those who have qualified
themselves for bookkeeping, to obtain a certificate: it is a passport
that will aid them in securing a place. The salaries of bookkeepers in
New York run from $250 to $2,500. At a large store, where saleswomen
were employed, I was told they find lady bookkeepers more accurate in
their accounts, and not so likely to appropriate money that don't belong
to them. Where a gentleman bookkeeper receives $15, a lady usually
receives but $8. I know of one lady in Cleveland, assistant cashier, who
received a salary of $300. An accountant in Boston replies to a circular
sent him: "I think the employment as favorable to bodily health as any
sedentary occupation; but in my particular line of business it is rather
trying to the head, as it often requires close application and intense
thought. Those who employ women here as clerks, undoubtedly pay them by
the day, week, month, or year, where they have permanent situations; but
for transient work, by the piece. Women can always be hired cheaper than
men, as it costs them less to live. I am fifty years old, and have been
figuring ever since I was sixteen; still, I learn something new about
accounts every day. A woman would have to serve a long apprenticeship in
accounts and on books, before she could do much in adjusting accounts.
For a first-class bookkeeper, practical experience in accounts and
bookkeeping of business of all kinds are necessary qualifications. I
always prefer the early part of the day for work. My business is as good
at one season of the year as another. I attend to business as it suits
my pleasure--sometimes four or five hours, and sometimes twelve or
fifteen, according to the nature and importance of the task, and
depending oftentimes upon the length of it, and the time when it is
wanted. As a general thing, men and women everywhere in the United
States keep as far apart in business affairs as possible--it is the
custom. The counting house, office, and place of business are not
suitable for a female. I would state that I charge for making out
accounts and adjusting books, as a general rule here in Boston, $10 per
day, and sometimes more--never less. I have had all prices, from $10 to
$50 per day, for one, two, and three months in succession. Sometimes I
take a job by contract, say for $500, or some other specific sum, as may
be agreed upon, according to the nature and value of the service
rendered."
=100. Book Merchants.= In many of the new towns springing up in the
West, there are openings for booksellers. Many colleges and seminaries
are being built up, thereby offering a still better market for the sale
of school books. It would be well for those going into the business to
ascertain, before doing so, what books are used in the literary
institutions of the place. Some booksellers are so mean as to sell
old-fashioned, out-of-date school books to country merchants, thereby
clearing their own stock, and imposing their unsalable goods on others.
No doubt, many established book merchants would be willing to trust, to
such as they have confidence in, a stock of books to be sold on
commission. When a sufficient sum is acquired, the individual can
purchase a stock of her own. Many dry-goods merchants keep a few books,
but when there is a sufficient sale of books, a store, if expenses are
only cleared for a while, may gradually become a revenue of profit, and
is likely to prove a permanent business, where discretion and industry
are used. In London and Paris, women sell stationery, almanacs,
memorandum books, diaries, and pocket books, on the streets. Public
auctions of books are held frequently in cities and towns. Agents do
much to extend a circulation of books. In large cities, merchants
confine their stock of books to two or three kinds--as those of
medicine, law, theology, or school books; but, as a general thing,
miscellaneous books are kept. The trade sales which occur in Boston
once, and in Philadelphia and New York twice a year, are only attended
by booksellers. These sales last but a few days. The prices at which
books sell at these auctions are considered a pretty fair criterion of
their future worth. Miss H. told me of a Miss P., niece of Horace Mann,
now living in Concord, N. H., who kept a bookstore in Boston, and
imported books to fill orders, but was crushed by other book importers,
because she was a woman. In many towns and cities, women keep small
stores for the sale of stationery, magazines, newspapers, &c. "In large
stationery stores, women might be employed to stamp initials on paper,"
with small hand presses made for the purpose.
=101. China Merchants.= This business is peculiarly appropriate to
women. Who so well able to handle china as careful women? Who so well
able to judge what will look well on a table? It comes so entirely
within their province, that the mind readily suggests the
appropriateness. In Paris, most, if not all the china stores are kept by
women. A lady china-dealer, on one of the avenues, told me that she
sells considerable at night to working women, who cannot spare the time
to go shopping in the day; also, to ladies living in cross streets near,
who go out walking in the evenings with their husbands, and call to buy
articles in her line. It does not require as many attendants in a china
as in any other kind of store. A girl is more careful and steady, and
can dust china better than a boy; but a boy answers best to take china
home. She sells most about the holidays. It takes time to learn the
business well. In an Eastern city, two ladies stood in their father's
store, and so learned the business. They married brothers, and each
opened china stores, which they attended, while their husbands engaged
in other business. They are both widows now, but have raised and
educated their children. A son and son-in-law of one conduct the
business. They employ saleswomen, paying from $5 to $8 a week. They are
now in search of two intelligent young women, from fifteen to eighteen
years of age, to grow up to the business. They require a little more
readiness in arithmetic, tact, and general business qualifications than
they can easily meet with. From their experience they judge the
employment to be healthy. A lady in a large china store on Broadway, New
York, receives $5 a week. A lady in another store told me that lifting
crockery causes quite a strain on the back, and should be done by men. A
person gets very dusty who attends china. It requires lifting and
dusting, and now and then must be washed--always when first taken out of
the crate. Mrs. L. and her husband are English, and have been brought up
to the business. She sells most about Christmas. She is on her feet all
the time. To learn the names of all the articles sold in a large store,
and their prices, and to exercise care in handling, requires patience. A
china merchant writes: "Women are generally paid less than men. There is
a difference of from $10 to $40 per month in favor of men, because (with
few exceptions) women are not so well qualified to do business as men.
It would take from six to eight months to learn to sell china. A clear
head, common sense, and activity are the qualifications needed. Women
are not more likely to be thrown out of employment than men, if as well
qualified." A lady told me, the china is a slow business and seldom pays
more than twenty-five per cent., but is a sure business for the cheaper
kind of goods. The profit is not so much as for fancy articles of
ladies' wear; but less is lost from the change of style. China
merchants, she thought, seldom employ women; why, she could not tell.
Mr. H., who employs a girl, paid her $1.50 a week and board the first
year, then raised her wages to $7 a month. He thinks if more girls would
qualify themselves for china stores they would be likely to find
employment. A girl should commence young, but should know how to read
and write, on account of taking orders. He thinks it best to get homely
girls, rather advanced in age, to attend store, because the young and
handsome ones will get married. He prefers girls, because they are more
quiet and steady. Small articles of china he sends the girl home with;
heavy articles he takes himself. A lady, whose ware was partly out of
doors and partly in the house, said she had dusted it at least a dozen
times through the day, and then it was covered with dust. Her breakage
is considerable. She sells most about Christmas. Another china dealer
told me, she sells most in spring, when people go to housekeeping. E.
L., in the Five Points, sells most in summer, because her patrons are
poor people, and in summer the men have most work, and their expenses
are lighter--consequently the women have more money. Her stand is a good
one, but she does not much more than make a living. The business
requires some experience in buying and selling. Ladies sometimes come
into the store to purchase articles they would not like to ask a man
for. A girl keeping a china stand told me she sells most in spring and
fall. She pays $3 a month for ground rent, but owns the shelter. She
locks it at night, and it is perfectly secure, for her lock is different
from all others. It does not take long to learn to sell common ware. She
expects to sell all winter at her stand, and has to be on her feet all
the time. She sells on an average from $2 to $3 worth a day.
=102. Clothiers.= In London there are shops confined to the sale of
nautical clothes, and some to the sale of theatrical attire. B.'s sewers
(New York) earn from $2 to $10 per week--piece work, of course. Most of
it is done by machine. Meritorious girls need never be out of work, said
Mr. B.; yet he can always get plenty of hands. He has much of his work
done in New Jersey. Some men make a business of taking it from
establishments, and hire women all through the country to do it. There
are two kinds of tailoring--custom and slop work. The last is subdivided
into the cheap slop work and that of the best quality, and there are two
kinds of establishments for this common work--that which is not better
done perhaps than the other, but for which a better price is paid and
received, and done by houses of standing and reputation. The other is
done by extortionists, Jews and Germans, and patronized by their own
class. As tailoring is done now, it does not require a regular
apprenticeship as in bygone years, particularly for those who work by
machine. I met a girl on the steps, seeking for work, who told me she
makes $4 a week as operator, when she can get steady work. One of the
proprietors of L. & B.'s clothing establishment told me some of their
workmen earn from $8 to $10 a week, working by the piece. Much of their
work is for California. They employ hands most of the year, as they work
both for the home and foreign market. The great trouble is that the
majority of tailoresses are inefficient. Some are widows, striving to
support their children. Some have dissipated husbands, and are subject
to constant interruption. Some have not the time to properly learn the
trade, and, consequently, such workers cannot have that labor which pays
best, however much they need it. The character of work done by
applicants is judged of by turning to the book of their former employer,
and seeing what prices were paid. In hard times, like these, employers
try to retain those that are dependent on their labor for their bread.
The foreman said, in good times, there is work enough for all the
tailoresses in New York. They pay good operators $5 a week--a day of ten
hours. All the summer work is done by machines. The pressing and basting
is done by men. The foreman of the S. Brothers' establishment says the
best place for tailoresses is in the West, where there are openings, and
they can make money. The only trouble is, the poor have not money to go
West. All their work is done by machines, and all given out. They do not
give work more than six months in the year, and that barely keeps the
girls while they are at work. P. & C. have their machines worked by hot
condensed air. The operators receive from $4.50 to $6. Basters are only
small girls, and earn from $2 to $3 a week. B. & Co., clothiers, give
work out, and, of course, pay by the piece. Their most busy times are
from October to March, and from April to September. They do Southern
work. Some of the workers only earn $2.50 if they are slow, even if they
are industrious and constantly at work. Some of their best hands can
earn $6 a week, but are likely to be at least two months out of
employment. The prospect for tailoresses is poor. I have heard that some
good hands are wanted in Chicago. A great deal of clothing is sold there
to people from the surrounding country and towns. B. does not require
any deposit, but a girl must show her book from her other employers.
They have thousands of applications for work. The reason more clothing
is not made up out of the city is the difficulty in procuring such
tailors' trimmings as they need just at the time they are wanted. Most
clothing establishments keep a list of those that do not return work
taken out, and send them to each other. On persons applying to the
foremen, he turns to his book to see if the names are among the
delinquents. He thinks girls in service are more certain of making a
living, for they are paid from $1 to $2 a week for their work, and have
their board, which would be from $1 to $3 a week, and a competent
servant need not be out of employment; while slop work is very
uncertain, and everything that is made goes for board and clothes. Many
of these shop girls sleep half a dozen in a garret, on straw beds,
without sufficient covering. Many might go to the country and the West
and get employment, but they have not the means; and, if they had the
means to go, might not have enough to come back, if they found it
necessary. F. D. & Co., clothiers. Their girls earn from $3 to $6 per
week, paid by the piece, and done at home. They give most of their work
to men who have machines and employ operatives. The prospect for this
kind of work is poor. Not more than two thirds of the hands in the city,
in this department of labor, will be retained. When business is good
they are able to keep their hands employed all the year, except for a
few weeks when changing from thin to thick work, and _vice versa_. They
sometimes give a girl work to do as a sample. A woman told me of three
girls occupying the room above her, that have a sewing machine. Two
baste and finish off, and one operates. They work day and night, and one
she knows is even now earning $8 a week. They make flannel shirts,
receiving 75 cents a dozen, without putting in the sleeves, working the
button holes, or putting on the buttons. I saw a girl that receives 87
cents a dozen for making flannel shirts. We have seen it stated that a
persons possessed of machines, who make up large quantities of clothing
at very low prices, are enabled, by the speed at which they can work the
machines, to produce sufficient to remunerate all the parties employed,
at an average of $4 a week." One clothier in Albany, New York, pays $3 a
week to his hands working eleven hours a a day. He furnishes work
steadily through the fall, and pays men better wages, because they can
do more work. The proprietor of a mammoth establishment in New York, D.,
writes: "We employ women in making pants, vests, shirts, and summer
coats, both by the week and by the piece. When the sewers take work out,
it is by the piece; but when the work is done in the shop, it is paid
for by the week. The wages by the week range from $3 to $7. Women
thoroughly educated in the trade can make about $6 per week, men about
$9--their work is heavier. The number of branches in this trade, and the
time of preparation for each, varies. We never receive learners. As the
articles are of general use, good hands usually find employment. The
work is brisk from November till March 1st, and from May till September
1st. The time of work could be shortened, but at the expense of the
laborers' wages. In a city like ours, there is always a full supply of
hands. About two thirds of our women are American. Women could not be
employed to sell clothing to men." This firm employed, in February,
1860, five hundred hands in the shop, and eight hundred outside. In B.
Brothers' establishment, "indoor work is paid by the week. An agent pays
for the outdoor work by the piece. Those in the house average $5 per
week. Men do heavier work and receive $7. Women make vests and
pantaloons; men, coats. They work in the same room. The men do the
pressing." (I expect it is a rule that they shall not speak to each
other, for not one word did I hear any of them speak in the half hour I
spent in the room.) "It requires about six months to learn the business.
They do not take learners. An ability to sew well, and neatness with the
work, are necessary. They sell most when the country is in a peaceful
and prosperous condition. They sell most clothing to Western customers
about the 1st of January, and to city retail stores about the 1st of
February. They work ten hours a day. There is a surplus of hands in New
York. They employ seventy in the house, and between 2,000 and 3,000
outside. The number of Americans is about 20 per cent." Great injustice
is done by women in the country, in comfortable circumstances, who do
the work at a very low price, merely to obtain pocket money. An English
tailor in New York hires girls for making pants and coats. He pays one
$4, one $3.50, and another $3, and they work from 7 A. M. to 7 P. M.
There is no difference in the prices paid, except when the man's work is
heavier. Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. Men can press
better, because they have more strength; but women can stitch as well,
if they have the experience. He kept one operator at $6 a week in busy
times, and $3 in slack times, and another at $5 the year round. Some of
the poor tailors in New York rent a room, occupy a spot themselves, and
rent out the rest of the room to others at the same kind of work,
charging fifty cents for seat room for a man and a girl to assist him;
thirty-seven cents for a man alone. It is not easy to get good hand
tailoresses, for most are employed on machines. One firm, that employ
about five hundred hands, write they pay from $3 to $5 per week of ten
hours a day, and that it requires two years to learn the trade. S. & D.,
manufacturers and venders of boys' clothing, write: "Their work is done
by the piece, so much a garment, and wages run from $2 to $6 a week, of
ten hours a day--of course, depending on the skill and hours of the
worker. The relative wages between men and women are, as sewers, say for
men, one third more; that is, as four for the women and six for the men.
The business of a tailoress is numbered among the regular trades for
women, and requires somewhat more than the average trade time, say one
year. They excel as vest makers--a branch almost exclusively confined to
them. There is no uniform usage in regard to pay. The requisites are
good eyesight, average strength, and if taste be superadded, the better.
Winter is the best season for those who work for wholesale venders.
Women are most apt to be out of employment in summer. The demand is, at
present, less than the supply. There is a surplus of vest makers, and a
deficiency, if anywhere, in children's suit making. It is an occupation
less suited to women than trades that require more nicety of touch and
eye, such as designing or wood engraving. The majority of tailoresses in
New York city are German and Irish." A firm engaged in the merchant
tailoring and ready-made clothing business write: "The occupation is
unhealthy, because the workers are constantly sitting. They earn from $2
to $4.50 per week, ten hours a day. We pay men better, because they are
stronger and more capable, and have more experience. Men receive from $9
to $12. It requires four years for men to learn the business, and two
years for women to learn it so as to earn $4 per week. The
qualifications needed are common sense, good taste, and strong eyes.
From March to January is the busy season; but good hands have work all
the year." B. O. & S. "give their work out. Their trade is Southern.
Their spring work begins 1st October, and continues until the last of
March; and fall work begins in May, and lasts until September. They do
not require a deposit, but a recommendation from the last employer, and
give some work to applicants to do as a sample. Some is done by hand,
some by machinery, Wages run from $3 up. Much of their work is done by
Germans, whose wives assist them. It is sometimes difficult for them to
get good hands. The foreman dismissed the Jews he found at work when he
went there, for he thinks they are not reliable. Some get work out, but
intrust it to others to do, and so it is poorly done. The foreman said
many women spend a day or two out of every week running from shop to
shop to get work. He has never lost anything by girls not returning
goods. If they should keep them, they would soon be known at the
different establishments, and have no place to go for work." In Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, District of
Columbia, and Ohio, during the year ending June 1st, 1860, 36,155 males
and 52,515 females were employed in making clothing.
=103. Curiosity Dealers.= In large cities, a few persons may find
employment in this way. To the business of selling coins, medals,
buckles, old-time jewelry, &c., is usually added the sale of shells and
foreign birds. The same persons might engage in the sale of stuffed
birds and animals, marine plants, minerals, and other such articles as
are suitable for placing in a museum. Many women on the streets of
London sell coins, medals, &c.
=104. Druggists and Druggists' Clerks.= Some knowledge of medicines and
their nature is requisite to an attendant in a drug store. The business
is light, and, to some, a pleasant one. In a large drug store, one of
the clerks might be a young man, to attend to night prescriptions. The
day business could easily be carried on by ladies, if they were
qualified. Many articles sold by druggists require a chemical or
mechanical combination. Schools for giving instruction in the art of
preparing medicines are established in New York and Philadelphia. If
enough ladies would unite to form a class, we have no doubt that
separate instruction would be given them by the professors of pharmacy.
We hope these schools will tend to prevent abuses in the prosecution of
the drug business, as those persons will be most patronized who are
known as graduates of these schools. Dyestuffs, paint, hair oils, &c.,
are sold by most druggists, besides the materials directly used in their
business. The apothecary's business is more confined to the mixing and
putting up of medicines, as prescribed by physicians. Girls that put up
drugs are paid by the package, and earn from $2 to $5 per week. Most
country physicians prepare and sell their own medicines. Censors in
Great Britain visit the stores of druggists, and are required by law to
destroy any medicines they consider not fit for use. In France the
regulations are equally strict. In some parts of France and Germany,
sisters of charity are employed to compound medicines, and some to
administer them. Mrs. Jameson, in her "Communion of Labor," describes
her visits to several hospitals in Europe, in charge of sisters of
charity, where some of their number were employed to fill prescriptions,
both homoeopathic and allopathic. I find that in most Roman Catholic
institutions in this country, some sisters are set apart to perform the
duties of druggists. In 1776, when Howard visited Lyons, he found "there
were sisters who made up, as well as administered, all the medicines
prescribed, for which purpose there were a laboratory and apothecary's
shop, the neatest and most elegantly fitted up that can be conceived."
Lord Brougham, in a speech at York, about two years ago, after
eulogizing the Protestant sisters of charity as nurses, said: "They are
the persons who make up, who distribute, who administer all the
medicines; they are, as I can answer from my own knowledge practically
in the matter, as well acquainted with the chemical preparations as the
professional men themselves." In the preparation of fine chemicals in
laboratories, women are sometimes employed. A druggist told me that a
person in his business need never be idle. When not otherwise employed,
he can be making tinctures, compounds, &c. It requires four or five
years to become a competent druggist. The business is one on which hang
the lives of its patrons. Some druggists put up their goods very neatly,
and make them look beautiful; but often sacrifice, to do so, their
medicinal properties. The standard of druggists is higher in
Philadelphia than New York. In Philadelphia, many young men receive
nothing for their services, while learning; but in New York, boys over
fifteen are generally paid $100 the first year, and more afterward. Many
of the best druggists will not make or sell patent medicines. In some
new parts of the Western country, druggists unite their calling with
something else; and are often but a poor excuse for druggists, deriving
their profits mostly from nostrums. One in the business needs a
retentive memory. In the census of Great Britain, three hundred and ten
females are returned as druggists. Dr. Brandreth has his pills made at
Sing Sing. He employs twelve females, and pays an average of $5 per week
to each one. The widow of a deceased druggist and chemist told me that
the receipts left by her husband she could easily dispose of for a
thousand dollars. We have seen it stated that the average hours per day
of a drug clerk are thirteen, and his wages $9. The neatness of women,
their delicacy and attention to details, qualify them admirably for the
drug business. At the Woman's Infirmary, New York, the apothecary's
department is entirely in the hands of ladies. At St. Luke's, a lady of
education and refinement (a sister of the Order of the Holy Communion)
gives her services to the measuring out and dispensing of medicines. At
Smith's homoeopathic pharmacy, the lady in attendance told me nearly the
whole in their department of business is in the hands of females. They
employ men, to press the plants and make tinctures; but the distilling
of water and alcohol, the pulverizing, triturating and diluting,
cleaning vials, corking, labelling, and stamping, are done by women. It
requires neatness, exactness, and quickness, to succeed in putting up
medicines. The girls, while at work, wear clothes that will not suffer
from their labor, which is not the cleanest in the world. The proprietor
of the establishment wrote me: "We employ six ladies, and prefer them to
men, as their work is neater. We pay them from $3 to $6 per week, and
they work from nine to ten hours. There is no difference in the seasons,
as regards our employment. We pay women from the first; and they may
learn the part done by them in from three to six months. As their work
is essentially different from men's, we cannot make a comparison in the
prices paid." At another homoeopathic pharmacy, I was told they employ a
few girls to wash bottles, to put on labels, and place them in the
boxes. They are paid from $3 to $3.50 a week. At a wholesale drug store,
one of the proprietors told me they "employ a number of women, and pay
by the piece, the workers earning from $3.50 to $6 per week. Different
kinds of work have different prices. They pay from the first. Those who
put up perfumery earn most. The greater part of the duties in a drug
store can be performed by well qualified ladies as efficiently as by
men." So few ladies are employed in that way, that they might feel timid
about assuming the responsibilities of a drug store in a city. Yet,
after they had spent two or three years in a store of others, where they
were properly instructed, why need they feel any more responsibility in
a drug store of their own? I was told that no drug broker and no retail
druggist employs women. When employed, it is by those in the wholesale
business. I called on a German widow keeping a retail drug store, but
who employed a young man to attend the store. She regrets that she did
not learn to compound of her husband. She can sell simple medicines, and
buys all her own medicines. She had heard of one lady druggist, in
Switzerland, that performed all the duties of a druggist, and one in
Germany; but it is not common to see women in the business there. H. &
R., druggists, employ women to put up patent medicines, and pay $4 or $5
per week. Mr. M., maker of patent medicines, employs some girls all the
time. When busy, they pay from $6 to $8 a week, but at other times $3.
It requires some experience to put up pills. The pills are mixed,
rolled, and cut by men, as it is heavy work when done extensively. Their
girls get $2.50 the first week of their work, and their wages are
increased in proportion to their skill and abilities. Messrs. K. & K.,
wholesale druggists, employ a woman to put up Seidlitz powders,
furnishing all the materials, and paying by the quantity. They pay her
about $250 a year, but suppose she is assisted by some of her sisters at
home. Mr. H. employs a woman to put up Seidlitz powders, paid for by the
gross. A smart woman can earn from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. A measure is
used, containing the right quantity for filling the papers. A house that
makes extract of ginger, in Philadelphia, formerly employed women to put
it up; but they now employ men and boys in preference, because of the
work they can do at intervals, that women cannot do. I called at Mrs.
S.'s drug store. The youth that stood behind the counter said drug
stores kept by ladies, or where they are employed to dispense, would not
be patronized by physicians. He said, if any trouble should occur, from
want of knowledge or skill in putting up medicines, and the case was
brought into court, the man that employed female dispensers would be
punished. Many persons, he says, come to druggists for medical and
surgical advice, that could not, and would not think of consulting a
lady, even if she were competent to give advice. It would be as
unsuitable as for women to shave men, as they do in Germany. I sent for
the lady, though the clerk urged that she had a sick child, and could
not leave it. I told her the object of my call. She very kindly talked
with me, and gave me information, of which I will give a synopsis. She
boarded for several years after she was married, and as she had nothing
to occupy her time, she spent much of it in the drug store with her
husband. Seven years ago he died, and she, by the advice of friends,
continued the store. She has employed a young man only part of the time.
She says it involves great responsibility, but she is, and feels just as
responsible as a man, and would be held so in court; but is not any more
liable to indictment, or prosecution, than a man. It is something that
requires exactness. It will not do to trust entirely to the memory. She
generally refers to the book for directions. A youth of good abilities
can, in from six months to one year, put up prescriptions, and a boy,
when taken into a drug store, is paid from $1.50 to $2 a week for six
months. A druggist of New York writes: "There is but one college of
pharmacy in the city of New York, where instruction would be given
equally to ladies, if they desired it; although, as yet, none have ever
presented themselves. Ladies have never been employed, to my knowledge,
as druggists' clerks in this city, or elsewhere in the United States,
nor, as I am of opinion, in Europe. In one instance, it was attempted in
Philadelphia a few years since, by a leading druggist, with a view of
economy, I believe; and although he professed to have engaged the ladies
merely as saleswomen in the fancy goods department, they nevertheless
were allowed to dispense medicines. It so happened that one of these
made a mistake, in giving the wrong medicine, which resulted in the
death of the patient, a lady of wealth and wide acquaintance, and the
consequence was the ruin and destruction of the whole business of the
druggist. This put an end to the experiment in Philadelphia." (This we
extremely regret, but know that such accidents have occurred from the
incompetency and carelessness of some young men and boys, with less
disastrous results to the proprietor.) "The business," the writer adds,
"is, in some respects, quite unsuited to females. It requires much real
manual labor, its hours are long, and its constant, close confinement
wears upon the strongest constitutions. I have myself lost my health at
it, and I know of numerous others who have done the same." A lady
physician writes: "I do not know whether women are anywhere employed as
druggists' clerks. They are not either in France or England, where
special education and license are required. I am not aware of any
druggist here who would take a pupil, but I have no doubt one could be
found."
=105. Keepers of Fancy Stores.= A fancy store pays well when a good
connection is established, but it takes time for that. Business is
moving up street in New York, and of course fancy stores with it. Some
unite millinery with the sale of fancy goods. The prices paid to those
who stand in such stores, vary greatly. They are given under the head of
Saleswomen.
=106. Gentlemen's Furnishing Stores.= A great many women are employed in
this business, and many more might be. The making of gentlemen's robes
furnishes in itself quite a business in cities; also the making of
cravats, collars, hemming handkerchiefs, and odd work to be done. Mrs.
M. told me she has a girl that assists in the house, and stays in the
store when not so occupied, and receives for her services $6 a month and
her board. Madame P. pays $3 to each of her operators (ten hours a day),
and to one superior operator $4. She pays $3.50 a week to a button-hole
maker. That is made a separate branch of sewing. Fourteen is the usual
number of button holes in a shirt, and some employers pay one cent
apiece; some, one and a half; and for large ones, in which studs or
sleeve buttons are worn, two cents apiece. Some men are very particular
about the make and fit of their shirts. Madame P. gets $2.50 a dozen for
shirts from a store down street, and $4.50 for shirts from a store up
street. Ordered work pays best. Her great trouble is that she does not
get constant employment. For awhile she sunk in her business from $4 to
$5 a week. Mr. P. says, whenever business is dull in New York city, it
is, of course, wherever work is done to supply the city. He takes
learners in busy times. Mr. D., who employs 2,000 hands in his factory
at New Haven, has discharged them all; also Mr. H., who employs 1,000;
and Messrs. M. & H., who employ as many. He thinks, when business
revives, there will be work enough for all in this line, and even more.
Shirts are such an essential part of a man's wardrobe, that as long as
men exist, shirts must be made. With the many improvements in sewing
machines, Mr. P. has shirts, when cut out, given to the operator, and
turned from the machine complete, with the exception of buttons and
button holes. No basters are employed. All the felling is done by a
feller, and all the hemming by a hemmer. He furnishes his operators with
machines. He employs men to cut, because they do it faster than women.
They cut with a knife twenty-four thicknesses of cloth. All factories
furnish machines and needles. Troy is the great place for making shirt
collars. The girls are paid by the piece in these factories, and the
employers will not permit them to work more than eight hours a day, as
they do not wish them to lose their health. A girl is not retained in
these collar factories that cannot earn $7 a week--eight hours a day.
The machines are moved by steam.
=107. Furniture Sellers.= A French woman that keeps a new furniture
store told me that her husband does most of the work, employing some men
to help him. She only attends store in his absence. The lifting,
repairing, and varnishing, she thought could not be done by women.
Called in the store of a woman--a German Jew. Her husband is away most
of the time. She has furniture made to fill orders, and, of course,
employs several men to make the furniture. I think she sells on credit.
I think women are better adapted to the keeping of house-furnishing than
of house-furniture stores. I was told in a furniture store by a
saleswoman, that she takes entire charge of the store, cuts and gives
out damask for making furniture, orders the men, and keeps the books;
for which she has a comfortable home with her employer, a widow lady,
and $5 a week. She says it requires one to be amiable and obliging, to
possess health and energy, and to be a good judge of human nature, to
succeed in business; but thinks good conduct and sobriety will insure
success in almost anything. The spring she finds best for selling
furniture. Small profits and quick sales is her motto. She never
credits. She regulates her prices according to circumstances, allowing
herself what she considers a fair profit, and yet doing justice to the
buyer. She goes into the store at seven in the morning, and remains
until ten at night. Only a strong, well-built woman, can move furniture.
A lady that keeps a furniture store told me she sold a great deal before
the holidays, but will not sell much again until spring. On making
inquiry of a lady that keeps a furniture store, about the business, she
uttered these practical remarks: "Never credit in the furniture
business, or your money and furniture are both gone. You may succeed, if
you have an honest, reliable man to attend to the business for you. It
is a money-paying business. You should have a man that can attend
auction, and buy furniture, and repair and varnish it. Besides, you need
a carman, to lift and move furniture in the store, and carry it home."
We would state that a woman can just as well attend the sales of house
furniture in New York, at residences, as men, and a carman can at any
time be hired to move furniture.
=108. Grocers.= The retail grocery business is one that many women can
and do carry on. It is very common to see the wives of grocers in their
stores. The store is generally connected with or beneath their
dwelling--so that it is very convenient for the man, and the woman is
saved from exposure to the weather, passing back and forth from the
dwelling to the store. The business is light and generally profitable.
Much depends upon selecting a stand. A good stand is not likely to be
idle long. The fall, I was told, was a bad season for a retail grocery
in New York. Many small groceries in New York are owned by men, whose
wives attend the stores while they are at work. I saw a nice little
grocer, whose husband is a tailor, and who works at his trade in a room
back of the grocery. This seemed to be reversing the general order of
things. The husbands of some grocer women keep stalls in the markets,
and furnish the groceries of their wives with vegetables. I called in a
neat grocery store and bought some apples. The lady in attendance says
she never sells liquor, but all the groceries around there do. She goes
to market at four in the morning to buy potatoes and apples for her
grocery. The baker leaves her bread, and she goes every evening to a
baker's and buys cakes. Bundles of kindling wood are sent her from the
wood yard, and the milkman leaves her milk. She goes to Washington
market for her meat, and to Vesey street for her tea. So she manages.
She said, not a cent in the store had been gained dishonestly. A grocer
woman told me that peddlers interfere seriously with her business.
Besides, the baker next door had gone to selling milk and butter, from
which she has always derived most profit. She has least sale after
families have laid in their groceries in the fall. Rich people and those
in moderate circumstances generally purchase their groceries in large
quantities, it being more convenient and economical to do so; hence we
find but few groceries in the best portions of a city. Of course a
grocer woman must be much on her feet. Most groceries are open until ten
o'clock at night. Mrs. A. says it is impossible for grocer women to make
more than a living now, paying $6 and $7 a week for rent, and sometimes
not clearing more than $3 a week. She opens at five in the morning, and
closes at nine at night. She makes most in summer, because then she does
not have to burn fuel, and can do with less candle light. What lifting
is necessary, her son does when he comes to see her. There are too many
small groceries in New York for any to thrive. I have been told that in
the majority (even when attended by women) liquor is sold. What a crime,
to make ferocious beasts of those who are stupid enough to buy ardent
spirits!
=109. Junk Dealers.= Junkmen go about New York with small wagons, across
which is a rod. Over the rod are strung several cowbells of different
sizes, and from it fly a number of various-colored strips. Junkmen are
not the same as the rag gatherers, or dealers, but a blending of the
two, as they buy on a very small scale, and sell again. Part of their
rags they sell to shoddy manufacturers. A. B., a female junk-dealer,
keeps a shop, where she buys and sells old metals and rags. The first
she sells to a man who comes to the door and buys them; the others she
sells at a store where rags are bought for making paper. She has no
system in buying and selling--buying at the lowest prices she can, and
selling at the highest. Another woman told me she buys white rags at
three and a half cents per pound, and sells at four. She pays so much a
pound for old metals, and sells at an advance. Other articles, as
bottles, glass, bones, cold victuals, and grease, are disposed of by
junkwomen. The damaged cotton picked up by old women is sold to junk
dealers.
=110. Music Sellers.= Mr. W. does not know of any ladies engaged in
selling sheet music, but thinks there may be some in small towns. He
thinks it would be a very suitable employment for them. I called in a
music store, B--, where a lady was in attendance, and, in the course of
conversation, learned she was the wife of the proprietor. According to
her report, "it is an arduous business, and one that requires brains and
musical talent. People will seldom purchase a piece of music until they
hear it, and she must try the pianos before a person will purchase or
hire. The business requires great patience. She and her husband keep
their store open until ten o'clock at night. They do not sell so much
when the weather is bad, nor in summer, when the people are out of the
city. A lady so employed must be able to keep accounts, and, when she
sells, must require good security, if she does not sell for cash. She
must also be able to distinguish bad from good money." She says,
"keepers of music stores will not employ women, however great their
capabilities," but no reason could I obtain for it. I think it is
something, where an opening offers, that would pay a woman well. I
called at another music store in the same city, kept by a lady. She
said: "She and her sister would not keep a music store, if they had not
brothers in the business, for she did not consider it any more
appropriate for a lady to keep pianos to sell than to keep a cabinet
wareroom. The pianos sometimes need to be repaired and tuned, and no one
can attend to that without knowing how a piano is constructed. (?) The
mere selling of sheet music, she thought, might do well enough, but
selling books would be better. She says it would not do well for a woman
to tune pianos, as it requires considerable practice to make one
competent." Why might not women acquire that practice? Her selfishness
and fear of competition were very evident. It is desirable for a music
seller to understand Italian, French, and German, as many of the songs
used in our country are in those languages. Many pieces of music have
two or three titles. It requires some time to learn to rightly perform
the duties of a music seller. The selling of sheet music and the selling
of pianos are separate branches, and a person in one may be totally
ignorant of the other. The wholesale and retail departments are entirely
distinct in large establishments. Clerks that attend in the piano
department are expected to be able to play. A lady is now employed in a
large piano store in New York to try the instruments for purchasers. A
lady in New York stays in the store when her brother, Mr. D., is absent.
He paid a boy $1.50 a week for some months while learning, then more. A
person of ability could learn the business in six months' time, or less.
Music is always arranged alphabetically on the shelves. A boy should be
kept to climb the ladder. An extensive music seller in Boston writes:
"In our direct employ is only one female--a cashier. Repeated losses of
money, and cash continually over or above, induced us four years ago to
adopt the plan of employing a female to receive the proceeds of sales.
It has saved us a great deal of money, and lessened the temptation to
the young men in the store. We would gladly employ more women, but the
height of our shelves, and the unsuitableness of female apparel,
prevent." Another music seller writes me: "Women are employed in our
business, in Germany and France, and are there paid at the same rate as
men. We do not employ ladies in our store, because those of their own
sex will not buy from them."
=111. Sellers of Artists' Materials.= The sale of paintings, engravings,
and artists' materials, form of themselves a branch of business in large
cities. I know of such a store in Philadelphia, kept by a lady. It must
be a light and pleasant employment. In London there are seventy-nine
print sellers.
=112. Sellers of Seeds, Roots, and Herbs.= In agricultural and
horticultural communities, there is always a demand for roots and seeds.
A large number of seeds are raised and put in papers for sale by the
Shakers. In stores for the sale of roots and seeds, growing plants in
jars might be offered for sale, and evergreens, with their roots in
dirt, enveloped by linen or sacking. Orders might be given, and filled,
for forest and fruit trees. Bouquets, also, might be kept for sale. A
man in New York hires a room about Christmas, and devotes himself
exclusively to the sale of evergreens for Christmas trees. As field
seeds are usually sold by the measure, and not put up in papers, women
have no employment in that line. The proprietor of an agricultural
warehouse and seed store writes: "Our seed and grain are put up by men
and boys in the winter months. It is work that might be done by women."
A lady botanic druggist told me, "there are families in the West that
make a comfortable support by gathering herbs; but even the smallest
children assist." Those plants that bear flowers she has gathered when
they begin to bloom. Those engaged in gathering commence early in life,
and gather those growing in their yards and the fields of the
neighborhood. Another seller of botanic medicine says there are spring
and fall herbs, and, of course, they must be gathered in their seasons.
She has a man and his wife gathering herbs, who support their family of
five children by it, and two girls of another family, who earn a
livelihood by it. Ladies in the occupation of root, seed, and flower
selling, would do well to keep garden tools for sale.
=113. Sellers of Small Wares.= In England, the word "haberdasher" is
applied to those who engage in the sale of cord, tape, pins, and such
articles. In America there is no synonymous word--so we use the
expression heading this article, which we have seen occasionally
employed in the same way. The number of women in this business is
legion. With many it is a suitable and successful employment. Those
whose means will not permit them to engage in any more extensive
business--who have a room well located in town, and not too much
competition--can, with a small capital, commence a safe and light
business. It requires but little effort, and, with enough customers,
will well repay time and capital. Many a poor woman, unable to purchase
the articles required, has obtained them to sell on commission, and, by
industry and economy, earned sufficient, in the course of time, to
purchase a stock of her own. I called on a lady that keeps a variety
store. She sells gloves, handkerchiefs, suspenders, and such articles to
gentlemen, and tape, buttons, &c., to ladies. She would rather sell to
gentlemen. She has been keeping store thirty-five years. Her store is
near the river, and she sells much to people coming from the ferry and
off the boats. She thinks in the South and West there would be many good
openings for such stores. Spring and fall, and during the holidays, are
her best times for selling. I called in a small store: I was told by the
lady that she did not much more than make a living. She depends much on
her friends and acquaintances for custom. As they increase in number,
which they do from year to year, her custom increases. She finds herself
very closely confined at home by the business. She does not regulate her
profits entirely by the value of the articles, for cheap goods sell best
where she is, and she puts on a large profit.
=114. Sellers of Snuff, Tobacco, and Cigars.= A lady, keeping a cigar
store, said she makes only one third profit on her sales. Most people
make one half, which, she says, is the usual profit on all goods. Snuff
gives her the headache, when dealing it out, but she thinks she may get
accustomed to it. She sells most from six o'clock in the morning until
nine or ten; and then again in the evening. To know what manufactures of
tobacco, snuff, and cigars are most popular, is important. Having
acquaintances assists much, and they are the first patrons to one
commencing business. A cigar store generally pays well in large cities,
and, if well located, is sure to succeed. Fall and winter are the best
seasons for selling cigars; in very warm weather no one cares to smoke.
=115. Saleswomen.= Women are quite as capable by nature to sell dry
goods as men, but are not trained so thoroughly, nor from so early an
age. Suavity of manner and perfect control of temper are very desirable
qualifications for a clerk. Care, judgment, and taste are requisite for
success. A flow of speech and ability to show goods to advantage are
also desirable. Some people urge that if females are employed as
attendants in stores, they will be exposed to dangerous and demoralizing
influences, and something is said about the corruption of female
shopkeepers in Paris, by way of warning. Now, it so happens that the
corruption spoken of does not exist among the store attendants in Paris,
but among sempstresses. Saleswomen and bookkeepers there enjoy as a
class a good reputation, but the same cannot be said of sempstresses.
Sempstresses, we know from the rates paid them, and the accounts of
travellers, cannot make enough to support themselves; but shopkeepers
can. "One fifth of all the female criminals in Paris are sempstresses,"
says Madame Mallet. Some employers complain that women are too sociably
inclined, too much disposed to chat, where several are employed in the
same establishment. It may be true; but are they more so than men of the
same age? The languid appearance of saleswomen, we think, arises from
their being on their feet so constantly. It is injurious to a woman; and
employers should allow them to be seated, when not waiting on customers.
The number of skirts they must wear, and the weight of hoop skirts, does
much to bring this about. The kind of ladies that saleswomen mostly see
in first-class stores is calculated to improve and refine their manners,
and give them a command of language. Besides, it renders them more
particular in their attire. They want to dress and look well. Those
acquainted with the art, say there are at least a hundred ways of
putting up new goods. Some Jews hire a girl to stay in their store, and
require her to sew, make hoop skirts, &c., when not waiting on
customers. In the United States, women are employed in a variety of
stores: dry goods, lace, and fancy stores are the most common. In
Philadelphia they attend in nearly all the largest stores--Levy's,
Sharpless's, and Evans's; besides, several hundred earn a subsistence as
saleswomen in smaller stores. Close observation and much experience are
needed to fulfil the duties, but the natural quickness of most women
gives them a tact seldom equalled by men. The variety afforded by the
occupation is pleasing, and the labors are light. The handling of
gloves, tape, ribbon, &c., is undoubtedly best suited to the finer and
smaller hands of women. The reason there are so many young men
performing the duties of clerks and salesmen, is, that they are lazy,
and do not want to perform hard work. Another reason is that the
majority want to dress well and make a good appearance, but have no
capital. The price paid for a girl to attend store would depend on the
size, location, and kind of store, how much they sell, and the abilities
of the girl. Lady clerks usually receive from $3 to $8 per week. The
best seldom receive more than $6; while men receive from $6 to $12. The
ladies are obliged to dress well, and to do so must retrench in other
expenses, living in crowded attics or damp cellars, or on unwholesome
food. Mr. M., Philadelphia, pays his girls from $3 to $6 per week, it
depending altogether on their qualifications. In Bangor and Belfast,
Maine, most of those who attend stores are women. They have also been
much employed in Buffalo, New York, during the last few years. It is a
regulation of some of the stores in New York and Philadelphia, that a
salesman or woman shall not sit down to rest; and in some, if they do,
they are fined. If there is nothing to do, they must take down the boxes
and pull out the articles, then arrange them carefully in the boxes, as
if they were closely occupied, to give the impression that much business
is transacted in the establishment. In fancy stores on the avenues, New
York, girls get from $2.50 to $4 a week. The stores are mostly open from
7 A. M. to 10 P. M. In some localities, most goods are sold in the
evening. At a small dry-goods store, where I called to make a purchase,
the lady told me she used to employ a girl, paying her $3 a week,
without board. She was in the store from 7 A. M. till 9.30 P. M. A girl
in a store on Sixth avenue told me, she and her companions get from $2
to $5 a week. They are there at eight in the morning, and remain until
ten at night, and on Saturday until eleven or twelve. They are not
allowed to sit down. A girl in a lace and embroidery store on Sixth
avenue, New York, told me that girls get in such stores from $3.50 to
$10, but they must make up laces when not waiting on customers. Some
receive a percentage. Women are not paid as well as men, even in such
stores. Time of learning depends on the individual. They are seldom paid
anything for a few weeks. They have most to do in spring and fall; are
in the store from 8 A. M. to 9 or 10 P. M. A lady told me she used to
get $7 a week in a fancy store. At M.'s dry-goods store, New York, the
superintendent told me they do not pay learners for one month. They have
girls who have been in the store but a few weeks, that can do as well as
those who have been in it for years. Some again are stupid, and they
will not retain such. When girls are qualified, they pay from $1 to $10
a week. They prefer having ladies in the store, thinking they know best
a lady's wants. They often have occasion to change--some get broken down
and go away, some get tired, some get discouraged, some cannot be on
their feet so long, some cannot please customers, some are not
satisfactory to employers, &c.; so, many changes take place. The ladies
all looked to be Americans. They are allowed to sit when there is
nothing to do, and no customers in; which, I suspect, is rarely, if ever
the case. I have been told the openings for saleswomen are better
farther East than in New York. A lady told me she used to get $1 a day
in R.'s store on Broadway, and the other saleswomen got the same price.
Then she was on her feet nearly all the time. She was there at eight and
staid till seven: all were expected to take their dinner and eat in the
store. Mrs. H. told me she knew a lady that stood in a store on Chestnut
street, Philadelphia, who received a salary of $800 a year. When girls
first go into a store, they usually get $1 a week during the season
(three months), then $1.50, and so increase. A pretty good knowledge of
store keeping is acquired by a smart person in six months, and now
ladies are relieved in large stores from the responsibility of making
change. Many of the ladies in New York stores are Irish. American ladies
are more engaged in making artificial flowers, bookfolding, &c. I was
told rather a novel feature in the life of shop girls, viz.: that many
board from home, for the sake of having company; and in addition to
this, men, earning good wages, but of disreputable character, will often
board in low houses, and ingratiate themselves into the favor of the
girls, until they work the ruin of one or more. Mr. D. employs five
ladies, and pays them from $3 to $5. He prefers ladies. When he takes
beginners, he pays $1.50 a week, and better wages as they become more
capable. He has paid $8, and even $9 a week. The ladies are in the store
from eight to half past eight. He allows them to sit when no customers
are in and there is nothing doing. A lady with whom I talked, and who
had stood in a store on Catherine street, New York, finds the occupation
very injurious, because of having to be on her feet so constantly, and
its lasting from 7 A. M. until 9 P. M. In some stores they are obliged
to remain until eleven, and even twelve, in busy seasons. On Grand and
Catherine streets, New York, they keep open very late. She says, when
the weather is dull, and there are but few customers, employers are apt
to be cross and vent their bad feelings on the girls. And in those
stores the girls cannot sit down to take a stitch for themselves; but,
when there are no customers to wait on, they must make up undersleeves,
capes, and caps for the store. She now keeps a millinery and fancy
store, and pays her girls $5 a week, and the girls are in the store from
seven to nine. They make up bonnets, when not waiting on customers, and
so have a change of posture without a loss of time. She has a friend in
a Broadway store, that receives $1 a day. A saleswoman should know how
to make out accounts. Ability to speak the French and German languages
is a most valuable acquisition to a saleswoman in our cities. One
discouraging feature in the history of saleswomen is, that their wages
are not advanced like those of men. In Detroit, Michigan, girls receive
from $3 to $5 for standing in a store. "In Cleveland, in 1854, there was
one dry-goods store where four lady clerks were employed at salaries
from $200 to $350 per annum. In one shoe store a lady received a salary
of $250; and one, in another shoe, store, $200. In a millinery and fancy
dry-goods store, kept by ladies, fifteen girls were employed at from $4
to $6 per week. In another, kept by a gentleman, ten girls were employed
at from $4 to $6 per week." In the same city, gentlemen clerks usually
receive from $250 to $600 per annum. At a store on Grand street, New
York, where a number of saleswomen are employed, the owner told me he
takes girls in the spring and fall. He tries them for one month, and
such as he finds he can make anything of he retains. He then pays them
something, and increases their wages in proportion to their advancement.
Some never rise above $3; but those who are ambitious and desirous to
excel and make proportionate effort, he will pay higher. He has paid as
high as $12 a week. A merchant keeping a large trimming store on Canal
street, pays his women from $1.50 to $8 per week, and they are in the
store from seven in the morning till dark. To wait in a store requires
experience; and a lady, in getting a situation, should endeavor to do so
through the influence of a merchant. It is very desirable to have a good
location for a store. Mr. M. pays his saleswomen from $2 to $6,
according to their qualifications. At a confectionery the woman told me
she gives $6 a month and board and washing; but as she does not keep
open on Sunday, the girl would have to go home Saturday night and stay
till Monday. She would be kept busy all the time, from seven in the
morning till eleven at night, waiting on customers, cleaning tables,
washing plates, sweeping floors, &c. On most of the avenues in New York,
merchants do not sell as much, nor receive such a profit, as on
Broadway, and employ women because they can get them cheaper. In a small
variety store, a lady told me she had paid $4 a week and board to one
who had never stood in a store; but the lady was a friend. She remarked:
"If a person has the inclination, a memory, and common sense, she can
soon learn. Few are willing to take learners. American ladies are not
ambitious enough to keep store. For one month in summer and one in
winter there is little doing." A lady confectioner says: "It requires a
very honest person to be in a confectionery, because small sums are
being constantly received and no note taken of them. Girls are paid
according to their capabilities from $2 to $5, and are in the store from
7 A. M. to 9, 10, 11, and even 12 P. M., in busy seasons, which are
about the holidays. It requires some weeks to know the prices, where to
place the articles, and how to make them appear to advantage." A
merchant, who employs saleswomen, told me he thought women have a better
sense of propriety and are more particular than men, but they lack
judgment and promptness. He thinks women do very well as far as they go,
but there is a boundary line in ability, beyond which women cannot pass.
The gentleman referred to was indebted to his mother, who had kept the
store he then owned, for his education and position in business. Mr. P.,
seller of ladies' trimmings, employs from twenty to twenty-five
saleswomen, who knit and embroider for the store when not waiting on
customers. A lady who waited in the store told me they change their
position frequently, seldom sitting more than ten minutes at a time.
Women are paid from $4 to $10 per week, and are in the store from half
past 8 A. M. to half past 6 P. M. They pay from $2.50 to $3.50 for
board. The business can be learned in from three to six months. While
learning, they receive enough to pay their board. Industry and ambition
are necessary for success. The prosperity of the business in the future
depends on the fashion and the amount of money in circulation. Winter is
the best season for the sale of goods. The women are mostly German; they
succeed best in knitting, because they are brought up to it. There are
openings in the business, West and South. A saleswoman told me her
business is hard on the back, because of the standing, reaching up, and
bending. She is paid $6 per week, her store companions $3, spending
eleven hours in the store. A person of business qualifications requires
only practice to make a saleswoman. She has often heard ladies complain
of having to purchase small or fancy articles of men. She thought heavy
dress goods could be better handled by men. She says dissatisfaction is
likely to arise when an employer boards his work hands. Mrs. D., who
keeps a fancy store, told me that fifteen or twenty years ago, it was a
rare thing to see a saleswoman in a store in New York. She says nearly
all of her saleswomen have relations dependent on them for support, and
if they are thrown out of employment for a week it is a serious matter.
She pays $5 a week to experienced saleswomen, and gives something to
learners; all stay in the store ten hours. She thinks honesty,
truthfulness, intelligence, good address, and a knowledge of human
nature are the best qualifications. Spring and fall she finds the best
seasons for selling goods, and thinks the occupation for a lady next
best to teaching. A merchant in New Haven writes: "We employ from two to
five women (all American) as clerks, paying from $3 to $6 per week. To
learners we pay $2 per week. The employment of women is on the increase.
My clerks are employed through the year, and work from ten to eleven
hours per day. We employ women to save expense, and because we believe
them most honest." A firm in Providence, who sell gloves, hosiery, &c.,
write: "We employ ten saleswomen on an average, and pay from $2 to $7
per week, ten hours a day. We pay $2 per week to learners. To learn
thoroughly requires about six months' practice. We consider the prospect
good of the occupation being opened to more women. One third of our
hands we send off in summer and winter. We find women neater and more
steady than men, but not so energetic." The proprietor of a large
establishment in Philadelphia writes: "About thirty women are employed
by us in selling dry goods. Their health generally improves by their
active occupation, the proper ventilation of our warehouse, and the
regular habits to which they become accustomed. Wages are from $1 to $10
per week; they are paid less than men because their time of work is
shorter, their expenses are less, and their channels of usefulness more
circumscribed. A lifetime is needed to learn the business thoroughly,
although in five years much may be learned. Women are paid while
learning. Quickness of intellect and of body, good temper, and pleasant
manners are very essential. Women well instructed are generally
permanent in an establishment. Our most busy seasons are from February
to June, and September to December. In no season are saleswomen thrown
out of employment. In winter they spend eight and a half hours in the
store; in summer, nine hours. Seventy-five per cent. are of American
parents. The work is fatiguing at times, but not wearing on the system.
Another part of our occupation, in which women might be employed, if
properly instructed, is bookkeeping. Women are deficient in
generalizing, excellent in concentrativeness. Many of our saleswomen
have been teachers, and some return to it. They have their evenings as
their own from 6 P. M.; they have good moral boarding places, and a
public library open gratuitously. About one half live with parents; the
remainder board at from $2 to $2.50 per week, perhaps two persons
occupying the same room." In Paris, France, young women in stores
receive for their services their lodging, washing, and board, with from
$40 to $80 per annum.
=116. Street Sellers.= The number of women alone, in London, according
to Mr. Mayhew's estimate, engaged in street sales, wives, widows, and
single persons, is from 25,000 to 30,000. Girls and women form a large
proportion of the street sellers, and earn from sixty-two cents to $1 a
week. The comparative newness of our country, the smaller size of the
cities, and the greater demand for manual labor have presented fewer
calls for street sellers. We hope the time may never come when our
streets will be thronged, as those of London are, with street venders,
for we consider it not by any means an index of general prosperity. More
especially do we hope the scanty pittance obtained by their labor, and
the consequent privation and suffering, may never be the portion of any
of our population willing to work for a support. All the wants of a
great city can be supplied by the London street sellers. They are
patronized mostly by those in the middle and lower walks of life. All
the varieties imaginable are represented in their sale of articles. Both
dressed and undressed food can be obtained of them. Home and foreign
fruits and vegetables of all kinds have each their separate sales. Of
the eatables and drinkables offered by them for sale, the solids consist
of hot eels, pickled whelks, oysters, sheep's trotters, pea soup, fried
fish, ham sandwiches, hot green peas, kidney puddings, boiled meat
puddings, beef, mutton, kidney and eel pies, and baked potatoes. In each
of these provisions the street poor find a midday or midnight meal. The
pastry and confectionery which tempt the street eaters are tarts of
rhubarb, currant, gooseberry, cherry, apple, damson, cranberry, and (so
called) mince pies; plum dough and plum cake; lard, currant, almond, and
many other kinds of cakes, as well as of tarts; gingerbread nuts and
heart cakes; Chelsea buns, muffins, and crumpets; sweet stuff includes
the second kind, of rocks, sticks, lozenges, candies, and hard cakes;
the medicinal confectionery, of cough drops and horehound; and, lastly,
the more novel and aristocratic luxury of street ices and strawberry
cream, at two cents a glass (in Greenwich Park). The drinkables are tea,
coffee, and cocoa; ginger beer, lemonade, Persian sherbet, and some
highly colored beverages which have no specific name, but are introduced
to the public as cooling drinks; hot elder cordial or wine; peppermint
water; curds and whey; water; ice milk, and milk (just from the cow), in
the parks. In addition to this information, most of which is derived
from Mr. Mayhew's "London Labor and London Poor," we will devote the
remainder of the article to information from the same author; and would
do so in his words, were it not that we would like to condense as much
as possible. For the substance, we acknowledge, therefore, our
indebtedness to Mr. Mayhew. In the suburbs of London, some people spend
their time collecting snails, worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, toads,
snakes, and lizards, which they sell in the city as food for birds.
Some, in collecting frogs, which they sell to French families, at hotels
and at hospitals. Some devote their time to the sale of coffee, beer,
and baked potatoes. Some engage in the sale of coke, some of salt, and
some of sand. Nor is literature forgotten by the street sellers. "There
are," says Mr. M., "five houses in London that publish street
literature, and six authors and poets that prepare such literature in
prose or rhyme." Some streetsellers devote themselves to the hawking of
dog collars, and some to the sale of rat poisons. Some collect the nests
of wild birds and the eggs, and sell them. Some sell whips; and some,
walking sticks; but these last articles, we believe, are sold only by
men. In London, some women sell refuse fruits; some, water-colored
pictures and cheap engravings; some, coins commemorating public events.
Some engage in the sale of children's watches. Some sell implements
belonging to a trade; for instance, tailors' implements. Some sell
washerwomen's clothes lines, pegs, and props; or kitchen utensils, as
tin ware, vegetable nets, kettle holders, &c. Some of the street sellers
are blind, with having taxed their eyes too greatly in sewing for slop
shops. Some women are co-workers with the men in the sale of crockery
and glass ware. They go in pairs (generally husband and wife); some with
a large basket between them, others with separate baskets. Some sell
spar ornaments, and some, china ornaments; some, lace, and some,
millinery; some, thread, tape, needles, &c. Quite a number sell women's
second-hand apparel. Some sell umbrellas; some, men's suspenders, belts,
and trouser straps. Others again will sell embroidery, stockings,
gaiters, shoe laces, blacking, pipes, quack medicines, snuff, tobacco
boxes, and cigar cases; and in winter some are seen carrying even
kindling wood to sell. Some women sell dolls, spectacles, wash leather,
china cement, razor paste, matches, or japanned ware. Some women carry
sponge in baskets; they either sell it for money or exchange it for old
clothes. A few sell musical instruments. Some offer guide books, play
bills, newspapers, stationery, and jewelry. Rabbits, squirrels, parrots,
and other kinds of birds are sold by them; and some dispose of dead
game. Seeds, flowers, roots, and, about Christmas, evergreens, are sold
in large numbers. In shops, some try to resell slops from kitchens, old
glass, metal, or worn clothes, &c.; some, exhausted tea leaves, which
they dispose of to those that dye and redye them to sell again.--We give
this chapter, because it comprises all and many more than the sellers on
our streets. The few engaged in street sales in our cities are mostly
confined to old women, who sit at the corners, with stands on which rest
store articles, tin ware, sweetmeats, and fruits, or a small lot of
fancy articles. There are several stands of second-hand books and
newspapers, or shelves of candy, kept by men, but the variety in the
business is quite limited, compared with the cities of Europe. Mr.
Mayhew thinks the majority of street sellers in London have been
servants and mechanics that could not get employment. Some street
sellers go on foot through the country during the summer, to sell at
fairs and races. Many others get employment from the farmers in
gathering vegetables and fruits for market, weeding gardens, picking
hops, and assisting in haymaking and harvesting. In Paris, some women
carry bread to sell, in baskets strapped to their backs. In New York, I
saw two women with baskets of vegetables and fruit to sell. I spoke to
one, who told me she earns sometimes as much as $1 a day, and sometimes
but a few cents. In winter, it is not unusual to see girls with baskets
of dried thyme, parsley, and sage, who sell it for culinary purposes. I
talked with a woman who carried tin ware in a basket. She often does not
earn fifty cents a day, and will be walking all day, not even going home
at noon. She buys by the dozen, and so gets the articles a little
cheaper. I inquired of a girl selling radishes how many she usually
disposed of in a day. She takes them around only in the afternoon, and
sometimes sells to the amount of $1.25.
=117. Toy Merchants.= This is a business better suited to the natural
nurses of children than to men. A handsome profit is derived from the
sale of toys. The busy seasons with toy merchants and confectioners are
about Christmas and New Year. Toys might be more extensively made in our
country, thereby giving employment to many now without it. Women mostly
stand in toy shops in New York. Even so small an item as the eyes of
children's dolls produces a circulation of several thousand pounds in
England. Several establishments in London are devoted exclusively to the
manufacture of dolls.
=118. Wall Paper Dealers.= Selling wall paper is a light, pretty
business. In cities it affords a remunerative return; in towns and
villages it is sold mostly by dry-goods merchants and druggists. The
only objection I see to it is, that a step ladder must be used to get
the paper down from the higher shelves; but a small boy might be used
for that, and also for carrying paper home to purchasers.
=119. Worn Clothes and Second-hand Furniture.= Mr. Mayhew tells us that
in London thirty persons are engaged in the exclusive sale of
second-hand boots and shoes. He mentions one man that, in 1855, was
thought to take over £100 ($500) a day. Boots and shoes, too far gone to
be repaired, are sold to Prussian-blue manufacturers--so nothing is
lost. In Philadelphia, near Penn Square, may be seen ranged, on an open
space, a large quantity of second-hand clothes, shoes, dresses, &c., for
sale. The business, in this country, of buying and selling again worn
clothes is mostly in the hands of the Jews--perhaps altogether. In all
countries it is more or less a favorite business with them. The time is
past when the Jew was prohibited in other countries from holding real
estate; yet the Jews in all countries, so far as I know, generally
retain their property in money, or invest it in something movable. Old
clothes in our country are generally given in exchange for new china,
glass ware, &c.; yet a number in the large cities pay money. In London
all kinds of articles are given for them, and then they are taken to the
old-clothes exchanges, where they are disposed of for money, principally
to shopkeepers who deal in the sale of worn clothes. Some of these
articles are made over, some made smaller, some turned, some changed in
form; in fact, the greatest ingenuity is exercised to employ to
advantage the articles used. Second-hand articles are not so much sold
in this country as in older countries, where money is more difficult to
get, and poverty greater. Boys' cloth caps and roundabouts, and women's
shoes, are made of old coats and pants, so worn in parts as to be
unsalable. Coats are also made of cloaks, bonnets of aprons, &c. Men's
and women's apparel of all sorts is bought and sold by them. Old
umbrellas and parasols are bought, repaired, and sold. Silk dresses, if
unfit to be sold, are used for making children's hoods, facing coats,
&c. The scraps are used for making quilts. Old woollen dresses, whose
waists are much worn, are used for making wadded skirts. Tailors' and
dress-makers' trimmings are sometimes purchased for a small sum, and
used in making up girls' hoods, boys' caps, &c. In London, most of
women's second-hand apparel is (as it should be) sold by women. It is
customary for buyers to cry down every article offered them for sale or
barter, but those they offer for sale are magnified into ten times their
value. Many of the men who go through the streets of our cities buying
old clothes or giving china ware in exchange for them, take them home
and their wives repair them. I called at a second-hand variety store in
Brooklyn. The woman says most people engaged in the business are
foreigners. The business is not unhealthy. Clothes brought in are washed
and done over, and their domestics are always healthy. Their business is
very dull. Ten years ago it was quite brisk, but many stores of the kind
have been opened in Brooklyn lately. She and her daughter go and look at
any articles for sale; and if they think the person honest and the price
suits, they will buy; so that, if any one should come and claim the
clothes as being stolen, they could immediately take a policeman to the
place where they got them. If articles are bought, they examine and put
a price on them, and get the address of the individual. If they find
they are not stolen, they then purchase. The poorest season for the
business is midwinter. They keep their store open till ten o'clock at
night. I was told at another store they sell most clothes in the evening
to laborers' wives. In a store in New York, the lady says she buys her
clothes of Jews that go about exchanging china for old clothes. It is
very necessary that a good locality be fixed on, near a river or bay, on
a thoroughfare, or in a neighborhood where many poor people live. One
woman told me she employs two girls and three men to make over and do up
worn clothes for her store. She pays her girls, each, thirty-one cents a
day, and they work twelve hours. She sells most in the evening. At one
place I was told that Mondays and Saturdays are their busiest days for
selling. They sell most to the French, Irish, and negroes. Germans do
not like to buy second-hand clothes. She regretted that in her present
store she had not glass cases to keep the dust off her clothes. Her
purchasing is mostly done among the rich, she says, and so it brings her
a good class of customers. The keeper of a second-hand furniture store
told me that she goes to auction herself and purchases. It is two or
three years before the business pays. She will go to a dwelling and look
at furniture before purchasing. It requires a man to do the lifting. She
has old furniture repaired, chairs reseated, &c., before she attempts to
sell them.
=120. Variety Shops.= Variety shops, for the sale of coal, wood,
kindling, candles, matches, and water, are frequently seen in the poor
districts of cities. They are a great convenience to those whose means
will not admit of their buying in large quantities. It costs them more
to buy it in that way, yet the keeping of shops affords a subsistence to
those who do.
EMPLOYMENTS PERTAINING TO GRAIN, BIRDS, FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES.
=121. Agriculturists.= With industry and enterprise, what may not woman
accomplish! We have heard of women in Western New York, Ohio, and
Michigan, that not only carry on farms, but do the outdoor work, as
tilling, reaping, &c. It is said that in countries where the physical
labor of women in the open air is as great as that of men, their
constitutions become as stout and capable of endurance. Agriculture is
an employment safe and profitable, and capable of almost any extension
in this country. There is a great difference usually between the theory
and practice of farming. Many agricultural works and periodicals are
published that abound in practical instruction. In grazing countries
stock is raised, and the labor of the people is given to making butter
and cheese. A variety of soil and difference of altitude produce
different crops in the same latitude. In the United States the raising
of hops is becoming a branch of national industry, and some women are
employed to pick them. In England and France large numbers of women are
employed to pick hops. In England, 52,000 acres of land are devoted to
their cultivation. There is danger, in picking hops, of getting wet and
taking cold, which acts upon the system very much the same as the ill
effects of calomel. But if proper care is used, the work is not
unhealthy. There is a people's college in New York State, where females
are received as pupils as well as males. No doubt a horticultural
department will be formed. We think it would be well if more women would
devote themselves to agricultural and horticultural employments. Weeding
gardens and attending dairies or poultry yards would each furnish work
for more women than are now employed, and save women from running to the
cities, which are already crowded to excess with applicants for work.
Headley, in his "Adirondack Mountains," says: "Twenty miles from any
settlement on Brown's Tract in Adirondack, Arnold and his family of
thirteen children--twelve girls and a boy--live by their trafficking, by
sporting, and cultivating the field. The agricultural part, however, is
performed chiefly by females, who plough, sow, and rake equal to any
farmer. Two of the girls threshed alone, with common flails, five
hundred bushels of oats in one winter, while their father and mother
were away trapping for marten. They frequently ride without bridle or
even halter, guiding the horse by a motion or stroke of the hand. They
are modest and retiring in their manners, and wild and timid as fawns
among strangers." "On the west side of the Scioto, just below Columbus,
there is planted a field of six hundred acres of bottom land.
Twenty-five German girls follow the ploughs, and do the hoeing, for
which they receive 62½ cents per day." There are two sisters in Ohio who
manage a farm of three hundred acres; and two other sisters, near Media,
Pennsylvania, that conduct as large a farm.
=122. Bee Dealers.= A new species of bee, that builds in trees instead
of hives, is about to be introduced by Government from Paraguay. In
keeping bees there is no expense. The hives can easily be made at home,
or purchased for a comparative trifle. Their food they seek themselves.
"The bee mistresses gain a living by selling honey in many rural
districts of England." Most of the honey used in the United States is
collected in the South. That to be carried to the North is put in
hogsheads. Merchants who buy it have small glass jars filled, which are
sold in markets and groceries.
=123. Bird Importers and Raisers.= There are establishments in most of
the large cities of the United States for the sale of birds. The
proprietors import and raise them. Most imported birds are from Germany.
They are caught by the peasants living among the mountains, and sold for
a trivial sum in small wooden cages. The favorite pet bird has long been
the canary. In the South the mocking bird is common, and often seen
caged. But few of our most beautiful birds bear domestication. Their
wild, free nature unfits them for it. In Germany there is a class of men
who make it a separate business to train birds to sing. The bullfinch is
the kind most commonly taught--perhaps the only kind. They teach in bird
classes of from four to seven members each. It is done by withholding
food from them in the dark and playing on a bird organ or a flute. A
gentleman told me, he thought few, if any, ladies could be repaid in
making a business of bird raising; indeed, he had known several
undertake it, but fail. He says, people like German birds best, because
they learn earlier to sing; and, you know, a purchaser always wants to
hear a bird sing before he buys it. At a bird importer's I priced birds.
He asked for a male canary, $3; for a female, $1; an African parrot, $8;
green parrot, $5; goldfinch, $3; and thrush, $2. Mrs. L., a German, who
raises canaries, told me she could not support herself by raising birds,
but she knows several men that do. She says the American birds are the
longest lived--the imported die in about two years after reaching this
country. Foreign birds are generally devoid of strength, and their limbs
are apt to turn backward as they rest on the roosts. I suppose that
arises from their being shut up in small cages during the long journey
across the ocean, and many of them, being caught birds, cannot bear the
confinement and cramped position. Another bird dealer attributed the
fact of imported being less healthy than American birds, to their taking
cold in crossing the ocean. American birds that are not mated may live
fifteen or sixteen years. The breed, form, color, sex, and ability to
sing determine their price. It is difficult to tell the age of canaries
from their appearance. So one is liable to be imposed upon by
unprincipled dealers, who prefer to sell old birds, particularly of the
feminine gender. Birds are subject to a variety of diseases. Birds are
cheapest in the fall, as it requires more to keep them in winter than
summer, and many do not wish to be at that expense. Mrs. L. sells most
in February, March, and April, the breeding season. Prices vary from $2
to $7. It does not take long to learn to raise birds, another bird
raiser told me, when you know just how to feed them, and the proper
temperature for them. She sells most in winter.
=124. Bird and Animal Preservers.= I notice in the census of Great
Britain three women returned as animal preservers; and I know there are
some in Germany, three of whom are in Strasbourg. Bird stuffing is a
trade in which but few can find employment. It would therefore be
necessary to have something else to rely on in case that should fail. It
is thought by some to be unhealthy, on account of the arsenic
used--particularly to young people. The senior of a firm I called on had
been engaged in it fifteen years without detriment to his health.
Females mostly prepare the branches of trees, or other fanciful stands,
on which the birds are placed. The frames are usually of wood or
pasteboard, covered with moss. I called at Mr. B.'s, and saw a young man
who works with him. He thinks the work is not unhealthy. It is an art in
which there is always room for improvement. Mr. B., who has been at it
thirty years, says he is always learning something new in regard to it,
or making some discovery in the art. The eyes are manufactured in New
York. To one practising the art a good eye for form is necessary, and an
ability to imitate nature closely. The spring of the year is the best
season; but all seasons answer. The only danger in summer is from
insects. A bird stuffer told me he would teach the art to one or two
persons for $50; but he thinks the prospect for employment poor. It is
difficult to get birds to learn on in winter; but in summer plenty can
be had. He has had acquaintances commence in New Orleans, St. Louis, and
Chicago. The first two could not make a living. He knows of two young
ladies that have learned it merely as a pastime. I called on a French
lady, Mrs. L., who stuffs birds and animals. She taught the art to a
barber, who made a great deal of money by it. He paid $150 for his
instruction, spending every other day at it for two months. A Cuban, who
owns seven hundred slaves, paid her the same amount. He wished to learn,
that he might preserve birds he could obtain while travelling in various
countries. She has received several letters from Boston requesting her
to come there and stuff birds for a museum that is being commenced. She
was the personation of health, but she complained that she suffered with
rheumatism. She trembled much--she thought from rheumatism. May it not
be that it is the result of arsenic that she has got into a pimple, or
where the skin was broken? The work, of course, requires a firm hand.
She showed me a parrot, done, she said, in one hour, for which she was
to receive $3. A German book is written on the subject that contains
directions. The information can be obtained in English from a little
work called "Art Recreations." The ingredients are often sold in drug
stores already mixed. It can be done at all seasons. Mrs. L. thinks one
could become proficient in two months' constant practice. A gentleman
went to California, and made a large collection of birds; stuffed them,
and sent them to various European countries. In the four years he was at
it he made $60,000. She sent six hundred to a museum in Paris a short
time ago. She thinks St. Louis may present an opening. Mrs. L. knows a
man who has been employed in stuffing birds and animals in the museum of
Strasbourg from the age of fifteen to seventy-seven, and is a very
corpulent man, being nearly as broad as he is long. That she gave as an
indication of its healthfulness; but it may be that he is bloated from
the arsenic, as it has that effect. She says even poor people will pay
to have a pet bird stuffed, when they have not a dime to buy bread.
=125. Florists.= The rearing of flowers has ever been a charming pastime
to many of our sex. When the pleasure can be combined with profit, it is
well. The cultivation of flowers is a taste whose beneficial results are
not sufficiently appreciated. When the cares and troubles of life begin
to press upon men and women, they are apt to neglect the cultivation of
flowers, when it might absorb some of the cares that burden their
hearts. Vines, roses, and ornamental fruit trees cost but a small sum,
and yet how much they add to the beauty and comfort of a place! Most of
the choice roses of our country are from cuttings imported from France.
They are brought over in jars. Many, of course, die on the voyage. The
variety is very great. The selling of roots, plants, and bouquets is
quite remunerative in some places. Much depends on the knowledge and
skill of the florist, the location of his gardens, and the fondness of
the people in the community for flowers. It is a delightful business for
a lady, if she has men to do the planting, digging, and other hard work.
In Paris, there is a market devoted to the sale of flowers. In most of
the markets of our large cities, are exposed for sale pot plants and
bouquets, also shrubs and evergreens. A florist told me that he employs
two women in winter to make up bouquets and wreaths for ladies going to
evening and dinner parties, concerts, and other places of amusement. It
requires taste and ingenuity. He pays each $5 per week. They can make up
wreaths to look like artificial flowers. A woman on Long Island makes a
living by raising flowers that are sold in New York. I was told that
some lady has established a horticultural school on Long Island.
Florists in and near cemeteries are apt to find sale for flowers and
plants. Hence it is common to observe gardens and hot houses so located.
I rode out to a florist's near Brooklyn. He says the business is not so
good as it was, because the Germans in Hoboken raise flowers and sell
bouquets for sixpence that he could not sell for twenty-five cents. The
man does not send bouquets to the city, as it does not pay. Their
profits are mostly derived from the sale of choice fruit trees raised at
Flushing. They sell bouquets at their hot houses from a shilling up to
$5. They derive most profit from flowers in winter. A florist's
occupation is healthy, and affords much pleasure to one fond of flowers.
Yet it requires close attention to business. In England it was formerly
customary to serve a seven-years' apprenticeship at the business, but
three or four years will answer very well, if an individual gives
undivided attention to his business, and is with a superior florist. A
knowledge of botany is necessary to a florist. It requires considerable
taste to make up a bouquet, and therefore is very appropriate to women.
A knowledge of colors and their artistic arrangement is essential; also
a natural taste for flowers, and some patience. Making bouquets,
wreaths, &c., is slow work. The stems of flowers for bouquets are cut
very short, as most of the nutriment of the stem is lost to the
succeeding ones by cutting long ones. Artificial stems are added to the
natural ones, and are usually made of broom straw or ravelled matting.
Mrs. F., the wife of a florist, says the wives of most florists assist
their husbands in making up bouquets, wreaths, and baskets. She thinks,
if a florist had enough to do to employ a lady, he would pay her $3 or
$4 a week. She has often thought a small volume might be written on the
flower business in New York. She says no one has an idea of the amount
of money expended for flowers. Mr. D. used to send out $1,000 worth of
flowers on New Year's morning. It is a very irregular employment. Some
days she sells a great many for balls, parties, and funerals. One might
learn to make bouquets, if they have taste and judgment, by a few
months' practice. The flowers that are sold at different seasons vary
greatly, and the value of them depends much on their age. Mrs. F. has
sold a few baskets of flowers at $50 apiece. She sells many flowers for
Roman Catholic churches about Easter. Mrs. R. says florists prefer to
have men, because they can work in the garden or green house when not
cutting or putting up flowers. The Germans have run the business down in
New York. A florist named _Flower_ writes: "We employ from two to four
women tying buds, hoeing, weeding, &c.; in winter they help about
grafting. They are paid fifty cents a day, of ten hours. Women so
employed are German born. The employment is healthy. Men get
seventy-five cents a day, as they can do more work; but the principal
reason for employing women is, that we can hire them cheaper and like
them better for light work. Women could do all parts of our business, if
they had a fair chance with men, and would improve the chance. One year
would give a general knowledge, but five would be better. A good, sound
constitution, and industrious habits, are the best qualifications. Women
that want such work can find plenty of it; but outdoor work is too hard
for American women." Another florist writes: "In Europe, where women are
sometimes employed in fruit or vegetable gardens, their wages are
usually about half a man's. Women (chiefly Germans) are employed in this
country by farmers to pick fruit, vegetables, &c., by the quantity. At
light work, done by contract, women, I believe, can make as much as men.
Several years would be necessary to learn the business; some branches of
it might be learned in a few weeks. The requisite most needed for women
to work in green houses, is a change of fashion. Their dress unfits them
altogether for moving about in crowded plant houses. Were their dress
similar to the men's, I see no reason why they would not be equally
useful in other departments as well as this. If that should ever happen,
they would, in my opinion, be worth as much as men; for the work is
mostly light, and ladies, having a natural taste for flowers, would soon
learn it. If you have gone through green houses, you cannot but know the
difficulty of doing so without breaking everything. Men, at this kind of
work, are not fully employed in winter." A lady florist writes: "I
sometimes think my nervous excitability is to some extent caused by an
excess of electricity, derived from the earth or flowers with which I
work."
=126. Flower Girls.= Flowers are the mementoes of an earthly paradise.
They are said to be "the alphabet of angels, whereby they write
mysterious things"--the mysteries of God's love and goodness. Earth
would be a wilderness without them. Girls sell flowers most profitably
at opera houses, theatres, and other places of amusement. They buy of
those who devote themselves to the raising of flowers, and arrange them
into bouquets. A number dispose of flowers on Broadway; and, summer
before last, I observed a French woman at the Atlantic ferry selling
bouquets to people waiting for the boat. A florist told me he disposes
of flowers to girls who make up bouquets and sell them. One of them pays
$500 rent for her room. It yields a handsome profit when a person has a
good stand. He would like a stand at the opera house, but a great many
others are looking forward to it. Some pay for the privilege, others
obtain it by being known to the managers. I was told by a man who
supplies bouquets that he pays to florists from $8 to $10 a day for
flowers, and then makes up his own bouquets. I have been told that at
some hotels in Germany, girls pass around the table at dinner, and give
bouquets. Such recipients as feel disposed, pay a small sum.
=127. Fruit Growers.= If American women would only turn their attention
to the cultivation of fruits and flowers for market, instead of giving
it up to ignorant foreigners, how much better it would be! A few hundred
dollars would make a very handsome beginning; and those who do not have
so much at their disposal, could get their friends to advance it. At
Shrewsbury and Lebanon, much fruit is put up by the Shakers, and sent to
New York for sale. Women might have orchards, raise fruit, and send it
to market. Mrs. D. owns a farm, and does not disdain to graft fruit
trees, superintend their planting, gather fruit, send it to market, &c.;
and she realizes a handsome profit. The grafting and budding of fruit
trees might be done very well by women, and also the budding of
ornamental shrubs. "Miss S. B. Anthony," says the Binghampton
_Republican_, "resides at Rochester, and supports herself by raising
raspberries from land given to her by her father." I have been told that
on one acre of land near New York city a thousand dollars' worth of
strawberries can be grown. In New Jersey and Delaware, women are
employed to gather berries for market. If a lady is within a few miles
of town, and has facilities for raising and sending fruit to market, she
will not be likely to fail in meeting with ready sale. Berries bring a
good price in the markets of a city. In Cincinnati, from May 21st to
June 1st, 1847, 5,463 bushels of strawberries were sold, and near St.
Louis is a gentleman that has some hundreds of acres of strawberries in
cultivation to assist in supplying the St. Louis market. The drying of
fruit affords employment, and generally well remunerates time so given,
if carried on extensively.
=128. Fruit Venders.= Flowers are formed to please the eye and indulge
the fancy; but fruits are a healthy and important article of food. Some
women sell fruit in market; some, at stalls in the street; some, in
fruit shops or groceries; and some, from baskets, going from house to
house. Most dispose of small fruit, such as berries--some wild and some
cultivated. The ferries in large cities are very good stands for sellers
of fruits and sweetmeats. Places of amusement and the entrance to
cemeteries, are also. I talked to one apple woman, who says her business
is a slavish one. Her stand was at the Atlantic ferry, New York. When
she goes to her dinner, she gets the gate keeper to mind her stand. She
earns, on an average, $1 a day. She rises, gets her breakfast, and
starts to market by five o'clock. She remains at her stand until nine
o'clock at night. She sells the greatest quantity of fruit in the spring
and fall, when people are most apt to be making money, and so permit a
little self-indulgence. She sells least in winter. I saw a woman on the
street selling fruit and flowers. When she is out all day, she can
generally earn from fifty cents to $1. Another fruit seller told me that
she makes a good living. She has been at her stand eight years. She
sells most fresh fruit in summer; and in winter, about the holidays,
most dry fruit and nuts. In the coldest weather she remains in her
basement, heated by a stove, where she stores her fruit at night. Her
grapes are brought in on the cars, put up in pasteboard boxes. Her
location is excellent, for the working class of people pass in the
evening, returning from work, or in their promenades. I talked with an
old woman at an apple stand, who told me she often sells $1 worth of
articles in a day, but seldom makes a profit of more than half. She
sells most fruit in summer, but most cigars, candy, and nuts in winter.
She says there is a stand on every block, in that part of New York. Hers
is a good location, because so many men pass. In wet weather, she does
not sell much. She is shielded in winter, by sitting in a hall near,
where she can keep an eye on her stand. She lives near, and while she
goes home to dinner, her husband sells for her. An apple woman, in New
York, told us, she has kept her stand in Washington park for seven
years. She remains at it all the year. If any other fruit vender should
trespass on her bounds, a policeman would soon send him or her off.
Another old woman, keeping a fruit stand, told me she makes a
comfortable living at it in summer; but in winter she stays in a
confectionery store, and gets $10 a month and her board. At another
fruit stand, on asking the old lady how she got on, she burst into
tears, and replied, very poorly, scarcely made enough to keep her alive.
A professional honor exists among fruit women, and a desire to sustain
each other in their rights. A wholesale fruit dealer writes me that it
takes from two to four years to learn the business, when carried on
extensively.
=129. Gardeners.= The strength and energy of people, in northern
climates, have led them to excel in the rearing of fruit--not in
imparting a more delicious flavor, but in the quantity, the fulness, and
the size of the fruit. In the balmy air and under the sunny sky of the
South, vegetation develops more rapidly and more luxuriantly. He who
adds to the list of beautiful and fragrant flowers, or improves some
variety of fruit, enlarging, or rendering it more luscious, will be
remembered as a benefactor. Gardening is a pleasant and healthy
occupation to those that love outdoor life. A woman can no more be
healthful and beautiful without exercise in the open air, than a plant
can when deprived of air and light. We learn, from Mr. Howitt's "Rural
Life in England," that "there are on the outskirts of Nottingham, upward
of five thousand gardens, each less than the tenth of an acre. The bulk
of these are occupied by the working classes. These gardens are let at
from half a penny to three halfpence per yard." German women are often
employed, near cities, to weed gardens, gather vegetables, and other
such work. "In Hereford, England, there are no fewer than six annual
harvests, in each of which children are largely employed: 1, bark
peeling; 2, hay; 3, corn, 4, hops; 5, potatoes; 6, apples; 7, acorns.
Add to these, bird keeping in autumn and spring, potato setting and hop
tying, and the incidental duties of baby nursing and errand going."
=130. Makers of Cordial and Syrups.= Women who live in the country, and
have small fruit, would find it pay well to make cordials, berry
vinegars, &c. There are some establishments where it is made, and women
are employed to gather the fruit. The people of the Southern States have
depended on the North for these articles, but we presume a change will
be wrought. The abundant growth of small fruit in the South will enable
the South before long to meet the demand. We think there will be many
openings of this kind, in the South and West, for many years to come.
Some manufacturers of ginger wine, bitters, syrups, cordials, and grape
wines, write: "In reply to your circular we say--We do not employ any
women in our business, although we indirectly furnish employment for
several hundred, during the various fruit seasons, in gathering most
kinds of fruit, which we use in our business. Many of these fruits are
wild, which we buy at a specified price. The gatherers control their own
time, and their earnings will vary from fifty cents to $1 each, per day.
It would probably require the labor of about six hundred for six months
of each year, in gathering the amount of fruit which we use. But as we
do not directly employ them, or know anything about the general business
of those thus employed, we are unable to give further particulars."
=131. Root, Bark, and Seed Gatherers.= When the grass is bowed by the
sparkling dew, and the hills shrouded in mist, plants exhale most freely
their sweet odors. They are then gathered and sold to manufacturers, who
prepare from them oils, essences, and perfumeries. An old Quaker lady on
Tenth street, Philadelphia, keeping an herb store, told me that she
purchases her herbs mostly of men, but some women do bring them to sell.
It requires a knowledge of botany to gather them, and the stage of the
moon must be observed. Digging roots, and gathering plants, at all
seasons, is a hard business. At another herb store, I learned that the
prices paid gatherers depend much on the kind of herb, the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the season when it is gathered. A woman may earn $1 a
week, or she may earn as much as $10. The roots and herbs are bought by
weight. Many are purchased fresh in market, but some of the gatherers
dry them. They are sent from different parts of the Union to the cities
and towns. One told me that she would rather purchase herbs and seed put
up by women, for they are neater and more careful with their work. She
sells most in spring and fall. An Indian doctress told me barks must be
gathered in the spring and fall, when they are full of sap; and roots,
when the leaves are faded or dead. She sometimes makes $20 worth of
syrup in a day. She says the business requires some knowledge of plants,
experience in the times of gathering, amount of drying, &c.
=132. Seed Envelopers and Herb Packers.= In a seed store in
Philadelphia, we found, they employ women in January and February, at
$2.50 a week, to put seeds up in paper bags, seal them, and paste labels
on. They go at eight in the morning, and remain until dark. At a large
drug store in Philadelphia, we were told they employ nine women. They
have seven distinct branches for the women, and separate apartments for
each branch, consisting of weighing and putting up powders, sorting
herbs and roots, putting up liquids, &c., &c. The women earn from $3 to
$5 a week, and spend nine hours, from eight to six, having an hour at
noon. In busy seasons they remain till eight or nine, and receive
additional wages. There is nothing unhealthy in the business. They are
paid $3 a week from the time they are taken to learn, and deduction made
for absence. A seller of botanic medicines in Boston writes me: "He
employs women in putting medicines in small packages for the retail
trade, bottling the same, and labelling. He pays $5 a week to his women,
and $3 a week while learning, the time for which is six months. Common
sense, neatness, and integrity are the qualifications needed. The girls
work from nine to ten hours. He will not employ any but American women.
He pays men $8 or $9, because they can take them off, and put them upon
work that girls cannot do. Women would be paid better if they were
stronger, and did not need so much waiting upon in the way of lifting
and arranging their work. Rainy days they want to stay at home, or, if
they come, it takes half a day for them to dry their clothes. Men they
can depend on in all weather. Women might keep their books, if their
crinoline was not too extensive: that alone would bar them from the
counting room. Women are inferior only in physical disabilities. Girls
are good for nothing until after sixteen years of age; and nine in ten
will get married as soon as they are fairly initiated in work--hence the
time spent by women in acquiring a business education is to a certain
extent lost--lost to their employers, but of assistance to them in the
education of their children." Mr. P., botanic druggist says: "There are
but three establishments in New York, for this business, and twelve
women would be quite enough for them. They put up herbs in packages. One
day's practice is enough for a smart person. The women are paid from $3
to $5 a week." At the United States Botanic Depot they employ one girl,
and pay her $4 a week. She only works in daylight. Mr. J. L. employs two
girls to put up botanic medicines. He has men to cork the bottles. They
work ten months in the year. Nothing is done in December and January.
They pay $4 a week, of ten hours a day. In Louisville, St. Louis, and
Cincinnati, few women are employed in this way. Some seedsmen and
florists near Boston employ four ladies in enveloping seed. One of the
ladies writes: "We presume more ladies are employed in Europe to put up
seed than in this country. The employment is not unhealthy. We are paid
6 cents an hour, and work by the hour. To learn the part the women do,
requires about two hours. Judgment is most needed. Employment of this
kind is increasing, there is a demand for female labor in the seed
department." A seedsman, in Rochester, writes: "We employ six women in
making paper bags, paying 25 cents per hundred. Boys are employed at
about the same wages. We have work from July to January. The girls take
their work home. We use some boys, because their work benefits their
families equally as much."
=133. Sellers of Pets.= In Paris there are stores for the sale of dogs
and cats. In London, the sale of dogs is mostly on the streets, or at
the residence of the raiser. The aristocracy of England maintain 500,000
dogs and a large number of cats; consequently food must be provided for
them. The sale of birds is common. Gold and silver fish, white rabbits,
Guinea pigs, squirrels, tortoises, fawns, lambs, and goats, are
sometimes sold in seed and flower stores. Flowers and birds are the
favorite pets of ladies in the United States. Everything of this nature
is sold to some extent in the markets and on the streets of our cities,
but generally at the houses of those who devote themselves to the
business.
=134. Wine Manufacturers and Grape Growers.= Many persons are becoming
interested in the culture of the grape; and some are spending time and
money in experimenting. Longworth of Cincinnati has realized a fortune
from his operations. Belle Britain says: "In Longworth's cellars are
700,000 bottles of wine. Mr. L. informed her (?) that we have in this
country at least 5,000 varieties of the grape, and his vineyards yield
from 600 to 700 gallons to the acre." The color of wine depends on the
color of the grapes from which it is made. In several of the States,
Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Alabama, vineyards are flourishing,
and many new ones are being planted out. The variety of soil and surface
in our country is such that there is every probability of success. As
yet, only two kinds have been much grown. No doubt a large number of
women will, in the course of a few years, be employed in the cultivation
of the vine and the manufacture of wine. One can soon learn, with a few
instructions in each season, the proper culture of the vine. A great
deal of the work in the vineyards of France and Switzerland is done by
women. Women do better that men, because their fingers are smaller and
more nimble. The want of intelligent culture has been the greatest
barrier in the introduction of graperies into our country; but such is
the number of foreigners now among us that have a practical knowledge of
the business, we need fear no want of workmen. Many, too, have not been
willing to invest capital in an uncertain enterprise. Wine manufacturers
in Orange county, N. Y., write: "We have not employed women to any great
extent in our business. There are some branches of the business in which
women might be suitably and profitably employed, where those branches
are extensively carried on. The bottling process, including cleaning of
bottles, filling, putting on foil, labels, &c., could be done by women
as well as men. Women could pick the grapes, and cull out the green and
poor berries, and prepare them for the press. They are employed for this
purpose in Europe. The reasons why we have not employed women in these
branches are, we bottle not more than one sixth of our wine; we
manufacture principally for church communion and medicinal purposes, and
the principal demand for those purposes is by the gallon--consequently
we send it out mostly in casks. (Some wine growers bottle all.) The men,
whom we necessarily employ by the year or month in the cultivation of
the ground, vines, &c., are of course employed in the season of the
vintage, bottling, &c.; and in hurried times, such as the time of
picking the grapes, we get such additional help as is easiest obtained,
generally boys and girls, with sometimes women. Women are in such demand
here for household labor, that, unless sought for at the proper time,
March and the 1st of April, and hired for the year, it would be almost
impossible to obtain them. The wages generally paid are from $5 to $7
per month, mostly $5 and $6." Another grape grower writes, in answer to
a circular: "I do not employ female help in my business, except for a
few weeks during the time of tying up the vines and in gathering the
fruit, for which I pay 50 cents per day, without board. Women might be
employed to quite an extent in this business, which is increasing in the
country to a wonderful degree."
RAISERS, MAKERS, PREPARERS, AND DISPOSERS OF ARTICLES OF FOOD.
=135. Bread Bakers.= Nearly all the bakeries in New York are attended by
women. I could not learn of any women being employed in bread bakeries
to mix or bake, but they are in Germany and France. In France the
bakehouse girls enter ovens heated often to 300°, and, it is stated,
sometimes to even 400°. Bakerooms are usually of such great heat as to
be injurious to the health of any but the strongest and stoutest. Some
establishments have day and night bakers. The night bakers are up all
night, and must have their bread ready by 5.30 A. M. The day bakers go
in at 7, and turn out a batch of bread at 11 A. M. Bakers spend on an
average seventeen hours at their work, and this no doubt accounts partly
for the absence of women from the occupation in this country: seventeen
hours out of the twenty-four are too many for any woman to be on her
feet. In this country the bakers are robust, hearty-looking men, and
mostly Germans. Their average wages are $6 a week. Some bakers have a
scaly eruption produced by frequent contact of the skin with flour.
Inhaling the flour in mixing bread I have heard is unhealthy. Some women
might object to working in the same room with men, and baking is
certainly very warm work in summer. In most European cities the price of
bread is regulated by the Government. The cost of materials and the
state of the market regulate the price. A fine is the penalty for a
violation of the law. In this country, bakers regulate the price of
bread by the kind and quality. No law is enforced specifying prices.
Some years ago an attempt was made in New York to have bread sold by the
weight, but the bakers all opposed it. They might have been tempted to
put something heavy in the flour. In large cities some establishments
are devoted to one branch only of the business. Baker's bread is more
used in free than in slave States. In Northern cities some families
prepare their bread, cakes, pies, and meats, and send them to bakeries,
where for a small sum they are cooked. It saves a vast amount of labor.
Some bakers use potatoes in making up wheat bread. I never knew of rice
being used by bakers in this country, but know it is by some bakers in
Paris. The modes of baking bread, and the kinds of bread used, vary not
only in different, but in the same countries. "Some bakers give the
impression their bread is made by women," said a lady in a bakery, to
us, "but it is not. A woman could not make up two or three barrels of
flour in a day. Men are just as neat bakers as women could be." At three
bakeries I was told by the employers that they pay their girls who
attend the shop $7 a month, and board them, but do not have their
washing done. From several girls that stood in bakeries I learned that
they received from $6 to $10 a month, and their board. Only one of the
number got her washing done without extra expense. The girls were
expected to keep the counters, waiters, jars, and floors clean. They
must be in the bakery by 5 o'clock A. M., and stay until 10 P. M. Some
women require the girls to sew when not waiting on customers, and some
require them to sweep and keep the room clean, and some even to wash the
shop windows. Girls that stand in bakeries receive no better
compensation than house girls. A foreman of the baking department,
generally receives $8 a week, and his boarding. Girls are usually paid
from the time they enter. A knowledge of reading, writing, and figures
is considered sufficient. I was told by one lady in a shop that girls
attending bakeries usually receive from $8 to $10 a month, with board,
and some, also, get their washing done. They are not required to keep
the books for those terms, and the bakeries are few in number where
female employees keep the books. I was told by an Irish woman that in
Ireland there are few or no women attending bakeries and groceries. At
one bakery a girl told me she finds it very bad to be on her feet all
the time. She could not stay constantly in a bakery for one year at a
time, she gets so weak from excitement and fatigue. She says most
Germans keep their bakeries open on the Sabbath; but the Americans have
too much respect for the day to do so. On Saturday night, bakeries are
often open until 12 o'clock, and sometimes later.
=136. Brewers.= I wrote to a lady, whose name I saw in a directory as a
brewer. She replies: "You wish to know if I work at brewing, personally.
I do not at present, but have done so, and worked hard the man's part;
but my means are such now that I can do without. I have men employed,
and a clerk, &c., &c. I am a widow, and superintend my business, and
understand all that is connected with it. I suppose it is not necessary
to dwell longer on the subject, as I am out of the working part now. I
am sixty-two years of age."
=137. Candy Manufacturers.= "There are three hundred confectionery
manufacturers and retail dealers in New York city. Twelve establishments
are devoted exclusively to the manufacture of candies. In some, as many
as a hundred hands are employed in busy times. During the busy season,
there are engaged in the manufacturing houses about five thousand
persons of both sexes, though a very much larger number, probably some
thousands, are indirectly supported by it, the paper-box makers being
generally busily employed, and many children gaining a livelihood by
hawking candies through the streets. The city of New York is the
headquarters of the confectionery trade, supplying as much as all the
rest of the Union together, and distributing the results of its industry
to all parts of the United States, as well as to Canada, most of the
West India Islands, Mexico, Chili, and many other places. It is
estimated that fully $1,000,000 worth of confectionery is made annually
in this city; and by that term we mean preparations of sugar, chocolate,
jujube paste, &c., but exclude many articles such as ice creams,
jellies, blancmanges, pastry, and other delicacies, which would sum up
this amount to perhaps double. Two of the principal houses manufacture
daily between them four thousand pounds of candies, at prices varying
from 14 cents to 50 cents per pound, the average being about 20 cents."
The coloring matter of foreign candies is generally showy, and of a
poisonous nature. That of American manufacture is not of such brilliant
and permanent colors, but more regard is paid to health in the selection
of coloring matter. At confectioners' in London, classes of young ladies
are taken and taught the art of making confectionery. Some candies are
made by stretching over a hook, some must be shaken in a pan over a
charcoal fire, and rolled on tables with marble tops. I was told at S. &
P.'s (a wholesale house) that they are most busy from August 1st to 20th
of December, and from March to June. They take learners for a week, to
see if they are fit for the business, and if they are, reward them for
their time. It takes but a short time to learn the part done by girls.
They pay experienced girls from $3 to $6 a week. The girls work ten
hours a day, and if longer, they are paid extra. Lately they have kept
their girls until ten o'clock at night. It requires taste and invention
to envelop fancy confectionery, but is not very reliable for constant
employment. S. & P. employ ninety girls in busy times. At another place
I was told they will not take Southern orders, for the Southerners will
not buy, and have not the money to pay, if they would. The fancy candies
go through three or four processes, and so the girls must work in the
same room as the men who paint them. The girls sit while at work. R.
pays by the month, and keeps his girls all the year. He says labor is
more poorly compensated in New York, in proportion to the rates of
living, than in any city in the Union. He thinks some girls should go
from the cities into country places, and enter into service. H. says a
person of any intelligence can learn in two or three months to paint
candies. He used to employ girls to put gilding on, paying $2 a
week--ten hours a day; but if a girl can paint well, she can earn $4 or
$5 a week. He knows several German girls in the city that do. The candy
flowers, he says, are made by hand, the fruit moulded. A lady
confectioner told me that a woman who ornaments fancy candies is poorly
paid, and it is dirty, sugary kind of work. Yet she acknowledged that
candies must be kept on a clean table and handled by clean
hands--otherwise they would not look well, and consequently not sell
readily. The wives of German manufacturers do most of that kind of work.
A confectioner told me, candy is never made in this country by women,
but it is in England. He said the dust of the powdered sugar and the
gases of the coal render it unhealthy. In large establishments most
candy is made by steam. The making of candy he thought even too
laborious for men. The teeth of candy manufacturers are often decayed
from the frequent tasting of heated sugar. One candy manufacturer writes
me: "We employ six girls in making candy, and do not think the business
unhealthy. Wages range from $1.25 to $4.50 per week--ten hours a day.
Men's wages are from $4.50 to $9. It requires from three to five years
for men to learn. Women's part is learned in one year. The prospect of
employment is good for a limited number. Fall is the best season, but
they are always employed except during part of the winter. In some
branches of the work women excel." At a manufactory of gum drops and
candy rings, I saw a boy who receives $3 a week for making the rings,
and a girl who receives $2.75 for picking gum drops, _i. e._, loosening
the sugar in which they are incrusted while being made. They work from 7
A. M. to 6 P. M.
=138. Cheesemakers.= A great deal of cheese is made in Central and
Northern New York, and some in Ohio, Vermont, and West Massachusetts.
Making cheese is a chemical operation, and requires experience. It is
made in all civilized countries. I talked with an old gentleman who had
been in the cheese business nearly all his life. He said a farmer's wife
is the best help in cheese making. In making cheese, seven eighths of
the work is done by women. A man usually places the cheese in the press,
and removes it when it is dried sufficiently. The occupation is healthy.
Women are paid from $1.75 to $2 a week and their board. Some people
employ men, because they can go to work on the farm when not making
cheese. The business can be learned in from six weeks to two months.
When learning, girls give their work for instruction, but have their
board. Neatness, good health, judgment, and common education, are
desirable for a cheese maker. An individual must be able to reckon the
pounds, weigh the salt, and regulate the temperature of the milk and
curd by the thermometer. The first advice given by a lady who taught to
make cheese was, "Keep your vessels clean." The prospect of employment
in this branch of work is good, for it is difficult to obtain good
cheesemakers. The best seasons are from the 1st of March to the last of
November. The number of hours given by a girl to her work depends on the
contract made--generally eight hours--sometimes ten. In most places
cheesemakers have more leisure than house girls, but some employers
expect them to do housework when not employed about the cheese. Some
farmers hire girls who devote themselves exclusively to cheese making
during the season for it. Some have the afternoon after the cheese is
put in the press, and the jars, &c., are cleaned, until time to milk in
the evening. The morning milking is usually done before breakfast, and
the cheese made after breakfast. It requires until about two o'clock to
get through. When cheese is put in a press, nothing further is necessary
until it is ready to be removed. It remains in the press twenty-four
hours. Most farmers have their cheese made on Sunday morning as on other
days. The girls have Sunday afternoon or evening, according to contract.
Some farmers do not make their cheese on Sunday, but retain the milk
until Monday morning, and make it into butter. Women are best adapted to
the work, and employed mostly because they can be got cheaper. The
majority are Irish women. They are usually put on a footing by their
employers, and eat at the same table. So little spinning and weaving are
done now in the country, that the female members of farmers' families
generally do the milking, unless the farmers have grown too wealthy and
proud to have their wives and daughters so employed. Some dairymen make,
with the aid of their families, all the cheese they use and sell. Milk
should be drawn from a cow as rapidly as possible and while the cow is
eating. One milker should be employed for every ten cows. Milk is very
sensitive. Dairymen will make more by having the cream remain on the
milk than by taking the cream off for churning, at the rate butter sells
this winter (1861). Where the cream is used, an inexperienced hand would
find it more troublesome to make cheese. Twenty-three million pounds of
cheese were exported last year from the United States. American cheese
is, in England, taking the place of English cheese. A German
cheesemonger told me he makes the Limburg cheese--a preparation which
has been known about eight years in this country. He was putting up some
to send to New Orleans. It was very soft, and I thought the smell very
offensive. He gets American cheese of a Yankee girl, to whom he pays $80
a year. She uses the milk of sixty cows. She works at it but eight
months. During four months of the year but very little cheese is ever
made. The arrangements of some cheesemakers for preparing the article
are very complete.
=139. Coffee and Chocolate Packers.= B. S. & W., Philadelphia, employ
women in packing parcels of essence of coffee, spices, vermicelli, &c.
They make paper cases, pour the article in through a funnel and ram it
down, then label and pack the cases in boxes, which are nailed up ready
for delivery. One or two persons obtain a livelihood by cutting the
labels to paste on the boxes. They are paid fifteen cents a thousand for
this work, and are able to support themselves by it. The women are paid
by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 per week. The work rooms are airy
and comfortable. Females were formerly more employed than at present to
put up coffee; but as coffee is now ground every day at most factories,
and as it is considered best when just ground, less is put up than
formerly. Messrs. L. & B., New York, employ girls to put the articles in
papers, pasting labels on and sealing them. They work by the piece, and
earn from $3 to $7 a week. The odor might be disagreeable to some, but
persons get accustomed to it, and it is quite as healthy as most work.
There are not over one hundred and fifty women so employed in the State
of New York, yet such packing is generally done by women. It is
customary to pay by the package. The girls change their dresses on
coming to the workroom of L. & B. They do not work with the men, but
with some boys who fill boxes with the same articles. L. & B.'s girls
have employment all the year. They never have any difficulty in getting
hands. I saw a man who makes up essence of coffee. A lady was assisting
him to put it in papers. At another factory I was told they pay by the
week, from $1.50 to $4, according to the industry, quickness, and
practice of the worker. It is not unhealthy work. They give employment
ten months of the year, but at present have little to do. It requires
but a few weeks to become expert. In some establishments girls stand or
sit, as they please, while at work; in others they are all required to
assume constantly whichever posture the foreman directs. At W. & Son's
two small girls are employed, who each receive $2.50 a week. There is
one factory in Cincinnati, one in St. Louis, and one in Chicago.
=140. Cracker Bakers.= At M.'s the young man said fancy crackers could
be made by women. In making soda, oyster, and some other crackers, the
dough is kneaded by machinery. In some establishments the dough is
rolled out and conveyed to the oven by machinery. In a cracker bakery I
was told the women might be employed in packing and selling crackers. It
would not require all the time of one woman to pack for a large bakery.
A cracker baker writes us: "We employ no women, and do not see that they
could work to advantage in our business." Women could do all the work
now done by men in this line, but I suppose considerable opposition
would be experienced, except by ladies who have sufficient capital to
carry on business for themselves.
=141. Fancy Confectionery.= Most confectioners sell, in addition to
their fancy candies, imported fruits; and a few keep cakes. Some also
keep fruits preserved in brandy or their own juice; and some keep in
addition pickles, oysters, sardines, &c. Some confectioners merely make
sweetmeats--some sell them, and some both make and sell. In cities,
confectioners usually furnish the refreshments for both public and
private entertainments. A manufacturer of confectioneries in New York
told me that in busy times he employs fifteen girls; but at that time
(January, 1861) only half as many, for they have no Southern orders--the
people in the South are doing without candies. The part done by girls
requires no special training. He pays girls for their labor from the
first. They pack, pick gums, envelop in fancy papers, fill boxes, &c. He
pays $3 a week for those that have some experience, and keeps them ten
hours a day. He gives the making and painting of fancy candies out to
those that have families, and who do it at home. W., of Philadelphia,
pays his girls, eight in number, $1.50 a week for the first two or three
weeks, then from $3 to $4. Making common candy is said to be too hard
for women. They assist in the finishing of fine candies, as rolling and
covering chocolate nuts. They put the fancy candies in French envelopes,
and cut the silvered or gilt paper that gives the finish. They can sit
or stand as they please while at work, but while enveloping mostly sit.
They work ten hours. It is rather a light business. M. employs fifty
women in putting up and packing candies. He pays them, from the time
they begin, $2 a week. They learn in two or three months. He pays then
from $4 to $5 a week. A lady told me she was paid in one establishment
$6 a month and board. A girl in a confectionery told me the prices
usually paid girls are $7 or $8 a month, with board and washing, and the
girl is expected to keep the accounts. A lady in another store said
summer is the poorest season for confectioneries, as people do not like
to eat candies, because it makes them thirsty; but in those
confectioneries where soda water and lager beer are kept, there is more
or less custom during the summer. They keep open till ten o'clock at
night, and all day Sunday. Sunday is their most profitable day. She
knows a girl that is paid $5 a month in the Bowery, with her board, or
$7 without. To be kind and obliging, and have the faculty of pleasing
the little folks, are the best qualifications for the business. Prices
paid depend on the responsibility of the employed. Some that keep the
books receive $5 a week without board, most others receive $1.50 or
$1.75 per week and board. Judgment must be used in the selection of a
stand. A lady who keeps a small confectionery and fruit store in
Williamsburg, says she does not make much on cakes and bread, only half
a cent on a loaf of bread. She says it is best not to trust any one for
pay--that children often come and say they want so and so, their mother
says she will pay on Saturday; but Saturday comes, and no pay; and if
they go for the money, the parents will say, "Come again," and put it
off from time to time, until they become discouraged, and give it up
altogether. M--s, French confectionery and chocolate cream
manufacturers, take learners at the proper season, which commences in
August. They employ some girls to paint fancy candies. H. says one must
commence at the very first step, and gradually advance--that to learn
the business requires a long time. He pays four girls $5 or $6 a month
each, and gives them their board, for selling confectioneries and
waiting in his saloon. At S----'s confectionery I was told that the
small fine candies are made by steam. They are made in pans, which are
shaken back and forth over fires, the gas of which is very injurious,
and cannot be carried off by flues. Their girls make so much noise,
laughing and talking with the men, and waste so much time, that they are
required to work on the first floor, the same as the store. They are
paid from $1.50 to $2 a week. They are paid by the week, because they do
their work better than if paid by the quantity; besides, it is less
troublesome. They are paid for overwork (regular hours being ten), and
some earn as much in that way as by regular wages. The girls pick gums,
separate gum drops, put candy in boxes, &c. C. employs girls to paint,
put up candies, and attend store, and pays $1.50 and $2 a week. Most of
the painting is done by French and German men, who are paid from $10 to
$12 a week. It requires a long time to acquire taste and experience;
one, in fact, can be always improving. C. thinks girls are not likely to
find constant employment in the kind of work he gives to females. A
French confectioner told me he had employed a woman to make chocolate
cream, paying $3 a week for ten hours a day, and could employ her all
the year, as the demand for chocolate cream is very great. S. employed
one girl to sell candy, paying $5 a week. She was at the store at 7.30
A. M., and remained till 6 P. M. in winter and 8 P. M. in summer. She
did not keep the books, but washed the jars and case, and swept back of
the counter, and dusted several times a day. Talked with a girl who
stood in a confectionery store on Broadway. She knew a girl on Chatham
street who received $12 a month and her board. She herself received $9 a
month and her board, but not her washing. The proprietor told her she
must sew for his family, when not waiting on customers. It seems that it
is not an uncommon requisition. They have but few customers until about
11 o'clock, and he expected her to accomplish more sewing than a
sempstress who gives all her time to it. The young lady is in the store
by 7 o'clock in the morning, and remains until 11 o'clock at night. Any
one wishing to commence a confectionery can learn from the wholesale
dealer of whom she purchases how to regulate the prices of sweetmeats.
Mrs. W. wants a girl to wait in her saloon, will give $8 a month, with
her board and washing. She would be required to sew, when not waiting on
customers, and would have to wash the jars and cases, keep the counter
clean, and dust and arrange the articles in the window every morning.
She would have to be in the store at seven, and remain until twelve
(seventeen hours). In large confectioneries girls stand while picking
gums used in making gum drops. They are mostly made in summer. There is
now (December) a great demand for girls, as there always is about the
holidays. Those now at work are kept three hours over time--from seven
to ten--and paid extra. The chemicals used in making some
confectioneries are unhealthy, but women have nothing to do with that,
except in painting candy toys. A confectioner in Boston, who employs
four American girls in attending store and making goods, writes: "We
consider the occupation very healthy, never having had a case of
sickness with girls while working at this business. Some are paid $3 and
$4 per week, working ten hours a day; others by the quantity, averaging
$1 per day. Male labor is paid for, according to the knowledge of the
business, from $6 to $15. Girls could not do the work, and the work that
women do it would not pay to have done by male labor. It requires a long
time and a great deal of practice to learn the whole business, but that
part done by women is learned in a few weeks. They are paid something
while learning. Honesty, industry, and a good education are the most
desirable qualifications. Spring and fall are our most busy seasons. In
midwinter we do not have many at work. Retail stores require most help
in summer. New York requires most hands, especially women; but the
demands are now very small, the trouble at the South being the main
cause. They are not strong enough to do some parts of the work. The
large towns are best for our business." A lady in a fancy confectionery
on Broadway told me she receives $8 a month and her board, and is paid
by the month. She thinks many diseases are brought on women by having to
stand so much, as they do in confectioneries, bakeries, and dry-good
stores. Women that have stood in any kind of a store before, and have
business qualifications, are paid while learning. There is never any
difficulty about obtaining qualified hands. She finds the work very
laborious, and complained of having to be in the confectionery and
saloon from seven in the morning until twelve at night. In some saloons
the attendants are up until 1 o'clock (eighteen hours!), and are on
their feet most of the time. A confectioner in Concord, N. H., writes:
"We employ from five to ten girls (because we find it most profitable)
for helping make, rolling up, and packing lozenges and pipe candy. Also
for standing in the confectionery. The work is very healthy. We pay
about sixty-seven cents per day, and they work from six to ten hours. No
man employed, except one who takes charge. There is a prospect for
employment so long as children cry for lozenges. The girls are American,
and work at all seasons. They are as well paid, according to the cost of
living, as mechanics in this place. Women are superior to men in rolling
up and packing lozenges. They pay for board $1.75 per week."
=142. Fish Women.= In the United States, where every one has a right to
fish in the rivers and lakes, there is a fair opening for those in this
line of business. But it is only in the spring and fall that fish are
much eaten. They are not considered healthy in the warm weather of
summer. A pound of fish is said to be in nutritive power equal to eight
pounds of potatoes. In the United States, according to the census report
of 1850, there were engaged in fisheries 20,704 males and 429 females.
The fishwomen of Philadelphia have long engaged in the selling of shad,
and are to be seen in great numbers on the streets of the city, and even
when not seen are likely to be heard crying fish. At one time they had a
large market devoted exclusively to the sale of fish, but it became a
nuisance, and the city authorities had it torn down; yet the women,
possessed of strong local association, were not to be so routed. They
are still seen sitting before their tables of fish in the neighborhood
of where the market stood. Much money has been realized by the
fishwomen, some of whom are said to own property of considerable value.
What a lesson to patient industry! "From the time of Louis XIV. to the
present, fish have been sold in Paris exclusively by women. They are now
remarkable for the urbanity of their language and propriety of their
conduct, having risen high in the scale of respectability during the
last half century." "On the coasts of the department of Somme there are
certain fish, the shrimps and 'vers marius,' which are exclusively
reserved to the young girls and widows." On the coast of Great Britain
thousands of women are employed in the herring, cod, mackerel, lobster,
turbot, and pilchard fisheries. Women and children rub salt on the fish
to be cured, with the hand. When cured, women pile them in stacks from
four to five feet high, and as wide. Women are paid, at Newlyn, for this
labor, 3_d._ an hour, and every sixth hour receive a glass of brandy and
a piece of bread. Many are also employed in obtaining oysters and
canning them; and on the return of whaling vessels, numbers of women
assist in preparing the cargoes for market. In New York, fish are mostly
sold by men, who drive about in a little wagon containing fish, and blow
a horn, crying out now and then the kind of fish they have for sale.
=143. Macaroni.= Macaroni is moulded and dried. Girls then pick out the
whole sticks, and put them in boxes. The broken pieces are all thrown
together in a barrel, then ground and moulded over. It is very easy
work, and requires no learning. They are paid from $2 to $3.50 a week,
working ten hours a day. The girls I saw, stood while at work.
=144. Maple Sugar.= The cheapness of sugar made from sugar cane has
almost annihilated the existence of maple sugar, except as a sweetmeat.
The peculiar flavor of maple molasses and sugar makes them much loved by
some people. The trees are tapped early in the spring, when the sap
first rises. After sufficient water is collected, it is put on and
boiled until of the consistence required. It is slow work and pays
poorly, but can be performed by women capable of the heavy labor
involved in carrying, lifting kettles, and stirring.
=145. Market Women.= Mrs. Childs says, in her "History of Women," "On
the seacoast of Borneo fleets of boats may be seen laden with provisions
brought to market by women, who are screened from the sun by huge bamboo
hats. In Egyptian cities, the country girls, closely veiled, are
frequently employed in selling melons, pomegranates, eggs, poultry, &c."
In the southern countries of Europe it is common to see women riding to
market on donkeys, laden with marketing. We learn from "London Labor and
London Poor," that there are 2,000 persons employed in the sale of
greenstuff in the streets of London, as water-cresses, chickweed,
groundsel, turf, and plantain. The cresses are eaten by people; the
other articles are sold for birds. We may divide market women into two
classes--those that raise or have raised the products they sell, and
those that buy to sell again. The articles of the first are generally
genuine and of fair price. Vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter, with
fruit, both green and dried, are carried to market, and there the market
women, placing them on stalls or retaining them in their wagons, wait
for purchasers. This class mostly supply the markets of towns and
villages. Their articles are usually fresh and wholesome. There are
thirteen markets in New York city where everything is obtained at the
second or third remove from the producer. It is estimated that there are
1,300 huckster women attending the New York markets. The members of some
families are engaged in the sale of different articles: one will sell
eggs; another, vegetables; another, poultry, &c. It is said that better
meat and vegetables are brought to Philadelphia than to New York
markets. In New York there is a larger population requiring articles of
a cheap kind. We think market women, considering their habits and modes
of living, probably do as well in a pecuniary way as any other class of
women. Their wants are few, their habits simple, and their
occupation--though an exposed one--healthy. The variety of seeing new
faces, and chatting with those similarly employed, yield more comfort
and content than most women's work. They take in but a few pennies at a
time, yet have their regular customers, and, in prosperous seasons, many
besides. I will give an extract from my diary of a visit made to several
of the New York markets: "I saw some women selling fruit; some,
vegetables; and some, tripe and sausage. I judge, from the appearance of
most dealers, it is not unhealthy. Most of the women were far advanced
in life, particularly those who sold vegetables. They all complain that
they do not sell so much since the commencement of the hard times. How
is it? Do people buy less, and so eat less? or is less wasted in their
kitchens? or are some unable to buy meat and vegetables at all? Here I
would state the remark of a druggist: that, as times are hard, people do
not indulge in so much rich food, nor in a surplus of it; consequently
there is less sickness, and so little medicine sold that the druggists
are discouraged. This druggist has since sold out, and moved to the
country. Most of the market women looked to be Irish. One strong Irish
woman told me that American women cannot bear the exposure in cold
weather, and rent their stalls through the winter to men. They make
their appearance in March with the flowers and early fruit. Butter is
sold exclusively by men in Washington market, New York, and is more
profitable than anything else. There is considerable difference in the
class of custom in the different markets in New York; but the poor are
usually more in number than the rich--so the markets frequented by them
may receive as great a profit as where a smaller number of better
customers attend. Some women regulate their sales to have a percentage,
but many sell for what they can get, without regard to the amount of
profit. I find those selling vegetables, buy of farmers who come early,
and leave a supply for each seller in case she is not there. Any
vegetables they may have left are locked up in boxes, or barrels, or
covered over and left on the bench. The gates of the market house are
closed and locked up at one o'clock every day except Saturday, with the
exception of Washington and Fulton markets, which are open all day, and
the first mentioned all night. Watchmen are about the markets at all
hours of the day and night, and in some markets an extra fee is paid by
the sellers to secure attention to their stalls. At two o'clock in the
morning, Washington market is fully lighted, and the farmers begin to
arrive to sell to grocers. The grocers usually buy from four to five in
summer, and from four to six in winter. Boarding-house keepers mostly
buy from seven to nine o'clock. Families buy during any of these hours,
or later. All the markets are open by half past three. Fulton market is
rather warmer than the others because of the stoves and ranges used for
making coffee, cooking oysters, &c. Ladies do not come to market so much
in winter as in spring and summer. I think the vocation of market
selling must be very healthy, when the venders are comfortably clad, and
have stoves, as many of them do. Market women live to a great age.
Vegetables injured by frost or long keeping are sold at a lower price.
As a general thing, less is sold in market during January and February,
than any other months. In spring time the market presents the most
inviting appearance, for the stalls are then freshly painted, and
flowers and fruit exhibited to advantage on them. Mrs. B. told me that a
woman who sold flowers in Fulton market had made a fortune at it. Some
of these sellers let other women have flowers and fruit to take over the
city to sell, and reap a profit in that way. One old lady told me she
always made 12½ cents profit on her goods, they being pocket-knives,
combs, &c. The stalls are sold or rented. One woman told me she paid 12½
cents a day for her stall; another, 9 cents; and this must be paid for
even on days when they are absent from market. Another woman told me
that she got a permit for the use of a stall in Washington market when
it was first built, and not long since she sold it for $1,500, and the
owner pays a tax of $2 a week besides. She paid $200 for the stall at
which she stood in Fulton market, and pays a rent of 75 cents a week.
She makes a living by selling smoked salt fish. The processes through
which produce must pass from the producer to reach the consumer, might
be avoided by permitting farmers to remain longer in the city, and
furnishing them with a place for their teams and produce; but now they
must all leave by ten o'clock, and can scarcely feel that they have a
place to put anything down while they are in the city. In England are
women who shell peas and beans at so much a quart. I have seen books,
spectacles, canes, pocket-books, caps, shoes, hose, china, and even old
clothes for sale on the streets, and around or in the market-houses of
Philadelphia and New York.
=146. Meat Sellers.= In markets and in meat shops of the United States,
women may occasionally be seen selling meat. They are generally the
wives or the daughters of butchers. They no doubt assist in cleaning
tripe, and making sausage and souse. On the streets of London are nearly
one thousand sellers of dogs' and cats' meat. Most of them are men. This
meat is the flesh of old worn out horses, which are bought, killed, cut
up, boiled, and sold by those who make it a business. Mrs. M. told me of
a woman that sells meat in the New York market. She has made a fortune
by it. She stands in market, and sells, and orders her hired men to cut
it up as desired. Mr. W. told me that women are employed at the pork
houses in Louisville, in putting up hogs' feet, to send to New Orleans.
Less meat is sold in summer than winter. I have been told that curing
meat is too heavy work for women, on account of the lifting. Besides,
they would get wet from the brine used; but some German and English
women do pickle meat, and some even buy and sell stock. The late census
of Great Britain reports twenty-six thousand butcheresses.
=147. Milk Dealers.= Kindness to animals always indicates something good
in the heart. Life, in its every form, should be precious to us. Cows
yield much less milk, and of an inferior quality, on the eastern than
western continent. In Canada and some countries of Europe, the milk of
goats is sold, and considerably used. In some parts of Rome it is
customary for dairymen to drive their cows in every morning, and around
to the houses of their customers, when the milkman draws from the cow
into the vessel the desired quantity. In Belgium it is not uncommon to
see milkmaids following their little wagons, containing vessels of milk,
and drawn by dogs. Mayhew stated, in 1852, that in St. James's Park,
London, eight cows were kept in summer to supply warm milk to
purchasers; four in winter, and the number of street women engaged in
the sale of curds, was one hundred. A lady called with me in a milk
depot. The man has his milk brought in on the cars. Milkmen pay their
women from $6 to $7 a month. They begin to milk about five in the
morning, and the same hour in the afternoon, so that it may cool before
being placed in the cans. Those hired to milk do house work or kitchen
work in the intervals. When milking is done in the afternoon, the men
that work on the farm, and the proprietor himself, assist. In some
places where butter is made for market, the churning is done by horses
and dogs. A milk dealer told me he sold to those who wished to sell
again at cost price, four cents a quart; to other customers his price is
six cents. At one depot, Williamsburg, the dealer was counting over an
immense pile of pennies. His milk comes from New Jersey, seventy miles
from New York. He crosses two rivers every night at twelve o'clock, to
receive his milk at the Jersey depot. He sells at six cents a quart. To
those who buy to sell again, his price is five cents a quart. He told me
a separate freight agent is employed on some trains to take charge of
the milk sent on the cars. Milk does not often sour while being brought
in. Cream is brought in cans placed in large tubs of ice. He pays for
freight, forty cents a can. Cream usually sells at twenty-five cents per
quart. He sells twice as much milk in summer as in winter--he supposes,
because it sours so easily. At shops, milk is usually sold at five
cents; when delivered, at six cents. Milk is less rich in winter than
summer. A milkman told me that in dairies in and near the city, men
mostly milk. He mentioned one quite near a distillery. Women that take
milk about in buckets to sell, have a cow of their own, and feed her on
swill from the distillery, and slops from kitchens. The milk they sell
is not healthy. Some of them buy a little good milk and mix with theirs.
If a dairy woman's time is not entirely occupied with her business, she
might in some places find it profitable to have an ice house, and send
ice around with the same horse, wagon, and driver used for the sale of
milk. Borden's condensed milk is boiled at a temperature of 112°, I
think, and prepared in Connecticut. The American Solidified Milk
Company, in New York, employ some girls in rolling, packing, and
labelling. The superintendent writes: "The employment is healthy. Women
receive from $7 to $8 per month, and their board. They spend twelve
hours per day, including meal times, in the establishment. An
intelligent person may learn in a week. There is a prospect of more
being employed. All the girls we employ are Americans, except one. It is
a very comfortable occupation. I find little difference between male and
female labor. When I have hired men or youths, I have found them to be
more habitually attentive, and less irritable; but women are usually
neater. The women all board at a house, subject to the control of the
Company. The price is $2.25 per week, washing included, and is paid for
by the Company. The character of the house is unexceptionable, and the
table is much better provided than that of most farmers living here."
=148. Mince Meat and Apple Butter.= The preparation of mince meat might
be performed by women. And it might be sold by them in stores where
poultry, eggs, and butter are disposed of, or in clean, well-kept
groceries. With a machine for cutting the meat, and another for paring
the apples, it could be easily accomplished. Apple butter is an article
that meets with ready sale in market. People that are very particular
about their food only buy of those they know to be cleanly in their
cooking. Stewing apple butter is laborious work. If a farmer has a cider
press and an apple parer, much labor is saved in preparing the
materials. In some places, apple butter is kept for sale in groceries,
and in establishments for the sale of the products of the dairy. The
apples that are partly decayed, and those picked off the ground, furnish
an abundance from large orchards. And from orchards not accessible to
market where defective fruit can be sold, there will be no want of a
supply. It is sold by the pint or quart, or put up in jars holding more.
=149. Mustard Packers.= Most of the mustard in this country has been
imported, but some planters are now turning their time and attention to
it. Mustard is cultivated to some extent for the oil pressed from its
seed. Some factories exist in the United States. I have heard of a man
in New York that used to be engaged extensively in grinding mustard with
vinegar, and employed women to put it in jars, paying $3 a week. In some
dry mustard factories women are employed to put the mustard in papers. A
manufacturer of mustard writes: "Women are employed at some large
establishments. The business is severe on persons with weak lungs, as a
large quantity of steam or dust arises from packing. The work is paid
for by the quantity, not the day. Women of good judgment would soon
become mistresses of their work--in six months they would become good
workwomen. They would probably spoil as much as their wages were worth
for the first few days. When cholera and yellow fever are about, is the
best time for the sale of mustard. Ten hours is the usual time for work,
but in busy seasons the hands work longer."
=150. Oyster Sellers.= I called on a woman who makes a living for
herself and five little children by selling oysters. She sells most
about tea time, and on until twelve o'clock. She thinks oysters are
wholesome all the year. Physicians recommend them for their patients,
and many can eat them when they cannot eat anything else. Of course a
real oyster saloon can only be kept in places where fresh oysters can be
had. Oysters are rather hard for a woman to open. In summer nothing is
done. The room, vender, and oysters should be clean, to draw decent
customers. It pays well; but too often, in small concerns, the profits
are derived from the sale of liquor. At a little oyster shop the woman
told me she barely made a living. She keeps boys to open the oysters.
She supplies families with fresh oysters, and when she receives an
order, prepares them for families and sends them to the house.
=151. Pie Bakers.= "Many of the young Swabian girls of thirteen or
fourteen years old are sent to Stuttgart to acquire music, or other
branches of education, among which, household duties are generally
included. A matron, who keeps a large establishment there, gives the
instruction, which they voluntarily seek. They may often be seen
returning from the bakeries, with a tray full of cakes and pies of their
own making; and sometimes young gentlemen, for the sake of fun, stop
them to buy samples of their cookery." The foundation of Miss Leslie's
culinary knowledge was laid at a school of cookery in Philadelphia. In
England, women make pastry for confectioneries. At the W. pie bakery I
was told they employ women to prepare the fruit. They used to employ
them to roll the dough; but they are not such fast workers as men. One
man remarked, the shoulders ache from rolling by the time evening comes.
The women are paid fifty cents a day, and board themselves. One woman
boards with them, and receives $1.50 a week, with her board. M. & Co.
pay their women five cents an hour, for preparing the fruit and making
pies. They sell most to retail stores and hotels--consequently sell most
in the spring and fall, when the largest number of strangers are in the
city. They keep three wagons running part of the time, which start at
six in summer, and, in busy seasons, sometimes do not get in to remain
till twelve at night. When it rains or snows they do not sell so much,
as those who sell at stands on the street are not out. The drivers come
back several times during the day for pies, when very busy, and they
mention how many are ordered. So the manager knows how many to have
baked. They always sell most on Saturday, and I think sell least on
Wednesdays and Thursdays. When the women work over ten hours, they are
paid extra at the same rate, five cents an hour. C. and wife pay their
best woman $9 a month with board and washing. It is her duty to roll out
pastry, put the fruit in, and put the covers on. They employ some girls
for $6 a month, to wash dishes, cook fruit, chop apples, pick dried
fruit, &c. The work requires more strength than skill. There are only
four large pie bakeries in New York. Madame L., who sells French pastry
and confectionery, says very few women are employed in Paris, in making
pastry, except for families. It requires too much strength and too long
labor, to do so for a saloon. The saloons are usually open until twelve
o'clock at night. At a bread bakery an attendant told me she prepares
the fruit for pies, but the bakers prepare the crust, make and bake
them. She says their men do that in the morning, when not otherwise
employed, and it would not pay to have a woman for that purpose alone.
Mrs. H. employs fifteen women. She pays $3.50 a month, with board and
lodging, to those that slice apples and carry pies to and from the oven.
Men place them in the oven and take them out. She pays $6.50 to those
that roll out pastry and wash dishes, &c. She has three thousand pies
made sometimes in one day. It requires more care to bake pies than
bread. At another pie bakery, the lady told me she has the fruit
prepared for pies in her kitchen and taken to the bakehouse, where they
are made up by men, to save the women from working where the men are.
She pays a woman for preparing fruit $5 a month and her board. In a pie
bakery in New York, one of the attendants said in the old country women
learn to bake pies and cakes for confectioners. They pay £30 for
instruction, and spend two years' apprenticeship. They learn the whole
process, including the stewing of fruit and preparing mince meat. In
this country that is followed as a separate branch, and mostly done by
women for bakers. She said in the bakery where she stood, girls were
required, not only to wait on customers, but wash the counters, shelves,
and windows of the store. The other attendant told me she found the
smell of the pastry, and being so constantly on her feet, very
injurious. They each receive $8 a month, and their board and washing. To
succeed, a person should be quick in her motions and calculations, and a
good judge of money. They are in the shop fifteen hours. In some
bakeries the girls spend eighteen hours in the shop. The time could be
shortened, if all the establishments of the kind would unite and make
regulations to that effect; but it could not be done by one or two
stores on account of the competition in the business. Such a store would
lose its patronage. The majority of girls board with the bakers'
families, on account of rising early to be in store. Summer is the
poorest season on Broadway, as most of their customers are out of the
city at that season; but in localities where the working classes are
supplied, the summer is the best season, as most of them do not go to
the expense of making up a fire to bake their bread and pastry.
=152. Picklers of Oysters.= An oysterwoman told me that girls and women
are employed at most places where oysters are put in cans to send away.
They are paid by the gallon for opening the shells; and near New Haven,
some girls make $4 a day. On the Great South Bay, they do not earn so
much, as the oysters are smaller and rougher. It requires considerable
practice to become expert, but not much physical strength. The business
is considered healthy, and women are paid at the same rate as men. Miss
B. told me that at Fair Haven some women are paid for opening oysters
two and a half cents a quart.
=153. Poulterers.= Much attention has been paid in this country, during
the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding of poultry. All that
read this will remember the hen fever that spread through our country a
few years ago. Chinese chickens sold at from $40 to $100 a pair; and the
usual price of one egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off
poultry will be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready
sale. Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels,
steamboats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and
tightly made. When there is a variety of poultry, each kind should be
separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, gravel, living
plants and loose soil are the principal things to render poultry
comfortable. The worms and insects obtained from the loose soil furnish
them animal food, and sand or gravel is necessary to promote digestion.
It is best not to draw poultry when preparing it for market, as it keeps
longer when the air is excluded. In winter some farmers let their
poultry freeze, and pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to
market. They will keep so for two or three months. I was told of an old
lady, back of New Albany, Ia., that has made several thousand dollars by
the sale of poultry. The egg trade is a very extensive one. It requires
a knowledge of the state of the market, and promptness in supplying its
demand at the right time. Several establishments in Cincinnati entered
largely into the business some years ago, and, we suppose, still
continue it. Eggs are often shipped from Cincinnati to New Orleans and
New York. "In France and England 6,000,000 eggs are used annually in
preparing leather for gloves." In New York the poultry sold in market is
mostly purchased from the wholesale commission merchants, who have
stands in some parts of the market, or stores near the market. Poultry
is there sold by the pound: chickens, 9 and 10 cents, and turkeys from
10 to 12 cents. It requires experience to learn the quality of poultry,
but those in the business can judge of it by seeing the poultry when
alive. The best time for selling is through the fall up to February.
Some market women sell poultry in winter, and flowers in summer. Those
who engage in raising poultry, could unite with it the raising of
rabbits, pigeons, &c. About a hundred persons (mostly women) are
employed in a henery near Paris, where thousands of chickens are
annually hatched out by keeping eggs in rooms, heated by steam to a
uniform temperature.
=154. Restaurant Keepers.= In London and Paris, young and pretty women
are employed in the best class of tobacco stores and in restaurants.
This should not be so on account of the number, and often the character,
of the men that resort to these shops. Indeed, we think it best not to
employ them in any stores that men only frequent. Besides, the
unseasonable hours that restaurants are kept open, make it objectionable
for women. They are often not closed until midnight or after. In Great
Britain girls and women are frequently employed as bar maids at inns.
=155. Sealed Provisions, Pickles, and Sauces.= The plan is now almost
universally adopted in the United States, of putting up fruit and
vegetables in cans from which the air is excluded. It is one of the
greatest inventions of the age for housekeepers. It saves labor and
expense; and if well put up, the fruit and vegetables are as fresh and
taste as natural as we have them in the growing season. Quite a number
of large houses are engaged in the business in New York, and a few in
Philadelphia. E. Philadelphia employs women to put pickles and preserved
fruit in jars, sealing and labelling them. They can earn from $2.50 to
$3 a week. They sit while at work. The season begins in July, and is
over in October. K. & Co., New York, employ about a hundred females
during the fruit season. The occupation consists in preparing the
articles to be preserved; that is, peeling, seeding, washing, &c.,
labelling bottles, and painting cans. Those they employ are mostly
Irish, and not capable of any very elevated position of labor. The fruit
season lasts six months, after which only about thirty remain the rest
of the year. The hours of labor are ten, and the compensation from $2.50
to $3 per week. In another establishment they employ only small girls,
to whom they pay $2 per week, and occasionally $2.50. Mrs. Dall suggests
that farmers' daughters put up candied fruits like those imported from
France, which bear a good price and yield a handsome profit. Some women
engage in making pickles on their own responsibility. Owners of gardens
not convenient to market would find it profitable to put up fruits and
vegetables, and to make pickles and sauces. The spices they would have
to purchase; but if they had an orchard, they could make good vinegar.
They could either sell the articles in the nearest large city, or pay a
commission for the sale of them. Mr. D., in one of the New York markets,
employs women for putting pickles in jars--gives $8 a month and board.
The number of hours they are employed depends on the quantity of work
they have on hand. B., New York, employs for six months from six to
eight women; for four months, some twenty-five; and the remaining two
months, from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five. B. has always had
his work done in the city, but contemplates having it done hereafter in
the country, as the articles will then be on the ground, and save the
trouble of transportation. They send South. He thinks the South must for
a long time be dependent on the North for pickles. They even furnish
some of the pickle houses in Baltimore. They fear they will lose much
because they have now no demand for pickles from the South, and they are
likely to spoil by keeping. They are most busy in summer and fall. They
keep some steady hands all the year. They find it difficult to get good
hands, and pay learners from the first. Many girls go from New York in
the summer, to the country, to put up pickles, gather berries, and weed
gardens; and it pays them pretty well. B. pays his women fifty cents a
day of ten hours. It is not unhealthy, and requires but a little time to
learn. In this, as in most other mechanical work, practice makes
perfect; consequently, experienced hands receive the preference. At most
places men attend to fruit while it is being cooked. The preserving is
mostly done in large kettles, around which pass pipes containing steam,
encased by larger vessels. Lifting the kettles would be too heavy for
women, when they contain, as in some cases, thirty-five gallons of
fruit. And the steam used would require some one that knew a little of
such matters, yet a smart woman could soon learn. M. & M. have their
work done in the house, paying from $2.25 to $4. They can always get
hands. W. & P. have their pickles, preserves, and sauces put up in the
country. Their girls get from $3 to $6 a week. They employ two hundred
girls, and take most of them from the city in the busy season from June
to October. G. pays $3 a week. Any one that can use their hands can do
it, and become expert in two or three months. Another pickler pays $2
per week. His wife does most of the work. Mrs. M. lives near Washington
market. She employs some women to preserve, and some to put up pickles.
Most of her preserves are put up by an old lady who does it at her own
home. She pays her women from $2.50 to $4 a week. It requires long
experience to become proficient. Nearly all the work is done in her
house, and of course is done only in the summer. Her custom is mostly
confined to the city. If she is preserving a very large quantity of
fruit, she has a man to stir it. He spends most of his time taking
purchased articles home. She uses only the best articles. She can always
get enough hands. An extensive pickle manufacturer writes: "I employ
women in packing pickles and all goods of the kind into
glass--labelling, corking, making jellies, jams, &c., packing, labelling
catsups, bottling syrups, &c. Women are so employed wherever these goods
are manufactured. The employment is _healthy_--so much so that I have
known invalids gain their health. I pay $3 per week--men $6 to $10; all
work ten hours a day. Women can learn in from three to twelve months.
Some learners receive $2, and some $2.50 per week. Quickness, neatness,
and skill are required. Summer and fall are the busy seasons. The
females are mostly young Irish, born in the United States. Women are
superior in handiness, inferior in strength." A gentleman in the
business writes from Newburyport: "I employ usually from eight to ten
women. I pay eight cents per hour, and they work from four to seven
hours. The men's work is worth more than women's, and entirely different
from it. The prospect for this kind of work is good. There is no work in
winter or early spring. Seaports are the best localities for the
business. My women pay from $1.50 to $1.75 for respectable board."
=156. Sugar Makers.= When the part of the sugar cane to be pressed, is
cut, it is tied in bundles and drawn to the mill in wagons. It is
deposited in heaps outside, and negro girls carry the bundles on their
heads to the mill door. After the cane has been subjected to pressure by
cylinders, to obtain the juice, it falls through an opening in the mill
walls, and is carried off by negro women and spread in the sun, to dry
for fuel. The work in sugar mills is very warm and heavy. The work in
sugar refineries is very laborious, and requires the workers to be
subjected to great heat. Several refiners have informed me that the
business does not admit of the employment of women in any department.
The business is said to be very trying on the constitution, and produces
an unhealthy increase of flesh. It is said to be good for consumptives
on account of the great nutriment in sugar. A sugar refiner died not
long ago, whose salary received from the company amounted, I was told,
to $25,000 per annum. I have thought there is one part of the work a
woman might do--it is enveloping the sugar in paper cases. At a sugar
refinery a man told us, some women are employed to make bags for
containing char, _i. e._, burnt bones, and earn several dollars a week.
The sewing is done by hand; making the bags requires but a short time,
though it is heavy work. Most refiners buy theirs at bag factories, or
have their men to make them.
=157. Tea Packers.= A boy fitting himself to be a tea broker told me,
the business is best in the spring, fall, and winter. The quality of tea
is principally decided by smelling--which is done before it is
moistened, by blowing on it with the breath and then putting it to the
nostrils. Boiling water is then poured on it, and tasted. The boy said,
it is a paying business. It is not healthy on account of the dust
inhaled. It does not take more than a year to learn to judge of the
quality of kinds of tea. Boys learning the business do not live long.
They are paid $2, and $2.50 a week. In busy seasons, they sometimes work
as late as nine o'clock. There are not many tea packers in the city, and
one told me, most of them cannot make a living. We called on Mr. N., a
teapacker, who charges for putting tea out of the large boxes, in which
it is imported, into canisters and packages, according to the way in
which it is put up; whether in paper covers, or canisters of lead or
tin. The facing or labelling varies some. He says, packing could be done
by girls. He employs men and boys, paying the boys from $2 to $4 a week.
There are only two tea packing establishments in New York, and not more
than one in any other large city. It is not at all unhealthy. Packing is
done most in spring and fall. Mr. N. thinks it would be best to have the
girls work in separate apartments from the men. He complains of the want
of promptness in girls. A tea packer of Boston writes: "I employ from
six to ten girls to cover and line boxes, &c. They are American, of
Irish descent. There is nothing in the business, that the girls do, that
can be considered unhealthy. Wages run from $2.50 to $3 per week. It
does not take a long time to learn, and full wages are paid while
learning. I employ my help the year round, though less hours are used
for a day's work during the winter. Ten is the number of working hours
during the summer, spring, and autumn; and eight, during the winter
months." In London, a number of men and women, principally women, buy
exhausted tea leaves of the female servants and sell them at
establishments, where they are dried, and a fresh green color given them
by a copper preparation. They are sold for new tea. The quantity so
renewed is thought to amount to 78,000 lbs. annually. The Chinese women
assist in gathering tea leaves and drying them, but men do the packing.
=158. Vermicelli.= Vermicelli is moulded by passing through a machine
and being laid on frames until the next day to partially dry. Then girls
cut it in short pieces, and twist it. The twisting requires a little art
acquired by practice. They receive from $2 to $3.50 a week. It is cruel
for females to be kept on their feet all day while at work, when they
might sit. At a factory I saw a French lady, the wife of the proprietor,
cutting and twisting vermicelli. A young Frenchman was at work, who told
us he was paid 75 cents a day; but women, he said, would not be paid as
much, because he had to attend to the machinery. The lady sat, as girls
in factories should do if they wish.
=159. Vinegar.= A plant is now grown from which vinegar is made. "In
addition to the consumption of vinegar in culinary uses and the
preparation of preserved food, it is indispensable in several branches
of manufacture, as in the dressing of morocco leather, and in dye and
print works." The labor of making vinegar is too hard and heavy for
women. The handling of barrels, changing of liquids, and constant
exposure to heat and cold, without cessation of labor, are too great for
the female frame to sustain. The workers often pass from a temperature
varying from 92° to 105°, to one of extreme coldness." A Boston vinegar
manufacturer, writes: "Women are never employed in making vinegar in
large quantities. They are not adapted to the occupation. It does not
agree with some constitutions. It requires but a short time to learn the
business. The prospect for future employment is poor." Some women make
vinegar from parings of fruit, tea leaves, &c., for family use.
=160. Yeast.= A manufacturer of yeast powders writes: "There is but a
small part of the work that women can do. It requires the strong,
muscular arm of a man to do most of it." We know women are sometimes
employed for putting up the powders, and are paid by the number of
packages.
TEXTILE MANUFACTURES.
=161. Cotton Manufacturers.= Only so far back as 1789, doubts were
entertained whether cotton could be cultivated in the United States,
while now the amount of calicoes annually produced in the United States
is supposed to equal twenty millions of yards. "The number of females
employed in the various factories of Lowell, in which textile fabrics
are produced, will exceed 12,000. Those engaged in weaving can earn,
upon an average, from $2.50 to $4 per week. Those who labor as spinners
and spoolers make only from seventy-five cents to $2, but they are
generally very young." In the cotton mill at Cannelton, Ind., there were
"in 1854, about 200 females. They worked by the job, and their pay was
the same as would be given to men for the same work. They earned from $1
to $5.50 per week." We believe, in the majority of factories, the plan
of paying some hands by the piece, and some by the week, is adopted. B.,
manufacturer, told me quite a number of his weavers earn from $5 to $6 a
week, being paid by the piece. It requires two or three months to get in
the way of weaving well. His hands are busy all the year. His factory is
in New Jersey, twenty-five miles from New York. The laws of New Jersey
prohibit the employment of operatives more than twelve hours out of the
twenty-four, but some evade it. The law, also, forbids the employment of
children under ten years of age. The smaller children are engaged in
spinning, and not so well paid. It requires but a short time to learn to
attend the spinning machinery. There is generally a full supply of
weavers to be had, because it pays well. Manufacturers usually have
their work done in the country, because living, and consequently labor,
are cheaper there. A cotton manufacturer in Rhode Island, who employs
about 100 operatives, writes: "I pay both by the piece and the week.
When by the week, from $4 to $5. When by the piece, the women are paid
at the same rate as the men, but the men are able to make from fifty
cents to $1 per week more. It requires from three to six months, to
learn. Girls are paid while learning, if they grow up with us. They are
employed through the year, and work sixty-nine hours per week, twelve
hours per day for five days, nine hours on Saturday. All classes of
laborers must work during mill hours. Women keep the rooms and machinery
neater than men. About seven eighths of the women employed in our mill
are Americans; one half would be the nearer proportion in mills
generally in this section, three fourths in some instances. There are
other parts that women might be employed in, but the custom has not been
introduced in our section, on account of their dress. They pay from
$1.50 to $1.75 for board, and are all in private families." The Lawrence
Manufacturing Company, at Lowell, write: "Women are employed in carding,
spinning, dressing, and weaving. The employment is not unhealthy, and
they earn from $1 to $4 a week, clear of board, according to capability
and skill--average, say, $2 per week. They work eleven hours a day; men
average about eighty cents a day clear of board; their work is
altogether too hard for women. The women learn in from one to three
months. They are paid, usually, $1 a week, besides their board, while
learning. The qualifications needed are respectable character and
ordinary capacity. They are employed all the year round. The scarcity of
hands is greater in the departments requiring most skill; there is an
abundance of inferior sort. We employ 1,300 women; perhaps one third are
Americans. They are employed in all branches where it is expedient. The
Americans are well informed; the Irish, improving, though low in the
scale of intelligence. They have churches, evening schools, and
lectures. Work stops at 6.30 and 7 o'clock. They live in boarding houses
under our care, well regulated, respectable and comfortable, and pay
$1.25 per week." At the New York mills, "361 adult and 99 minor females
are employed in the manufacture of fine shirtings and cottonades. Wages
of adults are $3.99, and minors, $2.12½ per week. Price of board, $1.50.
They work 12 hours per day." The Naunkeag Steam Cotton Company, Mass.,
"employ 400, and pay by the week, from $2.50 to $3. Those that do
piecework, earn on an average, $3.50 per week; six months will enable
intelligent hands to earn three fourths pay. Their board is paid for two
weeks, while learning, then they receive what they earn. Desirable hands
find steady work; they are employed all the year; they work eleven hours
a day. We prefer women, because neater and more reliable. They have more
time for improvement than is made available. Board, $1.50 to $1.75. Good
boarding houses are provided." At Kingston, Rhode Island, a man
employing nine girls, pays by the yard, and the girls earn from $4 to $6
per week. Men receive the same wages as women. They work from sun up to
sun down, except at meal times. If other mills ran but ten hours, they
would. They have work all the year. Hands are rather scarce in that
State. All are American. They prefer it to general housework. Women are
the best in mills for light work. Female operatives pay $1.50 for board,
lodging, and washing. The Jackson Manufacturing Company of New Haven
writes: "Women are employed in the various branches belonging to a
cotton mill. Average wages of our females are $2.30, and board money
$1.25, making $3.55 per week received by them. Some females in our
employ earn eighty cents per day; average price of male labor, about
eighty-four cents per day. Women are paid less, because they cannot do
such work as is done by men. In regard to the time required to learn to
do the work in the different departments, much depends upon the
dispositions of the learners. Six months would ordinarily be sufficient
time to render one competent. Women are usually allowed their board
while learning. A good character and good health are needed. There is
much changing among help during the spring and summer months, say for
four months in the year; but we almost invariably keep our supply good.
Our working hours are eleven and a quarter per day. With the exception
of our weaving department, but little work is done on Saturday
afternoons aside from cleaning, so that our working hours will not
average over ten and a half per day. By giving a suitable notice to the
overseer, it is so arranged that the help can be absent from their work
one day of a month. The largest proportion of American help is found in
the weaving and dressing departments. We have in our employ 140 men, 310
females, about one half American. We have good boarding houses,
carefully watched, and kept clean in all respects. Our American help are
quite intelligent, also some of the foreign. Some of our help attend
school during the winter months. Board $1.25 per week--the keeper of the
house not paying rent. The houses will each accommodate about twenty
persons comfortably." Another manufacturing company pay from $2 to $4
per week, mostly by the piece. The work can be learned in three or four
months. Their hands are paid small wages while learning. They have
constant employment. They usually work twelve hours per day; three
fourths American. From a manufacturer in Gilford, New Hampshire, we
learn he employs forty women, who work by the piece, and whose average
pay is $3 per week. They work eleven hours. Females are paid the same as
men for the same kind of work. Some parts of the business can be learned
in one day, others ten, and some hands will learn in one day what others
would not in ten. Work at all seasons; spring and fall most busy. It
pays better than housework. Board of males, $2.50; females, $1.25 to
$1.50. A manufacturer in New York writes: "I employ about twenty women
in weaving, twenty-five in spinning, spooling and other branches; boys
and girls from fifteen to twenty each, and ten men. Women average about
$2.50 per week. Women are paid the same price as men. Weavers earn about
$3.50 per week. My mill runs twelve hours per day, the year round. Women
are mostly American. The girls have an hour for each meal." A medical
man has stated, that the health of operatives is promoted by occupying
rooms with large windows on each side of the room, so that the sunlight
will penetrate the apartments during the entire day. And those rooms
with white walls are more healthy and better for the eyes than those
with colored walls.
=162. Batting.= A manufacturer of cotton batting writes: "Women are
employed in our factory to tend machinery. They are employed in Europe.
It is only unhealthy from being indoor work. We pay, per week, for best
hands, $2 and board. They work twelve hours. I think there is a surplus
of hands at this time. The work is light and does not require an
expenditure of strength. The work is as comfortable as any can be. All
parts will not answer for women. Board $1.42. Men are paid $1 more than
women, but perform a different part of the work. Learners usually
command wages after two weeks. The summer is the most profitable time to
manufacture."
=163. Calicoes.= Calico takes its name from Calicot, a town in Malabar,
where the art has been practised with great success from time
immemorial. Calico printing is the art of producing figured patterns
upon cotton. They are transferred to its surface by blocks, or engraved
by copper cylinders, by which the colors are directly printed, or by
which a substance having an affinity for both the stuff and coloring
matter is employed, which is called a mordant. "In England, calico
printing employs a vast number of children of both sexes, who have to
mix and grind the colors for the adult workpeople, and are commonly
called turners. The usual hours of labor are twelve, including meal
time; but as the children generally work the same time as the adults, it
is by no means uncommon in all districts for children of five and six
years old to be kept at work fourteen and even sixteen hours
consecutively. They begin to work generally about their eighth year, as
in Birmingham and Sheffield, but often earlier." Calico is printed
mostly in Lowell, Philadelphia, Saco, Dover, and some other towns. A
manufacturing company of lawns and calicoes in Providence, R. I., write:
"We employ fifty women in stitching, folding, and tracing pantograph
designs. The employment is healthy. We pay from fifty cents to
sixty-seven cents per day of ten hours. We have one woman who does a
man's work at folding, and is paid a man's wages--$1 per day. The time
to learn the business is according to natural ability; very soon with
ordinary capacity, say, two weeks. Cool weather is the best for work,
but the women are not thrown out of employment at any season. We have
more applicants than we can accommodate. The light, clean work, is best
for women; the rough and heavy for men. We adopt female labor as far as
practicable. Ordinary board is from $2 to $2.50 per week."
=164. Canton Flannels.= A manufacturer of Canton flannels in Holden,
Mass., writes: "We employ from twenty to twenty-five women in spinning,
spooling, drawing, and speeder tending, warping and weaving. We like
them because they are neater, and more reliable, and the work is better
adapted to females. They earn from fifty cents to $1 per day of twelve
hours. Women are paid the same as men, except the overseers, who get
from $1.25 to $1.67 per day. It requires from one week to four to learn
the business. We sometimes pay their board while learning, if they are
attentive to work. It is as reliable as any business. There is no
difference in seasons; we work the year round. The time could not be
shortened. In weaving there is no surplus of hands. I would say, that
with the present prospects for business, it would be well for many of
the females in want of employment to learn to weave. They can make from
$4 to $6 a week, but mostly average $4.75. It is healthy work. The labor
is not hard, but confining; and the girls are generally happy and
contented. Three fourths of ours are Americans."
=165. Carpet Chains.= We were told that in the manufacture of carpet
chain, "women are employed in spooling. We saw women employed in weaving
various kinds of binding for carpets, webbing for girths, reins, and
harness. The hours of labor are nominally ten, which, indeed, seems
reasonable, in Philadelphia; but in the suburbs, and some parts of New
England, both men and women work fifteen hours. Our informant uses no
artificial light on the premises, and when the daylight fails, his
workpeople leave off labor. The wages are the usual fifty cents a day.
Steady hands are kept in work the year round; but unskilful workwomen
are dismissed after fair trial. Men earn double what women earn, though
they do not produce double the work, nor do it any better. When
machinery is used, women frequently require assistance from a workman."
=166. Cord.= C., of Philadelphia, manufacturer of black and white cord,
employs about thirty women in spooling, twisting, balling, and making
into skeins. He keeps his hands all the year. He did not permit us to
see them, saying they object to being seen by strangers, on the ground
that they are "en deshabille." We can bear witness to the probability of
this statement, for almost all the women we have seen at work are very
untidily clad, and dirty; indeed, in the present total disregard of
cleanliness in the workrooms, if they wore better clothes, they would
spoil more than they can afford. Ought not employers and workwomen to
consider this subject, since it undoubtedly degrades a female, even in
her own estimation, as in that of others, to be habitually in what is
mildly qualified "deshabille?" The spoolers receive the highest wages,
viz., $5 per week; the other hands from $2 to $5. The _fine_ cord is
made farther East, as it can there be produced cheaper; the _coarser_
can be made in Philadelphia, at a lower rate. Mr. J., of New York,
employs six women, two of them earn $7 each--the others less. It is paid
for by the quantity. Prospect for work, good. There are but five
factories in New York city, but they do seven eighths of the city
business. In Philadelphia most is made. It takes but two or three months
to learn. They give employment all the year, and learners receive
something from the first.
=167. Dyers and Bleachers.= Dyeing may be divided into seven branches:
1, calico and cotton; 2, fur; 3, fustian; 4, leather; 5, linen; 6, silk;
7, wool and woollen. Silk and wool are of animal origin, and require
different treatment in dyeing from substances of a vegetable nature,
such as cotton and flax. All the various colors and shades of dyed goods
were originally derived from the combination of the four simple
colors--blue, red, yellow, and black. Cotton is more easily dyed than
linen, and the colors are brighter. Much of what is said under "Print
Works" will apply to this subject. They are so similar, a distinction is
scarcely necessary. In large manufacturing cities, dyers usually confine
themselves to one kind of goods, as wool or silk, and some to certain
colors. Dye houses, in other than manufacturing cities and towns, are
mostly for the coloring of goods that are worn, or new goods that have
been damaged. A great deal of dyeing is done in our large cities.
Frequently, persons going into mourning have articles of dress dyed.
Steam has taken the place mostly of hard labor. When goods have been
well dyed, a casual observer could not detect it. Permanency of color is
a desirable item in dyeing. Some women make a living by keeping a little
shop, where they receive goods to be colored, and have the work done at
dye houses, making, of course, a profit. There is generally a dye house
connected with every large factory of woollen goods. A girl who was
employed in a dye house says the work is far from being neat. The work
of most of the girls is light. It is to put letters or figures on the
articles sent, and when dyed, fold and tie them up, and place the
numbers on. In the dye house where she was, one girl received $3.50--the
others, each, $3 per week. They worked ten hours a day. One girl was
employed in finishing the goods--that is, running them over a heated
cylinder to smooth and dry them. She says the floors of dye houses are
so wet that women would find it not only filthy, but injurious. Mr. Y.
says women are not employed in the mechanical department of his dye and
print establishment--that the business requires the workers to stand in
liquids, and the atmosphere is very damp. A woman would be liable to
suffer from exposure of that kind. A girl employed at another place to
mark goods, told me she received $3 per week. Was told at C.'s dye house
that he employs four girls, paying $3, and $3.50 a week. They put
numbers on goods, and do other work of that kind. They work ten hours. A
cotton goods bleacher and dyer told me the work was too wet and dirty
for women. Most of the winding of cotton for dyeing is done by
machinery. By steam power one person could do ten times as much as by a
wheel. At one place they paid thirty-five cents for basting together two
pieces of cloth eight yards long to be bleached; and a woman could earn
from seventy-five cents to $3 per day; but the work could not last long.
We called at a dyer and bleacher's. He said: "Very few women are
employed in dyeing in this country, but in the old country they are. He
has seen them at it in Scotland, and there it is rather better paid than
most women's work. They are also employed in bleaching, both by
chemicals and exposure to the sun. It is not unhealthy, although in a
dye house a person must be wet from the knees down. By wearing thick
boots, and leggings of India rubber, they would not be likely to suffer.
Occasionally, dyers get some of the chemicals they use into sores on
their hands and feet, which may injure them some, but not seriously. He
says the work must be done in a certain time, and so they cannot be
particular about keeping their feet dry. He pays old women for hanking
cotton 37½ cents a score, and so they may earn $2.25 a week." There are
mechanical modes of printing textile fabrics. In the Staten Island Dye
and Print Works, "there are a good many women and children employed. The
latter are principally confined to the printing department, each of the
sixty printers engaged there being allowed a child for the purpose of
adjusting or distributing the color evenly, previous to the application
of the block. The rate of wages paid in this establishment is, we
understand, as follows: the printers and block makers are paid by the
piece, and when in full work can earn from $60 to $70 a month; the dyers
and other workmen receive from 37½ cents to $1.25 a day; the women $6 to
$12 a month, and the children from $6 to $8." A dyer writes: "Women are
sometimes employed in the finishing department, and are mostly paid by
the day. Spring and fall are the busy seasons." One in Walpole, Mass.,
writes: "I think more than an ordinary degree of intelligence is
required for the business, because of the thought and observation
necessary." A dyer in Buffalo, N. Y., writes: "I employ two, and
sometimes three women. Women are employed in basting work together, and
in finishing it after it is dyed. In some places they have charge of the
office, and receive and deliver goods. For a healthy person it is not
injurious. In finishing, the individual is on his or her feet all the
time. I pay from $1.75 to $5 per week, and hands work from ten to
sixteen hours. The time could not be shortened, owing to the nature of
the business, and the loss during the winter. The comfort and
remuneration of the part done by women is very good. Women of equal
intelligence with men do better, as it is of female apparel the business
mostly consists. In winter they have considerable unoccupied time they
could devote to mental improvement." The proprietor of the Chelsea Dye
House writes: "We employ about seventy-five women to wash, iron, and
finish dyed goods. About one eighth are Americans. It is not unhealthy,
to my knowledge, or in my experience. Average pay is $3.50 per week.
Those that work by the piece can earn from $3.50 to $6 per week of
eleven hours per day. Women are paid all which the business they do will
afford. It requires a woman of fair capacity a few weeks to learn. Work
is constant for good hands. Work is nearly uniform through the seasons.
Large cities are the best localities for business. They pay about $1.75
per week for board in private families of their own standing." A member
of a firm at Astoria, L. I., writes: "We employ from seventy-five to one
hundred women in washing and dyeing yarns and cloth. We know them to be
so employed in Berlin, Prussia. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay
by the week from $4 to $5. They work ten hours. We pay men $7 per week
for the same work that the females are employed at, because they do
more. It requires about four years to learn fully that portion of work
done by females. They are paid $2 per week while learning. A good public
school education is needed, and temperate, steady habits. The prospects
for females are good--eventually they will supersede the men in one
branch of the business. The spring and fall seasons are the best. The
winter is not so good. About two months in the summer our works are
partially stopped. There is a surplus of dyers in Lowell, Mass. We
employ women in preference to men, because we believe them to be more
intelligent than men--especially emigrants. About two thirds are
Americans. They have evening schools, lectures, and church services.
Those that board pay about $1.50 per week."
=168. Factory Operatives.= The larger number of operatives in our
manufactures are females. They are of all ages. They do not remain so
permanently in our factories as in those of older countries. They make
skilful and active workers. The factory operatives of this country are
more favorably situated than those of most countries. Most of them have
wholesome food and comfortable homes, or boarding houses. They are not
confined in factories from early childhood until they lie down to take
their last, long sleep; consequently, they are not stunted and deformed,
and prematurely old. The activity and variety attending life in the city
are likely to produce great restlessness, and insatiable thirst for
excitement. This must be checked, or its results may be ruinous. Vent of
the feelings is harmless; wholesome amusements, recreation so far as is
possible in the quiet of the country, reading good books, and social
intercourse with the virtuous and worthy, will form a good substitute
for this artificial excitement. So greatly is the manufacture of
materials into cloth, and cloth into goods, facilitated by machinery,
that wool taken from the sheep's back to-day, can be worn as clothing
to-morrow. The number of factories has greatly increased since the
introduction of machinery; nor is it strange, for goods have become
cheaper and the demand is greater. The materials for manufacturing are
abundant in this country; but the want of workmen acquainted with this
business, and the want of capital, have prevented some branches of
American manufacture from equalling those of older countries. The
improvements in machinery for removing dust and floating cotton in the
work rooms, no doubt renders it more healthy than it was. "In proof of
his assertion that factory labor shortens life, Dr. Jarrold deposed,
that having examined, in the schools, all the children whose fathers had
ever worked, or were still working in factories, he found that from one
third to one fourth were fatherless." "Out of about two thousand
children and young persons taken promiscuously, who were carefully
examined in 1832, two hundred were deformed. These were factory
operatives." These statements refer to operatives in England. Some women
are employed in the manufactories of Birmingham, England, as overseers
in the departments where women work, but the number is small, and in our
country it is still more uncommon. Cotton and woollen goods are
extensively manufactured in the New England States, New York, and
Pennsylvania. A gentleman told me that a little more than a year ago, as
he came from Vermont, he saw a young man in the cars with about twenty
girls, that he was bringing down from Canada to a cotton factory in
Massachusetts. The manufacturers had offered a bonus of $5 apiece for
girls, and to pay their travelling expenses, and this young man was
making a business of it. He says, in busy seasons there is a scarcity of
hands in the New England factories. We believe that when men and women
do the same kind of work, such as weaving, and are paid by the quantity,
no difference is made in their wages. In comparing returns from several
factories in Massachusetts, I find weavers earn in them from $4 to $5.50
per week; warpers, $3 to $5; dotters, $3 to $4. Irish women, by working
for less wages, have pushed American women out of factories. In Lowell,
a few years back, nearly all the operatives were young American girls
from the country. Many worked from the most honorable, self-denying
motives; some to educate younger members of the family, some to assist
widowed mothers or hard-working fathers, some to lay by a sum to support
themselves in old age, and some to acquire the means for obtaining a
more extensive school education. A manufacturer of printing cloths,
Reading, Pennsylvania, writes: "In all countries where there are cotton
mills, women are employed as weavers, fly and drawing tenders, spoolers,
warpers, dressers, and cloth pickers. The work is not more unhealthy
than any indoor employment. Workers earn from $2.25 to $6. Men and women
are paid the same for the same kind of work. Our kind of work may be
destroyed a year or so by the unsettled state of the country--otherwise
it is good. The hands work about eleven hours at present prices, one
hour less would reduce wages about 10 per cent. There are openings in
cotton mills along the Hudson River, and farther East, and a surplus of
hands in mechanical towns inland. The work is lighter than most of
womanly employments. Women are superior in attending faithfully to their
work, and are more easily managed than men. Board is from $1.50 to $1.75
per week, and is much better than their homes would be, if they were the
daughters of day laborers, as many of them are. I would say further, in
our branch of business women are treated in all respects as regards
their work the same as men, paid the same, and under the same rules and
restraint. In our dressing department the women make from $6 to $8,
while the men make from $8 to $10, with the same machine at the same
price. There are but few mills that employ women dressers, except in
Pennsylvania. They are not strong enough; but here the descendants of
the old Dutch stock are more masculinely developed, and are taking the
place of the men in this branch." A gentleman who has been manufacturing
cotton cloth in North Adams, Massachusetts, between twenty and thirty
years, writes: "We employ women and girls in our mill. Some of the work
requires constant stepping and walking. Wages for spinning girls, $2.50
to $3 per week; for boys the same, for spooling; from $2.75 to $3 for
speeder and drawer tenders; $3 for warpers, or $4; all the rates of
labor include the board. Farther East, women are employed as dressers,
earning from $4 to $6 per week. Weaving is paid for by the piece--most
other work by the week, as it cannot so well be let by the piece. To
learn to spin on the throstle frames requires from six to eight weeks.
The qualifications desired in an applicant are expertness, good
behavior, ability to read and write, industry, and a desire to be useful
to the employer. In midsummer, hands are most scarce. Good workers are
never thrown out of employment except during panics. In this place
(North Adams), hands usually work from twelve to twelve and a half
hours; Saturdays we close at four o'clock in summer. Farther East, a
number of operators work eleven hours; some, twelve; and some, even
twelve and a half. The legislature of the General Government is, and has
been for many years, against encouraging the industry of the country.
Whatever revenue laws would promote the making of iron, wool, cotton, or
cutlery, would assist and support agriculture, the making of shoes, and
all other branches of labor. The cotton mills can merely subsist. The
hours could not be shortened. Those employed in watching, warming,
oiling up, superintending, repairing, &c., have the same hours. There
has been a demand for hands everywhere in Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and adjoining States. Women are more orderly, more easily governed, and
more cleanly than men. Their slim fingers enable them to be more expert.
They are more attentive, as a general thing, where the labor requires
only looking after, creating no fatigue, except that which arises from
close attention. For these reasons women are preferable. Their labor is
somewhat cheaper than men's of the same age. In Western Massachusetts,
about three fourths are American women; in Eastern Massachusetts about
one half are, and the other half foreigners. The women have good
boarding houses, and live and dress well. Here, a hand can leave his
employer by giving two weeks' notice; farther East, four weeks' notice
is required. In both places, effort is made to spare them at once, if
they desire it. My American work people are above mediocrity; the
others, rather below. Children under fifteen years of age are required
by law to be kept out of the mills for at least three months in the
year, to attend school; more if the parents choose, as the schools are
free. Employers, as a general thing, press and urge the children to
school, as intelligent hands are worth more than ignorant ones. For good
board, women pay $1.50 per week; with lodging and washing, $2. Many
hands lay up sums in the savings banks; very many more might do so, if
they chose. Good female spinners, speeder tenders, spoolers, warpers,
twisters-in, and weavers are always rather scarce. They command from $3
to $6 per week. Widow women, with families of girls to support, can get
a good living by such work, and lay up some money if they try." Hitherto
few manufactories have been established in the Southern United States:
but now that the South will depend more on its own resources, no doubt
manufactories of cotton goods will be built up very rapidly. From
"Northern Profits and Southern Wealth," we make an extract: "One third
of the hands employed in factories at the East are females. At the
South, female labor is taking the same direction. At the North, this
element of labor is supplied by immigration in nearly its whole
extent--a very large proportion of the females employed in the factories
being Irish. The Eagle mills in Georgia have one hundred and thirty-six
looms, and employ seventy girls, who earn 50 cents to $1 per day. The
operatives in all these factories are white people, chiefly girls and
boys, from twelve to twenty years of age. On an average they are better
paid and worked easier than is usually the case in the North. Country
girls from the pine forests, as green and awkward as it is possible to
find them, soon become skilful operatives; and ere they have been in the
mills a year, they are able to earn from $4 to $6 a week. They are only
required to work ten hours a day. Particular attention is paid to the
character of the operatives, and in some mills none are received but
those having testimonials of good moral character and industrious
habits. Churches and Sabbath schools are also attached to several of the
manufactories, so that the religious training of the operatives may be
properly attended to. In 1860, 45,315 males and 73,605 females were
employed in cotton factories. The woollen manufacturers employed as
operatives in 1860, 28,780 males and 20,120 females.
=169. Gingham.= From the Manchester Gingham Manufactory, we learn 149
American women are there employed in weaving, winding, spooling,
piecing, drawing, reeling, and spinning. "Spinners' maximum is sixty
cents per day. Weavers receive twenty-six and eighteen cents per cut.
Women receive for winding ten cents per cut, nine cents for spooling,
forty cents per day for piecing, for drawing $2.50 per week, and for
reeling 1¼ and 1½ cents per doff. We pay the same to men and women for
the same kind of work. They are usually about two months learning.
Prospect for work is very good. We make a staple article. Summer is the
best season; we have steady work the year round. Hands work sixty-nine
hours during six days--twelve hours, five days; and nine on Saturday.
There is some demand for them; we prefer women for weaving. They pay for
board $1.40 per week." The agent of the Gingham Mills, in Clinton,
Mass., in reply to a letter seeking information, says: "We employ four
hundred females, young and old, in the various branches of cotton
manufacture. They are paid from forty cents to $1.25, according to skill
and ability; they work 11½ hours. They are paid partly by the piece, and
partly by the day. By the piece, and for the same kind of work, women
receive as much as men. Some branches are learned very quickly, and some
slowly, according to capacity. Women are paid while learning, much to
our loss. Ordinary intelligence and complete use of the physical
faculties are necessary qualifications. We work at all seasons. The
women are very careful to select their times for absence, visiting, &c.,
when we are preparing the winter style of goods, which are of darker
colors, and possibly less profitable to them. They are sure to come back
during the manufacture of lighter styles. It is clearly a womanly way of
doing business, but _the men do the same_. The kinds of work women do in
mills do not require the strength of men, and so women are employed. It
is cheapest to employ women; because, if we employed only men, half the
village would be idle. Boys can do all the work that the females do. We
have four hundred males also. One third are American. In weaving, where
men's and women's work is most justly and fully compared, men do the
most and the best in quality. In other branches there is no decided
difference. Board $1.50 per week; the houses are of good moral
character, and very comfortable."
=170. Hosiers.= The invention of machinery for making hose is ascribed
to William Lee, of England, 1589. Some trace the invention of knit
stockings to Spain. The number of hands employed in the manufacture of
hose in Saxony amounts to 45,000. Cotton, woollen, linen, and silk are
the kinds of hose common to us. The manufacture of hose worn by
Americans is mostly English. The amount of capital required, and the
small number of good operatives in our country, cause the products of
some of our manufactures to be of an inferior quality. Years back
knitting was much done, particularly in the country, but the general use
of machinery has superseded the knitting needle. In our large cities,
the great amount of hosiery worn might make the sale of hose and half
hose a payable business. In making cotton and woollen hose, some
children wind the cotton, some join the seams, and others sew them on
the boards, to put them in shape. We called to see Aiken's knitting
machine. It is quite an ingenious affair; price, $65. I think if any two
women would buy one, and one should knit, while the other formed the
feet and finished them off, it would pay better than sewing. Large
quantities of hosiery are made in Germantown, Pa. It gives employment to
many women, who, at their houses, finish them off. The United States
Government have usually obtained their clothing, shoes, hats, and socks
for the army and navy at Philadelphia, but since the war commenced, most
of the clothing has been made up in New York. The manufacture of hosiery
is very limited in New York. At the principal hosiery establishment we
were told they only employ women to seam that are the wives of the
weavers, and they do the work at home. It is very poor pay, and is done
almost altogether by English women who have been brought up to the
business. It would not pay a person to learn it. An English stocking
weaver told me that he does theatrical work, as it pays best. He has
known two women from his own country that wove hosiery in the United
States. One did journey work with her husband in New York. She earned
from $4 to $5 per week. Such work is paid for by the piece or dozen. The
work pays poorly. A woman cannot earn at it more than thirty-seven or
fifty cents a day, being paid eighteen cents a dozen for seaming socks.
To seam shirts and drawers pays better, six cents being paid for each
article. Weaving stockings by hand looms will not pay in this
country--they can be imported so cheaply. It is rather light work. Work
done by steam power is not so neat; the selvages are not well made, and
the goods must be cut and sewed in seams. Many women are employed in
hosiery manufactures where steam is used. A stocking manufacturer in
Lake Village, N. H., writes: "Seven hundred girls and married women are
employed in this village to make stockings. Wages run from 50 cents to
$1 per day of ten hours; some are paid by the day, others by the piece.
Men's work, being harder, is better paid. It requires from three to five
weeks to learn. Women have their board paid while learning. Spring,
summer, and autumn are the best seasons for work. Some work at the
business to maintain their families; others, because they have nothing
to do. All are Americans. They pay for board from $1.25 to $1.50 per
week." A manufacturer writes: "We employ twenty-five females in the
mill, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five who take work
to their homes. Nine tenths are Americans. We pay from $3.50 to $6 per
week. It requires but a short time to learn in some departments. They
are paid from the time of entering the factory as a learner. It is
considered a permanent business. Men and women do not work on the same
branches." At the Troy hosiery manufactory, "sixty women are employed in
tending knitting machines, winding yarn, and sewing by hand and by
machines. The employment is healthy. Their wages run from $3 to $6 per
week, average $4.50. They work mostly by the piece, a few by the week.
Males and females usually work side by side, and the wages are alike.
They are continually learning, from 18 years old to 40. The prospect is
good for future employment, and the employment in factories is generally
constant. They work twelve hours per day. If shorter time was universal,
it would not affect the profits. About one half are Americans. The rooms
are well ventilated, and the temperature from sixty to seventy degrees
summer and winter."
=171. Men's Wear.= A gentleman in Darby, Penn., writes: "Women are
employed in factories equally with men, throughout this section of
country, as weavers. They are paid just as well, for the same kind of
labor. The employment, for aught I can see, is entirely healthy. They
receive from $18 to $25 per month of four weeks. They are paid by the
piece. It requires about three months to learn weaving, dependent upon
the facility with which the learners acquire knowledge. Learners are
never paid while receiving instruction; but on the other hand, they more
often pay their companions for the privilege of being taught.
Industrious habits and quickness of perception are essential to complete
success. By a law of Pennsylvania, sixty hours constitute a week's labor
in factories. There is neither a demand nor surplus of hands at present,
though a number of factories are in course of erection in this section
of country; but they will doubtless be filled as soon as ready, for
American women especially prefer factory to household labor. About one
half our hands are American. Women have more stability of character than
men, and are generally superior to them in the neatness with which they
bring the cloth from the looms. Board for operatives is from $8 to $9
per month."
=172. Print Works.= The Calico Print Works, New Hampshire, report: "We
employ about 24 girls. The employment is healthy. We pay girls about
fourteen years old, thirty-three cents a day for 10½ hours in summer; in
winter they work till dark, averaging ten hours. To girls about twenty
years old, we pay fifty cents per day. The men and women do different
work. The prospect of future employment is good. Hands work all the year
the same. The price of good board is from $1.25 to $1.50 per week." The
agent of the Pacific Print Works, Lawrence, Mass., gives the following
reply to inquiries: "We employ one thousand women in carding, spinning,
spooling, warping, and weaving, on sewing machines, sewing by hand,
measuring, knotting, ticketing, &c. The employment is generally healthy,
but the workers are more or less exposed to bad air and to dust. They
are paid from twenty-five cents to $1 per day, according to age or
skill. They work from ten to eleven hours per day. Some work but 5½
days, from choice. It would doubtless be a pecuniary loss to shorten the
hours. Women are as well paid here, generally, as men, when comparative
strength and power of endurance are considered. It requires from three
to twelve months to learn. While learning, they usually receive enough
to pay their board. The more strength and intelligence they have, the
better. The prospect for this employment is good. They work during all
seasons. Women are not usually as well fitted as men to attend large
machines, but are better for smaller ones. From three hundred to four
hundred of our women are continual readers of our library. They pay
$1.50 per week for board. It is as good, for the class of people to be
accommodated, as any I ever saw." The agent of the print works,
Manchester, N. H., writes: "Women are employed in all departments. They
average sixty-five cents a day, and work eleven hours. They are paid by
the piece, and at the same rate as the men. It requires from one to four
weeks to learn. This kind of business is increasing. There is a demand
all through New England for female labor in our branch of business. We
employ 1,200, and three fourths are American. They are more steady than
men. Some of our girls go West to teach, and some teach here. They have
separate boarding houses, and pay $1.37 per week, including washing and
lights. The houses are kept with as much order as any female school. No
operative is received until they certify that they will comply with the
regulations," a copy of which we examined, and found to be very good.
From the print works at Haverstraw, N. Y., we receive the following
information: "Women are employed in sewing, measuring calico, and in the
engraving department, in running the pantograph machines, which dispense
entirely with hand engraving, die making, and machine engraving. Women
are employed in England, but only partially in other European countries.
The women earn from $2 to $4 per week. Men receive double the pay of
women: I know of no reason but usage. Only a few weeks are necessary to
become proficient in our work, except in the engraving department. Men
serve seven years to learn the art of engraving and printing. Women
learn to trace by the pantograph in three months; become proficient in
one year. Ability and good judgment are necessary. The prospect for the
employment of females is good in many other departments, particularly
_designing_. We are decided that females could successfully acquire the
art and trade of designing and drawing patterns for calico. Wages of
males for this work are from $10 to $40 per week--few at the former,
more at $20. Ten hours constitute a day. The time could be shortened an
hour or two without loss. We employ about forty females, because their
labor is cheaper, and they are more reliable. We find women superior in
all branches in which they are employed. The trade society forbids their
employment in other parts of the work. Ability to read and write are
indispensable in some departments. Men pay for board, $3; women, $1.50."
The Suffolk print works pay by the piece, and average eighty cents per
day. One of the proprietors at the print works in Pawtucket, Mass.,
writes: "Women are employed in tracing pantograph designs, and receive
from fifty to sixty-seven cents per day. We have one woman who does a
man's work at folding, and is paid a man's wages. The work is soon
learned, with ordinary capacity. A good physical condition is needed.
There is prospect for employment as long as calicoes are used. Cool
seasons are the best for work--in very warm weather, work is suspended a
short time. We employ fifty. The work is light and clean. The number of
American women is very small. We adopt female labor as soon as the aid
of machinery renders it practicable. Men are superior in strength and
endurance. A locality is desirable where a free circulation of air is
furnished on all sides. For ordinary board, women pay $2.50." The agent
of the Fall River print works writes: "We pay women by the piece. They
earn from $18 to $20 a month; have work the year round. For five days in
the week they work 10½ hours; on Saturday, 8½. We employ women because
they can do more and cost less than men. Localities are sought where
there is a good supply of soft water. Board from $2 to $2.50." A lawn
manufacturer in Lodi, N. J., writes: "We employ women in engraving, in
stitching, and in finishing goods. The work is very healthy. We pay
women $5 per week for engraving; from $2.50 to $5 for other branches.
The work can be learned in from four to five weeks. The business is
increasing. The women are never out of work. One half are Americans.
Women are employed ten hours a day; on Saturday, eight. Women are
employed, to help the village along. Very comfortable board, $5 per
month." The proprietor of some works in Rhode Island writes me: "We
employ about twenty women and girls in measuring cloth, sewing the ends
together for bleaching and fulling, knotting the ends of the pieces of
cloth when folded; also in engraving copper rolls for printing calicoes,
with a pantograph engraving machine. The prices vary from $1 per week to
$3 and over, working ten hours a day. For the same work, females are
paid the same as males. The work is easily learned. Women are paid while
learning. Women will be more employed in future. Work is constant, so
far as seasons go. There is probably no other branch of this work, in
which women may be employed, than those in which they are. Where women
are employed they are as valuable as males. Board of women, $1.50 per
week." "In the calico mills of Great Britain, girls grind and mix the
colors. They are called teerers. They begin at five years of age, and
labor twelve hours a day, sometimes sixteen; and are kept late into the
night to prepare for the following day."
=173. Spinners.= "Each of the workmen at present employed in a cotton
mill superintends as much work as could have been executed by two
hundred or three hundred workmen sixty or seventy years ago; and yet,
instead of being diminished, the numbers have increased even in a still
greater proportion." Again, we read that "a single person can spin as
much cotton in Lowell in an hour, as could three thousand Hindoos, by
whom at one time cotton cloth was principally manufactured." The wages
of cotton spinners in Paris are only from twenty to forty cents per day
of twelve hours. We read in the _Monthly Review_, that "the masters of
mills are unanimous in asserting that girls, and they alone are trained
to flax spinning, never become expert artists, if they begin to learn
after eleven." The small particles set loose in spinning affect
respiration, and in the course of time do so very seriously. In many
parts of Europe women carry portable distaffs, and spin as they walk.
Two kinds of wheels are used for spinning--one for spinning cotton, tow,
and wool--the other is used for flax. Steam machinery is mostly used for
spinning cotton. The prices usually paid spinners will be found under
factory operatives. I inquired of a girl spooling cotton for a weaver of
coverlets, what wages she received. She replied: "$1.50 a week, working
five hours a day."
=174. Spool Cotton.= A manufacturer at Fall River, Mass., writes: "We
employ twenty women in spooling thread, and preparing it for market. The
average pay is $3 per week, and they work eleven hours per day. It
requires from one to two months to become expert. When learning, they
are paid for what they do carefully. The qualifications needed are
neatness, and dexterity in their manipulations. They are employed at all
seasons. The demand and supply of work people are about equal. We employ
twenty females, because the work is adapted to them, and they are
quicker in motion than men. They pay $1.75 per week for board."
=175. Tape.= At W.'s, New York, I saw several women weaving tape for
hoop skirts. They looked dirty and sad enough. They earn from $2 to
$3.50 a week. It does not require long to learn, but they must stand all
the time. W. finds it difficult to get good workers. The incessant hum
of the machinery in such a low-roofed room would deafen me. I think it
must affect the nerves of females. He pays a learner the first month
$1.50 a week. After that, if she is competent, she will receive full
wages. At the Graham Buildings, I saw the girls putting up tape for
skirts. They earn from $3 to $4. The weavers earn from $4 to $6. It
requires but a few days to learn to weave, and but a few hours to learn
to measure and tie up tape. Most of the girls were Irish. Sixty were
employed, and received work all the year.
=176. Weavers.= Weaving is an occupation that was followed by all
classes of women in primitive ages. The story of Penelope's shroud has
been read as far as Homer is known. In Africa spinning is mostly done by
women, and the weaving by men. The invention of machinery has very much
done away with manual weaving. Fifty years back all woollen and most of
cotton goods were made in that way. Some jeans, coarse flannel, rag
carpets, coverlets, and other similar articles are still woven by hand.
Now, shawls, dress goods, gloves, hosiery, fine carpets, cassimere, and
cloth in all its varieties, are woven by machinery. The uniting of
threads, and a constant attention to the machinery, are all that is
necessary. The wages vary according to the places, the capabilities of
the operatives, the goods woven, and the price of living. "A practical
working machine is now in activity, weaving silk by the motive power of
electricity. It is applied at Lyons and St. Etienne to the Jacquard
loom." Children are extensively employed in Great Britain as drawers to
weavers. "The great majority of hand-loom cotton weavers work in
cellars, sufficiently lighted to enable them to throw the shuttle, but
cheerless, because seldom visited by the sun. The reason cellars are
chosen is that cotton, unlike silk, requires to be woven damp. The air,
therefore, must be cool and moist, instead of warm and dry." In
Philadelphia, the average payment of female weavers is from $2.50 to $4
per week. Spinners and spoolers make but from 75 cents to $2. They are
generally unskilful adults or very young girls. The number of female
operatives engaged in the manufacture of textile fabrics in Philadelphia
exceeds twelve thousand. A manufacturer in Providence writes me: "We do
not consider weaving particularly unhealthy. We pay on an average $1 per
day, by the piece. They work eleven hours a day; the time could not be
shortened. Men spend from three to twelve months learning; women, from
three to six weeks. Women are not paid while learning; men are. All
seasons are alike. There is always a demand for weavers. We employ
twenty-two women, one fourth are American; they are not inferior to men
as weavers. Men pay $2 for good board; women, $1.75." A manufacturer of
negro cloth in Connecticut writes: "The employment is very healthy. We
pay weavers from $3.75 to $5 per week, and some make more by the piece.
We pay men and women the same for their labor. Some parts are learned by
women in two or three weeks. We generally pay women while learning. We
sometimes stop a few days, in July and August, for water. They work
eleven hours and a half, except Saturday; then from eight to ten hours.
The time could be shortened by adding extra help and looms, equal to
difference of time. We prefer women, because they weave more than men.
All Americans. They are superior to men in tying knots. Good board,
$1.25." A manufacturer of cotton cloths for calicoes writes: "Women and
girls are employed in power-loom weaving. Weaving requires a little more
labor and skill than the other departments. None under sixteen years are
allowed to weave. Women are so employed over New England, much of New
York, and Pennsylvania, but mostly in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut. There is always a demand for girl weavers. It requires from
one to three months to learn to weave. They will continue to grow more
expert for three years. They weave by the cut from thirty to forty
pounds. The wages of an expert weaver are from $4 to $6 per week; board,
$1.50 per week. Men weavers are paid per cut the same. An expert weaver
attends four looms, weaving from 150 to 160 yards per day. Seamers
generally pay their way at the end of four weeks. The employment is not
thought unhealthy.
* * * * *
=177. Linen Manufacture.= Very little flax has been raised in this
country. The quantity grown was mostly for the seed and the fibre.
Ireland grows and exports large quantities. The soil is not adapted to
its growth. It is the result of the most severe labor and high culture.
In France, almost every peasant woman has a flax plot. She tends its
growth, reaps, dresses, spins, bleaches, and weaves it herself. Some
women are there employed in rotting flax and hemp. Generally, the
manufacturers of flax goods confine themselves to special departments.
Some take the raw flax, and convert it into yarn, and then stop. Some
take the yarn and weave it, and when woven, bleach it; and some only
take the unbleached woven cloth, and bleach it. In D. & Co.'s
establishment in Ireland, all the departments are combined. Eight
thousand people are dependent on this firm for support. Of these, four
hundred females are employed in spinning and weaving flax. Hand-loom
linen weaving is carried on chiefly in the north of Ireland, and, for
the most part, made subsidiary to other employments--therefore, not the
sole dependence of families. Women are employed in flax mills, in this
country, England, and Canada West. A manufacturer writes from a village
in New York: "The business is healthy, and women can do any part of the
work, as well as men. Here, men receive from $9 to $14 per month. While
learning, I pay my men $11 per month, and board them. The work is done
in cold weather, away from the fire, and requires strong, healthy
persons, warmly clad. The business is increasing in this country. The
best season for work is from October till May, and sometimes later. It
is not heavy work. I would pay women $5 a month and board, while
learning; but to men would pay $11 a month and board." (Justice!) The
treasurer of the Boston flax mills writes: "Dear Madam, women are
employed on the different machines in preparing the stock, and in
spinning and weaving. They are employed largely in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, but not much in the United States. They are paid from fifty
to seventy-five cents a day, and from fifty cents to $1 for piecework.
Ordinary female hands are paid about one half as much as men of the same
stamp; best workwomen about two thirds of same grade of men. Men are
employed where it would be too difficult and laborious for women. For
most work, a very short time is needed to learn; for the higher grades,
often many months or years, according to capacity of worker. Common
hands can earn fifty cents at once, and we would pay about that, or
more, while learning the better description of work; but should not
continue it, if they did not improve. A quick eye and hand, and a desire
to give satisfaction, are the best qualifications. The prospect for
employment in this branch is good. All the year work is furnished.
Average time through the year for work is ten hours forty minutes. It is
probable that a mill, where all hands were interested to do their best,
would turn off as much work in ten hours as a similar mill would in
eleven or twelve hours, where the hands were indifferent or careless.
There are but few linen mills in this country, and probably in none of
them is there a superfluity of good hands. We employ one hundred and
twenty women and children. The work is different from that of the men.
Our workwomen are mostly foreigners--Scotch, English, and some Irish.
There is as much comfort in this occupation as laboring people would
expect. The women pursue different branches. We find a great difference
in the capacity of different women, but cannot suggest any superiority
or inferiority as regards sexes. The general intellect among our women
is very fair for foreigners, but would not be considered remarkable for
Americans. Their evenings are their own, although there have been times,
occasionally, when we have worked till nine o'clock, paying, of course,
for extra work. The mill has a good library, and there is usually
evening school in winter for those who wish to attend."
=178. Sewing Thread.= A manufacturer in Andover, Massachusetts, writes:
"We employ about one hundred women, who receive about $3 per week,
working eleven hours per day. Women are sometimes paid while learning.
Morality, industry, and intelligence best fit them for their work. They
work at all seasons. Very few are Americans. Women are inferior only in
strength to men pursuing the same branch." The secretary of the American
Linen Thread Company writes: "We employ about sixty women in spinning,
twisting, reeling, rolling, skeining, &c. Those that work by the week
receive $3; those by the piece, more or less. Women do the lightest
work, and are paid about half as much as men. There is a prospect of
this branch of labor increasing. They have work all the year. Those that
are paid by the day work twelve hours. The time could not be shortened
without serious loss. Most are foreigners. Board, $1.50 to $2." A member
of a firm in Schenectady writes: "We have thirty women in our flax and
tow factory, because they are best adapted to the work. The work is
healthy. We pay from $3 to $4.50 per week, working twelve hours per day.
The working time could not be shortened. A superintendent would require
from two to three years to learn. A girl, say sixteen years old, would
require about a year. Learners receive half wages. Summer is the best
season, but they have work all the year. There is no surplus of female
workers in the business. Two thirds of our women are American, one third
English. Women could not perform that part of the work done by men, and
_vice versa_. One third board, and pay $1.50 per week. The Americans
have a common school education, and are intelligent. The larger ones are
teachers in Sabbath schools; the smaller ones scholars. The best
localities are in the Northern and Western States."--SHOE THREAD. A
manufacturer told me, most or all the flax used for shoe thread in this
country is imported. "The greater part of the shoe thread used in the
United States is spun by machinery, at Leeds, in England, from Russian
flax." The flax of this country is not fine enough; and, for bleaching,
the climate of this country and Scotland is too changeable. If the
bleachers succeed in getting it of a pure white, they extract the
substance--the life of the plant--so that it will not retain its
strength. Flax is not much attended to in this country, but it is
because the tariff is so low that no encouragement is given to
manufacturers. Pennsylvania makes more woven goods of coarse linen than
any other State, and Philadelphia more than any other city. Labor is so
cheap in Europe, that linen can be made there more cheaply than here.
Mr. A. employs a number of small girls in his mills for winding the
thread into balls, as it is imported in skeins, and pays them from $1.50
to $2 a week. They work only in daylight. He thinks the occupation is
well filled. Most factories of the kind are in small towns where living
is cheap.
* * * * *
=179. Woollen Manufacture.= Women and children are not so much employed
in the woollen as in other manufactures, owing to the severe labor
required in some of the processes. Wool growing is increasing in the
United States, particularly in Texas. We doubt not but many woollen
manufactures will spring up when business revives. We called on the
widow of a wool puller, to ascertain what the business is, and learned
that it consists in steeping sheep skins in lime water, then rinsing
them in clean water, then removing the wool from the skin, and packing
it in bales to send away. The daughter of a wool puller in Utica writes:
"Part of the work of a wool puller could be performed by women--that of
removing the wool from the skin, and sorting it according to the
quality. In Gloucester, England, women were at one time employed as wool
pullers. The business is healthy, owing to the presence of disinfectants
employed in manufacturing. It could be made respectable and
remunerative." A wool puller in Buffalo writes: "I employ some girls in
sewing sheep skins. They are paid by the piece, and earn $4.50 a week.
Board, $2. It requires a week for a woman to learn her part--a lifetime
for a man to learn his. A steady hand and good eyesight are essential.
There must be work of this kind as long as boots and shoes are
fashionable. The most busy seasons are fall, winter, and spring. The
best location is where sheep are raised and bark to be had." People
employed in the making of cloth are wool sorters and pickers, scourers,
carders, slubbers, spinners, warpers, sizers, weavers, burlers, boilers,
millers, giggers or dressers, croppers, singers, fuzers, glossers,
drawers, and packers. Some of these are women. I am sorry to say that
carding--the most unhealthy process of all--is performed almost
exclusively by women, and at low prices.
=180. Blankets.= "Blankets were first made at Bristol, England, by a
poor weaver named Thomas Blanket, who gave his name to this peculiar
manufacture of woollen cloths." One hundred and twenty-two women are
reported in the census of Great Britain for 1850, as blanket
manufacturers. A blanket manufacturer in New Hampshire writes: "Women
are employed in carding, weaving, and binding. The work is not
unhealthy. Average wages are seventy cents per day of eleven hours, and
they are paid by the piece. Women receive about two thirds of the wages
of men, because they do less laborious work. It requires from one week
to three months to learn. They are paid small wages while learning. The
manufacture of blankets will increase. Business is the same at all
seasons. There is a demand for hands in many of the manufacturing
villages, and a surplus in country towns. We have twenty women, all
American. They do light work faster than men. They pay for board
twenty-one cents per day, in private families."
=181. Carpets.= Mr. Lagrange writes: "The carpets of Smyrna and
Caramania, so widely esteemed, are evidence of what woman's genius can
produce. They are all woven by feminine hands." In 1858 there were 2,500
persons employed in the manufacture of carpets in and near Philadelphia.
Ingrain and Venetian are the kinds mostly made there, but some of a very
cheap quality are also manufactured. Those made at Hartford and Lowell
are all worsted goods. The business, we believe, has been a successful
and lucrative one. It is said that much carpeting is sold in this
country, as English, that is in reality American. Our finest carpets are
imported. I visited Mr. H.'s carpet factory, New York city, and saw the
entire process, from putting the wool in to its coming out in various
kinds of carpeting, ingrain, velvet, Brussels, tapestry, &c. From that
manufactory we have the following report: "Females tend carding,
spinning, spooling, weaving, and other machines, in the manufacture of
carpeting. The employment is not unhealthy. The branch of manufacture
and the capacities of females vary the wages from 50 cents to $1 per day
of eleven hours. Three fourths work by the piece. Males and females are
not employed at the same kind of work. The time required to learn any
branch of the carpet trade depends on the natural talent and application
of the learner. Many never become proficient enough to pursue the
business profitably. The prices paid to learners depend on their
success. Health, natural talent, and application are essential. The
prospect of employment in the business is good. They have work the whole
year, except during unusual depressions of the trade. Whether the work
time of eleven hours could be shortened would depend on the profit on
the quantity produced in ten hours, compared with that produced in
eleven hours. There is no demand for female labor at the present time.
We employ from 500 to 600 females, because their labor is cheaper. About
one third are Americans. The comfort and remuneration is better than the
average of other employments in this city. They are employed by us in
all branches they can be. Females perform some branches better than men.
They have free evening schools, libraries, lectures, and churches in
abundance. About one half board. The majority board in private families,
the comfort depending generally on the price paid." Carpet manufacturers
in Wrentham, Massachusetts, write: "We employ women in winding yarn. It
is unhealthy only because of sitting so steadily. Women average $14 per
month, and are paid by the piece. They work ten hours a day. It requires
but a few weeks to learn the business. Women are paid something while
learning. They are employed all the year. We employ eight, because the
work is better adapted to them. All the workwomen are foreigners. Men,
as a general thing, do not want to be confined to indoor work, unless
the wages are high. Good board can be had at $1.50 per week." A
gentleman, who was once superintendent of the carpet factory at Lowell,
informed me all the weavers were females, when he was there, and earned
from $3.50 to $4.00 on an average. They had about thirty pickers
(females), whose business it was to pick the knots and loose wool off
the carpets.
=182. Carpet Bags.= K. & M., carpet-bag makers, have a factory in
Newark. The carpet bags are sewed up and the buttons put in by machines.
The lining is put in by hand. It is piecework, and the girls earn from
$3 to $6 a week. It requires but a short time to become sufficiently
expert to make it pay. The busiest times are from February 1st to June,
and from the middle of July to the 1st of November. One of the
proprietors thinks the prospect to learners is good, for the business
will extend. It has increased five hundredfold in the last five years.
Their girls are mostly Americans. Making trunk covers is piecework. The
linings could be put in trunks and valises and the varnish put on by
girls. The linings could be better put in valises than trunks by women,
as they are lighter and less difficult to handle. At H.'s carpet-bag
factory, I was told they employ seventy girls, and make from ninety to
one hundred dozen bags a day. They keep their hands all the year, with
the exception of three weeks. Some work by machine and some by hand.
They take learners when busy. A smart girl can learn in making two or
three dozen bags--of course, is not paid while learning. They used to
allow a few hands, accustomed to the work, to give instruction to
learners, having the profits of their work for their time. Those that
work by machine can earn from $3 to $4.50; hand sewers from $3 to $6.
These work by the piece. Those paid by the week work ten hours, and earn
from $2.50 to $5. The gentleman thinks the prospect for learners to
enter the business is poor. I think differently, if the statement that
he made is true, that there are no manufacturers West or South. A
regulation that struck me as being very unjust was, that if a girl
learns in their factory and goes elsewhere to seek work, she cannot be
taken into their factory again, unless she makes eight or ten dozen bags
for them without pay. A manufacturer of carpet and oil-cloth bags
writes: "We pay by the piece, and women earn from $4 to $6 per week,
working ten hours a day. Women can learn in one month, if skilful with
the needle. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but we find work for
our hands through the winter. They work at home."
=183. Cassimere.= A manufacturer of cassimere in New Hampshire writes:
"We pay mostly by the week, $3.50, working eleven hours a day. We pay
the same to women as men. It requires from two to twelve weeks to learn.
They are paid what they can earn while learning. There is no surplus of
workwomen in this branch of labor. Our girls board in families, and pay
$1.34 per week." A manufacturer in Vermont says: "Twenty women are
employed by me. They are all American or English. They are paid
according to the amount of work they do. Girls that weave make $3,
besides board. Some are paid by the yard, and some by the week. They are
paid as much as men for the same kind of work. It usually takes four
weeks to learn to weave. Learners give their time. Work is performed ten
hours a day all the year. Women prefer factory to housework. They pay
$1.50 per week for board." A manufacturer in New Hampshire writes: "We
pay from $2.50 to $4.50 per week. For the work that women can do in our
establishment, they are worth more than men, as they can work quicker.
Women soon learn to weave, but for the first six months they are not
worth more than half pay. The prospect for future employment is good.
The best seasons for work are spring, summer, and fall. They are usually
employed ten hours a day. We employ none but American women. Some parts
of our business are suitable for women, but we can get boys cheaper.
Board $1.25 per week." B. Brothers, of Proctorsville, Vermont, write:
"We employ from thirty to forty American women in preference to men,
because the work is more suitable for them. Prospects for increase of
employment in this line are very flattering. The women average $2.50 per
week with board. They work twelve hours a day, and can be employed all
the year. They are superior in all respects to men. If they were not, we
should employ men. Their facilities for mental and moral culture are
good. Women are paid less than men, on account of the work being light.
Board $1.50 per week." The Globe Woollen Company (Utica, New York)
write: "Our women, seventy-five in number, earn from $3 to $6 a week,
and are paid both by the piece and week. Men and women work together in
the weaving room. It requires but a few days to learn to weave, although
experience is valuable, both on account of wages and excellence of
production. Mental and physical ability ought to be combined to insure
success. The prospect for future employment is good. Continual
employment is given. Our hands work 12 hours each day, Saturdays 10½.
One fourth are Americans, and they live and dress well. The demand for
labor is good all through the country. There is no part of our business
where women could be advantageously introduced, where not now employed.
The women have all the facilities a city affords for mental and
aesthetic culture."
=184. Cloths.= A manufacturer of gray cloth in Vermont writes: "Women
are employed at spinning, carding, burling, and weaving. We have ten,
because they are more easily obtained than men. We pay women from $2 to
$3.50 per week, and board them. They work twelve hours per day. The work
done by men requires more than double the experience of that performed
by women. Women can learn in four weeks, men in sixteen. Women are paid
half wages while learning. They are busy except in the winter. All board
with me." C. & Sons, of T., N. Y., write: "Experienced hands receive
$3.75 per week--inexperienced $3--board included. Women are not employed
at the same work as men. It requires two years to learn our
business--six months for women. We adopt the ten-hour system. There is
no difference in seasons as to work, except in case of low water. Our
labor yields sufficient to keep them until they find an opportunity to
marry. They have a good library--ten periodicals every week. They pay
for board from $1.50 to $1.75 per week." A manufacturer in Derby, Conn.,
writes: "We employ about fifteen women, because they are cheaper and
more easily obtained; but many are now using male weavers. They earn
from $3 to $6 per week, and are paid both ways. They work eleven hours.
To work ten instead of eleven hours, we would lose that amount of the
product of those who work by the day. I think there is a demand for such
labor all through New England, and I do not know where there is a
surplus of such help. We have had but few whose parents were born in
America. Women might be employed on shearing machines. They are not,
because it is as easy getting boys. Women have less strength and
endurance, and are less constant at work, but quicker in motion and less
liable to bad habits. Board for females from $2.25 to $2.50 per week." A
manufacturing company of satinets and printing cloths, Troy, N. Y., give
the following information: "We pay from $2.50 to $6 per week, average
$4.50. Men and women get the same wages for the same work. Women learn
in from two to four weeks. At best it is but partially learned. Some are
paid while learning, and some are not. There is now, and always will be
full employment. We furnish steady work all the year. The hands work
twelve hours per day. The time could be shortened, but the workers would
lose by it. There is a demand for female labor of this kind in Cohoes,
N. Y. We have sixty-nine women, and one half are Americans. They are
well fed and dress better than any other class of working people. Women
are more steady and neater than men. They are all Protestant, and their
intelligence is about the average. They pay $1.50 per week for good
board." The Monsoon Woollen Co., Mass., say: "We pay fourteen mills per
yard for weaving. The women make just the same as the men, and perform
the same kind of work. They earn on an average eighty-three cents per
day of twelve hours. The work can be done without apprenticeship. The
prospect is that our business will be on the increase for years. Our
help are employed the year round: three quarters are Americans. They
have their evenings after seven o'clock. They pay $2 per week for
board." The agent of Shady Lee Mills, R. I., writes: "Women are employed
in woollen mills in England, Germany, France, and this country. They are
paid in our mill by the piece, and earn $5 per week on an average. Women
weavers earn as much as men. It takes a lifetime to learn; some learn
better than others. Learners are paid. The business is improving daily.
Women work all the year round, unless broken down. They work twelve
hours a day. The time could not be shortened. The supply of hands about
equals the demand in this manufacture. We employ seventy-five women,
because they are better for weavers. Nearly all our work people can read
and write. Board $1.75." Mr. H., a manufacturer in Massachusetts,
writes: He "pays from $14 to $18 a month, working by the piece. While
learning they are paid for what they do. They can earn fair wages after
two weeks' experience. They work thirteen hours a day, and are employed
through the year. There is no surplus of weavers. He employs
twenty-five, because they are better adapted to the work. Women are
superior in hand work. Board $6 a month." A satinet manufacturer in
Maine, writes: "Our women weave by the cut and earn about $6 per week. A
person can get an insight of the business in a few years; but to get a
thorough knowledge requires at least the English term of
apprenticeship--seven years. Women are paid half price while learning.
Summer is the best season, but our women are employed the year round.
They work twelve hours--which is the usual time here, and less would be
a loss. Women are handier than men, and can be boarded for less. We have
churches in the village and a good moral influence. Board $1.50 per
week; comforts quite equal to those of their homes." Manufacturers in
Pittsfield, Mass., inform us "they have a number of women employed in
weaving and sewing, mostly weaving. The employment is considered
healthy, and the condition of weavers is entirely comfortable, as this
is, of course, for the interest of the employers as well as the
employées. The average time of work is thirteen hours. The wages paid
them is from $4 per week to $6. They are paid by the yard, and their
earnings depend upon their attention, activity, and capability. They are
paid $3 a week while learning. Women weavers earn quite as much as men,
and can stand the confinement as well, if not better. We have no
difficulty in keeping our looms supplied, and frequently have
applications which we are obliged to reject. We employ sixty women,
nearly one half Americans. In this place they have every advantage for
moral and mental culture. Those who have parents or friends working in
the establishment usually live with them; and those who have not, live
at our boarding house, which is as comfortable and well regulated as any
house in the country. The price charged for board is from $1.25 to $1.50
per week." A company in North Berwick, Me., writes: "We pay both ways;
when by the week, from $2.50 to $4. Males and females do not perform the
same kind of work with us. The time of learning varies with the
capacities of the women. Some of our hands have been with us more than
ten years. Seasons alike. They work eleven hours. We employ twenty-five
women, because it is more economical. Not one of our women will do
housework. Our employées are Yankee girls--can all read and write; and,
so far as we know, converse intelligently on general subjects. They have
their evenings and a portion of each Saturday. Board $1.33 ¹/3 per
week." We would add that every cotton and woollen manufacturer from whom
we have heard, expresses the opinion that their occupation is healthy.
All, we believe, pay some hands by the week and some by the piece, and
most pay men and women at the same rate for the same kind of work. It
will be observed that the rates paid for labor decrease the farther you
go North, but that board is also something less.
=185. Coverlets.= A manufacturer of woollen coverlets in Allentown,
Penn., answers inquiries in regard to prices paid, &c., as follows: "I
employ eight American girls for spooling wool and cotton yarn in my
coverlet manufactory, and pay two cents per pound. They earn from $2 to
$2.50 per week. I pay girls the same as boys. The prospect for increase
of work is good. There is a surplus of hands here. I prefer girls, as
they have more patience than boys."
=186. Dry Goods Refinishers.= A. & Co. employ women when busy to put up
dress goods, cravats, ribbons, &c. They pay $3 a week. I was told by a
satinet printer and refinisher, that he employs one woman to sew the
ends of the cloth together. She does it with a machine, and earns $5 a
week, working ten hours a day. The coloring matter rubs off on the
hands. S. employs some women, and pays $3 a week. He gives them about
eight months' employment. During two months in summer and two in winter,
there is not enough doing to employ them. He says some women, like some
men, know nothing but how to eat. He finds it difficult to get women of
intelligence and judgment to do his work. (I should think he would, for
such wages.) The girls fold, label, and pack. There are but three large
houses of the kind in New York. At another place we saw a girl who gets
$3 a week for such work--ten hours a day.
=187. Flannels.= Flannels differ much in color and quality. Employers
are unanimous in pronouncing the work healthy. If the sum paid foreign
countries for flannels and blankets were invested in manufactories in
our country, it would give employment to many, and tend to encourage
home industry. A flannel manufacturer in Stockport, New York, writes:
"We employ women at weaving and spooling. Women and girls are paid
mostly by the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. No males are
employed at the same work as females. It usually takes about a week to
learn to weave. We do not pay learners. We will increase the number of
women as we increase our product. All seasons are alike as respects
employment. Our hands work twelve hours per day. The time could not be
shortened without loss to both employer and employed. We have about
forty females, and prefer them, as it gives the whole family work. Eight
tenths are American. The work is as light and comfortable as any in the
mill. There is no other work suitable than that in which they are now
engaged. All our women can read and write, and are already quite
intelligent, particularly the Americans. We do not employ many under
sixteen years of age, and those younger are usually sent to school a
part of the year. Board is $6 per month in good, respectable families."
A manufacturer in Dover, Maine, replies to a circular asking
information: "I employ women as weavers, carders, spoolers, and one as a
warper-on to draw the web. Women earn from $2.75 to $5 per week, eleven
hours per day. Weavers are paid by the piece. I pay men from 83 cents to
$1.50 per day. Women do the lighter and easier work. Some parts are not
adapted to women, that is one reason why we pay less, and perhaps custom
has something to do with the prices of labor. Women learn their part in
from one to six weeks, but it requires some years of experience to be a
manufacturer. For some kinds of work we pay from the beginning; for
others, after one or two weeks. The prospect is fair; work, constant. In
large manufacturing places, there is a demand for labor of this kind.
Women are employed because they work cheaper. Women do their kind of
work better than men. Our women are Americans, and appear to enjoy life
well. They have the early morning and evening, and the Sabbath for
themselves. More than one half are church members. Those that have
relations living near the factory, board with them, and pay $1.50 per
week." A manufacturer in Conway, Massachusetts, writes: "We employ women
in weaving, burling, sewing, and numbering flannels. They receive from
50 cents to $1 per day of twelve hours. Women doing the same kind of
labor as men receive the same price. It requires from one to four weeks
to learn. If our business does not pay better in future than the past,
we had better stop. In the more difficult part of our work there is a
demand for hands. Men make better work than women. One fourth are
American. Board, $1.50, to $1.75." A manufacturer in Morgantown, New
York, writes: "The employment is as healthy as any indoor work. The
wages average about $5 per week, they being paid by the piece. It takes
about four years to learn the business, so as to conduct it in its
several branches. I pay their expenses while learning. The best season
is the fall. Work lasts ten hours--if obliged to run longer, we pay
extra. We think women more to be depended on than men. We have no
department suitable for women but what is filled by them. Board, $2 a
week--quite good. In the cities board is seldom over $2 per week for
workwomen. The rent and price of provisions are too high to keep a
boarding house as it should be on such terms. Our wages may be lower in
the country, but expenses are much lower also, and consequently the
laborer is able to save more money." Manufacturers in Keene, N. H.,
write: "We pay one half $3, the other, $3.80 per week, twelve hours a
day. We pay the same to both sexes when the quantity and quality are the
same. A carder will learn in one month, a weaver in three months. The
qualities wanted are industry, sobriety, perseverance, constructiveness,
and amiability. All seasons alike good. To shorten the time of thirteen
hours would be a loss to both parties. All branches are well supplied
with workers. Women have more patience, tact, neatness, and are more
reliable than men. All our women are well fed, well clothed, well
housed, and some possess the luxuries, and even elegancies of life. We
have six places of worship, a public library, book stores, and
newspapers in abundance. Board, $1.50."
=188. Gloves.= Kid, silk, cotton, and woollen are the kinds of gloves
most used. They differ much in quality. Kid and leather are most
numerous. The price of labor, the difficulty in obtaining the best kid,
and the want of experienced workmen, are such that the finest kid gloves
have not been made in the United States. An immense number of kid gloves
are annually imported. In Paris, women are paid from sixty cents to $1 a
dozen for sewing gloves. The French excel in the manufacture of kid
gloves. French workmen are very economical in cutting out the kid. In
France 375,000 dozens of skins are cut into gloves every year. Nearly
3,500 female glove sewers are employed in Vienna. Immense quantities of
buckskin gloves and mittens are made in Johnstown and Gloversville, New
York. "Most American manufactures have been introduced by sending the
goods into the country by peddlers, or the manufacturers themselves
selling them in that way. This trade was commenced so." The manufacture
of buckskin gloves and mittens is mostly confined to small towns and the
country. The cutting is done by men. The sewing is given out to those
who do the work at home, and receive for their labor from $1 to $6 per
week. It requires but a few weeks to learn. A manufacturer of kid and
buckskin gloves, in Philadelphia, has all his sewing done by hand. He
will not use machines for cutting out and sewing, as it would throw many
of his workwomen out of employment. Those who are neat and intelligent
obtain a very good livelihood by it. They take the work home, and earn
$6 a week or more; beginners only $1.50 or $2. The kid is imported from
South America, and not so fine as French kid. A glove manufacturer, New
York, who lived in Johnstown eighteen years, told me that "girls can
earn at glove sewing from $3 to $6 a week. Those who board in the
families of their employers receive less, because of their board. Many
gloves are made up by farmers' daughters at home, both by hand and
machine. A good sewer would not find it difficult to make gloves. Most
of the gloves made in factories are stitched by machines. Singer's and
Grover & Baker's are preferred. Handworkers do not receive quite so good
wages. Women used to cut out gloves with scissors, but now men cut them
by striking with a hammer a tool the shape of a glove. The plan is
preferred, because of being cheaper. The knowledge of dressing kid seems
to be lost to foreigners in coming over the ocean." A manufacturer in
Springfield, Mass., writes: "We employ some women in making buckskin
gloves and mittens. Some work by the piece, and some by the week, and
earn from $3 to $5. Those who work by the week spend ten hours, sewing.
It takes females from two hours to four weeks to learn. Patience,
perseverance, and taste are needed by learners. The best season for work
is from February to November. They are out of work about two months at
times. Most are Americans. They can use a needle better than a man." A
glover in Salem writes: "Our women sew by hand, and earn $3 per week.
Men spend three years in learning--women six months. The prospect for
work is poor, as importation is destroying the business." A manufacturer
at Gloversville writes: "Women earn from $3 to $5 a week, ten hours a
day. Males get as much again as women. A smart woman will learn in eight
months. Prospect of work in the future is good." Manufacturers in
Broadalbin, N. Y., write me they employ twelve American women at the
shop, and about one hundred out of the shop, finishing up. When paid by
the week, they receive from $2 to $4.50, and work ten hours a day. The
comparison in prices in male and female labor is about $2 to $1, for the
reason that it requires more strength, labor, and skill to perform the
man's part. Men spend two or three years in learning--women, six months.
Punctuality, sobriety, and a liberal education, together with a steady
nerve, will insure success in our business. (Some one else suggests,
mechanical talent.) As long as there are feet to wear moccasins, and
hands to wear gloves, our kind of business must thrive. Board in neat
and commodious houses, $2 for women." A glover in New Hampshire writes:
"Women sew by the piece for me; most have families, do their own work,
and sew when they can--so I cannot say how much they would earn, if they
sewed constantly. A man would have to spend from two to four years
qualifying himself to superintend; the part done by women can be learned
in from two to six weeks. Summer is the best season, but good workers
have constant employment. All are Americans. Any locality is good where
water power may be had. Ladies pay for board from $1.50 to $1.70 per
week." Another in Perth, N. Y., says: "Some of our workers use sewing
machines; others fit and prepare the goods for them. They earn from $3
to $4.75. The male and female labor is different in our establishment. I
think the business permanent. Best time for work is from 1st of March to
1st of November. They work all daylight, except at meal times. When a
certain amount of work is required in a given time, the women are apt to
overwork themselves and slight the work. The wives and daughters of
mechanics and farmers do the piecework at their homes. All Americans.
Board, from $1.75 to $2." "At Gloversville the men cut, and machines do
the sewing. Five pair of mits and two pair of gloves are a heavy days
work. Gloves are worth 75 cents per day to cut; and to make from 12½
cents for a light article, to 18 cents for heavy ones."--_Woollen
Gloves._ I was told by a man who employed eight girls to crochet woollen
gloves for him, that he pays fifty cents a dozen pairs. He makes over
five cents profit on a pair when selling to the wholesale stores; and in
retailing, nine cents a pair. He says a right expeditious girl can make
one dozen pairs a day. He employs his girls all the year. Most that
attempt to learn find their progress so slow that they get discouraged,
and give it up. It is best to learn early in life. The Germans excel.
=189. Linseys.= An agent for a manufacturing company of linseys and
flannels in Rhode Island, writes: "I employ fifty-eight women in
spooling yarn and weaving, and pay from $3 to $5 a week. Our men are
paid $1 per day, because they are able to do more. Men run three looms;
girls, two. The organs that manufacture vitality in women are not
allowed, by lacing strings, to attain more than two thirds their natural
size. If nature could have her way with them, especially when young,
they would earn more in the weaving shop than men, because they are
naturally quicker and smarter. They are paid something while learning,
which requires three months. Good female workers have always been scarce
since I have been in the business--twenty years. We might employ more,
if we could get them. April, May, and June are the most busy seasons.
They work twelve hours. To shorten the time two hours would make one
sixth difference, which the work people would not be willing to lose. We
have more families than single help. Those who board pay from $1.75 to
$2.25 per week. The boarding houses have to be helped by us, to enable
them to take boarders at these prices." Mr. T., writing from Rhode
Island, mentions, in addition to the branches stated above as performed
by women, that of warping. He informs us, the work is not more unhealthy
than housework, but complains that his women are careless, in bad
weather, going to and from the mill. "Wages, when running full time,
average from $3.75 to $6 per week. Weavers are paid by the yard,
spoolers by the bunch, warpers by the web, and extra hands by the week.
Men's wages are from 75 cents to $1.25 per day, but men's board is from
50 to 75 cents per week more. The prospect for work in the future
depends upon the state of the country. Spring and summer are the best
seasons for work. From March 20th to October 20th, the hands work from
seven to seven; from October to March, until 8 P. M. Their wages are
according to the number of yards woven; so of course it is to their
interest, as well as our own, to run full time. We find male labor
scarcer than female. Most of our hands are Americans. Our mills are well
ventilated and well warmed. The company have a boarding house under
their own supervision, but the women are at liberty to board in private
families, and some do. The majority of young ladies in our employ are
farmers' daughters, not really compelled to work, but prefer to do it,
and in most instances use the means for obtaining an education.
Instrumental music is taught in a seminary near the mill, by a young
lady, who obtained her education with the means gained by working in
this mill. We have from one to three nights every week devoted to
literary societies, reading circles, &c., in all of which, the ladies
from this and neighboring mills take an active part. Some eight or ten
who worked at the mill during the summer are now attending school. Board
$2.25 for men; $1.75 for women." The proprietor of the Kenyon mills, R.
I., writes: "Probably one half the operatives in mills, in this part of
the world, are women. Weavers are paid by the yard, and earn from $3 to
$6 per week. Men are generally hired by the day. An intelligent woman
will be able to run her loom after two or three weeks' practice. It is
common to put learners on looms with experienced weavers for two or
three weeks. From 20th March to 20th September, my working time is from
sunrise to sunset, the remainder of the year, until eight o'clock in the
evening. My weavers prefer to work full time as they are paid by the
yard. There is generally a demand for good weavers in this part of the
country all the year. Weavers make most money in summer. Large mills are
being supplied with foreign help. Very few Americans are willing to work
with them. Women are employed in mills on all kinds of work which they
can do, and are preferred because they are more steady. Nearly all my
mill girls are daughters of farmers in the neighborhood, and have had a
fair common school education. Several of my weavers take newspapers or
other periodicals, and carry them into the mill to read, when they can
do so without interfering with their work. Some take sewing or knitting.
Board $1.75 for women; $2.25 for men. If we did not keep comfortable
boarding houses, our help would find employment in other places. Any
smart, good girls, who want work, need have no hesitation in coming to
Rhode Island to look for work in mills."
=190. Woollen Shawls.= The secretary of the Waterloo Woollen Shawl
Company writes: "Women are employed by us in weaving, carding, &c. The
work is not unhealthy. It is paid for mostly by the piece, and hands
earn from $2.50 to $3 per week. Most of them earn as much as males; and
some, more. They are employed twelve hours. Skill, industry, and good
character are necessary. The prospect of future employment is good.
There is no difference in the seasons for work. In weaving there is no
surplus. We employ two hundred and fifty women, because they do better
work than men. We employ but very few young girls, and they generally
work at home under the eyes of parents, and attend school at least four
months in the year."
=191. Shoddy.= At flock or shoddy manufactories, girls are employed to
separate rags of different qualities and colors, and to cut the seams
and buttons off. The rags are placed in machines and cut to pieces, then
put in other machines that grind them to flocks. From them satinet is
made. Women are paid so much one hundred pounds, and earn from $1.50 to
$3 per week. They are busy all the year. It is dirty work, and, I think,
unwholesome on account of the dust. Boys attend the machinery for
cutting and grinding, and are paid about the same wages as the girls,
and probably a little more. Girls could just as well attend the
machines. Modern improvements have made wool shoddy susceptible of
receiving a fine dye, and it is made into cloth for soldiers' and
sailors' uniforms, and for pilot coats; into blanketing, drugget, stair
and other carpeting, and into very beautiful table covers. A
manufacturer of wool shoddy in Massachusetts writes: "I employ Irish
women at $3 per week, of eleven hours a day in winter and twelve in
summer. Men receive $6 per week. Women cannot perform their labor. It
requires two weeks to learn. They receive small wages the first two or
three weeks. The business is probably permanent. The work is hard. Women
do best for picking and sorting stock and tending cards. They pay $1.50
a week for Irish fare."
=192. Yarn.= A manufacturer of stocking yarn, in Spring Valley, New
York, writes: "Girls are employed in twisting and reeling yarn. The
employment is not unhealthy. We pay some by the piece, and some by the
week; those by the week receive $2.50. The wages are the same for men
and women. To learn the whole business requires from three to five
years; that part done by girls, from one to two months. They are paid
while learning. The prospect of employment is as good as that of
business generally. Our girls work the year round; they work eleven
hours. To shorten the time would be a disadvantage to us, and a loss in
wages to the hands. Boys would do for us, but are not so easily
governed. The work is easy and comfortable." A yarn manufacturer in
Stoughton, Mass., writes me: "I pay $2 per week, and furnish board to
those that twist and card. The labor of the women is much cleaner and
easier than that of the men. Men receive from $1 to $1.75 per day, board
included. I charge them $2.50 per week--women $1.75. Much of the men's
labor requires strength, knowledge, and skill. It requires two or three
months to learn it well. Women work, on an average, eleven hours and a
half. I should like the ten-hour system, but cannot adopt it, unless
others do the same. The supply of hands is adequate to the demand.
Ladies have done some parts of our work, now performed by men, and have
received equal wages; but the labor being hard, and women's dress being
inconvenient, we have abandoned the plan."
* * * * *
=193. Silk Manufacture.= The duty on raw silk is so very great that it
will not do to import it into the United States for manufacture. We
suppose, if a duty in proportion to their value were levied on silk and
linen goods, we would no longer be so dependent on other nations for
these articles. Or if a reduction were made on the duty of the raw
material, capitalists would establish silk manufactures in the United
States. Individual failures here are attributed by some to ignorance and
want of experience; by others, to the nature of the climate. The support
afforded by our Government to the culture of silk has been very
fickle--to-day encouraged, to-morrow neglected. The experiments that
have been made prove the feasibility of growing the mulberry, and
raising the silkworm in this climate. The silk produced was of good
quality, and, but for imperfect implements and want of experience, might
have done well. The cheapness of labor in older countries affords an
advantage that we have not. Most of the raw silk manufactured in the
United States comes from China. The women there rear silkworms; they
also reel and weave the silk. Not many years back silk winding was done
by men in England. "In the silk factories in France, there are two
unwholesome processes entirely carried on by women: the first is the
drawing of the cocoons, when the hands must be kept constantly in
boiling water, and the odor of the putrefying insects constantly fills
the lungs; the second is carding the floss, the fine lint of which
affects the bronchial tubes. Six out of every eight women employed, die
in a few months. Healthy young girls from the mountains soon develop
tubercular consumption; and, to complete the dreadful tale, they are
kept upon the lowest wages, being paid only twenty cents, where a man
would earn sixty." "One silk manufacturer in Valencia, Spain, gives
employment to 170 women and young girls." In Lyons, France, many women
are employed in the silk manufacture, for particulars of which see
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Feb. 15th, 1860. Silk weavers mostly work in
attics, where they can have the best light to distinguish shades of
colors, and where the silk, which moisture would damage, can be kept
perfectly dry. In Spitalfields, the silk manufacture is mostly carried
on by the workmen at their homes, their families assisting. Each child
has his own branch, and the wife hers. It is the same case in the making
of lace, artificial flowers, embroidery, straw braiding, &c. The
strength of silk is greater than that of cotton, flax, or wool.
Machinery is now employed for winding the silk off of cocoons, but
formerly it was done by hand. Mrs. O. told us her husband employs a few
girls to spool silk, which he dyes for a large dress trimming
manufactory next door. The girls earn from $2 to $3 a week. The pasting
of patterns of floss silk upon cards was done by men a few years ago in
England, but women, after great effort, have succeeded in gaining the
work, so much more suitable for them. "A lady in Jefferson county, Ia.,
has made herself a handsome silk dress from cocoons of her own raising."
A manufacturer of silk goods in Paterson, N. J., writes: "We mostly
employ girls from twelve to eighteen. The work is not unhealthy. Average
pay is $3 per week. To learn, a girl must be about twelve years of age;
it takes about two months. Pay begins after two weeks. To learn, one
should be smart with her hands, and careful with the material. There is
a good prospect ahead for weavers. All seasons are good, except during a
panic. They work twelve hours. The time could not be shortened
conveniently. If other States worked less time, we could too. We employ
a hundred girls and twenty-five boys. Seventy-five per cent. are
American. Board, $1.75. Women could be employed more extensively in
weaving. Men are employed upon the spinners, women in winding, &c."
=194. Ribbons.= In England, formerly, a woman was not at all engaged in
ribbon weaving, as the men thought it an encroachment on their sphere of
labor; nor were they even allowed to wind silk preparatory to its use in
weaving. Manufacturers of ribbon in West Newton, Massachusetts, write:
"We employ from forty to eighty women, and prefer them to men in all
departments they are fitted for. They are paid by the week, and earn
from $2 to $6, according to the value of their work. It requires from
six months to a year to learn the business. Women are paid something
while learning. Good character and fair capacity are needed. Our women
work eleven hours. If the time was reduced to ten, the loss would be the
use of machinery. There is a surplus of hands in New York, by reason of
immigration. Women are inferior in mechanical skill, superior in
steadiness."
=195. Sewing Silk.= The first factory for spinning silk in this country
was established in Northampton, Massachusetts. There are 156 hands in
Massachusetts, engaged in the manufacture of sewing silk. Two other
factories have been established since then in Paterson, New Jersey; one
for the manufacture of the raw silk, and the other the manufacture of
sewing silks, fringes, gimps, and tassels. There is a manufactory in
Mansfield, Connecticut, and one in Newport, Kentucky. Most of the sewing
silk used in this country under the name of Italian silk is made by
American manufacturers. An agent for the manufacture of twist in
Paterson, New Jersey, told me their best hands do not earn over $3.50 a
week and work eleven hours. They try girls, that wish to learn, two
weeks, and if they find them fitted for the work, pay $1 a week. There
is no danger from the machinery as in cotton factories, nor has it the
unhealthy tendency of cotton, as there are no particles flying from the
material like the lint that flies from cotton. It does not require an
apt person long to learn. The girls stand all the time. They have to
watch the machinery, and tie the threads that break. The agent said, in
the Eastern States girls are paid better in silk factories, but they are
more competent workers. There some earn from sixty to eighty cents per
day. The work is neat and clean. Some manufacturers of sewing machine
silk and twist write me from Boston: "We employ fifty women winding and
twisting silk. They work eleven hours in winter and twelve in summer,
and earn from $3 to $6 per week. Some are paid by the piece and some by
the week. Men are paid from $1 to $2.50 a day. Integrity and activity
are wanted. The prospect for future employment is good. They work at all
seasons. One fourth are Americans. No parts of our occupation are
suitable for women but those in which they are engaged." A sewing silk
manufacturer in Paterson, N. J., writes: "Our women are engaged in
winding and doubling the raw silk and finishing, in skeins and on
spools, the dyed material. The work is generally considered healthy.
Many children, boys and girls, from ten years and upward, are
employed--say forty per cent. of the whole force of help; children at $1
per week--women at $3 and $4. They work sixty-nine hours to the week.
State rights prevent the shortening of the time. Each State makes its
own laws on the subject, and no unanimity exists. Males and females are
employed up to a certain age, say fifteen years, indiscriminately; girls
always preferred. The time of learning depends upon the quickness of the
hand; some learn in two or three days, some again can scarcely learn at
all. The rule of the trade is not to pay learners. It depends on
circumstances whether we pay. In brisk times we have about sixty
(including children)--women about forty--perhaps less. About half are
Americans. Crinoline is in the way to prevent women from performing
other parts of the labor. Women are cheaper. Men could not be got, and
could scarcely do the work, if they could. Yet no particular
qualifications are required. The prospect for an increase of this
manufacture depends upon congressmen and the tariff. The best seasons
are immediately after the New Year's and Fourth of July holidays." In
France, some girls are employed to wind the raw silk from cocoons, and
some spin it into skeins of silk. In Dublin, many women are employed in
the winding and picking of silk used in making poplin. Near Algiers is
an orphan asylum, from which a large number of girls have been
apprenticed to a gentleman who owns a silk winding mill in the vicinity.
The girls work twelve hours a day.
* * * * *
=196. Lace Makers.= Large numbers of women are employed in lace making
in Belgium, France, Ireland, and England. A normal lace school was
established in Dublin in 1847. Lace makers are very closely confined,
and in busy times many spend from twelve to twenty hours at their work.
Lace making requires care, quickness, and dexterity. Rev. Mr. Hanson
mentions the fact that, in Liverpool, there are three Roman Catholic
institutions aided by the Privy Council for the industrial training of
girls: one, attended by forty pupils, is a laundry; another is a lace
school, attended by one hundred and sixty-six; the third, attended by
twenty-six, trains domestic servants. Lace making is so injurious to the
eyes that, at forty, very few can carry it on without spectacles. In
England the process of winding is conducted by young women, while boys
are mostly employed as lace threaders. Their condition is a wretched
one. Women are mostly employed as lace runners or embroiderers. Mending,
drawing, pearling, and joining are mostly done by young children. An
interesting account of the business is given in Charlotte Elizabeth's
story of the "Lace Runners": "It is proved by unquestionable evidence,
that in lace making it is customary for children to work at the age of
four or five and six years; and instances are found in which a child,
only _two_ years old, was set to work by the side of its mother." The
present condition of most of the laboring classes in England is far more
depressing and exhausting than the slavery that exists among the colored
population of the United States. "The powers of production of a machine
for making laces are to hand labor nearly as 30,000 to 5." C. says he
and his wife are the only makers of hand lace in the United States, and
he has been nine years in the business here. He says, making the figures
is most difficult; and he showed me one figure he asked but twenty-eight
cents for, that he stated it would require a day and a half to make. I
wish I had offered to buy it. He employs a number of girls to put the
figures on some kind of a foundation for collars, sleeves, and capes.
They also transfer, mend lace, and do other such work. He says, making
figures does not pay as well as the other parts, and it would not pay
for the salt you use on your potatoes. He does not have lace made,
except now and then a figure that cannot be obtained, to fill out a
piece that is being transferred or altered, and for which the lady is
willing to pay a good price. He says laces are made so much cheaper in
the old country, that when imported, paying even a duty of twenty or
twenty-five per cent., they are sold as cheap as those he makes. He says
he pays his girls nearly twice as much as they are paid in Europe. His
report I thought contradictory, and supposed he feared competition. I
was told by an English woman, who had been accustomed to making lace
from six years of age until the last ten, that it takes seven or eight
years to learn lace making in all its parts. She says there are
twenty-one processes gone through with in making every kind but pillow
lace, in which there are but five processes. When she was a child, none
but common laces were made in France, and the making of their finest
laces they learned from the English, who went over to France.
=197. Lace Menders.= I called on M. W., a lace mender. "In New York, she
has received from one store, Mme. G.'s, from $20 to $25 a week for work.
She thinks in a few years very little work will be ordered from the
stores; it will be done by those who make a business of it. The stores
derive a handsome profit. She did a piece for one store for $3, that she
knows the lady paid $5 for having done; and another piece at $3, that
the lady paid $10 for--the storekeeper having such profits for nothing
but merely sending it to the lace transferrer. She makes a comfortable
living, but works at night as well as through the day. It has injured
her eyes and made her nervous. She has had two little girls learning to
mend, alter, and transfer lace; one received her board and clothing for
her work for three years. One girl, that spent two years with her, is
now obtaining a livelihood by her work. She thinks if a bright, steady
girl of thirteen should spend two years at it, and then have friends to
start her in business, she would be well able to support herself. Lace
mending is a separate branch from lace making. In England, if a person
can obtain the names of one or two wealthy families, it will at once
establish them in business. In doing up lace, little girls can put the
pins in the edges to keep it in place until dried. C. and Mme. G., she
says, pay her as her customers would, but she prefers establishing
herself, and does not so well like store work. Her customers recommend
her to their friends, and so she will gradually become known. Lace
mending is a nice, clean, respectable business, and can be done at
home."
* * * * *
=198. Hair Cloth Manufacture.= "There is some competition in the sale of
foreign and domestic hair cloth. The American is of a better quality,
and on that ground only are manufacturers able to compete with
foreigners, the duty on hair cloth being low. When the hair has been
separated from the short hair used for curling, it goes into the more
delicate fingers of the hair drawers, who sort it into lengths, each
length corresponding to the width of the cloth to be woven. We have
seldom seen any mechanical operation requiring more dexterity or
constant attention than this. The girls engaged in this work make from
$3 to $3.50, and sometimes $4 a week. The weaving is done by hand looms,
each worked by two girls--one to handle the hook (answering the purpose
of a shuttle), and the other to serve the hair. The prices paid for
weaving vary from twenty to thirty-two cents per yard. The average,
including plain and figured cloth, is twenty-four cents. A fair average
day's work is four or five yards. But this requires two hands, you must
remember; so that perhaps a fair estimate of the wages of hair cloth
weavers would be from fifty to sixty-two and a half cents per day. The
labor is severe, and we should think it impossible, without injury to
the health, for young women to work at it more than two thirds of the
time." At a hair-cloth manufactory in New York, I was told they employ
one hundred girls. The proprietor says they have work all the year. He
never knew a woman at the business that could not find employment. The
first month they do not receive anything for their work, but after that
can earn from $3 to $5 per week. It is paid for by the yard. The more
practice a worker has, the better she succeeds. I think it must be dirty
work. Another manufacturer told me it does not require long to learn to
weave hair cloth, but some time to do it well. He pays $5 per week, but
their time is not limited to ten hours. The girls, I saw, were pale and
filthy. He thinks the business is likely to extend, and, consequently,
the prospect of employment to women in that field of labor is good. He
keeps his girls all the year. The Providence Hair Cloth Co. write:
"Women are employed in weaving our hair cloth. Every hair has to be put
in separately by the fingers of the girl. The only disadvantage to the
health of the girl is the close application in sitting so long. We pay
our girls thirteen cents per yard for weaving. It requires about two
weeks or one month before a girl becomes sufficiently accustomed to the
work to weave on full speed. We pay them while learning. No
qualifications needed, only general neatness and upright moral
character. All seasons are alike. We work only ten hours. Thirty girls
have each one loom with which to work; one girl mends the cloth, and
three shave and trim the same--making thirty-four in all. One half are
American. Women are in all respects superior to men in weaving--same as
in cotton looms."
METAL MANUFACTURES.
=199. Iron.= "The great heat to be endured and the severe muscular power
required, preclude women from the manufacture of iron goods. They are
not directly employed, and to a small extent indirectly. We think when
women have to perform what is unquestionably man's work, it lowers the
standard of female character instead of elevating, and nothing is more
disagreeable than to be constantly employed at labor uncongenial to
one's nature." From the United States census we learn that in 1850 there
were engaged in the manufacture of pig iron 20,298 males, 150 females;
in the manufacture of casting iron, 23,541 males, 48 females; in the
manufacture of wrought iron, 16,110 males, 138 females. We do not know
exactly how these women were employed. The work in rolling mills is very
severe and the heat intense. The men have their limbs cased in tin
sheaths above their knees. The vast capital required to develop the
mineral resources of a country, and the comparative newness of our
country, have hitherto prevented more than a partial development of its
resources. Many women are employed in dressing and sorting ore in Great
Britain.
=200. Files.= The notches in files are made by a chisel acted on by a
hammer held in the hand. The edge thrown up in making the notch assists
the workman in putting the chisel in the right place, and keeping it
there while he cuts the next notch. "It is peculiar that hitherto no
machine has been constituted, capable of producing files which rival
those cut by the human hand." From a manufacturer in Massachusetts, we
learn that "he employs from four to six girls in cutting fine work
files, cleaning, and wrapping up, &c. They are largely employed in
England. The work is considered healthy. They receive from $3 to $4.50
per week of ten hours a day. Men and women are paid equal wages for the
same kind of work. It requires from six months to two years to learn.
The prospect for a small number in each factory is good. There is work
every day in the year. It is quite a new business in this country. Women
are neater and more particular with their work than men. They could do
some other parts that are suitable for them, but they would soil their
hands too much." A file manufacturer writes me: "Women are paid by the
piece in cutlery--in other departments by the day; when by the piece,
they receive as much as men; when by the day, one half. It would require
three or four years to learn. Most women cannot cut any but small files
as well as men, as they have not sufficient muscular power in the hands
and fingers. Women are taught in Sheffield, England, by their fathers
and brothers, and have what they earn. Good eyesight and stout nerves
are the requisites for a learner. No prospect of employment in our
business at present. The best localities for manufactures are where
files are wanted, in New England and the middle States."
=201. Guns.= One manufacturer writes: "I hardly know whether the work
could be done by women. It is difficult to learn and hard to practise."
A gunsmith told me, guns could be polished by women. They are polished
by hand. A manufacturer of guns writes: "I have no women employed in my
factory. It is not common for them to work at this business in America,
although many of them are employed by gun makers in foreign countries."
=202. Hinges.= A manufacturer of hinges writes: "We employ no women in
our manufactory. There are portions of the work that might be done by
females as well as male labor. Still we have not adopted the plan." A
manufacturer writes from New Britain, Connecticut: "We employ women in
packing goods, and making brass hinges, and pay from thirty-eight to
sixty-five cents per day of ten hours. We formerly paid women $1.50 per
day. We now get the same amount done by girls for sixty-five cents. We
employ them because the work is light, and we can get it done at that
price. The part done by women requires one month to learn. The prospect
for this work in future is good. Spring and fall are the best seasons,
but our hands are employed the year round. Other parts of the work could
be done by women if they were willing, but the work is dirty. They are
superior to men in the same branch, as they handle the work quicker, and
are, as a general thing, more steady and reliable. The housework here is
mostly done by Irish girls, while American girls prefer working in
shops, even at less wages. There are many other branches of our work
that might be done by females, for which we pay men $1 and $1.25 per
day; but the work is rather dirty, and few here would do it, as they can
have cleaner work, and we have never sought that kind of help on that
account."
=203. Locks.= "The Newark Lock Company" employ eight American girls in
packing hardware. They are paid by the week, from $3 to $5, and average
half the pay of men, who do more laborious work. Women spend six or
eight months learning. Activity and neatness are desirable qualities.
Women excel in both qualities. We expect to double our business in a
year or two. The women work ten hours per day, and have steady
employment. Two thirds of all the locks used in the United States are
made in the five large lock manufactories of Connecticut. The best
locality is near the great emporium, and on tide water, to save freight.
Board $2.50." The secretary of the Eagle Lock Company writes: "We employ
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, and only twenty girls.
Our work is not suitable for females, except to pack our locks in paper
ready for market. They work by the piece, and can earn from $10 to $25
per month, according to how they employ themselves. They are mostly
daughters of men employed by us, and board at home. They are all Yankee
girls. We only work ten hours, unless business is driving." "Hardware
manufacturers in Cromwell, Connecticut, pay eight women from 50 to 62½
cents per day for packing. They work ten hours a day. The work can be
learned in one month. The prospect of work in future is good. Board
$1.62 per week." Manufacturers in N. Britain write: "We pay by the day
from 50 to 60 cents, ten hours' work. Women are not generally better
paid than they now are, because they compete with each other so much in
the light, easy, and clean branches of labor, and meet competition in
light work from boys. Their time of learning is from six months to a
year, and half never learn. They are paid while learning. An eye for
putting up work true to the square, and quick fingers, are the most
essential qualifications. The business is constantly increasing. Work is
the same, or nearly so, at all seasons. Girls employed by us have every
personal comfort and convenience that is possible, and are paid as much
as men for the same labor. Most of our work is more or less greasy and
dirty from iron and brass filings. Girls usually have less natural
_mechanical_ intelligence, we think. It may be, however, that the want
is from their inexperience in mechanical branches. Our impressions are
that New England is the place for manufacturing small wares, requiring
great activity and industry. Our workers have the use of a public
library and lectures free. Board, $7 to $8 per month--thirty to
thirty-one days." A manufacturer of trunk castors, in Massachusetts,
writes me that he once employed girls to paint castors, and put them in
packages for the dealers.
=204. Nails.= Making wrought nails is too hard work for women. A
manufacturing company of nails, in Boston, write me there are no women
employed in the nail factories of New England. The work is exceedingly
heavy. Another manufacturing company write, they have never known of
women being employed in making nails in any country. But we know that in
France, women are employed in turning the wheel in making nails, and at
Sedgley, E., and the neighboring villages, the number of girls employed
in nail making considerably exceeds that of the boys. In England, the
part done by girls is attending machinery that splits iron into the
proper widths for nails.
=205. Rivets.= A manufacturer writes: "We believe no manufacturer
employs women in our particular branch of industry. The business
requires great strength and exposure to furnaces." The writer suggests
that in _iron moulding_, perhaps a new career might be opened for women.
"Innumerable small castings are now being made, such as buckles, eyes,
rings, &c., for harness making. As this work is exceedingly light,
requiring skilful manipulation, it might be within the scope of women to
undertake this branch of industry." The casting is dangerous. The
mixture of gases in the hot metal sometimes produces a blowing--that is,
the metal is thrown into the air, falling oftentimes on the workers,
penetrating their clothes and burning them. A woman's clothes would be
unsuitable for this work. The moulding is very light, easy work, and we
think as suitable for women as most mechanical labor.
=206. Screws.= The processes in making screws are forging, turning up,
nicking, worming, and tipping. The cutting and polishing of screws, in
Birmingham, are chiefly done by women. The machinery used requires care
and delicacy.
=207. Skates.= Skate manufacturers in Maine write: "We employ from ten
to twelve ladies to stitch skate leathers, for about two months in the
year, November and December. They are paid by the piece, and average 50
cents a day. All are Americans. Board, $1.50 per week. In the New
England States, more American women are employed than foreigners,
particularly in country towns."
=208. Shovels.= A shovel manufacturer says he employs boys to clean the
handles, by holding them as they run over emery belts. He pays the boys
$3 a week. For varnishing the iron part of the shovel he pays 10 cents a
dozen, and "yesterday a youth was able to do twenty-one dozen." This
branch of work, we think, might be done by strong women.
=209. Wire Workers.= I was told at a wire manufactory, New York, that
women are never employed to draw wire. If it be true that wire drawers
are a very rough, coarse set of men, it is well girls do not work in the
establishments; as the work is such, we presume, that all must be
employed in the same apartments. The labor of drawing is such that the
hands of the men become almost like iron. Mr. S., Philadelphia, employs
a woman to weave fine wire. She learned it in her native country,
Scotland. She also sews pieces of fine wire cloth together. She receives
$5 a week, and seldom works ten hours a day. Most men and women engaged
in wire work are English or Irish, who learned the trade in their own
country. I was told it requires some years to attain excellence. Weaving
requires considerable strength in both upper and lower limbs. Men wire
workers are paid from $1.50 to $2.50 a day. Mr. C., New York, employs a
number of women weavers and seamers. They are paid $4 a week. Formerly
their girls would want a day to go to a picnic, to get ready for a
party, or help their mothers at home. The steam would have to be stopped
unless they could get hands to fill their places during the time, which
was very difficult and often could not be done. For a while their women
gave them so much trouble, they had to stop the machinery altogether. It
caused him such annoyance that some of the female members of his family
learned, and are now employed. He employs women to cover steel for hoop
skirts, and pays $3 a week. A few women are employed at wire weaving in
Cincinnati. The wiring and making of bird cages seems to me a field of
industry open to female hands. They can be made in any place, and the
work is light. Wire could be woven in fenders by women, I think. Mr. C.,
maker of patent rat traps, employed a number of girls to lace the wires.
Some he paid by the week, some by the piece. They mostly earned $3 a
week. A small girl could learn it in two weeks. I saw a manufacturer of
wire stands for cloaks, mantillas, &c. He employs a few ladies to dress
them, paying 25 cents apiece. One of his hands is very expeditious and
can cover six in a day. Those that know nothing of the work, he employs
in making skirts only, and of course make less. February, March, August,
September, and October are the busy months. There are only three places
in New York where the work is done. A wire maker, in Lowell, writes: "I
employed a girl four years ago in wire weaving, that gave unqualified
satisfaction. She left, to obtain a college education. I paid by the
piece when I employed her, and at the same rates as I paid men. She used
to earn $1 a day, and even did so while attending school; but of course
worked before and after school--probably seven or eight hours a day.
Most of my work is too laborious for women; but some wire workers that
make meal sieves, corn parchers, &c., can, and I believe do, employ them
to advantage, by reason of the price of labor being much less for women
than men. This kind of business is limited. There are not more than one
hundred and fifty men and women, probably, working at the business in
New England. A maker of sieves, and wire goods in general, writes from
Worcester, Massachusetts: "The business is quite healthy compared with
needle work. I employ six women, who earn from $4 to $5 per week of ten
hours a day. Men earn from $7.50 to $12. Some goods we manufacture will
not justify us in paying women higher prices. (The women should not do
it. They would then have to employ men and pay better prices, when women
could come in and claim equal wages.) Our kind of work they learn in a
few weeks. There will be no falling off, in future, of this work. Most
girls like the work. Board, $2 per week in families." A wire
manufacturer in Belleville, New Jersey, writes: "We employ females in
sewing and winding wire. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay from
$2.50 to $4.50 per week. Learners receive $2.50 per week. Board, $2 to
$2.50. Men in our establishment average $2 per day. I would say that in
some branches of our business, women might take the place of men."
* * * * *
=Brass Manufacture.= In some branches of the brass manufacture women are
not at all employed--in a few others, they are. At a brass bell
foundery, we were told the work is not healthy, and is too heavy for
women.
=210. Candlesticks.= A manufacturer of candlesticks in Vermont "employs
from three to four women, because they are better adapted to the work
than men. He pays by the piece, from $13 to $15 per month, and employs
them the year round. Women are paid as well as men or boys at the same
kind of work. It requires from three to five years to learn the
business--from one to two years, that part done by women. Women are paid
small wages while learning. It is a clean, comfortable business. There
are no parts of our work suitable for women in which they are not
employed."
=211. Hooks and Eyes.= The agent of the Waterbury Hook and Eye Company
says: "The hooks and eyes are given out to families to put on cards, for
which they are paid by the gross. It pays poorly--probably not more for
a child than 50 cents a week. The country and villages around supply
plenty of girls for the factories. In good times the hands in the
factories are kept employed all the year. We employ three females to
pack our finished light work, which is as neat and healthy work as can
be in any pleasant factory--pay is $3.50 to $4.50 per week of sixty
hours. No males are employed on similar work. Supply and demand regulate
prices. Only a short time is required by a competent girl to learn to do
our work properly; and pay commences when they commence. Every good
qualification which 'flesh is heir to' is needed to make the _right_
sort of help. Prospect for employing more females than heretofore is not
flattering. Girls are preferable for any light, neat, tasty work. Ours
are Americans, and I believe as comfortable and happy as people are
likely to be on this sinful globe. I doubt if much of our other work can
be done by females. A place nearest to a large market, where good air
and water prevail and means of living are reasonable, is the most
desirable place to locate a factory, ordinarily. Churches, schools,
libraries, lectures, &c., afford ample means and opportunity for mental
and moral culture, for those who work ten hours a day, and can board for
$2 a week, and are free from any special cares or anxieties." N. S. &
Co., North Britain, write: "We employ nine women to make paper boxes,
and pack hooks and eyes. They earn from 60 cents to $1 per day of ten
hours, but are paid by the piece. The men earn from $1.15 to $3 per day;
but their work is different from the women's. The women learn their part
in two or three weeks. Industry and self-respect are the most desirable
qualities. The prospect for future employment is good. They work all the
year. Board, $2 per week."
=212. Lamps.= Mr. J. "used to employ girls to cement the glass body on
the marble stand, and the top of the body on the metal through which the
wick passes. He also employed them in papering to send away. The
prospect for workers is poor, because the business is limited. He paid
his girls $3.50 a week. No manufactories in the West or South." In 1860
the manufacture of coal-oil lamps formed the principal business of
sixteen companies, who employed 2,150 men and 400 women and boys."
=213. Pins.= The pins made in the United States are not so high priced
as English pins. They have not until lately been so well finished. In
pin making in England, the drawing and cutting of the wire, the cutting
of the heads from the coils, and the trimming are mostly performed by
men; the other operations, by women and children. Sometimes, in trimming
the pins, a man, his wife, and child work together. For pickling and
trimming the pins the price usually paid is two cents a pound. A skilful
and industrious worker can head 20,000 pins per day, for which in
England they are paid about 30 cents of our money. Pin heading is very
sedentary work, and children seven or eight years of age are often kept
at it for twelve or thirteen hours, with merely time for hasty meals.
Girls at Sedgley and Warrington begin as early as five years of age to
work in the pin factories. It is said that at Wiltenhall they are
treated with much cruelty, if at all refractory. In Sedgley more women
are employed than men, and receive the same treatment. The secretary of
the American Pin Company at Waterbury, Connecticut, writes: "Women are
employed in tending machines, and in sticking and packing pins, and
packing hooks and eyes, and making paper boxes. The work is not
unhealthy. The lowest wages by the week is $3.25 while they are
learning; afterward $3.50 and $3.75 per week, ten hours a day. Some work
by the piece, and earn from $14 to $21 per month. The supply of woman's
labor is equal to the demand, at the prices we pay. We work through the
year, generally without stopping, except for the holidays. Our average
number is fifty. Girls can do the work as well or better than boys, that
could be hired at the same price. Most are Americans. They have their
Sundays, holidays, and evenings--also a public library and institute
lectures at a very small cost--besides religious privileges afforded by
six churches. Board, $1.50 to $2 per week." The Albany Company, at
Cohoes, sends the following information: "Women, and girls not younger
than twelve years of age, are employed in sticking, folding, wrapping,
&c. The same work is done in England and Germany. Wages from $6 to $20
per month, working twelve hours a day. Those having had the most
practice can usually do the work faster and better, consequently obtain
higher wages. They receive pay while learning. The qualifications most
desirable are care, attention, and activity. The business is not likely
to increase greatly, as the work is mostly done by machinery and the
demand for the article is limited. We are busy at all seasons except in
extremely hot or cold weather. The hands work twelve hours--by so doing
they obtain higher wages. We have more applicants than we wish. We
employ from twelve to fifteen, because they can do the work more readily
than men. The work is light, and the condition of the women quite equal
to that of women otherwise employed to obtain the necessities of life."
The agent of the Howe Manufacturing Company, in Connecticut, reports:
"Our work is all done by the piece. The earnings of the workwomen vary
according to their skill, diligence, and the number of hours spent at
work. Average in April last, $11.09--in four weeks. Highest earnings of
one individual $22.09 (equal to $5.54 per week). Small girls earn from
$1 to $1.50 per week, and work six or eight hours. Men and women do not
perform the same kind of labor in our establishment. Why all persons are
not paid equally for equal labor, I do not feel competent to explain. A
knowledge of our work is soon acquired. Learners are paid for what they
do. A good character and reputation, honesty, fidelity, common
mechanical ability, and diligence are desirable qualifications. We
generally find the hands we want in our own immediate neighborhood. Our
work is considered desirable, and much sought for. In all seasons the
hands are equally employed, except dry seasons, when we are short of
water to drive our machinery. Our _stock_ hands generally stay with us
till they get married or lay up so much money that they are able to get
along with less labor, or become too old or infirm to work to advantage.
Some have stayed with us over twenty years, many over ten years. The
number of hours for work is discretionary. We seldom request industrious
hands to work more hours than they choose. Our hands sometimes work
twelve or fourteen hours, at their pleasure. Small girls, of whom we
employ but five or six, seldom work ten hours. The number of women and
girls employed in our establishment heretofore has been variable,
averaging perhaps thirty. We are using improved machinery, which has
already reduced the number, and will reduce it still more. Our work is
peculiarly adapted to female labor. Nearly all our hands are American
born. In twenty-two years' business, we have seldom, if ever, had an
adult woman employed who was unable to sign her name to the pay roll.
Our adult women have the churches and lyceum lectures, which I believe
they generally attend. Their time for reading, for the most part, will
be evenings and Sundays. Small girls can attend our district school free
of cost." A manufacturer, in Seymour, Connecticut, writes: "We pay from
$3 to $4 per week. We employ no men in sticking and packing, and, if we
were not particular as to whom we employ, we could reduce the amount of
our monthly pay roll a large per cent. It requires very little practice
to learn the part of our business done by women, and in most cases we
pay them full wages upon entering the mill. No special qualifications
are needed. The kind of business we pursue will always be carried on,
but of course can never become very common. No difference in the
seasons, and the girls are never thrown out of employment. Under the
present regulations they work eleven hours, and the time could not well
be shortened, as that would tend to derange the other departments of our
business. We have but ten employed at present, but in the course of a
few days expect to have about twenty. They are employed because they are
peculiarly qualified for the business, and on account of the lower rate
of wages as compared with the labor of men. We employ women in all cases
when the work is suitable for them. Women as employed by us are superior
to men, being more expert and active. The New England States are
doubtless the best locality for our business. The females employed by us
are all intelligent and of good mental ability."
=214. Rings.= The American Brass Ring Co. "employ twenty women at
presses, in packing, &c. They are all foreigners. Board, $1.50 per week.
The work is not unhealthy. Women are paid fifty cents a day of ten
hours. Women are paid $2 a week for four weeks while learning. The
prospect of future employment is no better than the business now
offers."
=215. Scales.= H. T., manufacturer of scales and weights, Philadelphia,
Penn., writes: "We employ women in making metallic weights. The work is
not unhealthy. They earn from $4 to $6 per week. No comparison in the
price of labor. Women can make as much as men, if they are willing. It
requires almost a lifetime to learn the business; but the part the women
work at requires but a day or two. We pay learners. No extraordinary
qualifications are needed. A good prospect for increase of employment.
No difference in seasons. They work from four to ten hours. Women cannot
be employed at our heaviest work, on account of the great physical
strength required." I was told at F. & M.'s, New York, that the beams of
the scales could be burnished by women. It is done with steel
instruments. I suppose the pans could also be burnished by them.
Burnishing the back of the plates could be done by women also, but it is
somewhat dirty work. Women would have to work in the room with the men,
for while the foreman was employed, he would like to keep an eye on the
employees. The work is rather heavy for women, but not more so than some
in which they are engaged.
=216. Stair Rods.= A manufacturer of plated stair rods told me "he
employs a woman to burnish the rods. She can make from $4 to $7 a week,
not working more than ten hours a day, being paid from fifty cents to $1
a hundred. It is work hard on the chest, but he thinks not hard on the
eyes. He had one lady who did it at home. In large establishments, rods
are now burnished by machinery. The polishing of stair rods is very hard
work, and requires strong, stout lads." Another stair-rod manufacturer
told me "he has employed a boy to tie up stair rods, but would employ a
girl and pay the same price, $1 per day."
* * * * *
=217. Steel Manufacture.= No women are employed in the conversion of
iron into steel in this or any other country. It is rough, heavy work.
It requires great physical strength, and is unsuitable for a woman. No
women are employed in the manufacture of axes in this country. It is
rough, coarse work, and done by stout, strong men. In one of the largest
cutlery establishments in the United States they employ six hundred men,
but no females; except six, for wrapping up goods. In the finishing of
metals there are three branches: turning, filing, and setting up. In
turning, jagged particles of metal fly off, and often enter the eyes of
the workers, doing them great injury. Goggles of magnetized iron might
be used to prevent this. The magnetized wash is used to prevent the
filings from getting down the throats of grinders and polishers. For
learning the two parts, turning and filing, four years of apprenticeship
are served. The turning requires more skill than physical strength. It
might be done by women that were willing to serve so long an
apprenticeship.
=218. Buckles.= G. Brothers, of Waterbury, employ six women in riveting
and other light work on bell clasps. They write: "The girls earn from $3
to $5 per week, ten hours a day. The labor of women is paid twenty-five
per cent. less than that of males, because they are not able to do as
heavy work. It requires about three months to learn the part of males or
females. Our branch of trade is not increasing. Spring and fall are the
most busy seasons, but the women are not thrown out of employment during
the year. They are superior in light work. Board, $2 per week." A
manufacturer in Attleboro' writes: "I employ from twelve to fifteen at
packing, at light press work, &c. They are paid from four to six cents
per hour. Women are not paid higher, because they are not worth more. I
pay men from seven to twenty-five cents per hour. The time of learning
depends on the ingenuity of the employed. They have steady work most of
the time. They are full-blooded Yankees--have a good deal of fun when
the boss is out, and work in a pleasant room. The labor is easy, and
they are satisfied with the remuneration. (Perhaps because they can do
no better!) A healthy climate, convenience to market and to places where
the raw material is made, are advantages. All New-England girls have the
advantages of a good education in the common branches." A manufacturer
in Middletown, Conn., replies: "Girls are employed by me, springing in
the tongues of buckles and packing them--also making paper boxes. They
earn from forty cents to $1 per day, being paid by the piece. Their
employment is not so heavy or laborious as that of males. It takes from
six months to one year to earn full wages. Women will probably always be
employed in these branches. Good box makers are always in demand. We
employ thirty--all Americans. The balance of my work is rather
objectionable for women, unless it be foreign or second-class girls.
Women are usually more neat than men. Either water or railroad
communication is desirable in seeking a locality. Board, about $2 per
week. There was never so great a demand for female help in this part of
the country as at the present time. They have started a shirt
manufactory about nine miles from here, and are in want of girls; but
the greatest trouble there is to find boarding places at reasonable
rates." The West Haven Co. report "the employment to be very healthy by
giving exercise to the limbs. The pay is from seventy-five cents to
$1.50 per day--average $1. Some learn the business in two days, some in
two weeks. The hands are paid from the first, and are seventeen in
number, all Americans. Women are superior in this branch, because they
are quicker with their fingers."
=219. Edge Tools.= The Humphreysville Edge Tool Manufacturing Co. inform
me they do not employ females. For polishing they hire strong, rough
boys, that they can get cheap, who stand while at work, and stoop over
the articles, which produces a strain on the back and compression of the
chest. Many find it so injurious they have to give it up, and the
majority of those who do keep at it do not last long. The majority of
the metal workers in Birmingham do their work at home. Each member of
the family has his particular part to perform. An English writer says:
"In various branches of the hardware manufacture, both in Birmingham and
Sheffield, women may be seen by hundreds in some places, comfortably
secluded from the male workers; in others, working side by side with
them at the same mechanical process. They are never given to
intoxication, and rarely, if ever, to strikes; and it may be very much
the absence of these propensities that has recommended them so largely
to the notice of the employer. In London the practice is gaining
ground."
=220. Electrical Machines.= From the office of Davis & Kidder's
magneto-electric machines we receive the following intelligence: "We
employ women in covering wire, spools, sewing velvet, papering boxes,
&c., &c. They earn from $12 to $24 per month, and are paid by the month.
Women are paid nearly one half as much as men--can form no reason why
women are not as well paid. It requires about three months for females
to learn; they are paid while learning. All it requires is energy. There
is no prospect at all for future employment in this branch. We employ
our hands through the year; do not deduct from their wages when absent
for a week. They work ten hours a day. We employ four, because the work
is light and better suited for them than males. All Americans. Those in
my employ are well educated. Board in respectable families, $2.50." C.
Brothers, of New York, employ two girls for the same kind of work. They
pay one $5 a week, ten hours a day--the small girl $3. They have had
them but six months, but expect to keep them all the year. Mr. C. thinks
the business is so limited that the prospect is poor for learners.
=221. Fire Arms.= From the Arms Manufacturing Co., Chicopee, Mass., we
receive the following information: "We employ women in burnishing plated
ware. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay generally by the piece.
Some are paid about eighty cents per day. There is a prospect for steady
employment for the few we have, and for no more. They are in no season
entirely out of work. Ten hours a day are devoted to work when paid for
by the week. All Americans. Easy work and much sought after. Women are
inferior in point of strength, superior in cheapness." Sharp's Rifle Co.
write: "We employ from ten to thirty women in making cartridges and
inspecting primers. We pay about $1 each day, as the business requires
good skill and care, and is hazardous. It is generally piece work. Males
do the heaviest part of the work, and are paid $1.25 to $1.50 per day.
If an individual is skilful, it requires but a short time to learn.
Hands are paid while learning. Prospect good of future employment. We
have constant work for ten. They are usually employed nine hours. All
Americans. They appear very comfortable, and are quite tidy. No other
parts of our occupation are suitable for women. Women are superior in
forming and folding. $2.50 per week is the price of board."
=222. Knives and Forks.= The metals used for knives and forks are iron,
steel, and silver, according to use or expense. The dust that arises
from the grinding of steel knives, coats the lungs with stone. A German
manufacturer of small cutlery told me that in large establishments in
some European countries, women put the rivets in the handles of knives,
and polish the handles of ivory and pearl. In the grinding of penknives
and razors the inclination of the body forward is greater than in any
other branch; hence, while less injurious in regard to the amount of
dust than the fork and needle branches, they are fraught with greater
evil from the position of the body alone. Articles of cutlery are
glossed by holding them to a wooden wheel, on which is emery powder.
They are polished by holding them to a wheel covered with leather,
charged with crocus. Both of these processes are within the range of
woman's toil. In a cutlery establishment, I was told the work was too
hard for women. The polishing of their cutlery is done by machinery. The
Hardware Manufacturing Company, Berlin, Conn., write: "We employ one
hundred and forty men, making shelf hardware, and five or six girls to
pack it up. They get from fifty to seventy-five cents a day, work ten
hours, and all live at home. The work of papering up the goods is light,
and requires little skill. The other part of the work about our factory
is too severe for women." The Empire Knife Company, Conn., "employ four
girls in packing and sharpening. They are paid by the day (ten hours),
and earn from $3 to $4 per week. Women receive about the wages of men.
It requires from six months to one year to learn. Women are paid while
learning. The prospect of future employment is fair. The comparative
comfort and remuneration of the work are good. Comfortable board, $3 a
week." A company in Northfield, Conn., inform us: "It requires from
three to five years to learn the men's part of the work. Some of the
women work by the piece, and some by the day, receiving from $3 to $5
per week. The same price would be paid to men. The prospect of future
employment is good. They work throughout the year. Women are superior in
quickness. A locality should be fixed on where good water power may be
had."
=223. Needles.= Most of the needles used in Europe and America are
manufactured at Redditch, fourteen miles from Birmingham, where there
are about a dozen very large factories. The number manufactured in
Redditch amounts to about seventy million per week. The process is a
very long and painful one. The drilling is done by young women. The
constrained posture and rigid gaze of the women on the eyes of the
needles as they drill, is distressing. It requires a perfect steadiness
of hand. In addition to this, the small channel observed on each side of
the eye is made by women with a suitable file. The picking out of
defective needles, and laying perfect ones with the heads one way and
the points another, is performed by children. Dr. G. C. Holland writes:
"We candidly admit that the physical evils produced by needle grinding
exceed all that imagination has pictured." The needle grinders in
England are said to be ignorant and dissipated. One half can neither
read nor write. The dust which is evolved in the process of needle
grinding, contains a much larger amount of steel than is produced by any
other grinding. Mr. Aiken, inventor of the knitting machine, has the
machines and needles both manufactured. He says "he supposes he could
teach women to do most of the work on needles, if he would give the time
and trouble. He pays $1 per day to hands in the needle room." In the
manufacture of Bartlett's sewing-machine needles, but a few small girls
are employed, at from $1 to $1.50 per week, for smoothing the eye by
running an oiled thread through it. Formerly they employed girls to
perforate the eye, but it is now done by machinery. A manufacturer of
knitting needles writes us: "The winter season is the best for work, and
the Eastern States furnish the best localities for manufactories." A
maker of sewing-machine needles told me the tools are rather heavy,
files and a lathe being used. They pay a boy of fourteen years $3 a
week, and one of eighteen, $5.50. C. employs girls to envelop and label
needles. They earn from $3 to $4 a week, and do it at home. It takes a
long time to become expert. They are paid from the first, but not much.
The business is limited. They could have it done for less in England,
but prefer to put labels on for parties in this country, who want to be
considered manufacturers. G. & B. employ some girls to label and paper
needles they import. They pay two cents and a half for putting the
labels on forty papers. The labelling is done in the latter part of
winter and early spring.
=224. Pens= (STEEL AND QUILL). A thousand million steel pens are said to
be produced annually at Birmingham, England. We are indebted to some
writer in an English paper for a description of the part taken by women
in the manufacture of Gillott's pen in Birmingham. The number of women
employed in his factory is four hundred. "If not altogether manufactured
by woman, she has had, by far, more to do in its manufacture than men.
He may have forged and rolled the metal, but she cut it from the sheet,
gave it its semi-cylindrical form, stamped it, ground it on a wheel to
make it flexible, split it, helped to polish it, and finally packed it
in a box, or sewed it upon a card in readiness for the market. And
whoever wishes to see her thus employed, may find her seated in an airy
and comfortable chamber, with two hundred or three hundred companions
similarly engaged--all healthy and merry, and singing at their work,
while pens in all stages are clicking and glittering through their
fingers at the rate of something like one hundred gross a day, each." An
attempt has been made to manufacture steel pens in this country, but, I
think, as yet without success. The makers of the Washington medallion
pen had some girls to come from England to work for them, but found they
could not keep up the factory, because of the prices they had to pay for
labor. The duty on steel pens is thirty per cent., yet they can be
imported for less than it would cost to make them here. Some one writes
to the editor of the _Englishwoman's Journal_ as follows: "Madam, I have
been told that quill pens made by hand are far superior to those made by
machinery, and are therefore used in some of the principal offices of
London. Besides which, very many persons are unable to write except with
quill pens; rejecting the best and most expensive ones made of any kind
of metal. Might not the making of them be a suitable occupation for some
young women, who, from lameness or other infirmities, might be unable to
follow a more active life?" In New York, some quills are made into pens
by machinery, but women, we believe, are not employed.
=225. Philosophical Apparatus.= K., in Brooklyn, told me that in the old
country it is customary to spend seven years learning to make
philosophical apparatus, but in this country boys do not like to be
apprenticed so long. The business is not fast enough for Americans. It
requires close and constant application. The burnishing is quite hard
work. The occupation has a tendency to render one intellectual and
scientific. Most young men leave it to become physicians and preachers.
Dr. McG., of China, is one of the number. The work is mostly done by
lathe, but the polishing by hand. I think women could do it, if they
were brought up to it. Instruments are made in Europe, and imported for
less than they could be made in the United States. Business is now very
slack. K. used to have several apprentices, that he boarded and paid $1
a week during the first year. The next year he increased their wages to
$1 a week more, the next year another $1, &c. In small establishments an
instrument is carried through all its processes by the same workman. The
business is done in the United States on so small a scale as not to
afford a sufficient subdivision to furnish any part suitable for women.
P. does not know of any women being employed in this country in this
trade. He thinks there is much of it they could do, and in process of
time it will be done in the United States. In France and England, there
are many women who learn with their fathers and husbands, and work with
them. Many women are employed in making small compasses, that require a
nice adjustment and care in pasting, but a separate room would be
necessary, and that he has not. A manufacturer of nautical instruments
writes me, he does not know of women being employed in any part of his
business in any portion of the world. The brass on philosophical
instruments is polished by hand, but a manufacturer told me he would not
have even the polishing done by inexperienced hands, as they are very
particular with the finishing off of their work.
=226. Saws.= A saw maker says, in England women are employed in
lacquering the handles and polishing the blades of saws. An Englishman,
who did a very extensive business in New York, employed girls in the
same way, but he failed in business, and none have been employed since.
W. pays boys for such work $2.50 a week. Another informant writes me
that in England women are employed in the saw manufactories.
=227. Scissors.= In France, women are employed in the manufacture of
cutlery. The blades of scissors are polished by women on lathes supplied
with emery powder and oil, and subsequently on lathes supplied with
crocus.
=228. Spectacles.= S. says there are women in England and France who
make spectacle frames for them. He employs a woman to grind the glasses
of spectacles. She can earn $15 a week, and has earned $23 a week by
taking work home with her to do at night. On Nassau street, I saw a
French lady who grinds glasses for spectacles on a lathe. She works from
nine to five o'clock, and earns about $9 a week. There is not the danger
some might apprehend of glass flying into the eyes while at work. Yet it
requires great care and skill. I called at a manufactory of
silver-plated spectacles and saw the whole process. Several parts are
done by women. One was shaping the frames for the eyes, another setting
them up, another preparing them to solder, another soldering, and three
others were scouring. The soldering must be uncomfortable in warm
weather. The employment, I suppose, is not more unhealthy than any other
of a mechanical nature. One girl told me she earned seventy-five cents
per day. They are paid by the quantity. She said the rest could earn as
much, if they were industrious. One considerably older, at another
branch, said she could earn $4 a week. It would not require more than a
few weeks, I think, to learn any branch pursued by women--to learn all
the parts performed by women, would require six months or more, even for
an apt and skilful pupil. A spectacle maker, J., said a smart person
could learn to make silver spectacles in a year, but it would require
something longer to learn to make gold ones, as gold is a more difficult
metal to melt and work than silver. An apprentice is not paid the first
year, because of the metal he wastes. To learn it, one should at first
look on and see how the work is done. A manufacturer of spectacles
writes: "Women might make and repair spectacles. The heavier parts of
the business require foot lathes to be worked, where skirts would be out
of place, but the most could be done by hand in making spectacles." (We
have seen several women at foot lathes, polishing watch cases--so the
use of foot lathes need not be an objection with women.) A spectacle
importer writes: "We use a great many spectacle glasses, and in their
manufacture in England females are generally employed. In France and
Germany the women do the same kind of work." P., in Meriden, Conn.,
writes: "We employ women in making spectacles. The work is not more
unhealthy than any other labor in shops. Most are paid by the
piece--those who work by the week usually receive $4, and work ten hours
a day. They receive about three fourths the price of male labor, because
they perform the lighter work. They earn their board in one week--get
good wages in eight. They usually do about the same amount of work
through the year. We employ about fifty, because they are more active on
light work, and can be had for less wages. Most are Americans. Girls
prefer this to housework, and make better wages. The nearer New York,
the lower are freights; the farther from New York, the more permanent
our help. Good sense and religious principle prevail among them. Those
who board pay $2.25 per week." A manufacturer in Brooklyn, of fine gilt,
silver, plated, and German silver spectacles, writes: "The employment is
healthy. Young girls earn $2 per week, older ones from $3 to $6. They
are generally paid by the piece. Girls and boys earn about the same
wages, but those who have spent years to acquire the trade are entitled
to better prices. A smart girl or boy will learn in the course of six
months to do a specific part. Wages are usually paid from the time they
commence. A fair share of common sense and willingness to labor are the
principal requisites. As long as people grow old, and need spectacles,
they will be manufactured. Our work continues about the same through the
season. They work ten hours a day. In burnishing, the demand is pretty
good. We employ ten women, because they can do the parts of work
required better than boys or men. Half are American. We find women
rather more ready and apt than men. It is advantageous to be in or near
the great markets. Board, $2." I was told by an English maker of
spectacle frames, that most spectacles are made in France and Germany.
Men and women are paid in England 37½ cents a dozen for grinding the
best quality of glasses. The makers of frames should know how to make
figures, to put them on the frames. Women would be most likely to find
employment as grinders of glasses in New York, and no doubt a small
number could get work of that kind. Gold and silver frames are polished
on a lathe with leather and rouge. Common frames are burnished with
agate and steel. It is done more quickly, and is cheaper than polishing.
Most spectacle frames of a common quality are made in the country,
because it can be done by water power, and more cheaply.
=229. Surgical Instruments.= T., manufacturer, told me that some steel
surgical instruments are burnished by hand. He thinks there is not
enough in that line of business to do, to justify women in learning. He
said the polishing of surgical instruments could be done by women. It
requires judgment and experience, but is simple, requiring the worker
merely to hold the instrument on lathes and turn every few seconds; but
burnishing requires more strength. I was told that perhaps women are
employed in polishing silver surgical instruments.
=230. Telescopes.= G., an optician, says much of the light work in
making telescopes might be done by women. They could French-polish the
wooden frames, lacquer the brass work, and grind the glasses, if
properly instructed. He thinks making microscopes is more suitable for
them.
=231. Thermometers.= The construction of the thermometer is quite
simple. Women, if taught, could put the parts together, and mark the
scales. I have been told that some girls are employed in Rochester, New
York, in marking the scales. The same remarks will apply to the
barometer.
* * * * *
=232. Copper and Zinc Manufacture.= So far as we can learn, no women are
employed in copper and zinc mines, or in the making of copperas.
Twenty-five women are employed in packing copper powder flasks, by the
Waterbury Manufacturing Company, and making percussion caps. One fourth
of them are American. They earn from $3 to $4 per week, and the work is
reported not unhealthy. The women are paid about one half as much as
men. It does not require long to learn, and learners are paid something
during their apprenticeship. Ten hours are devoted to work. All seasons
are alike. The agent says the women do better for light work than men,
but require more watching.
=233. Tin Manufacture.= A youth, that was working in a tin shop for a
widow, whose husband had been a tinner, told me that a female relative
of his, who lived about one hundred years ago in Ireland, could do all
the various parts of work as well as a man. She learned the trade
regularly. Women are paid nearly as well as men for such labor in the
old countries, but cannot work so fast. He says, even now in Europe a
few women learn the trade of a tinner. It requires four years to learn
it thoroughly in all its branches, because there is such a variety. One
or two branches may be learned perfectly in a short time; so may several
be learned indifferently in the same period; just as a violinist may
know how to play a few tunes very well, but cannot play any others; or
may know how to play a great many indifferently, but none perfectly. In
England, where women are employed in tin shops to solder, they receive
for this work their board and thirty-seven cents a day.
=234. Lanterns.= I visited a large tin establishment in Brooklyn, and
saw the girls at work; some soldering the corners of the lanterns, some
assorting the pieces, some putting glass in the sides, some fastening
conductors' lamps in the framework, with plaster of Paris, and some
enveloping them to send away. There is nothing unhealthy in the work.
The smoke of the charcoal stoves used in soldering is carried off by
pipes. Girls putting glass in the tin frames, sometimes get their
fingers cut. The girls all wear aprons. The plaster of Paris part of the
work is very dirty. The girls earn from $2.50 to $4.50. They are all
employed at first in papering, as it is termed--that is, putting the
articles in papers ready to be packed; and receive, for a few weeks,
$2.50 a week, then more, according to ability and industry. Some are
paid by the week and some by the piece; they work ten hours. Girls
prefer mechanical labor to domestic service, because they have the
evenings to themselves. It requires but a few weeks for a girl of
ordinary abilities to learn the part she is to perform. The proprietor
said he could have a hundred times as many girls as he has, if he had
employment for them. But few American women will work in factories with
men. Most women are neater with their work than men. At a lantern
manufactory in New York, I was told they employ eight or ten girls to
cement the metal parts on the glass, to varnish, to wash and wipe and
paper them. They are paid $3.50 a week.
=235. Britannia Ware.= Some Britannia is burnished by hand, and some by
lathe. Women occasionally do the first kind.
* * * * *
=236. Silver.= "The artisan who forms certain articles of gold and
silver is called, indifferently, a goldsmith or silversmith. The former
denomination is most commonly employed in England, and the latter in the
United States." A manufacturer of silver ware in Providence, Rhode
Island, writes: "We do not employ women, and for the same reason that
females are not employed in machine shops." Chinese women do filagree
work. A lady told me she had seen it done in a factory near Paris, by
women.
=237. Burnishers.= At M.'s, Philadelphia, they employ from thirty to
fifty women on plated ware; would employ more if they had room for them
to work. They spend three months learning, and receive no wages during
that time. They then earn from $3 to $6 per week, according to skill and
industry. They work by the piece. Another set of women are employed in
scouring the ware. It is wet, dirty work, and the women receive somewhat
higher wages. The burnishers work in a light, comfortable room. The
scourers work in a cellar. The business of burnishing is not hard on the
eyes; nor would it be on the chest, M. thinks, if the burnishers sat
upright, which they could do if they chose. We were told by some one
else, that the demand for laborers in that field is very limited in
Philadelphia. I was told by a silversmith in New York, that a good
burnisher can earn from $5 to $7 a week, and he thought it took about a
year to learn to become a good worker. Burnishing is a laborious and
perfectly mechanical process. With some, the stooping posture is found
trying to the breast, and constantly poring over the bright surface is
injurious to the eyes. The business is poorly paid, and a silversmith
can employ but a very small number of burnishers, but manufacturers of
plated ware employ more. F. employs two girls for burnishing silver
ware, who can earn from $5 to $9 per week. It is piece work, and does
not require long to learn. C. L. pays burnishers from $3 to $6 a week.
At a manufactory of silver service for Roman Catholic churches, I was
told they are most busy just before Christmas and Easter. They pay by
the week, because it is less trouble, and to them cheapest, as many of
the articles they make are small. They pay from $2 to $5 a week. Y., in
New York, who employs a number in burnishing silver ware, told me he
pays learners nothing for a month, then by the piece. A good burnisher
could earn from $5 to $7 a week. The prices are better than are
generally paid to women for mechanical work. A lady burnisher told me
she likes the work because it can be done at home. She thinks the work
not injurious to the eyes. To learners she pays nothing for two months,
then $1 a week, and so increases as the learner advances. At the end of
a year, the learner is considered proficient. Silver platers mostly
employ their operatives in factories. Silver ware requires more taste
and neatness than plated ware, and pays better. It is like vest making.
One that can make good ones, gets a good compensation; but those who
slight their work are paid proportionately. A good burnisher can earn $6
and upward. Mrs. ---- thinks after a while there will be manufactories
of plated ware in the South and West. I saw a man making silver and
brass faucets. The burnishing is first done with steel, then with agate.
It requires some strength, but a woman of muscular force could do it.
The majority of burnishers work upon plated ware, as less silver is used
since plated ware has been brought to its present state of perfection.
M. pays by the piece. A woman receives from $4 to $7 per week, according
to competency and industry. It requires from two to four months to
learn. The large cities, or places where the goods are manufactured, are
the best for burnishers. The work soils clothes, so girls generally
change their dresses or wear large aprons. Spring and fall are busy
seasons. Hollow ware is generally burnished by men, as it requires more
strength. At H.'s, I saw a few women scouring the ware with sand, and
nineteen burnishing. They earn from $3 to $6 a week. A man in B., that
does hand plating, employs girls to burnish, and pays them by the piece.
They can earn from 75 cents to $1.50 per day; they work at home. In New
York there are some ladies who teach burnishing, and at some
establishments a premium is paid for learning. In some large factories,
girls are paid by the week from $3 to $5. C. pays by the piece, and from
the first, but a girl cannot earn more than $1 a week for two or three
months. It requires from four to six months to become a burnisher. The
prospect for learners is good, because girls will get married, and so
leave vacancies. The business is increasing. Good burnishers earn from
$4 to $12 a week. He employed a girl to stay in his office and burnish,
paying her according to what she did, from $1 to $1.25 a day. Women, he
remarked, receive the same price for burnishing that men do. (He may pay
them so, but I know all do not.) About the holidays are the most busy
times. There are not two months in the year a good burnisher cannot get
employment. Merchants are slack longer than manufacturers. C. is a
practical plater, and not so much at the mercy of his employés as those
that are not. His burnishers begin on knives and forks, as they are most
simple. A burnisher told me it is not customary to pay a learner during
the first two months. Most burnishers wear a shield. He thinks it is not
bad on the eyes unless done at night. A northern light is best for
judging of the work, just as a northern light is best for seeing the
imperfections of a painting. About four months of the year, January,
February, July, and August, burnishers find it difficult to get work,
except in very large establishments, where they are kept busy all the
time. A man working at coach lamps told me girls used to be employed in
the factory to burnish plates, and received $3 per week. The Porter
Britannia and Plate Co., Conn., "employ women in burnishing, washing and
packing. They earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men and women have the same
price for their work, but men earn from 50 to 75 per cent. more, because
they accomplish more. Men and women spend three months learning. Women
could not endure more than ten hours such work. The supply rather
exceeds the demand generally. On many accounts, women are preferable.
They are superior in care and nicety of execution. The labor is too
exhausting for tropical climates. There are some parts of the occupation
suitable for women in which they are not now employed." Information from
three other establishments corresponds with that given. Silversmiths in
New Orleans write me, February, 1861: "Women are much employed in Europe
as well as in this country, burnishing silver ware. It is not in the
least unhealthy. Most are paid by the piece, and here some receive as
high as $50 a month. For silver burnishing, women are paid the same as
men. The time of learning depends greatly upon capacity--usually about
six months. There is a very slight prospect, at present, of employment.
The best season for work is winter; there is none in the summer. In the
higher branches of such work, women acquire superior skill."
=238. Thimbles.= P. was kind enough to make an entire silver thimble,
that I might see the process. The whole of the work could be done by
women, but no women in any country are employed at it, so far as he
knows. I was told by one or two other thimble makers, that no women are
ever employed in that branch of business. It is usual for a boy to serve
an apprenticeship of four years. While doing some parts of the labor the
workers sit, and while doing other parts they stand. The polishing is
done on a lathe, and there is not enough of it to furnish work for a
separate person, except in very large establishments, and even then it
is so connected with the other processes that it could not be well
divided. There are not so many thimbles sold now as formerly, because of
the sewing machines that are used. There are not more than from eight to
twelve thimble makers in the United States. There are none South or West
of Philadelphia.
* * * * *
=239. Silver Plating.= Women cannot well do the close or hand plating.
It is done by soldering and ironing. Door plates are made in this way.
Electro-plating is done with a battery. The business includes a variety
of work, and requires some knowledge of chemicals, but could be learned
by an intelligent person in a short time. The Americans are noted for
excellence in this department. H. knew a lady plater in Connecticut, and
a very good one she was. I have been told women are employed in
silvering metals in France.
* * * * *
=240. Bronze.= Some statuettes are made of the finer metals, gold and
silver, while busts are made of other simple metals, as copper, iron,
zinc, lead, &c. They are generally made, however, of the mixed metals.
It requires some years' experience to make bronze statuettes. Women are
employed in France, in ornamental bronze work. Mlle. de Faveau has
succeeded in having a bronze statue of St. Michael cast entirely whole,
instead of in portions. It is the resuscitation of a lost art.
* * * * *
=241. Gold and Jewelry Manufactures.= Those that manufacture jewelry in
the United States form a small body. The articles sold by different
houses vary as much in price and quality as any other kind of goods.
Jewellers often have connected with their business persons who work in
ivory, jet, hair, and such materials. "Felicie de Faveau, as a worker in
jewels, bronze, gold, and silver, as a designer of monuments and
mediæval furniture, stands without approach." Much common jewelry is
made in Rhode Island, and women are employed to some extent in its
manufacture. The New England Jewelry Company in Providence employ women
to solder, and pay $4 a week, ten hours a day. It does not take long to
learn. They have work usually all the year. In the Eastern
manufactories, women suffer some from dust, on account of their working
in the same rooms where the men are employed at the machinery. In the
manufacture of jewelry, the fumes of charcoal are usually permitted to
fill the workshop; and the fusion of saltpetre, alum, and salt, used in
dry coloring, induces general nervousness and pain in the head and
chest. This has been to some extent remedied, by having pipes that carry
off the fumes partially, or it may be, in whole. There are many
departments in the jewelry line that might be successfully filled by
women: the sale of jewelry is one. It requires several years for one to
become well acquainted with the jewelry business, and that is longer
than many women are willing to spend in fitting themselves for business.
Mr. B. said: "One to set jewels should be able to mount them. But few
people make setting a separate business. When he learned, a woman was
not at all employed by jewellers in this country. He pays some of his
workers $10 a week, ten hours a day." A jewelry manufacturer in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, writes: "Women are employed in the manufacture
of jewelry--also in casing and packing the same for market. The work is
not more injurious than weaving or sewing. They are paid about the same
as men. Some pay by the piece, some by the hour. Women are not paid as
well as men, because they cannot do all parts. The time of learning
depends upon their ingenuity. Some may learn in one week, others in
four. They are paid while learning. Women are employed in the lighter
branches because they are quicker. The advantage of a locality is in
having natural water power, in a community where there is plenty of
capital, and the capitalists are willing to invest in the business."
Some manufacturing jewellers told me "they pay from $3 to $8 per week to
their women. They work ten hours a day. The time of learning is six
months, but, as in every thing else, much depends on the capacity,
aptitude, and particular genius of the learner. More women could be
employed in this business, if properly qualified. All their women are
Germans. New York is the best place for selling jewelry, but other
places are as good for manufacturing."
=242. Gold Assayers.= Assaying by acids and other reagents could be done
by women. Tests are now imported, but most assayers prefer to make their
own tests. Assaying requires patience, a knowledge of metals, and
endurance of heat. It also requires instruction and considerable
experience. Some assayers move from place to place wherever new mines
are discovered, and reap the benefit of their skill and knowledge. A
gold refiner informs me "that his business is mostly heavy fire work,
requiring the most able men. None of it is sufficiently light for
females." I find, however, that women are reported in the census of
Great Britain as gold and silver refiners, cutters, and workers.
=243. Enamellers.= The experience, taste, delicacy of touch, and
fineness of finish required, make the art of enamelling one very
suitable for women. The richness of coloring and exquisite workmanship
render some specimens very beautiful. Simple metals are mostly used as a
base. I saw a man enamelling jewelry, who told me he employs small girls
to enamel, paying from $2 to $3 a week. It requires but two weeks to
learn. I saw some jewelry that had been enamelled in Germany by women.
In France, women are employed as enamellers, at from 8 to 16 cents a
day. "Gold of the standard quality is the best metal to enamel on, as it
imparts something of its own glow to the ground, and assists materially
the richness and delicacy of the coloring, particularly in the flesh
tints. Copper gives a cold greenish hue to the enamel ground, but it is
more commonly used than gold on account of its cheapness. For large
enamels it is necessary to use copper, as they require a heat which
would melt plates of gold." A highly polished enamel is passed through
the fire a number of times in the process of painting; otherwise it
would be impossible to imitate any great delicacy of tint--as the colors
are considerably changed by burning. "As the plates are every time
subjected to a high red heat, it is obvious that enamels must be the
most durable of all kinds of paintings." At an enamel factory for lining
metal vessels with a porcelain coating, I saw a woman who has been
employed for four years to mix enamel in the consistency of buckwheat
dough, and pour it into vessels to form an enamel lining. The articles
are then baked in a furnace that the enamel may harden. She stands while
employed. She goes at half past seven in the morning, has half an hour
at noon, and returns and works until four, for which she is paid $4 a
week. She has a sister-in-law in Williamsburg that does the same kind of
work. It is not at all unhealthy.
=244. Gold and Silver Leaf.= The iron hammers used for beating gold leaf
are very heavy. For the first beating, hammers weighing twelve pounds
are used; for the second beating, hammers weighing six or eight pounds.
Strong women could perform the second beating of gold leaf, but I do not
know that they ever do--I think never in the United States. Lads serving
as apprentices receive $1.50 a week for six weeks, then $2 a week for a
time, and then more, according to ability and industry. A goldbeater
told me a youth could get a pretty good insight into the business in a
year or two, but the usual time of apprenticeship is either three or
four years. Goldbeaters earn from $1.50 to $2 a day. We visited several
gold-leaf manufactories, and found more uniformity in the time of
learning and the prices paid than in any other branch of business. It
requires from two to twelve weeks to learn to book gold leaf, depending
on the abilities of the learner and the requirements of the
establishment. Six weeks is the length of time usually given. It can be
learned in two days, but requires practice to become expert. The girls
are not paid while learning, as the materials are costly, and the
quantity wasted comes to as much or more than the learner's services are
worth. The standard price for laying gold leaf is one cent and a half a
book. Bookers can earn from $2.50 to $5 a week, according to skill and
expedition. The tools of a worker are very simple. I think, most of the
women employed in the gold leaf factories of New York are Americans.
Gold leaf is so light that even a breath of air will move it. In some
factories, the booking is done in a room with the doors and windows
closed--consequently the room is very warm in summer. The seasons of the
year do not affect this business like most others. The demand for gold
leaf regulates the supply. Where business is not systematically
conducted, the beaters will sometimes not have the leaf ready to book,
and so the girls must lose their time waiting; and in some cases the
men's work is retarded by the absence of the bookers. All the
manufacturers I talked with thought the prospect good of employment to
learners. K. & Co. take learners in the spring, but will not take them
unless they can insure them work when the six weeks of learning have
expired. Neatness is required. No talking is allowed in the work room,
as merely a drop of water falling from the lips might spoil from $3 to
$4 worth of leaf. The leaf is weighed when given to the booker and when
returned, so there is no opening for dishonesty. W. employs his hands
all the year. The girls always sit while at work. Lightness and delicacy
of hand are required. The prospect of employment is tolerable, but most
prefer to retain those they teach, as there is much difference in the
style and expedition. In some shops great care is taken with learners,
and they acquire proportionate proficiency. We think this a very neat
and genteel employment. It requires honest workers with nimble fingers.
There are but very few manufactories South and West.
=245. Jewellers' Findings.= D. & Co. manufacture tags for all kinds of
goods. They employ girls and women in the country to string their tags,
because they can do it in their spare moments, and consequently work
cheaply. It pretty much takes the place of knitting, and a person could
not earn more than twenty-five cents a day at it. They so employ thirty
or forty persons. They also engage a number in box making. It requires
care and neatness to make small boxes for jewelry. Workers are paid by
the piece, and can earn from twenty-five cents to $1.25 a day, but those
who earn the latter amount work from five in the morning until ten at
night. This work is mostly done in families. D. & Co. are very strict in
their regulations, and particular in the kind of work people they
employ.
=246. Pencils.= In Williamsburg, Mass., two women are employed in making
gold and silver pencil cases. H., of New York, employs one girl for
engine turning--an ornamental dotted work common on pencil and watch
cases. He employs her by the week, and pays $3. She works ten hours a
day. It requires but a few days for one of ordinary intelligence to
learn. It is sedentary, but not unhealthy. He has employed nine women:
they cannot do the work as well as men, but cheaper. He would employ
boys, but they are so fond of changing their employment, and so anxious
to engage in one that will advance them, that it is difficult to keep
them at that work. It is very clean work. There is no prospect of future
employment, as one woman can keep up with twelve other workers, and so
very few are needed. Women have to work in the same room with the men,
on account of the foreman having to regulate the machinery if it gets
out of order.
=247. Pens.= I saw a gold-pen manufacturer in Brooklyn. He will take ten
or twelve learners shortly, and pay them from the commencement. He must
have honest girls, for a dishonest girl will take $5 or $10 worth of
gold at a time, frequently without its being missed. He will have a
separate apartment for his girls. The best hands can earn from $5 to $6
a week, working ten hours a day. It requires only about a month to
learn, but practice greatly improves and expedites work. He thought the
prospect rather poor for learners. The part done by men could be done by
women, but it is dirty work. That done by women is rather neat work. W.,
of Brooklyn, employs a number of girls in watch-case polishing and in
finishing off pens. The majority are Americans. Some are paid by the
piece, and some by the week. They work ten hours a day, and have
employment all the year. Some girls learn the art in a short time, and
some never. Some girls are paid while learning as much as $2.50 a week.
W. thinks the prospect good of employment in that branch. He wanted
several girls more. From the nimbleness of their fingers they can do
their work better than men. More gold pens are made in this country than
steel ones. A jeweller said learners should be paid from the first, and
you may know he is not much of a man who would be willing to receive a
woman's work for nothing. On Nassau street, N. Y., I saw a manufacturer
who employs girls for stoning, frosting, and polishing pens. They are
paid by the quantity, and can earn from $3 to $5 a week. They stand at a
lathe while polishing. The only trouble is that their dress is likely to
catch on the wheel. That might be remedied by wearing Turkish costume
without hoops. It requires care and some judgment to do the frosting.
They are paid something while learning, and in two or three months
receive full wages. When business is good, the factory is going all the
year. To make a good finisher requires that the individual have some
mechanical talent and be a good penman. Some never succeed. In stoning
and frosting, girls sit. The finishers are men, and the stooping
required sometimes produces consumption. So many gold pen cases are not
used now as formerly--probably not more than one tenth as many. Gutta
percha has become a substitute. N. employed women seven or eight years
ago in polishing, stoning, and pointing pens, and paid $5 a week of ten
hours a day. Manufacturers in Williamsburg, Mass., write: "We employ
women to make gold pens, pen holders, and jewelry, and pay from $3 to $4
per week--some by the piece and some by the week. It requires from one
to three years to learn, according to the part they do. They are paid
small wages while learning. We wish honesty and ingenuity in our
workers. The business is permanent. Work is given at all seasons of the
year. The hands work eleven and a quarter hours per day. We employ from
ten to twelve women, because they can do the work equally as well as
men, at about one third the price. Half are Americans. No other parts of
the occupation are suitable for women than those in which we employ
them. Help once settled in the country, if married, are likely to be
permanent--in cities, _vice versa_, changing about. Our workmen have a
fine reading room. Board, $1.50 for women, $2.50 for men."
=248. Watches.= A watch is said to consist of 992 pieces. We have seen
it stated that two hundred persons are employed in the entire process of
making a watch, and that, with the exception of the watch finishers (who
put the parts together), not one of the workmen could perform any but
his own specific part. In Switzerland, families, for generation after
generation, devote themselves to making particular parts of watches.
Women have proved their ability to execute the most delicate parts.
Twenty thousand Swiss women earn a comfortable livelihood by watch
making. They make the movements, but men mostly put them together. I
think a few women work as finishers. We quote from the _Englishwoman's
Review_: "Geneva has always refused to employ women, and has now totally
lost the watch trade. None of the Geneva watches, so called, come from
that part of Switzerland, but are manufactured elsewhere, and
principally in the canton of Neufchatel, where women have been employed
from the first." Mr. Bennett, of London, "states facts relative to the
mental culture of both sexes, which is deemed requisite in Switzerland
to prepare the intellect, the eye, and the hand for watch manufacture,
and he refers to the salubrious dwellings of the operatives." A
traveller states: "We see women at the head of some of the heaviest
manufactories of Switzerland and France, particularly in the watch and
jewelry line." In England, women have been until lately excluded from
watch making by men, but some are now employed in one establishment in
London and in several of the provincial towns. "There is a manufactory
at Christchurch, England, where five hundred women are employed in
making the interior chains for chronometers. They are preferred to men,
on account of their being naturally more dexterous with their fingers,
and therefore being found to require less training." From the November
number of the _Knickerbocker_ we quote: "All imported watches are made
by hand, the American watches being the only ones made by machinery in a
single establishment by connected and uniform processes. The Waltham
watches have fewer parts and are more easily kept in order than any
others; and are warranted for ten years by the manufacturers. They have
over one hundred artisans employed, more than half of whom are women."
The manufactory occupies a space more than half an acre in extent. Hand
labor is cheaper in Europe than this country, but American watches are
cheaper, because made by machinery. Making the cases is a distinct
branch from the interior work, and furnishes employment to some women.
Cleaning watches would form a pretty and suitable employment for women.
I was told of some Swiss women living in Camden, New Jersey, that make
the inside work of watches very prettily and very accurately. A
manufacturer of chronometers in Boston writes: "We employ women in
cutting the teeth of watch and chronometer wheels, polishing, &c. They
are generally employed by the week or year, and work nine or ten hours a
day. Women might be employed in large establishments in merely cleaning
or polishing the parts of watches repaired, without putting them
together; and they might learn to do it in a short time, a few months
perhaps. We pay our women for such work from $4 to $6 a week, according
to their capacity. The qualifications needed are delicacy of touch,
patience, and great carefulness. The employment will be very limited.
Work is steady the year round. The principal objection to employing
women is that they are very apt to marry just as they become skilful
enough to be reliable; therefore, what does not require long
apprenticeship or a great expense to learn, is most desirable for them.
A good degree of intelligence is indispensable. The more, of course, the
better." We would add to the requisites for a watchmaker, patience and
ingenuity. The secretary of the American Watch Company at Waltham
writes: "Women are employed at our factory. The employment is entirely
healthy. We pay from $4 to $7 per week for intelligent girls, and
women's average pay is $5. About half are paid by the piece. Men earn
about double the wages of women, because, first, they do more difficult
work, are more ingenious, more thoughtful and contriving, more reliant
on themselves in matters of mechanics, are stronger, and therefore worth
more, though not perhaps double, as an average; second, because it is
the custom to pay women less than men for the same labor. Women and
girls are paid from $2.50 to $4 per week during the first four months,
while they are learning the particular part of our business we set them
at. The requisites are a good common-school education, general
intelligence, and quickness; light, small hands are best. The business
is new to the country. We work every working day in the year, without
detriment to the health of women, who seem to endure their labor as well
as men. We work ten hours a day. There is little demand for labor in the
watch-making business generally in this country, but we think women
could be taught successfully the art of watch making, so as to be able
at least to earn a living as watch repairers. We employ seventy-five
women out of two hundred hands, and because there are many parts of our
work they can do _equally_ well with men; but it is generally light and
simple work, for which no high degree of mechanical skill is requisite.
Nine tenths are American born. Our hands are all made perfectly
comfortable in their labor. We employ female labor, where we can, as
being cheaper; but we find women do not reach the posts where a high
degree of skill is needed, as of course they do not those for which
their strength is insufficient. They have abundant facilities for mental
culture in the evenings. About half live with parents or relatives; the
rest board, and pay from $2 to $3 a week, according to quality."
=249. Watch Case and Jewelry Polishers.= Quite a number of women are
employed in polishing watch cases, and a few in polishing jewelry. It
requires some time to learn to do the finest work, and some can never
learn. The polishing of good gold is done by hand and the lathe--common
jewelry, by the lathe alone. A good polisher can earn $1 a day of ten
hours' work. C. & Co. employ girls, because they do not have to pay them
so high, and they do it as well. B. & H., who have a factory in Jersey
City, employ a number of lady polishers. The rouge renders it dirty
work, but not unhealthy. Very good hands can earn $7 or $8 a week. They
employ four sisters, French girls, who have bought a farm for their
parents. They have generally paid $23 a week to the four sisters. The
prospect for learners is good. They generally pay by the week, and have
their hands work ten hours a day. They take learners, and pay something
from the first. It requires two years' practice to become very good
polishers. They prefer to make an agreement with the learner to retain
her some time, as the material is costly, and considerable is wasted by
a learner. In good times they have work steadily all the year. Polishers
can either sit or stand while at work. Burnishing and polishing are
different. Burnishing is done with steel, polishing with buffs. Plated
ware is burnished, silver and gold are polished. S. thinks several girls
might, in busy times, find employment in polishing jewelry. He often
advertises for workers, but receives few answers. It requires two or
three years to learn, and four or five to become perfect workers. In
Germany and France, girls have polished jewelry for many years. In the
Southern and Western U. States, there are no manufactories of any
extent. They have not the machinery for such work. What little is made
and repaired is done in the jeweller's shop, or above his store. F. & P.
employ small girls about thirteen years old to polish, paying $1.50 per
week, while learning. It requires about a year for young girls to become
expert. We were told women are the best polishers of jewelry. A maker of
gold buttons, who has employed girls to polish, paid $2 a week to small
girls, and $3 to older and more experienced hands. The girls are also
employed in putting them up. Care is needed in polishing, that the work
be evenly done. A watch-case polisher told me a woman cannot earn more
than $2 or $3 a week at polishing. (It may be all he pays.) Mrs. C. is
teaching a girl to polish watch cases. She boards her, and pays her $30
the first year, and furnishes her with a certain number of dresses. A
good polisher may earn from $6 to $8 a week. She told me a lady in
Philadelphia, that she taught, is making $27 a week. C. has most of his
polishing done by a lady. He pays boys he takes as apprentices, $2.25 a
week, from the first. He says a good lady polisher can earn $1 a day. He
pays his men from $10 to $15 a week, because they do more, and do it
better than women. In good seasons there is so much polishing to do that
experienced hands are very much hurried. The work is not confined to
seasons. It does not require long to learn to polish. Such work is
mostly done in New York, but considerable is done in the small towns
around. At S.'s we saw a girl polishing, who told us she received $1 a
day. She says there a girl spends six months learning. For three months
she receives nothing, after that $3 a week. At B.'s, the lathes are
moved by steam, but have treadles also, that the work may not cease when
the engine or machinery is out of order. Less and less watch work is
done by hand in the United States every year, owing no doubt to the
large number imported and the increased use of machinery. The work in
the business has fallen to European rates. A good polisher has been
earning $6 or $7 a week, but very few can do so now, and the prospect of
employment is poor for a learner. Some years ago he employed a lady at
$15 a week, for fitting movements to the case. The sister of a
watch-case maker and importer, in Brooklyn, told me that she worked at
the business some years ago, and received seventy-five cents apiece for
polishing watch cases--now but fifty cents is paid. The lady often
polished four cases in a day of ten hours, and so earned $3. In the
European countries, some years back, a man was paid $1 for making a
watch case; in the United States, $5. Prices have fallen greatly in the
United States for this kind of work, because the duty on imported goods
is so low. She says the work is not very clean, because the oil and
rouge get on your clothes and person. Everybody should wear working
clothes, if their labor is such as to soil them. The motion of the foot
in moving the lathe tries the back greatly. When the polishing is done
by steam, it is not so. As men and women are paid by the piece, women
receive as good wages. A smart person can learn to polish in a few days,
but to learn it thoroughly would require three months. Women are paid in
this country while learning, but in Europe they are not. In prosperous
times, work is good all the year. In summer, work is done for the North;
in winter, for the South. A locality in or near a large city is
preferable. Prices vary in different establishments. Usually, where the
best quality of work is done, the best prices are paid the work
people--where cheaper work is done, lower wages are paid. The usual
price paid to girls as polishers, when they are employed by the week, is
$6--a better remuneration for mechanical labor than most women receive.
=250. Watch Chains.= In Birmingham, several hundred women are employed
in making chains, and we suppose fifty or more in this country. The gold
wire is prepared and drawn out by men, as it requires too much strength
for women. All the work after that is performed by women. The wire is
cut into pieces of the right length, then bent into the proper form by
means of a die worked by a hand press; each link is then soldered
together by means of a jet of gas, a blowpipe, and a tiny piece of
solder, when it is finished by polishing. D. & S., Philadelphia, employ
three girls in soldering. The wages of the girls vary from $3.50 to $8 a
week. They work ten hours a day. It is not an unhealthy business, D. and
S. think, and can be learned in two months. M. F. & Co., New York,
employ girls in soldering and polishing chains. Those that solder earn
from $3 to $8 a week. Some of the girls are paid by the week, and some
by the inch. It can be pretty well learned in three months. After two or
three weeks they are able to earn about $2 a week. To those girls who
instruct learners they give the profits of the learners. Polishing is
not clean work, but the women can generally earn more at it. They earn
from $3 to $9 a week. They work ten hours a day, when paid by the week,
in summer; but in winter, not so long. The building is never lighted.
The women have a separate apartment to work in, and change their clothes
on entering and leaving the work room; and the polishers tie up their
heads, to prevent their hair being covered with rouge. The girls wear
the same clothes every day while at work, that they may not carry away
any gold. The proprietors sell their waste scraps for $8,000 a year.
They require boys to spend five years learning the business, taking them
at the age of 16, and retaining them until 21. Men that learn a trade
expect to follow it until death. M. thinks women will not spend long
learning a trade, for nearly all women look forward to something else
than working all their lives at a trade. The heat and fumes of gas used
in chain making are said to render the occupation unhealthy, but an
extensive manufacturer assured me that the fumes are not inhaled, as the
flame is blown from the worker, and that it is not more unhealthy than
any other sedentary occupation. I would have thought the minuteness of
the particles composing some chains would be trying on the eyes, but the
girls said not. The chain makers sit while at work. In summer they
cannot sit near an open window, lest any of the gold be blown away.
Chain making looked to be very nice, delicate work, requiring care,
judgment, and some skill. The Europeans have not got to using steam in
any part of the process, and are astonished at the superiority of the
American chains. There are no manufactories West or South. I was told at
Tiffany's, the making of some kinds of chains can be learned in two or
three years, while other kinds require five years. S., at Tiffany's,
told me he was the first person that introduced women into the
manufacture of jewelry in New York. The hands at chain making receive
$1.50 a week at first--as they become more skilful, they receive more.
The average payment is $5 a week. They have one woman who has been at
the business six years, and earns $8 a week. Another manufacturer told
me chain making is not unhealthy. It requires a year to learn to do
polishing well, and during that time a learner can earn only from $1.75
to $2 a week. While polishing at a lathe, workers stand. Men do most
polishing now. They do it by machinery propelled by steam, and one man
can accomplish as much in a day as a woman by a treadle lathe can do in
two weeks. Manufacturers in Providence write me, "their girls, from six
to fifteen in number, work at home, and are paid by the piece. They earn
$1 a day of ten hours on an average. They do not employ men in that
department of the business. It requires men five years to learn the
business--females to solder, thirty days. Good eyesight is necessary.
The business will probably increase with growth of country and increase
of wealth. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. They are all
American." Some manufacturer in New York writes: "The work is not more
unhealthy than any other so sedentary. It is generally paid for by the
piece, the workers earning from $2 to $8 per week. The men average from
$10 to $12. Men spend seven years learning--girls, one. Quickness of
motion, perseverance, and attention are desirable qualities. The
prospect for work in future is moderate. The busy seasons are spring and
fall. In July, August, January, and February, the women are employed. We
have from thirty to forty females, because the work is light."
=251. Watch Jewels.= I called on a Swiss lady who sets jewels in
watches. She supports her family by it, but complains of a scarcity of
work, because watchmakers can import their jewels at four shillings a
dozen from Switzerland, and set them themselves.
MISCELLANEOUS WORK.
=252. Indian Goods.= Any one that has ever visited Niagara, knows
something of the immense quantity of Indian goods offered for sale.
Moccasins and reticules (made of buckskin, and ornamented with beads),
pincushions, baskets, &c. (made of birch-wood, and ornamented with
figures and flowers of party-colored porcupine quills), can be had. Fans
of feathers and a thousand little fancy articles may be bought in a
dozen different shapes at Niagara. The Indians make most of them, but
quite a number are made by fairer hands. The duty on goods purchased in
Her Majesty's realm, and brought into the States, is ten per cent. So,
if a person is careful of his purse, or disposed to encourage home
manufactures, he had as well purchase on the American side. On most of
the steamboats and cars of the Western waters, while in port or at the
depot, genuine Indian women may be seen, with (we suppose) genuine
Indian articles for sale.
=253. Inkstands.= Manufacturers of inkstands in Connecticut write: "We
employ from twelve to fifteen American women in painting, varnishing,
and bronzing inkstands, and pay from fifty to sixty cents per day of ten
hours. Females do not perform the same kind of labor that the males do.
The wages of women are less, because there is a surplus in consequence
of there being so little diversity in female employment. The occupation
is learned in from one to two years. That part done by females may be
learned in one month. They are paid while learning. Some mechanical
ingenuity is required. The business will depend on general commercial
prosperity. Summer and fall are the most busy seasons. No cessation of
employment during the year. The other parts of the work are too
laborious for women. Our location is preferable, as we have water power
and are convenient to market. Board, $1.75 per week."
=254. Lithoconia=, or artificial stone, is being used as a substitute
for terra cotta, papier-maché, &c. It is composed of mineral substances,
and is insoluble in water. It is used for making photograph frames,
busts, and statuary, and for architectural purposes. It is made in
Roxbury, Mass. The proprietor and inventor writes: "I employ fourteen
women in manufacturing and finishing lithoconia photograph frames. Their
wages average $5 a week, ten hours a day. Some are paid by the piece,
and some by the day. Men earn from $1 to $2 per day. Women learn in from
one to four weeks. Cultivation of the eye and finger, and great neatness
are desirable in a learner. Girls accustomed to drawing or fine needle
work answer well. The prospect of more work is good. My women work the
year round. Women, I think, are more reliable than men; that is, if told
to do a work in a certain way, they will do it. Men are more apt to
experiment in a new business. Women might be employed in gilding the
frames. We have twelve men in New York doing that for us now. My girls
pay from $1.75 to $2 per week for board. I hear no complaint of their
houses; but, judging from my Scotch experience, the accommodations in
Scotland are far superior in an intellectual point of view; but so far
as pies and doughnuts go, American boarding houses have the advantage."
=255. Marble Workers.= The rough parts of marble working are wet, dirty,
and laborious, but not the finishing. Constant standing on the feet, and
having the hands wet much of the time, would not do for very delicate
females. A marble worker writes: "Sawing marble is heavy and wet work,
and performed in the night as well as the day. I do not see that women
could be employed at it to any advantage." Theodore Parker mentioned
seeing a woman, in a marble yard in Paris, sawing marble. I have been
told that in Italy whole families engage in chiselling the beautiful
marble ornaments brought to this country. As a stone cutter, Charlotte
Rebecca Schild, of Hanau, worked in Paris. Miss McD. told me that she
got situations for two girls with a marble cutter in Hollidaysburg to do
the fine part of marble chiselling.
=256. Mineral Door Knobs.= Manufacturers of mineral door knobs write:
"We have women to make mineral door knobs, and to pack locks. They are
paid by the piece, and average $5 per week. They work from nine to ten
hours a day. It requires six months to learn. The prospect for further
employment is small. Seasons make no difference in the work. We find men
better adapted to the work. Our business affords little or no
opportunity for the employment of women to advantage. We have about two
hundred women in busy seasons. When men and women are employed in the
same department, they talk too much."
=257. Paper Cutters.= We read in "Women Artists" of a Dutch lady,
"Joanna Koertin Block, who produced from paper very beautiful cuttings.
All that the engraver accomplishes with the burin, she was able to do
with the scissors. Country scenes, marine views, animals, flowers, with
portraits of perfect resemblance, she executed in a marvellous manner."
"Mrs. Dards opened a new exhibition with flower paintings in the richest
colors. They were exact imitations of nature, done with fish bones."
=258. Papier-Maché Finishers.= Papier-maché is made of paper ground into
a pulp, and bleached if necessary. It is moulded into various forms. It
has been cast into figures of life size. It is made into mouldings for
the ornamental parts of bronzes. It is lighter, more lasting, and less
brittle than plaster. It can be colored or gilt. Another article of the
same name is made by gluing and pressing together, very powerfully,
sheets of prepared paper until they acquire the thickness of pasteboard.
They must be shaped while moist into the articles desired. When dry,
they will be very hard and firm. They must be covered with japan, or
other varnish, and may be beautifully painted with flowers, birds,
landscapes, &c. Workboxes, portfolios, waiters, miniature cases, clock
faces, and many other beautiful articles may be made of it. The
varnishing, painting, and inlaying is done by women in the factories of
England. Papier-maché manufacturers in Boston write: "We employ women in
pressing and painting. The work is healthy. We pay $4 per week of ten
hours a day. Men and women do not perform the same kind of work. We pay
learners $2.50 the first month, $3 the second, $3.50 the third, and $4
afterward. The prospect of future employment is good. We find women have
not a mechanical eye. Board, $2 per week."
=259. Pipes.= Meerschaum means "foam of the sea." The pipes are made
from earth found in the island of Samos. They are light, porous, and not
easily broken. Some pipes are sold as genuine that are made from the
clay left after forming and cutting the real pipes, but are of an
inferior quality. A manufacturer of meerschaum pipes told me he employs
a woman to polish the pipes. It is done by hand. She is paid $1.25 a
dozen, and can do two or three dozen a day, but they have not enough of
work to give her more than a dozen a week. A maker of white clay pipes
told me: "The clay is brought from England. Nimbleness of fingers is
most that is required for success. There is not much of that kind of
work done now in our country, because pipes are imported from Germany
for what the labor costs here. They are retailed at one penny apiece.
Women used to make them here, and do now in European countries. They can
do all parts of the work. Putting them in the furnace and baking them is
warm work, but not more so than any other baking. The work is paid for
according to the number of pipes made. A woman can earn about fifty
cents a day for moulding, yet a man can earn $5 a day, because he can
mould faster, and also attend the furnace." Besides, the man owns the
tools and furnace, which do not cost a great deal, and I suppose would
last a lifetime. We have seen it stated that white clay smoking pipes
are made in Philadelphia by one person, who recently sent to England to
procure additional assistance.
=260. Porcelain.= Porcelain partakes of the nature of both earthenware
and glass. It is a connecting link between the two. Few men are willing
to run the risk of establishing porcelain and china-ware manufactories
in this country, for they have nearly all proved failures. The porcelain
of China and Japan is harder and more durable than that manufactured in
Europe, but in beauty of form and elegance of design the European
excels. Our best articles of household ware are mostly from England,
those of an ornamental kind from France. Much of the work in a porcelain
factory could be done by women, such as cutting the porcelain with
wires, moulding the articles with a press, and washing them over with
dissolved porcelain to produce a gloss. They could also bake them. Some
do decorate and burnish them. (See China Decorators.) Women and children
are employed in Cornwall, England, in preparing clay from china stone to
be used by porcelain manufacturers, paper makers, and calico dressers.
Miss B. told me that, much of the fine lacework seen on Dresden china is
executed by women. It is very beautiful and delicate. At Greenpoint, L.
I., the proprietor once employed girls, but now employs boys in
preference. The men earn about $10 a week on an average for their work,
being paid by the piece. The best of materials for making porcelain are
found in this country, particularly in New Hampshire, where porcelain,
parian, and enamel flint are manufactured. Porcelain earths are also
found at Wilmington, Del., near Philadelphia, and in Alabama and Texas.
=261. Pottery and Earthenware.= "In Africa, in the manufacture of common
earthen vessels for domestic use, the women are as skilful as the men."
In the making of stone and earthenware, women could, if properly
instructed, perform most of the processes: those of throwing, turning,
attaching handles, &c. Pressing might perhaps tax their strength, and
burning prove rather warm work. In Germany, where the finer clay is
used, women tramp the clay with their feet, and cut it with wires to
remove any small stones it may contain. One of the disagreeable parts
that fall to women in the potteries of Great Britain is that of washing
and straining the clay. For turning large articles it requires men of a
peculiar make. They must be tall and have long arms, to enable them to
reach to the bottom of the vessels as they are being turned. Small
articles made by the hand are stronger than those formed by pressing.
The construction and management of wheels differ in Germany, England,
and the United States. The materials for making earthenware are obtained
in almost every part of the globe. At an earthenware factory I was told
they pay $2.50 a week to a boy the first year he is learning, and
increase that according to ability and industry. Flower pots are paid
for by the piece, and a man can earn from $1.50 to $5 a day. At C. &
M.'s factory I saw girls and women at work. Some were treading the
lathe. It was done with the right foot only, and must be very fatiguing.
I noticed the hoops of the girls were very much in the way. The girls
receive one third as much as the men working at the wheels, which is
generally $3 a week for the girls. A woman cutting claws of the clay
with a hand press, told me she is paid by the piece, and can earn about
$4 a week. She can sit while at work. It requires strength of hand. In
another room girls were cutting clay with a wire, kneading with the
hand, and giving it to the potter, and, when the vessel is turned,
taking it off the wheel and placing it on a board to be baked. They are
paid fifty cents a day. In another room a woman was employed dressing
the ware, that is, selecting any that is imperfect and removing any
surplus clay that may have been accidentally left on, and setting aside
any too defective for sale. She receives about $3 a week. The
proprietors have been thinking of getting girls in place of some of the
boys who are wild and difficult to manage. A firm in East Boston write:
"We employ four girls, paying $3.50 a week. Girls are more generally
employed in the old countries at potteries than in this, but women will
eventually be more employed here in that way. Pottery is now in its
infancy in this country. My girls work ten hours. The employment is not
unhealthy. My girls are all English. We employ them to do light work
only, that boys would do, if we had no women. Board, $2.50. We employ
them all the year. Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. We
hope to live to see the time when we shall have twenty women and four
men, instead of _vice versa_, as they are more steady and less
expensive."
=262. Stucco Work.= "Women are not employed at this trade in this
country; in England there are some instances, but rarely. It is not
unhealthy. The time spent in learning depends altogether on the taste
and natural talent of the learner. Boys generally serve from three to
five years. For ordinary work the qualifications need not be of a very
high order; but for moulding, &c., a knowledge of drawing is essentially
necessary. Summer and fall are the best seasons for this work. Ten hours
a day are the usual number. Women may be employed at trimming and
cleaning ornaments--also at making moulds for casting the same." Rosina
Pflauder, in Salzburg, assisted her husband in stucco work.
=263. Terra Cotta.= The list of articles made of this substance is
comprised under two heads, vases and garden pots, and ornaments for
architecture. A Gothic church was built of it in 1842 at Lever Bridge,
England. The pulpit, reading desk, benches, organ screen, and the whole
of the decorations were made of terra cotta. In the making of figures,
women could do all except moulding. The finishing up would be suitable
and pretty work for them. "Mlle. de Faveau has been peculiarly
successful in her adaptation of terra cotta to artistic purposes."
=264. Transferrers on Wood.= We do not know whether a distinct class of
people engage in this business, or whether it is considered a branch of
cabinet work. It is a light, pleasant business, and if there is
sufficient demand for it, women would do well to engage in it.
GLASS MANUFACTURERS.
=265. Glass Manufacture.= All the materials for making good glass exist
in the United States, and a great deal of glassware is made from them.
The largest manufactures are in different parts of Massachusetts and in
Pittsburg. The best glass for windows and mirrors is imported. I think
glass making is not altogether suitable for women on account of the
great heat, and necessity there would be for mixing with men, and men
there must be. Yet it need not be so in all departments. Of the
different kinds of ornamental window glass are enamelled, embossed,
etched, painted, white, and colored. At a glass factory in Greenpoint, I
saw some girls employed in breaking off the rough edges of mustard
cruets, cementing the metal tops on, wiping them clean, and wrapping
them up. They also cemented the tops on glass lamps. Occasionally they
are employed to tramp with their feet and knead with their hands the
English clay of which the vessels are made for holding the materials
that are fused to form glass. In a factory I saw a girl washing glass,
for which she is paid $3 a week--a day of ten hours. Two others were
tying up glass, and were paid $4 a week of ten hours a day. At one
factory in the East, they employ some girls to do the rough grinding,
making stoppers for bottles, &c. People who silver mirrors are very
seriously affected by the fumes of mercury, and more by the touch of the
substance. A trembling disease is produced, which carries off its
victims early in life. In France, some women are employed in this work.
In blowing, moulding, and pressing glass, women of strong lungs and
ability to sustain great heat could be employed. Casting glass requires
greater physical strength than generally falls to the lot of women. A
glass-bottle manufacturer in Stoddard, N. H., writes: "I employ twelve
women willowing demijohns. They are paid by the piece, and can make
about $3 per week, and board themselves. Men and women are paid the
same. The work can be learned in from four to five weeks. They are paid
at the same rate while learning. Half are Americans. Price of board
here, $1.25." The Bay State Glass Co. "employ seventeen women for
selecting and papering ware. They are paid by the week, from $3 to $5.
It requires from one week to one month to learn. The prospect for
employment depends somewhat upon the secession movement. The women are
employed the year round, and work ten hours a day. Board, $1.50 to $2 a
week." The Suffolk Glass Co. inform us they "employ one girl in capping
lamps, &c. The work affords plenty of air and exercise. Their girl is
paid by the day, and earns $4 a week, working ten hours a day. The work
done by women could not be given to men. The reason they employ a woman
is that women are employed by others for the same work. Men could
accomplish much more in their work, but not enough to pay the difference
in their wages. Boys are sometimes employed for such work. Women receive
$2 while learning. Spring and fall are the busy seasons, but work is
furnished all the year. Board, $2 to $2.50." The Union Glass Co.,
Boston, write: "We employ women in assorting the different qualities of
ware, in cementing glass and brass parts together, and in cleaning
glass. Their average pay is $3.50 per week, ten hours a day. There is no
comparison in the prices of male and female labor, as they do not
perform the same kind. The laws of supply and demand regulate pay,
excepting that very valuable women get twenty-five to fifty per cent.
extra pay. Men spend from seven years to a lifetime learning the
business--women a year or so to learn the best paid kind of labor. There
is little chance of women rising above $5 per week, as they perform only
a certain department of labor. There is generally constant employment to
good hands all the year. We employ fifteen, because it is customary and
found expedient. Men can be employed at a better profit in other
departments. Remuneration twenty-five to fifty per cent. less than men
would require. The glass manufacture is carried on chiefly in the New
England and Middle States."
=266. Blowers.= I called in a factory where men were blowing glass bells
to color and gild for Christmas trees. The man, a German, said in
Germany women make them. The women there earn fifty cents a week at it,
while men earn $2, though they do the work no better, and no more of it.
There a person can live as well on $3 a week as on $10 here.
=267. Beads.= Beads are made to a limited extent in this country, but
nearly all are of French or German manufacture. Some cheap beads are
made of potato and colored, and some made in imitation of coral. E.
employs girls to make baskets, headdresses, &c., of beads. They cannot
earn more than $2.50 a week of ten hours a day. He has most of it done
in winter. Another gentleman, who has beads made into bracelets,
necklaces, &c., gives the work mostly to married ladies, who do it in
their leisure hours, and to school girls. They do so, because they can
get it done more cheaply than if they employed those who do it to earn a
living. They pay for such work by the gross, and a person could not earn
over $3 a week at it. Putting the necklaces on cards is done by some
ladies they employ by the week. Spring and winter are the busy seasons.
The importation and selling of beads have formed quite a business in New
York for some years. G. judges from the appearance of the applicants
whether they are to be trusted with materials, takes an account of the
kind and quantity given, and the address of the applicant, requiring
them to be returned in a week's time. B. has children's coral bracelets
and armlets made up, for which he employs two English girls, who each
earn $1 a day at their work.
=268. Cutters or Grinders.= It requires strength, firmness of nerve, and
cultivation of eye to grind glass. One man told me he spent seven years
learning the business in England. In this country, apprentices seldom
spend more than three or four years at it, but do not of course learn it
so thoroughly. A glass cutter told me that two girls, daughters of his
boss in Jersey City, made drops for chandeliers. They were ground on a
lapidary's wheel. As drops are no longer fashionable, they are not made.
They also cut stones for breastpins. Glass cutters in New York earn from
$9 to $10 per week. Glass cutting could be done by women. No women in
this country have yet engaged in it. It is not very neat work, as the
wet sand will of course get over the clothes. The number of straps and
wheels is very numerous, and if any women desire to engage in it, we
would advise them to lay aside hoops and don the Bloomer costume.
Grinding is tiresome to the lower limbs, which are kept in motion, like
a person operating on a sewing machine. It requires taste and ingenuity,
as the figures of an experienced workman must be made by the eye, no
pattern being used. Apprentices usually receive $2 a week the first
year, $3 the next, $4 the next, and so on.
=269. Embossers.= In preparing gas and lamp globes to emboss, they are
first covered with a dark-colored substance. Girls then trace figures on
them with a chemical which corrodes the glass. The tracing is learned in
a few hours, and could be done without much practice. At a glass
factory, I saw a girl who received $2 a week for tracing. Those who have
worked at it for some time become very expeditious, and do piece work.
They receive fifty cents a dozen, and a fast hand can do two dozen a
day. The operatives work nine hours.
=270. Enamellers.= A glass stainer and enameller in Utica writes: "In
reply to your circular, I give what information I can. My daughters
assist me in staining and enamelling glass. Their wages are worth from
$5 to $8 each. Learners are paid from $2 to $4. To learn the work
requires from three to five years. Spring and fall are the most busy
times. The business will increase. I consider eight hours a day long
enough for women to spend at this kind of work, as they have to be on
their feet most of the time, but men can work ten hours. All parts are
suitable for women except drawing (?) and the heavy parts of the work."
A large manufacturer of enamelled glass told me that in England hundreds
of women are employed in enamelling glass. He employs a number in
Newark, N. J., paying by the week from $4 to $5. He thinks it not more
unhealthy than working in any other paint. He thinks the opinion
existing that the business is prejudicial to health, arises mostly from
the girls being so very careless of themselves. One should be as careful
in that work as in any other. He said he knew girls working at it in
England for eighteen years, who never suffered any bad effects from it.
It requires but a short time to learn to put the enamel on, but some
time to acquire proficiency. He and his partner expect to increase the
manufacture of it, but think of using a machine that will do away with
women's work in applying the enamel. He complained that their girls
lacked promptness. They keep them employed all the year. They work nine
hours in summer, and eight in winter. He thinks a few women with
artistic taste might learn etching, and execute their own designs. He
would be willing to pay a good lady designer $8 or $10 a week--yet he
pays his men for that work from $12 to $15. (!!!) He thinks, in a
factory, a lady so employed would find it most pleasant to have a
separate apartment. My opinion is that one or two lady designers and a
few enamellers might find employment in this line. M. says enamelling is
very deleterious. The enamel is made of three fourths lead and a fine
sand, with a small quantity of tin. It is of a softer nature than glass,
and is applied with stencil plates and brushes. As the enamel dries a
dust arises, which is inhaled, and is more or less injurious to the
lungs, producing something like the painter's colic. It also affects the
eyes some. A glass stainer in Boston, who employs some women to enamel,
writes "he pays them by the day, and they earn from $4 to $6 per week.
They receive as much as men would for the same class of work. It
requires but a few days to learn enamelling; eight or nine years for
glass staining. He sometimes pays part or two thirds wages to learners.
The prospect for future employment is uncertain, as little of the above
work is done in this country. To get near the materials is an item in
selecting a location."
=271. Engravers.= An engraver on glass told me there are only from ten
to thirteen glass engravers in New York. In Bohemia, whole families
engrave glass; and women do so in other parts of Europe also. A good
glass engraver is paid $3 a day.
=272. Painters.= Painting on glass was practised by nuns and monks some
ages back. H. said he used to employ ladies to paint on glass. His wife
would give instruction in painting and transferring on glass, for
$20--$10 to be paid on entering, the other $10 when the learner feels
that she is thorough. To paint on glass, one must understand colors, as
opaque paints would not answer. One must have some knowledge of shades
to attain excellency in decorative painting. Embellished glass is
cheaper than stained glass, and does not require a furnace; yet if
burned, has the pigment rendered more durable. In England, many wealthy
ladies buy traced glass and paints, and color and shade it. Pictures
transferred on glass can be finely finished up and burnt. Painted glass
is more brilliant than stained. H. thinks to learn the art is a safe
investment. He thought a few ladies might learn painting and
transferring on glass, Grecian painting, and wax flowers, and turn it to
account by travelling through the country, stopping in small towns,
exhibiting and selling specimens and giving instruction. Painting glass
need not be merely a source of amusement, but prove an art of utility.
H. spoke of some people as speculators--not practitioners in the art
(such I would say he would make of ladies). He thinks, among connections
and at fairs a lady might meet with ready sale for painted glass. The
pieces could be framed to hang at a window or place on a table. Painted
glass is less costly than stained glass. A glass gilder can easily earn
$2 a day. Women can do the filling in with very little instruction. It
would probably take several months' practice to learn to form the
letters perfectly.
=273. Stainers.= Stained glass is now generally used for churches, and
to some extent for dwellings. The Germans are the most successful in
staining glass. There are two kinds of stained glass--the pot metal, the
coloring substances of which are fused in the glass and then burnt. The
pictures of the other kind are formed of small pieces, each one painted
separately, burnt, and united with blacklead. Frequently a window is
formed of hundreds of these pieces. A picture of stained glass looks on
the right side like a rich oil painting on canvas. I have been told
there are 18,000 shades of stained glass. G. charges $6 a square foot
for stained glass of a fine kind. There is a lady in England, that fills
large orders for the stained glass windows of churches and cathedrals.
Madame Bodichon writes as follows of a convent of Carmelite nuns she
visited at Mans, France: "By the direction of the sisters, glass windows
of all sorts, and in every stage of progress, were shown to us by an
intelligent young man--one of the artists in the employ of the convent.
He told us there were twenty-seven employés, two of them German artists;
but the sisters arrange everything, carry on all the immense
correspondence, and execute orders not only for France, but for America,
Rome, and England, and other countries. Three of the nuns are occupied
in painting upon glass themselves, but the principal part of the work is
done by the artists, under the direction of the ladies." It requires a
person of artistic skill and taste to excel in staining glass, and the
work is best appreciated by people acquainted with art. It would require
at least three or four years to learn the art well. A knowledge of other
styles of painting is not of much assistance. The paint must be put on
very thickly, but very evenly. There seems to be a combination of arts
in the business to one who performs all the parts. A man must be enough
of a glazier to cut glass, enough of a chemist to understand the colors
to be used and the length of time the glass should be exposed to heat,
enough of a designer to prepare his own patterns, and enough of an
artist to color with taste. A man can earn at least $18 or $20 a week,
who is proficient in the art. The business has increased greatly during
the last few years in the United States, and is continuing to increase.
Much of the stained glass used in the United States is of home
manufacture. The designs for stained glass are usually made by the
proprietor of an establishment. Skill in drawing is very desirable for
any one working at the business. The art is one that affords exercise
for inventive talent, artistic skill, and good taste. In a few
glass-staining establishments, girls do the tracing. It requires an
apprenticeship of four years to learn the grinding, enamelling, and
staining of glass. A boy is usually paid $1.50 a week the first year,
but he is expected to grind colors, clean brushes, go errands, &c. An
employer informed me he pays from $1 to $3 a day to men for staining
glass. S. spent about seven years in England learning the business. He
painted a window not long ago for $5,000. He does his own designing. He
says it would not pay to have separate designers. He is acquainted with
some secret in coloring, that he would not impart for a great deal.
Great progress has been made in the art in this country during the last
few years. It requires more skill than painting on canvas.
=274. Watch Crystals.= M. told us there are two kinds of watch crystals
made in this country: the English and Dutch. The English are the best.
The Dutch make them in a cheaper way. Men bend, cut out, and clip them.
Females grind the edges. The Dutch can be known from the English by a
more sudden rounding near the edges, while the English round from the
centre equally. In Williamsburg, German women can be seen at work in
watch crystal factories. B. told me he used to "employ girls to grind
and polish glasses. They were paid $3 a week--ten hours a day. It
requires but two or three weeks to learn, and during that time they are
not paid, because of the time lost in giving instruction and the
material wasted. Now it is all done by Germans, and Americans need not
expect to get in." V. confirmed the statement. He says it is mostly done
by German families, and the women that are hired are never paid over $3
a week. It is light and steady work, and they are employed all the year,
and do not work in the same apartment as men. In some of the factories
of Europe, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty women are employed.
CHINA DECORATORS.
=275. China Decorators.= We find that in France, some years back, many
females earned a livelihood by painting on porcelain. During the last
century, a Madame Gerard, "who possessed a large fortune, had a hotel
furnished with facilities for painting Sevres. Her splendid cupboards of
polished mahogany were gilded and bronzed, and their contents looked
like a rich collection for the gratification of taste rather than for
sale. She purchased some pieces for sixty and eighty louis d'ors. A pair
of vases, not very large, painted with sacred subjects, sold for 26,000
livres." "There are two distinct methods of painting in use for china
and earthenware: one is transferred to the bisque, and is the method by
which the ordinary painted ware is produced; and the other transferred
on the glaze." In the former process, women called transferrers and
cutters are employed. The cutter trims away the superfluous paper around
the pattern, which the transferrer applies to the ware, and rubs with
flannel to produce an impression. She then washes the paper off, and the
ware is ready for the hardening kiln. Women are excluded from that
department termed ground laying, though, from the care and lightness of
touch required, it is very suitable. In Staffordshire, E., great
opposition was made some years back to women becoming decorators, and
even now they are not permitted to use a hand rest. In France, and to a
limited extent in England, decorating, gilding, and burnishing are done
by women. This is probably one reason that imported China is cheaper.
Most of those in France and England who attain respectable skill in
decorating, are the wives or daughters of working manufacturers. Besides
the mechanical skill, it requires a very exact knowledge of the effects
of the coloring matters employed, as they are much changed by being
burnt. Decorating is certainly a beautiful employment for women, but few
in this country have the opportunity and are willing to apply themselves
long enough to learn the art. At K.'s china warerooms, Philadelphia, I
was told, no establishments of any size in the United States are engaged
in the decoration of china, because they can get it done more cheaply in
England and France. K. employs Englishmen to do what decorating he
wishes to have done. He employs women to burnish. The following
contradictory statement I found in the "Manufactures of Philadelphia:"
"Decorating porcelain and china ware, which had been imported plain, is
done in one establishment in Philadelphia to an amount exceeding $75,000
per annum." At H.'s, New York, I saw women burnishing china. It is
merely a mechanical operation, consisting in rubbing the gilding with
agate, after being burnt. The girls earn from $3.50 to $4.00 a week. It
requires care and physical strength. One girl was cleaning superfluous
paint off the china. Women might learn to make impressions for letters,
flowers, and other patterns. I saw an English lady in New York
decorating china. A lady took lessons of either her or her husband, to
teach in the school of design. S. employs one woman for painting, and
fifteen for burnishing china. China decorating is usually paid for by
the piece. Mixing the colors for china painting is not more unhealthy
than mixing them for canvas, and putting them on not more so than any
other sedentary occupation. A French decorator told me that in Paris he
gave private instruction to some ladies who learned it for a pastime,
and a few who made a business of it. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and
New Orleans are the only places where china is painted in the United
States. L. thinks a person of taste and abilities could learn in one
year, earning nothing during the time, and after that earn from $5 to
$10 a week. He pays his burnishers $3 a week. Another decorator told me
he pays his burnishers (girls) from $2 to $2.50 a week. The foreman of a
large establishment in New York told me that it requires several years
to learn to decorate perfectly. Most decorators design their own
patterns, and usually earn $12 a week. He says, in busy seasons it is
difficult to get enough of good burnishers. His girls work only in
daylight, and earn from $3 to $5 a week. They are busy all the
year--most so three months before New Year. It requires three months'
practice to become a good burnisher. A learner receives $1 a week from
the time she commences to learn burnishing: he thinks it is not hard on
the eyes. The work is paid for by the piece. If there was a higher
protective duty, more decorating would be done in the United States.
LEATHER.
=276. Leather.= A leather dresser, somewhere in New York State, writes:
"Leather dressing is a disagreeable, wet business, fit only for men.
After leather is dressed, all the other work can be done by women. We
cut by measure and by pattern. A person cutting and making should earn
one hundred per cent. Women can cut, make, and sell as well as men, I
suppose even better."
=277. Currying.= The currying of skins might be done by women. Cutting
it of the desired thickness, soaking it in water, and working it with a
small stone, cleaning it with a brush, and, in the drying shed, applying
oil and tallow, would not require very long practice for one of any
mechanical talent. The skin is softened by being doubled and washed with
a grooved board. It is then carefully shaved, and worked again, after
which it is blackened and grained. The work would require some strength,
but not more than the ordinary process of washing clothes. All the work
must be performed standing. The process of converting the skins of
sheep, lambs, and kids into soft leather, is called tawing, and is
somewhat lighter work than currying; yet the leather requires much
stretching and rubbing. I am sure the work would not be more, if so
offensive, as morocco sewing.
=278. Harness.= A harness maker told me that a lady who stitches harness
of the best quality, can earn from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. He pays $1 a
set for stitching the blinds. The perforations are made by a man, and
they are stitched by hand. Not a great many are engaged in it, and he
thinks the prospect good of learners obtaining employment. Many earn $6
or $7 a week. He employs two women all the year. A person that can sew
well, can learn in two or three weeks. It requires some instruction. A
maker of horse collars told me his women stitch collars by machine;
formerly by hand. He pays six cents a pair. The wife of one of his
workmen stitches twelve an hour, with one of Howe's machines. B. employs
from fifty to seventy-five girls to make fancy harness, horse blankets,
and coach tassels. Fancy bridles he has stitched by Singer's machine.
Good operators can earn from $5 to $7 a week, and for leather work are
paid by the week. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. The
fashions of fancy leather work change. One gentleman, who employs many
girls in making harness trimmings, says the cloth pieces are made by
hand, the leather by machinery. In Newark, Bridgeport, and New Haven,
much of the stitching for the South is done by machines, and women are
employed. The English harness is considered the best, and is done by
hand. In England, men called "bridle cutters" get large quantities of
bridles to make up, and employ from one hundred to two hundred girls to
do the stitching. A lady who has quite an establishment in New York, and
employs a number of work people, told me that she pays them each from $2
to $6 a week. She thinks machine operating is trying on the health, but
not so bad as sewing with a needle. She pays by the week. Women do as
well as men, except for heavy work. The trade can be learned in a few
weeks. She pays learners something. Her hands have work all the year,
but are most busy from October till the end of December. They work ten
hours. She prefers men for most of the work. She would like American
women, but cannot get them. She says girls think more of having a beau
than laying up a few dollars in a bank, and consequently spend all they
make on dress. A manufacturer writes: "Working on leather is considered
very healthy. I employ thirteen women in the manufacture of fancy
bridles, riding and driving reins, riding martingales, &c. They average
$1 per day. Three of them run stitching machines. All are paid by the
piece, except one, who does the overseeing and writing. We think the
girls receive as good pay as the men. Considerable practice is necessary
to do the work well. Learners are paid for all work that is sufficiently
well done to be salable. Good judgment, accurate eye, and nimble
fingers, best fit one for the occupation. As our business is wholesale,
it depends upon orders. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons.
Sometimes the women are entirely out of work for a short time in winter.
They never work over ten hours. We will not employ foreigners."
=279. Jewel and Instrument Cases.= At a manufactory, I was told they
employ some girls, paying by the piece. The girls can earn $4.50 to $5 a
week, of ten hours a day. It does not require long to learn. In busy
seasons it is difficult to get good hands, and they have to advertise
frequently. At another place, the proprietor told me he used to employ
girls who earned $4 or $5 a week, but he prefers boys, because they can
do all parts of the work. At a manufactory of morocco and velvet jewel
cases, the man told me he pays girls $4.50 and $5 a week, of ten hours a
day. In busy seasons it is difficult to get good hands.
=280. Morocco Sewers.= At a morocco manufactory, I was told by the
proprietor, a German, that he employs girls, paying twelve cents a
dozen, and they can sew from five to twelve dozen a day. He wants hands,
and of course would speak favorably of the occupation. He says they can
have work all the year except one or two weeks. At an American
manufacturer's, I was told it is wet, dirty work, and requires
considerable time and practice to learn to do it quickly. After working
at it constantly four or five years, a good hand may be able to earn
from $5 to $7 a week. Most of it is done in the families of tanners.
Some women undertake it, but give it up because they do it so slowly it
will not pay. The man said nearly or quite all who work at it are
Germans, and the wives and daughters of those in the business. They are
paid twelve cents a dozen. The occupation he thinks is full in New York,
for women. Beginners are apt to hurt their fingers, as needles are used,
the sides of which are triangular. Sewing five skins a day is considered
very good work. Dr. Wynne says: "Exhalations from animal substances,
which are very offensive to the senses, more especially to that of
smell, not only appear to be in most instances innoxious, but often of
absolute advantage in affording a protection from disease." Most morocco
is made in Philadelphia, none South or West. S. employs sixteen women,
and pays good hands from $4 to $5 per week. He thinks there are at least
two hundred morocco sewers in Philadelphia. It does not take long to
learn. He pays from the first. They have work all the year, but the
prospect for learners is poor. At A.'s, Philadelphia, I saw some women
sewing up goat skins, which were to be tanned. It is extremely
disagreeable work, as the skins are wet and smell offensively. The women
are paid twelve cents a dozen, and find their own thread. A steady hand
can earn from $3.50 to $6 a week, and can always find work. They are
most busy in spring and fall. A morocco dresser writes: "He pays by the
piece, and his women each earn about seventy-five cents a day. A woman
can learn in two or three weeks. The prospect for future employment is
very poor, as skins are mostly tanned now without sewing. A location
must always be had where pure water is abundant."
=281. Pocket Books.= One man told me he employs a woman to make
portemonaies, paying $5 a week. On Broadway a firm employs four or five
women, paying from $3 to $6 a week. It requires but two or three months
to learn the business. The women sew with a machine, paste morocco on,
and varnish some parts. C. pays his girls from $3.50 to $4 a week. At
another place one of the firm told me their girls earn $3, $4, and $5 a
week. It is piece work, and requires but three or four weeks to learn. A
smart girl can earn $2 the first week. The busy seasons are spring and
fall. They find it difficult to get enough good hands in those seasons.
The business is mostly confined to New York and Philadelphia. A
manufacturer in New York told me, about two hundred women are employed
in making pocket books, &c., in that city. He pays $4.50 a week, but
they have a certain quantity to do in that time. It requires but a short
time to learn to do the stitching only (which he has done by hand), but
about a year to learn to do all parts. He pays $2 a week while they are
learning, and then he increases at the rate of twenty-five cents a week
after a few months, and at the end of the year some are earning $3; some
$3.25. Neatness in cutting and fitting the parts together is desirable.
He keeps his hands employed all the year. There is a scarcity of good
hands, but an abundance of indifferent ones. A manufacturer in Maine
writes: "We employ from eight to twelve American girls. They are paid by
the piece, and earn from $12 to $16 per month. Boys earn about the same
as girls. They are paid while learning, if the work is well done. It
requires about a year to become proficient."
=282. Saddle Seats.= In Philadelphia, I was told at a large saddle store
that they employ women to stitch saddles, paying from fifty cents apiece
for common ones to $1.25 for those of a better quality. At a large
saddle and harness manufactory in New York, I was told they employ women
to stitch by the machine and by hand. They are paid by the day, as there
is a variety of work, and their girls are not confined to exclusive
branches. In prosperous times their hands are employed most of the year.
Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. There are small factories
in most of the Southern and Western cities. The hand sewers earn but $3
and $5 a week; a few operators can make $6. At S. & M.'s they employ
about twenty women in the different branches, and, when business is
good, have work all the year. It does not require long to learn. They
are paid by the week, from $3 to $4. Prospect dull. This kind of work is
mostly done in Newark.
=283. Tanning.= Leather can now be tanned by a chemical process in a few
days. Leather has been made so thin, and received so high a polish, that
it has been used for making bonnets in Paris. Buckskin is used for
making many articles in this country. Shoulder braces, drawers, shirts
and gloves, are made of it. A tanner writes: "I know of no country where
this business exists in which females are employed, unless perhaps in
some of the smaller German States, where female service is not deemed
incompatible with the services of the ox and the horse. The tanning
business in all its departments is laborious and offensive, and although
not unhealthy, is dirty and disagreeable, requiring a great amount of
muscular power. I know of no employment less congenial to the taste of
women, or less suited to their elevation. Morocco is polished by hand,
and in some places is done by women. A tanner writes: "It requires
strong and healthy men to perform _any part_ of a tanner's trade, and
they do not get very highly paid at that. The business is decidedly
dirty, and oftentimes very disagreeable, not fit for women in any
particular. In order to conduct the business successfully, one needs to
be located by a good stream of water, or where it can be easily
obtained, plenty of bark, and not far from market." Among the Cossacks,
some women are employed in tanning.
=284. Trunks.= A trunk maker said he thought women could not well put
the tacks in trunks, because the trunks are first put together, and are
heavy lifting; but I think it could be done by them. Putting the linings
in trunks could certainly be done by women. The man referred to said he
thought some women are employed in a large trunk factory in Newark,
because the proprietors thought they could get their work done cheaper,
and he hoped they failed, because of their motive. The employment of
women, he urged, cuts down men's labor, and so all labor is reduced
below its worth, just as it is now in England. There a woman must
neglect her home duties, to help make a living. If women, he added, were
paid at the same rate as men, and so there was a fair competition, he
would not object to women being employed.
=285. Whips.= V., of New York, says he and his partner have whips
manufactured in Westfield, Mass., and some in the House of Refuge,
Charlestown. Westfield is the principal manufacturing place for whips in
the United States. The daughters of farmers for miles around the town
braid lashes. The covers are put on the handles by machines attended by
girls. That part is usually done in factories. The part called buttons
is also made by girls, and done by hand. Girls can earn from $3 to $5 a
week. They receive about three fourths the price paid men, because the
work is not so laborious. It requires from three to nine months to
learn, according to the skill of the person. They are paid what they can
earn while learning. They have been able to keep their hands employed
all the year, but fear they cannot this winter (1860). In 1857, there
were probably but one half the working class able to obtain employment.
The prospect for work in this line is better than in most others, for
the whip market has increased twofold in the last ten years, and is
likely to extend. The work done at home is piece work, and that done in
shops is usually so. The business suffers in hard times, for people then
think they can dispense with whips. V. said the Philadelphians and
Yankees have different views in regard to woman's labor. The Yankees
know they can get it done cheaper by women, and the Philadelphians think
they cannot get it so well done by women. The American Whip Company
write "they employ eighty females; about one half are American, and one
half Irish. Women are employed in any department where they can labor
with propriety and advantage. The prospect is that the business will
always continue as good as now. All seasons answer equally well for the
work. During working hours, one of the women often reads aloud for the
benefit of the others in the room. Board, $2 per week." "The reason why
women are employed at making whips is, the work being light, they can do
as much as a man, and competition compels the employer to get his work
done for the lowest wages." P. & S., in Philadelphia, employ some girls
to braid lashes. It requires about six weeks to learn. Some earn $3, and
some $4 a week, working from nine to ten hours, but are paid by the
dozen. All their girls are Americans, as are the generality of females
in this business. "In London," says Mayhew, "the cane sellers are
sometimes about two hundred in number, on a fine Sunday, in the summer,
and on no day are there fewer than thirty sellers of whips in the
streets, and sometimes--not often--one hundred." The branch of finishing
in whip making has been entered by women in Birmingham, England, and
created some opposition. Sellers of large, coarse whips usually frequent
market houses--those with fancy whips stand on the sidewalks.
WHALEBONE WORKERS.
=286. Whalebone Workers.= The natural color of whalebone is nearly the
same as gray limestone rock. The black ones we buy are colored.
Whalebone is exported from New York. About four hundred American vessels
are employed in whaling, and about ten thousand men. Enough whalebone
can be prepared in one factory to supply the whole United States, I was
told by one of the proprietors of a whalebone factory. He paid a boy $2
a week for tying up whalebone for parasols and umbrellas (which work
could be done by a girl). Small holes are punched by machinery in the
ends of bones to be used for stays. A woman runs a thread through, and
ties them in bunches. She is paid one cent a bunch, and, as she ties up
five hundred or six hundred a week, earns $5 or $6. At another factory,
I was told they employ girls and women in tying up some whalebones and
stringing others. They sit while at work, and are paid by the week,
working ten hours a day. They keep their hands all the year, but are
most busy in the fall. Tying up whalebones looks simple, but it requires
practice to become expert, and requires discrimination to select the
indifferent from the salable. The woman we saw earns $4.50, but she has
been at it several years, and is very expert. Women seldom earn more
than $3. Girls might polish the bones--a something I saw a boy doing.
BRUSH MANUFACTURERS.
=287. Brush Manufacturers.= Women have from the earliest period been
employed in making brushes. In France, women are employed in preparing
bristles for brushes, bleaching, washing, straightening, and assorting
them. If they are so employed in this country it is at Lansingburg, N.
Y. Indeed the finer bristles are all imported. The process of preparing
bristles is simple, merely washing them and placing them in a
preparation of sulphur to bleach them. "The great art in making brushes
for artists is so to arrange the hairs that their ends may be made to
converge to a fine point when moistened and drawn between the lips; and
it is said that females are more successful than men in preparing the
small and delicate pencils." In shaving brushes the bristles must be so
arranged as to form a cone. This requires skill, and commands handsome
wages. A large number of bristles are imported from Germany, Russia, and
a considerable quantity from France; yet the United States furnish some.
We think the owners of pork houses, and farmers in the Southern and
Western States, would find the saving of bristles to justify the trouble
of doing so, as they bring a good price. In this country, the process in
making finer brushes, called drawing, is mostly done by women. The
heavier kind of brushes is seldom made by women. Persons working in
horn, wood, whalebone, ivory, gutta percha, pearl, &c., prepare the
handles. Few if any brush makers have them prepared in their own
establishments. I called on a brush maker whose manufactory is in
Boston. The clerk says they never have any difficulty in getting plenty
of good hands. They work by the piece. He says, if you advertise there,
you are sure to have hundreds of applicants, many of whom are already in
business, but hope to get better wages for the same amount of work, or
less work for the same wages. A manufacturer told me that he employs
boys, who do piecework and earn from $5 to $10 a week, but thinks he
will employ girls, as he could get drawers for from $3 to $4 per week.
The girls sit while at this work. H., a maker of tooth, nail, and hair
brushes, told me his is the only tooth brush manufactory in the United
States. His girls looked clean and orderly, and had intelligent faces.
Those working in the house were of Irish extraction--those who worked at
home, Americans. Most of them attend night school. H. finds his girls
more careless about their work Monday morning than at any other time. He
attributes it to their talking and thinking of what they saw and heard
the day before. Those that sew well he finds work best for him. (I
expect that principle generally holds good--those that work well in one
business are likely to in another, because they are industrious and give
their attention to it.) If the work is not well done, he takes it out
and makes them do it over. As it is done by the piece, it of course is
their own loss. They engage in trepanning, wiring, and trimming brushes.
The trepanning and wiring are done altogether by women in England. They
are paid by the piece, those wiring and trepanning earn from $3 to $4.
The lady that trims earns $6 a week. The work is very neat and well
adapted to women. It requires about three months to learn. Women are
paid something while learning. Care and nicety must be used to fill the
little cavities in the brush with bristles closely and firmly. The
business is not good, on account of competition in the manufacture with
European countries, where labor is cheaper. Women cannot polish the
ivory well, as it is done by hand and is very hard work. Women are
superior in the branches pursued by them. $2.50 is the usually price
paid by workwomen for board in New York. A brush maker in Philadelphia
writes: "I pay from eighteen to twenty cents per thousand holes. No men
employed by us in this branch. Boys spend four or five years at this
trade. Girls spend six months learning one branch. The prospect for more
work of this kind is poor. Our women are all Americans, and work the
year round. Women are superior in their branch." P. & M. employ girls to
make ostrich feather dusters, and they earn from $4 to $6 per week. They
have had employment all the year. While at work the girls can sit or
stand, as they please. Their girls also paint the handles. A
manufacturer of ostrich feather dusters told me, he pays girls from $2
to $3 a week for coloring and putting the feathers in handles. They can
always get enough of hands. The girls work in daylight only.
IVORY CUTTERS AND WORKERS.
=288. Ivory Workers.= Ivory is generally turned in a lathe--a machine
that differs some in size and shape, according to the material worked.
Ivory, wood, and metal can be cut by it into almost any shape. The ivory
nut is now much used as a substitute for animal ivory. In a store for
the sale of ivory goods, the lady in attendance told me some of their
articles are imported from Germany, and some they have made. In Germany,
some women are employed in ivory carving. The lady thought it could not
be done to any extent in this country, because labor is so high. (But if
men can afford to do it, pray, why cannot women?) The carving is done
with steel instruments, and requires considerable strength. "Barbara
Helena Lange, of Germany, earned celebrity in the seventeenth century,
by engraving on copper, and carving figures in ivory and alabaster."
"Barbara Julia Preisler was skilled in various branches of art; could
model in wax, and work in ivory and alabaster, and added painting and
copper engraving to the list of her accomplishments." H. & F. have four
or five girls to count and pack their ivory goods, but none to polish.
An ivory worker in Providence writes: "Women are employed in carving and
turning in Russia, and carving in England. I can say for myself, that I
have known many women to transact the business equal to the smartest in
the trade in England, when the husband is deceased, and the widow has
been left to support a large family, and they have never failed to do so
creditably. I know of but two in this country, one in Providence, R. I.;
the other in Westfield, Mass. They earn from $4 to $6 a week. The labor
is light for women, and they could earn the same as men. Carving could
be learned in six months, turning in one year. To be able to
superintend, two years' practice is required. The prospect for
employment is not flattering. In this country, women work eight hours;
men, ten. In England, France, and Scotland, they work eleven hours. In
New York, principals could employ twenty-five carvers and one hundred
turners, and I can see no objection to employing women. Women excel in
the business, if to their taste. Large cities or manufacturing districts
are the best localities. They must have cultivated minds, or they are
not suitable for the business, as it is necessary to invent and execute
new styles and patterns." In Connecticut, some hundreds of families
labor in the ivory comb manufactories, and are paid per week $4.50, and
by the piece earn from $5 to $6 a week. An ivory turner in Essex, Conn.,
writes: "I usually employ two girls; one packing goods, the other on
fancy turning. They earn from $10 to $20 per month. My help consists
mostly of men. The work is very healthy. It is piece work. The girls
earn $1 per day of ten hours. They are paid by the piece, the same price
as men, and earn as much. A learner receives $1 per week and board. A
woman can do nearly as much as a man after working one year or more. The
work is very clean and easy. A girl to succeed should be active,
intelligent, and ingenious." A gentleman who has ornaments made of
vegetable ivory, told me he could hire Germans to turn them for him at
from seventy-five cents to $1 a day.
=289. Combs.= The comb is an article of primitive date, and has been
frequently found in use among nations when first visited by civilized
men. Madame de B. told me she had frequently seen women in Europe,
making, mending, and polishing combs of tortoise shell, bone, and ivory.
In Leominster, in 1853, 264 men were employed in the comb factory, at an
average of $7 per week, board $2.50--women at an average of $3 a week,
board $1.50. A firm in Lancaster, Penn., write: "We employ seven women,
because they are better adapted to the work. They are paid by the week,
from $2 to $3.50, and work ten hours a day. They do not perform the same
kind of work as men. Boys are apprentices until twenty-one years of
age--females spend but a few weeks learning. All seasons are alike.
Women do the light work best. Board, $1.25." Some manufacturers of ivory
combs write: "Our establishment, which has been in operation over thirty
years, formerly gave employment to a large number of female operatives;
but of late years, so many labor-saving machines have been introduced,
that the number employed is very small. At present, less than a dozen
women are engaged in our factory, while we employ some forty men. We
expect all who are employed by us to work eleven hours each day, except
Saturdays during the winter, when we close before sundown. Most of our
girls work by the piece, and earn from 70 cents to $1 per day. To the
others we pay $4 per week. The time required to learn the business
varies with the character of the work--in some cases two months, in
others not more than one week. The only qualifications needed are
carefulness, activity, and common sense. The work is light, and not
particularly unhealthy. The only reason why it should be unhealthy at
all, is its sedentary nature. Board, from $1.75 to $2 per week. We have
uniformly, since the commencement of our business, refused to employ any
but American girls of known good moral character. There have been few or
none of them that have not possessed a good common-school education, and
some of them have enjoyed and well improved the advantages of such
schools as those at South Hadley, Pittsfield, and New Haven. It is a
source of gratification and pride to us, that we are able at present to
call to mind no less than seven of our operatives who have married
clergymen; one is now a missionary at the Sandwich Islands, and numbers
of them are respected and useful members of society." A manufacturer of
horn or bone combs writes: "The part assigned to women is the staining
and the bending or shaping of the comb. The business is healthy."
=290. Piano Keys.= I cannot learn of any women being employed in sawing
piano keys, but I think they could do it, if they were properly
instructed, and they certainly could polish them. The turning of the
ivory in the sun to bleach is usually performed by a boy, and occupies
several hours a day. The assorting of piano keys and putting them in
small paper boxes could certainly be performed by women, but I was told
it requires considerable experience and judgment. The sharps are made of
ebony, sawed by circular wheels moved by steam. When large blocks have
been sawed into smaller pieces, women could then saw them into keys. It
would only require care. The noise of the machinery and the black dust
flying might be disagreeable at first. A manufacturer of piano keys
writes: "No women are employed in the piano key department of our
business, and none are employed by other manufacturers, to our
knowledge. We suppose the reason is, that most of the labor in this
department is either quite severe or dirty, wet, and unpleasant.
Assorting and matching the ivory requires so long a time to learn, that
we cannot afford to hire any person for less than two years. Girls are
generally unwilling to engage to remain so long, especially if they are
at an age when their judgment and discretion make their services really
valuable." A Massachusetts manufacturer of piano forte, melodeon, and
organ keys writes: "I employ a lady bookkeeper, but my business in the
manufacture of keys for musical instruments is such that it requires men
alone, although the work is very light and clean."
=291. Rules.= The materials for rules are ivory and wood. The prices of
rules have fallen during the last few years--so the profits are less. A
rule manufacturer in Vermont writes: "We employ women graduating rules
by machinery and stamping on the figures. We pay 7 cents per hour. Women
are paid proportionately while learning. Common sense and a slight
knowledge of arithmetic are the only qualifications needed. They work
all the year, ten hours a day. All are American. Women are quite as
rapid as men, and, in application, better." A manufacturer in
Connecticut writes: "I employ but one woman, and she takes the work
home. It is paid for by the piece. There are many parts suitable for
women, but it is more profitable to employ men. The great demand for
female labor in the domestic employments in this section of the country
is becoming intolerable, on account of the general desire to obtain
employment in the factories." The machines are small and easily worked,
for making lines and figures on rules. The rivets of rules might, I
think, be inserted by women. I was told, men employed in working at rule
manufacture are paid $8, and some $9 a week. The ruler stands while at
work.
PEARL WORKERS.
=292. Pearl Workers.= At S.'s, we saw a man grinding the outer and
rougher coat off of pearl shells. It requires some strength, as it is
done on a stone wheel moved by steam, the shell being kept in its place
by a wooden rod held on it. It is wet and dirty work. The water is cold,
too, even in winter, for warm water would soon become cold on account of
the rapid motion of the wheel; and it would not do to heat the pearl, as
it would cause it to split. The polishing was done on a wheel covered
with leather, and could as well be done by a girl as a boy. S. had never
known women to work in pearl, except to make paper cutters, and then
only in Germany. The inlaying of pearl is in some places done by women.
A worker in pearl writes me: "The pearl button branch is separate from
the pearl shell work. In the first, females are employed; in the latter,
they are not, as it is unhealthy and laborious. In Birmingham, England,
where pearl buttons are almost exclusively manufactured, upward of two
thousand hands are employed. Pearl buttons are made in Newark and
Philadelphia." A manufacturer of pearl buttons in Philadelphia writes:
"I employ women in finishing, and pay from $2 to $3 a week. It requires
from one to three weeks to learn. The prospect of the business
increasing is good. The work is regular, and the hours ten a day. I
employ women because they are cheaper." To polish pearl buttons is very
simple--merely placing the button in a pair of tongs, and holding it
against three revolving wheels successively. The carving of pearl is
wrist work, and S. thought women have not sufficient strength in their
wrists to do it; but I think many have.
TORTOISE-SHELL WORKERS.
=293. Tortoise-Shell Workers.= Shell is made into clock cases, cigar
cases, card cases, writing desks, and other such articles, but is most
used for combs. In Brooklyn, a manufacturer of shell combs told me they
had several times thought of employing women, Gutta percha and
vulcanized india rubber have become, to some extent, a substitute for
tortoise shell. On tortoise-shell combs the light carving might be done
by women; the heavy cutting requires more strength. The sawing out of
the figures is suitable for women. The finishing could also be done by
them. To learn the finishing would not require a person of ordinary
talent more than a week, and either of the other processes probably not
more than six or eight weeks. Workers could earn from $6 to $7 a week,
if they could have constant employment. The business is very dependent
on fashion. P. & B. used to employ girls in rounding the teeth of shell
side-combs, and paid each $4; but gutta-percha combs have done away with
shell ones. A worker of shell combs told me he had employed girls,
paying some by the piece and some by the week. They earned from $3 to $6
per week. It requires about six months to learn carving and
sawing--polishing, not so long. Care, judgment, and a good idea of form
and proportion, are necessary. The business is now very dull. The style
of carving on combs is very different from that worn a few years back.
It is now of a heavier kind, and the work not so suitable for women.
GUM ELASTIC MANUFACTURE.
=294. Gum Elastic Manufacture.= "In nearly all the manufacturing
branches of this business, females are employed. After the articles are
moulded, females join them; also paint the toys, pack the combs in
boxes, &c. In most establishments they are employed the whole year,
while some only retain a small proportion during the dull season, which
is in the winter. All are paid by the piece, varying from $4 to $7 per
week. They learn very quickly, and are paid for what they do as soon as
they commence, although it takes six months or one year's practice to
equal the best workers. The manufacturing is almost exclusively confined
to the country, and, as a class, the women are in no way exceptionable,
many of them being considerably cultivated. There are plenty found to
learn the business, and it gives employment to several thousand." In
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and
New Jersey, 1,825 males and 1,058 females were employed, in the year
ending June 1st, 1860, in making india rubber goods. I talked with one
of the most extensive gum elastic manufacturers in the United States,
for the purpose of gaining some idea of the number of female operatives
in that department, their wages, if the occupation is unhealthy, &c.
This manufacturer has realized millions from his business; and, after
repeated efforts to learn how his women were paid, I succeeded in
learning that those who work out of the house are paid by the piece, and
earn only from $2 to $3 a week, working from dawn until midnight. Some
worked in the establishment, going at 7.30 A. M., and working until 6 P.
M., receiving about the same wages. They were employed in making
suspenders. More women are employed in the shoe department than any
other. The hard india rubber goods are labelled and packed by women in
some manufactories; but most of the making is done by men. At a city in
Western Massachusetts, ten girls were employed by one man, at an average
of $2.50 each per week, to mend imperfections in india rubber goods. I
went to Harlem, and was permitted with my attendant to go through the
manufactory and see the process of making up a variety of india rubber
goods. Some of the girls are paid by the piece, and some by the week.
They earn from $4 to $6 a week. It does not require a girl of good sense
more than from one to four weeks to learn. I inquired of one of the
proprietors and three of the foremen, if they thought it unhealthy. The
proprietor said, not; but the foremen were not very positive in their
assertions. I inquired of a girl in the sewing room. She said she found
it so in the cementing room, and had secured work in the sewing room on
that account. She attributed it to the evaporation of the camphene, and
the flying of the powder, made of pulverized soapstone and flour. The
odor, no doubt, is very disagreeable at first to most workers. One
foreman said he thought it would not be well for a consumptive person to
confine him or herself to that kind of work. One of the proprietors
said, if a nice, genteel-looking girl comes along, they will take her as
a learner, even if they do not wish a learner, that they may have good
hands when they need them. They have a great many applications. They
used to take learners, and permit old hands to instruct them, paying
them for the time spent in doing so. They are most busy in the spring
and fall, but have something to do all the year. Those in the first
cementing room were working at large tables, and stood. They were paid
fifteen cents for cementing the seams of a gentleman's coat, and some at
that work make $1 a day of ten hours' labor. Most of the girls prefer to
stand while at work. They were very neat, quiet, and good looking. In
the second room we saw women making rubber cushions, small tubes, &c.
One of the girls making tubes said she was paid by the hundred, and
could not earn $1 a day. All in the second and third room sat. In the
third room the ladies were finishing off coats, sewing in the sleeves,
binding, and putting on buttons. Most india rubber factories are in New
Jersey. There are none in the West or South.
=295. Men's Clothing.= The Rubber Clothing Company at Beverly, Mass.,
"employ from seventy-five to one hundred women. They report the work as
being light, and therefore requiring nimble fingers. Their girls are
paid both by the piece and week, and earn from $3 to $6 per week,
usually working ten hours a day. One half are American. Women are paid
as well as men in this branch. It requires four weeks to learn. Prospect
of future work is good. Activity and intelligence are needed. The work
is very easy, and is given at all seasons. Girls are usually not so
steady at work as men. Board, $2 per week." The superintendent of the
American Hard Rubber Company writes: "We employ ten women in making hard
india rubber goods. We prefer them on account of their small fingers. It
is piece work, and women are paid from $4 to $6 per week, ten hours a
day. Our women could not do the work of men, who have to be mechanics,
having learned a trade. Men receive about thirty-three cents more per
day than women. The time required for men to learn our business it is
impossible to answer. Women can learn sufficient in four weeks to earn
seventy-five cents per day. Carefulness and nimble fingers are
necessary. The business is new, but the prospects for the future good as
could be counted upon in any ordinary business. The business is not
sufficiently extended to furnish a particular set of people depending
upon it with labor. Some of our women are quite intelligent and refined.
There is a good library connected with the factory, and on Sunday they
have ready access to church."
=296. Shoes.= The application of india rubber to the making of boots and
shoes originated in the United States. B. & S. "employ seventy-five
girls, who earn from $3 to $6 a week. They are employed all the year,
and it is not unhealthy." The business has been on the decrease for two
years. The treasurer of the Boston Shoe Co. informs me: "The company
employ about seventy-five women, who work by the piece. The employment
is not unhealthy. Average wages from seventy five cents to $1.25 per
day, of eight or ten hours. Our women earn full as much as men, in
comparison with the work done. Three fourths are American. A smart girl
will learn in a couple of weeks to make from fifty to seventy-five cents
per day; in two or three months, she can earn full wages. The prospect
of future employment is fair. The fall of the year is the most busy
season. Good board, $2 per week."
=297. Toys.= The New York Rubber Co. write: "We employ women in making
and ornamenting toys. Little of the work is done in other countries. The
girls earn from $3 to $8 per week, but are paid by the piece. Men and
women do not perform the same kind of work. In a few weeks learners earn
$3; in a few months, $5 or $6. They have work at all seasons. The work
is pleasant. Board, $2."
GUTTA PERCHA MANUFACTURE.
=298. Gutta Percha Manufacture.= A manufacturer of gutta-percha goods
told me that the firm to which he belongs employ twenty-five girls. One
of their girls earns $1 a day, making handles. The others close the
seams of coats, and other articles of dress, with cement. Some work by
the piece, and some by the week. When by the week, they are paid $3.50
and $4; and those by the piece earn about the same. He thinks, if it is
unhealthy, it is because the sulphur used opens the pores and renders
the person liable to take cold. I visited a gutta-percha comb
manufactory. The girls receive $2 a week, while learning. They can learn
in a few days. They polish and pack the combs. They work ten hours a
day, and receive $4. Few of them get $4.50. The employer thinks there
may be more work in that line hereafter. A woman acquainted with
machinery could superintend the machine that cuts the teeth of the comb.
Rounding the teeth is done by men, but could be performed by women. I
was told there is a manufactory at Stratton, L. I., where seventy women
are employed.
HAIR WORKERS.
=299. Artists.= The making of hair ornaments is a distinct branch of
labor. Some very beautiful and ingenious pieces of workmanship have been
executed. Bracelets, earrings, breastpins, and guards are the most
common articles. The work is nicely adapted to the nimble fingers of
women, whether engaged in it for pastime or profit. A foreign lady, that
does ornamental hair work, told me that it is a right profitable
business to one that can do it well, but American women have not
patience to learn to do it in a superior manner. A hair jeweller in
Philadelphia told me he employs six girls--all Americans, and he thinks
they do better than foreigners. He pays a girl seventy-five cents a
week, for three or four weeks. By that time she has learned enough to
earn $3 or $4 a week. Formerly he required a girl to spend two years
learning, and paid her nothing during the time. He mentioned one firm
that required three years' apprenticeship. But the girls often became
discouraged, and went at something else. Now the business is not so much
of a secret. He has now and then paid as high as $12 a week, for a hand
that was very ingenious and successful. They pay high for their designs.
The gentleman had paid $50, the week previous, for a design. His girls
all work in the establishment, and spend about nine hours at their work.
It is done altogether by hand. The only disadvantage attending it is the
confinement that pertains to it, or any other employment of that kind.
An artist on Fifth street gives work out of the house. The average rate
of wages he pays is $4 a week. Hair artists, when employed by the week,
receive from $4 to $5. At S.'s, New York, they pay a good hand from $4
to $5 a week, ten hours a day. A person of good abilities can learn most
of the patterns in three weeks. An ornamental hair worker told me she
charges fifty cents a lesson of an hour. A lady was taking lessons who
had recently married a jeweller, and was going to Louisiana to live. A
good price can be got for such work in the South, for Southerners have
had all such work done in the North. A German, who made very pretty
ornamental hair work in New York, told me he charges from $25 to $50 for
teaching the art--those that wish to learn in a short time, and so
require much of his attention, pay $100. It can be very well learned in
six months. He pays $10 a week to good hands. The work is the same at
all seasons. Strong eyes, nimble fingers, and a clear head are the
essentials for a learner.
=300. Dressers.= The business of a barber was performed by females among
the Romans, about the time of the Christian era. I have read that there
are now women barbers in Paris, Normandy, England, and Western Africa.
In the reign of Louis XIV. it was not unusual for ladies of rank and
wealth to dress the whiskers of their favorite friends. Both men and
women are engaged in the United States in the business of dressing
ladies' hair. We think women most suitable for it, and should be
patronized to the exclusion of men. The business requires practice and
taste. Some ladies of wealth have their dressing maids to learn the art
and perform that office of the toilet. Most hair dressers charge 50
cents to $1.50 for dressing the hair. The price is regulated by the
style in which it is done and the reputation of the dresser. The demands
for a hair dresser are sometimes such, in a fashionable season, that a
lady must have her hair dressed as early as noon, to wear to the opera
at 8, or to a party at 10 P. M. Mrs. W., New York, charges 50 cents for
dressing hair, 75 for shampooing and dressing, and $1 if she sends out.
She never sends any one out to dress hair where she is not acquainted.
She thinks there are about 200 hair dressers in New York. At an
establishment in Broadway they give instruction in hair dressing--price,
$1 a lesson. A person of ordinary abilities can learn to dress hair
plainly in three or four lessons. C. says he thinks more women could
find employment as hair dressers in New York; but I think, from the
number of signs I saw, no demand can exist. He thinks it strange that
they do not make engagements by the week, as they do in the cities of
the old countries, where there are 200 or 300 in every large city that
go out daily to the houses of their customers. I have since learned that
there are some in New York that do. Mrs. G. goes out by the week, and
receives $3 per week. She makes such engagements for the morning only,
as she is likely to be called in the afternoon to prepare ladies for
parties. From the middle of June until September she is at Saratoga. C.
had a woman four years learning the styles of dressing and making up
hair. The third year he paid her $4 a week, and the fourth year $5 a
week. He says it requires so long to learn it that women generally get
discouraged and go at something else. Women employed by the week to
dress hair receive from $4 to $5. A lady told me she charges 50 cents a
lesson, and a person can learn in from fourteen to twenty lessons. Two
years' time is generally given to learn hair work in all its branches,
weaving, mounting, &c. It takes time and capital to establish a business
for one's self, as hair is a costly article. I saw one lady who teaches
hair dressing for $10. A young woman told me it requires two weeks of
constant practice to become a hair dresser. Nearly everything at it is
done in winter. Practice makes perfect. The best plan is to get regular
customers, and go to their houses every day, including Sunday, for which
it is usual to charge from $1.50 a week up, for one head. She charges 50
cents a lesson. Some chambermaids at hotels take a few lessons, to
enable them to dress hair plainly. For shampooing, most of which is done
in summer, she charges 50 cents; for braiding front hair, 50 cents; and
with the back hair, 75 cents. Miss S. told me many female hair dressers
board with the family of the employer, because of being up late at
night, and receive their board and $10 a month and up. For weaving hair
her mother pays 6 cents per yard; for the finer kind, 12 cents per yard.
Her mother earns from $1.75 to $2 per day. A person that can weave and
make front pieces can get work at any time. There are only three months
dull time in a city--June, July, and August. Some ladies pay a hair
dresser $10 a month for dressing the hair every day but Sunday, when a
separate and higher charge is made. For dressing a bride entirely, $5 is
charged. One needs taste and ability to please; at any rate, one must be
civil and obliging. Fashionable watering places present the best
openings. Saratoga and Newport present favorable ones, at the first of
which there is but one permanent hair dresser. D., hair dresser and wig
maker, requires learners to be bound for four years. The first year he
gives a girl her board, lodging, washing, and $4 a month. The next year
he gives the same, with an increase of $1 a month; and so continues that
increase each succeeding year until the apprenticeship expires. He gives
to journeywomen their dinner, supper, and $4 a week. The business is not
confined to regular hours, on account of hair dressing, which is done
mostly in the evening. He charges 50 cents for dressing a lady's hair at
his rooms, and $1 at her house. A Frenchman, under Fifth Avenue Hotel,
pays $5 a week to a girl who receives the pay of his customers. She is
there at 8, and can leave at dark. He charges 75 cents a head at the
saloon, and at the ladies' residences the same. He has rooms fitted up,
and has many customers from the hotel. He employs three girls, paying
them one half of what they earn. He keeps but one there constantly. The
other two live near, and when he needs their services he sends for them.
He is going to teach hair dressing, and charge $1 a lesson; forty or
fifty (?) lessons are usually taken, according to the extent it is
learned. Mrs. B. told me men teach ladies wig making, but ladies give
instruction mostly in hair dressing to those of their own sex. It is
usual to pay learners something after a few months' or a year's
practice. Those that work for others get most to do in winter. Those
that have establishments of their own can of course work all the time.
Most employers pay by the week. Mrs. Dall has the following sentence in
her "Woman's Right to Labor:" "I think there is room in Boston for an
establishment from which a woman could come to a sickroom, to shave the
heated head or cut the beard of the dying; a place where women's and
children's wants could be attended to, without necessary contact with
men."
=301. Dyers.= B. will want some nice women to dye ladies' hair. Now he
has it done by men. He wants but one at first--one who has worked with
hair--for instance, a lady's maid would be most suitable. She must not
be afraid to color her hands, or to work. When not working at that, she
will spend her time making wigs. He will teach her how to do both, and,
if she proves herself competent, he will give her fair wages. For two or
three weeks he will board her and pay all her expenses. Then he will pay
her $5 a week. He will take another when needed, and so increase the
number as he has occasion. He employs some women to put up hair dye and
perfumery, and pays $3 a week.
=302. Growers.= Dr. Gardner says: "At Caen, in France, there is a
market, whither young girls resort, and stand hour after hour, with
their flowing hair, rich and glossy, deriving additional lustre from the
contrast with their naked shoulders. This is the resort of the merchant
barbers, some of whom come even from England. The merchants pass along
among them, examine the color, texture, evenness, and other qualities of
the beautiful fleece, haggle for a sou, and finally buy. The hair then,
after being cut as closely as possible to the head, is weighed and paid
for, and the girl goes home to let another suit grow out for shearing
time."
=303. Manufacturers.= The woman at S.'s says they have constant
application to receive hands, and have to turn a great many away. They
have trouble to get good workers. The girls will not take time to learn
to do their work perfectly. They ought to spend some years learning. At
C.'s, they employ a number of women in making wigs, scalps, and toupees,
who can earn from $4 to $5 a week. It requires six months to learn that
branch. At another place I was told it requires but a few weeks to learn
to make wigs only. Workers at it earn from $3 to $5. This branch of work
is profitable. Mrs. R. told me that those who make wigs can be at work
all the year, but hair dressing is mostly confined to seasons. In
different stores, the wages of employées vary. It is well for a person
to learn all the branches, if she has time, so that if one fails her,
she can take up another. Her work is mostly done in the country--no
doubt because she can get it done more cheaply. Weaving hair pays best.
It is paid for by the yard, and generally done at the home of the
worker. If done in the house, it is most likely to be paid for by the
week, and ten--the usual number of working hours--spent at it. American
women form a majority in the business. It is a good business, for a
small capital, when living near the importers. It is extending West and
South. A hair manufacturer in Rochester writes: "The occupation is
permanent, and my employées have work at all seasons. There is a demand
in many places for workers in this line." A hair manufacturer in
Newburyport, Massachusetts, who has three women braiding hair for
jewelry, and making wigs, pays by the day, of ten hours. They receive
from $3 to $8 per week, and work the same at all seasons.
=304. Merchants.= Most of the hair made up in this country is bought in
France and Italy. The price paid for each head of hair ranges from one
to five francs, according to its weight and beauty. From one of the
cyclopædias we learn, that 200,000 pounds of women's hair is annually
sold in France; that the price paid for it is usually six cents an
ounce." "Whether dark or light, the hair purchased by the dealer is so
closely scrutinized, that he can discriminate between the German and
French article by the smell alone; nay, he even claims the power, 'when
his nose is in,' of distinguishing accurately between the English, the
Welsh, the Irish, and the Scotch commodities."
WILLOW WARE.
=305. Willow Ware.= Great quantities of willow ware have been imported
from France, but of late years some attention has been paid to the
growing of it near Philadelphia. Our climate is said to be well adapted
to its growth, and the willow raised to be of a superior quality. Willow
grows in damp places. Most basket makers buy the willow, and split it
themselves. All the most tasteful and elegant baskets used in this
country are imported from France. Basket making is one of the principal
employments engaged in by the blind. It requires some strength, but more
skill and practice. A basket maker's tools can be bought for $5, and
last a lifetime. On looking for women basket makers in Philadelphia, we
found a German widow, who could not make herself understood in English,
but my companion conversed with her in German, and learned that she had
supported herself and son for six years, by making baskets for the
trade. She buys the willow ready for use at seven cents a pound. She
sells small round baskets, with covers and handles, at $2.25 a dozen.
She looked very poor, but clean, and had evidently a room to sleep in
besides the one we saw, where she works and cooks. A German woman, in
New York, making small fancy baskets on blocks, told me she could earn
from fifty cents to $1 per day. Her husband dyes the willow. A German
woman asked me $1.50 for a basket she had paid fifty cents for
making--at that rate her profits were considerable. I met a German boy
with baskets, who said he could make from seventy-five cents to $1 a day
by his work. His father, mother, and sisters also work at the trade. I
saw a woman who merely colors willow. She could make a comfortable
living at it, if she could give all her time to it; but she cannot, as
she has two small children, and must give part of her time to them. In
Williamsburg, I had a long talk with a basket maker. He says it is best
for an apprentice to learn basket making of a practical worker who has
not many hands, and who will give instruction himself. He can give the
more time to his learners. He spent seven years learning the trade in
England. It requires knowledge of form to make the baskets of a handsome
shape. He showed me a book giving directions how to proportion baskets.
He thinks a right smart person might learn the business in two years,
when they could earn from $10 to $15 a week. The basket makers have a
society in New York that discourages the work of women in that line, by
not allowing its members to sell to any store for which a woman works.
The excuse is, it throws men out of work. Yet the man told me that there
are probably not more than two hundred basket makers in the United
States, and that it is a good business. He has more work than he can do.
(Oh, what injustice to woman!) The Dutch, he says, make baskets at a
lower price than the members of the society, and consequently they are
discountenanced by the members. Inexperienced or careless workers are
apt to cut their hands with the willow while at work. A woman who sells
baskets told me that basket making is a poor business now. A man that
worked for her during the summer said that, working from early in the
morning till late at night, he could not make more than $4.50 a week,
and if his wife had not worked out, they could not have made a living.
She says the duty on willow is high, and transporters ask any price they
please, as it occupies considerable room, and does not pay very well as
freight. When American supplies are brought in, it is cheaper. The women
that supply her do the lighter parts of the work; and their husbands,
the heavier. A willow ware manufacturer in Waterbury, Vermont, writes:
"The work is light and healthy. It is paid for by the piece. Women are
paid less, because they are not so strong, and can live cheaper. It
requires about one year to learn the business. Learners are paid by the
week, about $2. Ingenuity and some taste are needed for a basket maker.
A great many women might advantageously learn the trade, if they would.
They can work at it all the year. We should like to employ a few girls
to learn the trade and make baskets, but have been unable to do so yet,
as it is very difficult finding help enough to do housework in this
vicinity." A German, who learned his trade with the basket maker of his
Majesty, in Dresden, replies to a circular asking information on willow
work: "Women are employed at this trade at several places in Germany.
They are paid by the piece. In this country, if they are able to finish
the work as well as men, they are usually paid the same wages. Coarse
work can be learned in much less time than fine. It is in some places
the custom to have five persons to make a basket, each doing a separate
part. I think the prospects for work good. Women can make the finer work
quicker than men, but men succeed best in making coarse work."
WOOD WORK.
=306. Carvers.= The word "carver" is rather extensive in its
application, being applied alike to one who cuts stone, wood, or metal.
Carvers of stone and metal we treat of elsewhere. The art of carving is
quite ancient. There are five kinds of wood carving: house, ship, toy,
furniture, and pattern making; to these we may add the cutting of wooden
letters for ornamental signs. Pattern making is the reverse of
architectural carving: the first being in bas relief; the other, alto.
Architectural carving is mostly done in pine, occasionally in oak. Ship
carvers cut figure heads for vessels; some of this carving is done in
oak, some in pine. For some kinds of carving the design is drawn on
paper and cut out; then it is placed on the block, which is prepared of
a proper thickness, and the outline drawn with a pencil. The portions of
wood outside the design are then cut off with carving implements. The
plan of marking the wood is not practised by all carvers. It may be that
it is used for beginners only. Ingenuity in planning and skilful drawing
are desirable qualifications for a carver. The tools used by carvers are
very simple, being merely a hammer, and gouges of different sizes. When
the wood is carved, it is smoothed with sand paper, then gilded or
painted and varnished. During an apprenticeship, the usual sum paid a
boy is $2.50 a week the first year, and more afterward. A journeyman can
usually earn $1.50 or $1.75 a day of ten hours. It requires three years
to learn the trade. "In wood sculpture, all that belongs to its simple
ornament might receive a special grace from the inspiration of women."
We have seen architectural and ship carving done by women; and it is our
belief that almost any and every kind of carving could be done by them,
if the wood were properly prepared, and they were carefully instructed.
Some kinds of carving require considerable muscular strength. An
architectural carver writes: "Our employment is healthy. Part of our
business is suitable for women, but there is not enough in our
establishment to keep one constantly employed." A carver told me that
furniture carving is sometimes done by women. Though it is done in
harder wood than most other kinds, it does not involve the lifting of
heavy blocks, like architectural carving. The widow of a ship carver
carries on the business in New York. Her son told me that eight persons
could do all the work necessary for that city. There are a few ship
carvers in Boston and Philadelphia, but none in the South or West.
(Would not New Orleans present a good opening?) A. told me, a boy in
learning ship carving is apprenticed for five or six years. He receives
$1.50 a week for the first year, then $2, and after that $2.50, but no
more. A carver told me that he had an Englishman working for him, that
showed him some work done by his daughter, which was superior. He knows
the wives of some carvers who finish the work of their husbands by
rubbing it with sand paper. "Louisa Raldan, of Seville, was known as an
excellent sculptor in wood." "Anna Maria Schurmann, of Sweden, carved
busts in wood." "Anna Tessala, an artist of the Dutch school, was
eminent as a skilful carver in wood." "Properzia di Rossi, an Italian
sculptress, carved on a peachstone the crucifixion of our Saviour." Many
toys are made in Germany by women and children. They are purchased very
cheaply, we know, from their low prices in this country. Mrs. Dall says:
"I would direct the attention of young women to the Swiss carving of
paper knives, bread plates, salad spoons, ornamental figures, jewel
boxes, and so on. On account of the care required in the transportation,
these articles bring large prices; and I feel quite sure that many an
idle girl might win a pleasant fame through such trifles." Articles
might be cut of wood, as mementos of some great event or pleasant
association. The small wooden cages, in which we see canaries for sale,
were made by women in Germany. There labor is cheaper, and they probably
receive only two or three cents for a cage, while in this country they
could not be made for less than a shilling. I saw some pretty wooden
toys, made in Switzerland by the shepherds while watching their flocks,
and some which were made by women. It is a favorite pastime with them in
the evening, when the family is gathered around the hearthstone. The
small carved boards, used for the support of music in pianos, are carved
by a delicate saw, moving perpendicularly and driven by steam. The
carver has the pattern marked on the board, and moves it under the saw,
as the workman does the back of shell combs. One species of carving
common in Europe is that of saints and virgins for small churches.
=307. Kindling Wood.= Some little boys putting kindling wood into
bundles told me they are paid fifteen cents a hundred bundles, and can
do from two hundred and fifty to three hundred in a day of ten hours.
Most of them take the strings home at night and tie them, to save time
in the day. Girls could do it, but they would be liable to accident from
the carelessness of those at work.
=308. Pattern Makers.= The wife of a pattern maker told me it requires
ingenuity, patience, and a knowledge of drawing to become a pattern
maker. C. thought general pattern making would not do for a woman, as it
would require planing, cutting, and turning wood. He said some of the
finer parts of pattern making, as forming models on a small scale for
the patent office, could be done by a woman who is qualified. It would
require a knowledge of arithmetical proportions, ability to turn a lathe
properly, and aptness at catching the ideas of others. A gentleman who
makes models for the patent office, patterns for machinery, steam and
gas fittings, &c., writes: "The varnishing might be done by women, but
in most shops there would not be enough to keep one at work all the
time." S. told me that a part of the work of pattern making could be
done by women, but it would be advisable they should have a separate
apartment in founderies. The variety of ornamental iron work is so great
that it affords scope for inventive talent. We suppose the business of
pattern making is not more laborious and is very similar to block
cutting. If women were prepared for some branches of this business, we
doubt not it would prove remunerative and furnish steady employment. A
pattern maker writes from Hartford: "We do our own draughting, but there
is considerable done independent of a shop. For such work we pay $2 a
day. A knowledge of geometry and mathematics is a prerequisite."
=309. Rattan Splitters.= Formerly, rattan was thrown from the ships that
landed in New York, as something useless; now it sells at from four to
nine cents a pound. The centre of the rattan is used for hoop skirts.
The outside is split off by a strange-looking machine. The strips are
then shaved thin by another machine, for making chair seats and
ornamenting buggies. They are bleached in a close room with ignited
sulphur. The refuse is used in some way in the manufacture of gas--also
for making coarse mats and filling beds. At N.'s factory, I saw girls
shaving rattan. The work was dusty--one sat, but the others stood. The
girls had merely to attend to the strips as they ran through small
machines moved by steam. Each girl received fifty cents a day of ten
hours, for her services. In Fitchburg, Mass., fifty girls are so
employed.
=310. Segar Boxes.= I called in a segar-box factory where the man had
four boys at work. The trade requires care, and some ability to
calculate proportions. The work consists in driving small nails, gluing
on tape, planing the edges, and similar labor. Women could do it, and I
expect do in Germany. If boys from ten to fifteen years of age can, why
cannot girls? After two months, a boy earns something. Two of the boys
had been working at the trade two years, and were earning each $3 a
week. The wood is cedar, and so easily managed.
=311. Turners.= I saw the process of wood turning. The flying of the
chips I thought disagreeable. The trade can be learned in three years
very well. A boy learning is paid $2.50 a week, the first year; the next
year, $3; the next, increased fifty cents more, and so on. A good hand
can earn from $1.75 to $2 a day. Some women do the turning of small
wooden articles in France, and quite a number are employed in bone and
horn turning in the old country, which is not so hard. Turning is more
nearly perfect than most mechanical operations, and consequently is
employed in all those branches susceptible of its use. In most work of
this nature the article operated on is stationary, and the machinery in
motion; but in turning, the article is kept in motion, the tool merely
pressed upon it by the hand. "There is said to be but little difference
in the management of turning different substances. The principal thing
to be attended to is to adapt the velocity of the motion to the nature
of the material." Rosa Bonheur, when a girl, was apprenticed to a dress
maker, whose husband was a turner. His lathe stood in an adjoining room.
Rosa delighted to slip away from her work and employ herself at the
turner's lathe. The making of bone and wooden handles for canes and
umbrellas could be done by women. Removing the surface of the bone is
dirty work, and requires some strength. The polishing could be done by a
girl. The bones are bought at glue factories, slaughter houses, &c. In
New York, for a small new bone, two and a half cents is paid; for a
large one, five cents.
AGENTS.
=312. Express and other Conveyances.= We saw a description, a short time
ago, by some traveller in Scotland, of ladies acting in the capacity of
railroad officials; that is, one sold tickets, another collected them,
and a third was telegraphing at a station. I have been told that some of
the ticket agents in Boston are women. Women are also employed at some
of the railway stations in France and Germany, not only to sell tickets,
but to guard the stations and crossings. I have heard that on those
roads where women are switch tenders no accident has ever occurred. "In
Paris, omnibus conductors submit their way bills at the transfer offices
to women for inspection and ratification. Women book you for a seat in
the diligence. Women let donkeys for rides at Montmorency, and saddle
them too." The St. Louis _Republican_ mentions that there is one feature
about the steamer _Illinois Belle_, of peculiar attractiveness--a lady
clerk. "Look at her bills of lading, and 'Mary J. Patterson, Clerk,'
will be seen traced in a delicate and very neat style of chirography. A
lady clerk on a Western steamer! It speaks strongly of our moral
progress."
=313. General Agents.= "The walks of business become more manifold and
extended as the luxuries of civilization and the skill of human
inventions become more multiplied and more widely displayed. Every
description of commercial, mechanical, and executive business excited
and created by the new wants and new imaginations of advancing society,
will call for the creation and extension of new agencies to accomplish
the labor which they must demand. Thus the variety and number of
business agencies of every kind must spread out in a constant increase."
We think there is great imposition practised by some people who secure
lady agents, and we would advise ladies who can undertake an agency to
learn something of the parties who would employ, and the character of
the article, before they engage in any undertaking of the kind. A
conscientious agent is likely to have her interests suffer by a want of
honor in those whom she represents. With a liberal discount on the
retail price of most goods, agents might be enabled to make a handsome
return for their services. I saw a man that manufactures indelible ink,
and employs agents to sell it and stencil plates. He allows them half
they receive. One lady in Boston, he said, made $20 one day. I think it
probable it was in a large school. Ladies, he says, will not stay long
at it, because it tires them very much to go up stairs a great deal. An
agent should be one that can talk well and has tact and judgment. She
should select those parts of a city where she will be most likely to
meet with success. If her article is something for ladies' use, let her
go where the best dwellings are. If it is something for universal use,
if she selects but part of a city, the largest quantity will probably be
sold in those parts most densely populated. A manufacturer of fancy
soaps and perfumery told me he has employed ladies as agents to go
around selling those articles. Some have cleared $2 a day. He allows one
hundred percentage. C., of Boston, manufacturer of needle threaders,
wick pullers, and pencil sharpeners, offers a liberal discount to
agents; but we presume it would require some Yankee tact to make the
sales amount to much. He states that some of their agents make from $200
to $300 a month. A stencil cutter in New Haven writes: "I have made
tools for ladies to do the work of making embroidery stencils. It is
necessary to travel to sell them. One lady may make the work at home,
and another sell it. One young man, whom I furnished with tools, told me
that he sold $14 worth of plates in five hours." Dr. B. employs twenty
ladies making shoulder braces, and pays them from $3 to $4 a week. The
sewing is done by hand. He allows lady agents to have the braces at $1 a
pair, which can be retailed at $2 a pair. Boarding agencies have become
common in some of the large cities. Some agents charge the keepers of
boarding houses a percentage for every boarder sent them, but do not
charge the applicant. In some offices a person records his name and pays
$2, for which he has the privileges of the office one year. The
boarding-house keeper pays a percentage to the agent in proportion to
the rate of board, without regard to the length of time the boarders
remain. One agency charges $2 for registering a name, and fifty cents
for each boarder it secures. Some agents in New York have purchased
articles of every kind on commission for Southerners, receiving a
commission from both parties. Southern ladies have always preferred New
York goods, but we suppose they will now wish to patronize their own
people.
=314. Literary, Book, and Newspaper Agents.= By literary agents we mean
those that are willing to take the compositions of others, review,
correct, prune, polish, mend, and present them for publication. We
suppose there are not a great many ladies, in our country, of sufficient
experience in this way to be prepared for the business, and probably a
smaller number that would wish to undertake it. Yet, we think, to a
competent and reliable lady, it might yield a handsome profit. We know
there are a few gentlemen so engaged. Proof readers are sometimes
employed by authors for this purpose, or some literary friend of ability
does it as an accommodation. Ladies have been agents more for magazines
than standard works. Indeed, only new books claim the privilege of
having their merits set forth by agents. In towns and cities, ladies
could act as agents without any difficulty. The business, of course,
requires one to be on her feet a great deal. In sparsely settled
portions of the country, it could not be so easily done. Yet we were
told in New York of an educated lady that wished to earn a livelihood,
and, not seeing any other way open, she became a book agent. She got a
horse and buggy, and rode through the country, and was very successful.
She met with a young lady who was very anxious to join her. They made a
great deal of money, and wrote a book of their travels. There are said
to be many book and paper agents in New York city--both men and
women--and they are paid the same percentage. The time of work is
confined to daylight. If newspaper advertisements for book agents can be
relied on, we suppose the business would pay well. We can scarcely
glance over the columns of a newspaper without finding a call for agents
to present the merits of some new work, with the promise that, if active
and diligent, the individual will clear from $30 to $100 per month. It
requires judgment, taste, and a knowledge of what is popular in the book
market. I was told by the editor of a ladies' magazine, that he pays his
agents fifty cents on the dollar, and would be glad to secure the
services of more lady agents. He stated that one of his lady agents in
Brooklyn obtained in two weeks twenty subscribers, so making $12.50.
Some sell books on subscription, but if the books are printed, the
surest and most speedy way is to deliver the book and receive the money,
when the individual decides to buy. A lady who earns her living as a
book and newspaper agent, told me that she gets a percentage for the
agency of books and papers. She has been an agent eight years in New
York. Her health is poor, and she thinks it is from being out in all
kinds of weather. She does not go to every house, but calls on one
friend, who recommends her to another--so that she has as many to visit
as she can. She says the qualifications needed are health, tact,
judgment, courage, pleasing address, perseverance, with faith in the
work, and in God. Ladies are more likely to be well received than men,
but cannot walk as much. She prefers the agency of books, because she
then gets the money, gives the book, and that is the last of it. But
there is a responsibility attending the agency of papers. The editor may
require pre-payment for his magazine. If he is not an honorable man, he
may discontinue his magazine during the year, and not refund what is due
to his subscribers. The agent is then blamed, as well as the editor,
when it may be totally out of her power to remedy the matter, or to have
prevented it. A lady news agent, that has a good location and a small
circulating library, told me she has occupied the place for several
years, and so has regular customers. She does it to aid her husband in
supporting and educating their children, but thinks an individual could
earn for self alone a comfortable living by keeping a news depot. In the
large cities of the North are newspaper agents (men) who solicit
advertisements, for which they receive a commission from editors. There
is a Miss S. in New York, who makes a very good living by obtaining
advertisements for the principal city papers. She goes to stores and
offices, and solicits advertisements of business men, for which she
receives a percentage from the conductors of the papers.
=315. Mercantile Agents.= At the office of a mercantile agency on
Broadway, New York, one hundred young men are employed in writing. Why
could not women do it? An agent who travels for C.'s paper-hanging
manufactory, exhibiting specimens and getting orders, and has a
commission also from another house for another kind of business, makes
$4,000 a year. Ladies were employed writing for one mercantile agency in
Boston one winter.
=316. Pens.= The inventor of Prince's Protean pen thinks a lady would do
well to act as agent for the sale of his pens. A man who was agent made
$3,000 a year, but he could not stand such exertion over a year. His pen
is so constructed as to furnish a flow of ink for ten consecutive hours.
It is very convenient in travelling, on account of the ink being in the
case. Physicians would find it very convenient. An agent would receive a
very good allowance; for instance, a $5 pen she would receive for $3;
one style of $4 pen for $2.50, and another style for $2.25. Mr. Snow, of
Hartford, an importer of steel pens, offers to pay $2 a day to all
agents who sell five gross of pens per day, at the list of prices
furnished, and at the same rate for any larger quantity.
=317. Sewing Machines.= H., manufacturer of low-priced sewing machines
in Newburyport, Massachusetts, desires to secure some local and
travelling agents. In his circular he says: "In order to ascertain who
would prove an efficient and reliable agent, we have concluded that each
applicant shall sell thirty days on commission; and after that time, if
he proves as before stated, and prefers it to a commission, we will pay
him a salary of from $30 to $80 a month, according to capabilities, and
travelling expenses. The commission allowed will be thirty-three and one
third per cent, on the machines sold." We know nothing of the merits or
demerits of the machine, but give it as a criterion by which to judge
what sewing-machine agents may expect in the way of remuneration. The
manufacturer of the universal hemmer, which can be attached to any
sewing machine, retails them at $2.50, but to agents a deduction is made
of seventy-five cents. (It probably costs ten cents apiece to make
them.) They require agents to buy what they wish to sell. It being a
cash business, they have few lady agents. Their agents confine
themselves to towns, on account of the time that would be consumed in
travelling through the country. At a manufactory of children's spring
horses, I saw a lady employed to sell the horses and make saddles for
them. Some she stitched by hand, and some quilted and stitched by
machine. She got $6 a week.
=318. School Agents.= A lady properly qualified might, we think, conduct
a school agency. As there are few school agencies in New York, we
suppose it must be a business that pays. The prejudice that will
probably be created by the difficulties in our country, will no doubt
open the way for the preparation and employment of slave State ladies as
teachers in their own States, and consequently one or more agencies in
the South will be needed. The terms of one of the best agencies we know
of, are as follows: "To principals who have their schools registered for
the purpose of obtaining scholars by making known the terms, locality,
and advantages of their schools, a fee of $5 is charged; and for each
yearly renewal, $2; and for the introduction of each pupil into a
registered school, where the board and tuition does not amount to $120
per annum, the fee is $5. When over that amount and under $160, $7, &c.
For the registration of a teacher, in advance, $2. When the situation is
obtained, and the remuneration is under $1,000, three per cent. If
$1,000 and over, five per cent. When desired to examine and personally
assume the responsibility of selecting teachers for important positions,
an additional fee of from $3 to $5 will be charged."
=319. Telegraph Instruments.= A manufacturer of telegraphic instruments
in Boston writes: "We do not employ women in the mechanical part of our
business, but we employ them as agents to sell our instruments for
medical use. They fit themselves as lecturers by studying the science,
and travel about lecturing, giving instruction, selling machines, &c. A
very handsome income is derived therefrom."
=320. Washing Machines.= At a washing machine establishment, I was told
they make a deduction of twenty per cent. to agents who sell for them;
but to agents who sell for themselves and buy six or more, they make a
deduction of thirty per cent.
MANUFACTURERS AND COLORERS OF LADIES' APPAREL.
=321. Artificial Flowers.= As in everything else, the price for making
artificial flowers is very much regulated by the quality and taste
displayed. Many flowers made in the United States are equal in beauty
and delicacy of finish to genuine Paris flowers, but they are mostly
made by French women, and so are in reality French flowers. In France,
the preparation of the materials used in the manufacture, forms several
distinct branches of trade, and the quality of the flowers depends in a
great measure upon the care used in the getting up of these materials.
The modes of coloring flowers are exceedingly various. The materials
used in the United States are mostly imported from Paris. Some stores in
New York are confined to the sale of materials for artificial florists.
There are said to be between sixty and seventy flower manufacturers in
New York, and about a dozen in Philadelphia. I have been told there are
probably 10,000 women and children employed in making flowers in New
York: I know there is great competition in the business. The work is
mostly done by women and children, who receive as wages from $1 to $6
per week. It requires care and patience, united with good taste and much
experience, to succeed in this pretty art. There are said to be about
twenty processes in the making of artificial flowers. The employment is
one easily affected, consequently fluctuating. The New York
manufacturers have sold large quantities of American flowers to Southern
merchants, but have had no orders lately. In New York, flower peps are
made by men and boys. A man at the work said it requires some time to
learn to do all the parts. Boys, he said, do some parts that girls
cannot well do; but from my observation, girls and women could as well
do it all as workers of the other sex. One maker of flower peps told me
that at one time he employed girls, but found they had not strength
enough to cut the wires. To cut the wires might be hard, but they could
get accustomed to it; at any rate, they could dip the pistils and
stamens into the coloring matter and place them in the frames to dry. H.
told me he employs about 600 women and 400 men in his business, that of
making flowers and dressing ornamental feathers. The women earn from $4
to $12 a week; the average is from $6 to $7. They only work eight hours
in winter. There are several distinct branches, and it requires longer
to learn some than others. The washing and dyeing of feathers is done by
men, the curling and dressing by women. A few of his women are French.
He thinks it a business that must increase as the country grows older.
T. imports all his flowers, but employs one girl to mount them, that is,
make them into clusters, wreaths, &c. Not more than one in eight or ten
of those employed in the city in making artificial flowers devotes
herself to mounting them. It requires excellent taste and some
ingenuity. He pays by the week, from $8 to $10. I called on a German
lady who makes artificial flowers of paper and coarse muslin. She
arranges them in wreaths, and sells them to decorate small stores,
particularly German book stores. She and her daughter make a comfortable
living at it. It requires long practice in the artificial flower
business to earn good wages, and very good wages are earned at only a
small number of establishments. The trickery of mean people in every
occupation, it is desirable to avoid. In this business much is said to
be practised. One of the unprincipled acts referred to is this: Learners
are told they must spend six months acquiring the trade, and during that
time will receive nothing, but after that get fair wages. One branch is
learned in a week or ten days, but the apprentices remain, according to
agreement, six months doing the same kind of work, when they are
dismissed on the plea there is no work to give them, and new apprentices
are taken. Some will keep their apprentices at but one branch of work
for a year or two, so reaping the benefit of their work, without giving
the instruction they promise. Girls who have served several years at
artificial flower making can seldom earn over $3.50 or $4 a week. G. &
K., one of the oldest and most extensive firms in New York, prefer to
take girls from thirteen to fifteen years of age. Older girls are not
satisfied with such wages as learners receive. While learning, for the
first month, they are paid $2; after that, by the week, according to
what they can do. They teach their girls all the different parts, and
they make the finest French flowers. They give their girls work all the
year, and they earn from $1 to $6 a week. In summer, they work ten
hours; in winter, nine and a half. In this, as in every business, the
best hands are most sure to obtain employment. Mrs. P. thinks only
little girls should learn it, as it takes a great while to acquire
proficiency. She and her partner pay fifty cents a week for two months
to a learner, then $1 a week for a time, and then increase according to
what is done. They usually give employment all the year. They pay
altogether by the week, wages running from $2 to $5. At another
manufactory, I found the arrangements the same, the girls working nine
and a half hours in winter, and ten hours in summer. At another place I
was told that it was best for a learner to begin at ten years of age. By
the time she is eighteen, she will be able to make $4 or $5 a week. In
some of the first-class houses for the sale of fine French flowers, a
few superior hands may earn $6 and $7 per week; but for common flowers,
particularly in the cheap establishments, the prices paid are very low.
It is said to be common among some manufacturers of flowers to mix in a
few imported ones with their own, and sell them all as foreign flowers.
At another place, I found the same arrangement, fifty cents a week for a
learner; $4 a week is the price paid for a very good hand. At an
importer and manufacturer of flower materials, I was told their season
commences about the first of February. It requires but two or three
weeks' practice to earn something--then learners are paid by the piece.
Their girls make centres. They manufacture stamps and veins. At a
clean-looking place, where the flowers were of a superior quality, I was
told their girls earn from $2 to $7. At a Frenchman's, I was told, in
two months a smart girl could begin to make fine French flowers. He pays
nothing for two months; after that, seventy-five cents a week, and
increases that as the worker acquires speed and proficiency. A good
worker, he said, can earn $9 (?) a week. His girls work nine hours a
day. They make all parts and different kinds of flowers. Some girls
never learn to make flowers. At another place, the girls, I was told,
are paid nothing for three months, but at the end of that time are paid
$5. They learn all the branches. Workers are paid by the piece, earning
from seventy-five cents to $6 a week. It requires taste and a peculiar
aptitude.
=322. Belts.= B. & H. have ladies' and children's belts made, dolls
dressed, fans trimmed, &c. Their business is wholesale. They manufacture
for houses here that sell to the Southern trade. They have employed at
some seasons from twenty-five to fifty girls. The belt trade is merely
making the goods into belts. A person that can sew neatly can learn belt
making in a day. The girls earn from $3 to $4 per week, and are paid by
the piece. The belt room is superintended by a man. The busiest time for
belt making and for trimming in the wholesale business, is in July and
August, January, February and March. Spring work begins in January and
ends the first of June, and fall work the first of August and ends the
first of December. Their hands have work most of the year. They have a
variety of work done; so if there is not enough of one kind for their
hands, they put them to doing something else. They pay by the gross. The
sewing must be done by hand. The business is confined mostly to New
York. When business is good, the foreman will allow those he knows to
take work home, and get their mothers and sisters to help them. The
factory is in Newark. It is difficult to get girls to go there from New
York.
=323. Bonnet Ruches.= At some factories, ruches are made entirely by
machinery. They are not as well nor as neatly put together, and do not
sell as high as those made by hand. It does not require long for a girl
with any brains to learn, but she should commence when young, and
gradually rise to the more difficult processes. A manufacturer told me
girls must be at it a year before they are good pressers. For making
ruches he pays by the week, from $1 to $4.50. Ruche makers are not apt
to be out of employment more than from two to four weeks. P., New York,
told us his workers are of all nations. Some work by the week, sewing
ten hours a day. Girls sit in his factory while at work, but stand in
most places. Standing is thought to be the easiest position, as it
allows of change. He told us that some girls earn as high as $6 a week.
It is piece work. Joining, sewing, and pressing are done by females,
fluting by men and boys. It is best for females that wish to learn the
business to commence quite early, say when twelve or fourteen years of
age. P. thinks it would not be advisable to introduce more workers into
the occupation but I would advise any one desiring to learn the trade to
make further inquiries into the condition of the business. T., of
Philadelphia, who has been in the business a great many years, employs
over one hundred females.
=324. Dress Trimmings.= In London, many women and children are employed
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.
=329. Parasols and Umbrellas.= The parasol was used by the ancients more
in religious ceremonies than as a protection from the sun. In some of
the warmest countries, they are as much used by men as women. The
manufacture of parasols and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in
this country, and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella
manufactory, Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed--one
hundred and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly as
many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make and sew on the
covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the material and
workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn umbrella making. The
girls we saw leaving the premises looked tidy and cheerful. S. remarked
that those who live at a distance from the workshop, generally arrive
earlier than those who live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from
excessive use of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They
used to employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly
Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please. Last
summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia, engaged in
making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella factories in New York,
girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents an umbrella. For silk
umbrellas, they receive only two cents more than for cotton ones.
Parasols range in price from four to twenty-four cents, according to
size, style, and quality of material. Old hands, in some houses, take
apprentices for two or three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their
work for the time given in instructing them. March, April, and May are
the busiest months for making city parasols; and August, September, and
October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in New York, the
man said he employed two women in spring and one in winter to work. The
parasol work pays best. His girls earn, when making parasols, from $5 to
$6 per week; but umbrellas seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale
parasol work commences about the middle of December, but his, being
retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the trade told
me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per week. Of course they
have not work all the year steadily. She is paid to stay in the store,
and is expected to spend any unoccupied moments in sewing for the shop.
An umbrella maker told me his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the
kind and quantity of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled.
In New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm that
employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average wages were $4 a
week. In the umbrella business the work is invariably paid for by the
piece. A gentleman told me that girls in that branch of work become very
immoral from association with men while at work; but in large
establishments the females have a separate workroom, and there is no
need of their ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman.
(Why might they not have a forewoman?) S. Brothers say their girls earn
from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of the year--their
best hands all the year. Most of the work is done at the factories, but
some girls run up the covers at home, and come to the factory to put
them on the frames. I was told that in Philadelphia, work can be done as
well for lower prices, because living is cheaper. My experience as to
the price of living was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had
been making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of
consumption in less than two years, from the long and close confinement;
but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust and
coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particularly in
summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the openness of
the pores. A manufacturer told me his hands could earn from $4 to $6 a
week. A learner must spend three weeks without remuneration; then she is
paid according to the quality and amount of work done. About one fourth
of his girls are Americans, that have worked out, but desire to do
something they think more respectable. His hands have work all the year,
with the exception of six weeks. The busy time commences in January.
Most of his girls run them up at home, but put them on the frames at the
factory. S., New York, says the business is bad in July, and part of
August--also in February. In his factory, some tailoresses, and girls
that sew for milliners and dress makers, get employment until the busy
seasons of their trades come round. His women get for sewing from $2 to
$3 a week; those that cut get from $5 to $8. It requires about two weeks
to learn the business. A good use of the needle is necessary in a sewer,
and economy in the use of the cloth for a cutter. The business is likely
to increase. In busy seasons there is often a demand for good hands. In
Paterson, Newark, and other towns where the Irish prevail, they usurp
the labor even in umbrella making. In New York city a foreign influence
predominates, and many Irish have come into the business there within
the last year. The importation from England of umbrellas (like almost
everything else) is less and less every year. Some manufacturers have
the hemming done by machines. S. will not, because it throws many women
out of employment. A Broadway manufacturer informs me he pays the ladies
who attend his store, each $5 per week--those who sew are paid by the
piece, and average $4.50 per week. He pays while learning, the time of
which is one month. A good maker will always find employment. The best
season is from January to June. Those who attend store are there from 8½
until 7 P. M. A manufacturer in New York, who employs eighty girls,
informs me "he pays by the piece, and each earns about $4 per week.
Spring is the most busy season. Men and women pursue different branches.
Board, $1.50 to $2." An extensive manufacturer, a Jew, in New York,
complained to me that women do not stick to one trade. He has often had
women who have been sempstresses, cap makers, &c. Some, too, will not
remain long at this work--they want to go at something else. Now, I
would ask what a woman is to do, when her trade gives her work but part
of the year, and her wages for that are merely enough to keep her alive
during that time? Is she to be blamed for going to another trade in the
interval? No--she is to be commended for her prudence and good sense. Do
men confine themselves to one trade, if they find they can do better in
another? The proprietor said he would not receive any applicants but
those that are of good families and bring certificates of character. He
pays by the dozen, and his women earn from $3 to $4 per week. Some parts
of the work, he says, is done by machinery that women cannot manage.
They receive enough to pay their board while learning. A woman that has
been a milliner has acquired a skill with her needle, a smoothness and
softness of touch, that enables her to become a very good umbrella
maker. Such a one is best fitted for sewing on silk umbrellas. One that
has been a tailoress and accustomed to sewing on heavy cloths is
deficient in fineness of touch, and cannot succeed so well. The
secretary of the Waterloo Company writes: "The girls of the factory are
all paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $5 per week. Men receive
$1.25 per day, and are practical mechanics. The work of the females is
easy, and requires little or no experience. Work hours average ten, the
year through. The women are all American. Men's board, $3; girls',
$2.50." A manufacturer in Concord, New Hampshire, "pays his girls from
$10 to $12 a month. Women can learn their part in from one to three
months. The best seasons for work are spring and summer--the poorest,
winter. Board, $6 a month." Manufacturers in Boston write: "We employ
one woman the whole year in cutting out covers of umbrellas and
parasols, and pay her $6.50 a week the year round--to another, who
performs the same kind of work, in busy times, say from November 1st to
July 1st, we pay $5.50. A superintendent, who gives out and receives
back the work and keeps the pay roll, receives $5.50 part of the year,
and $4.50 the other part. From March 1st to July 1st we employ thirty
girls to sew up covers and put on frames, and pay by the piece. They
average $4 per week. We keep ten girls, for this kind of work, through
the winter. It takes four or five years for men to learn the business;
women well versed in the use of the needle, two or three years. From
December 1st to March 1st, some of our women work on furs, or
upholstery, and some are unable to obtain any kind of work. The supply
is more than the demand, particularly this year. As a location for this
business, the advantages are in favor of New York, because of the large
market, and on account of the principal part of the material being made
there. Most of our hands board with relations or friends, because they
find it difficult to get boarding places at such prices as they are able
to pay. Board, from $1.75 to $3.00." Umbrella stitchers in New Britain,
Connecticut, "have some girls tending machines, to whom they pay from 50
to 75 cents per day of ten hours. They have some to sort and pack goods.
Women can do the light work somewhat cheaper than men, and are somewhat
quicker. No other parts of the work are suited to their strength and
dress."
=330. Sempstresses.= In 1845, there were in New York ten thousand
sempstresses, and now there are probably many more. "The following are
the prices for which a majority of these females are compelled to
work--they being such as are paid by the large depots for shirts and
clothing, on Chatham street and elsewhere:--For making common white and
checked shirts, six cents each; common flannel undershirts the same.
These are cut in such a manner as to make ten seams in two pairs of
sleeves. A common fast sempstress can make two of these shirts per day.
Sometimes, very swift hands, working from sunrise till midnight, can
make three. This is equal to seventy-five cents a week (allowing nothing
for holidays, sickness, accidents, being out of work, &c.) for the first
class, and $1.12½ for the others. Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms,
neatly stitched, are made for twenty-five cents. A good sempstress will
thus earn $1.50 a week by constant labor. Fine linen shirts, with
plaited bosoms, which cannot be made by the very best hand in less than
fifteen or eighteen hours' steady work, are paid fifty cents each.
Ordinary hands can make one shirt of this kind in two days. Duck
trousers, overalls, &c., eight or ten cents each; drawers and
undershirts, both flannel and cotton, from six to eight cents at the
ordinary shops, and 12½ cents at the best. One garment is a day's work
for some, others can make two. Satinet, cassimere, and broadcloth,
sometimes with gaiter bottoms and lined, from eighteen to thirty
cents--the latter price paid only for work of the very best quality.
Good hands make one a day. Their coats are made for from 25 to 37½ cents
apiece. Heavy pilot-cloth coats, with three pockets, $1 each. A coat of
this kind cannot be made under three days. Cloth roundabouts and pea
jackets, twenty-five to fifty cents. These can be made in two days." In
a large town, in Massachusetts, we read, not many months past, of
overalls being made at thirty-seven cents per dozen, or three cents a
pair, and shirts at forty-eight cents per dozen, or four cents apiece.
When the times are hard, prices fall from their usually low standard.
Our hearts sicken within us as we read the prices paid needlewomen. The
trifling remuneration and wasted health of most needlewomen is a bitter
reflection on those who employ them. Some clothing merchants and cap and
shirt makers pay their women such prices as enable them to live--better
than those mentioned above. They are houses of a more respectable class,
that have a position, and deal with a more liberal class of people. The
occupation of sempstress is crowded to overflowing in New York. In
business times it is impossible to get a working person to leave New
York, but in hard times they are very willing to go. One firm told me
that they often have applications for operators and sempstresses in busy
seasons, but then they will not leave; and when the times are dull there
is no demand, and they cannot. The supply of labor has been greater than
the demand, and hence the competition that has arisen among clothing
merchants, and the low price of made clothing as sold in slop shops. The
use of sewing machines has to some extent done away with sewing by hand.
Many a woman has been thrown out of employment by it, to which many of
our newspapers can testify, and have borne witness during the past two
years. We have heard of some slop shops in large cities offering to pay
the highest wages to good shirt makers, each applicant to take a shirt
and make it for nothing, as a sample of her sewing. From one hundred to
two hundred, perhaps, apply, and, of course, that many shirts are made.
It meets the demand of the unprincipled shopkeeper, and he has, perhaps,
employment for a dozen or more. A man that has a ladies' furnishing
store, told me he pays girls that sew neatly by hand 37½ cents a day.
Many clothing merchants have their work done in the country, because
they can have it done more cheaply. The sewing done by French linen
makers is very beautiful. The majority of sempstresses have no time they
can call their own. Those that sew twelve or fourteen out of the
twenty-four hours, without any relatives or friends even to be
protectors for them, and often in bad health, have no time for mental
improvement or social intercourse. "The habits of the sempstress are
indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward, and the arms being, even
in walking, considerably bent forward, or folded more or less upward
from the elbows."
=331. Sewing Machine Operatives.= There has probably been no invention
in which so large a number of persons have realized fortunes as the
sewing machine. All the first manufacturers of them have amassed money.
In the United States 150,000 sewing machines are in use. Miss P. says, a
sewing machine and baster do the work of ten hand sewers and five
basters. We hear of some sewing machines in London, each of which can
accomplish as much as fifteen pairs of human hands. At several highly
respectable establishments we were told their operatives earn from $4 to
$7 a week, according to the abilities of the operative, the kind of
machine, and the style of work. In houses of lower standing, operatives
earn from $3 to $5. I was told of one man who hires a number of girls to
work on machines at $2.20 a week. At Y. & Co.'s, operatives earn from
$2.50 to $4. Machine stitchers of leather generally get $6 a week. The
usual number of hours for operatives is ten. I have been told that the
secret of its being so difficult to get basters is, they are paid poor
wages. A clothing merchant in the Bowery says he has a family working
for him that earn $28, and sometimes $30 per week. They use two
machines. The machine-made clothing for men sells at about the same
price as hand-made, and is generally liked as well by purchasers. We
think, the sewing of ladies done by machine does not pay quite so well
as hand sewing; but if we sewed for a living, we would give the machine
the preference, because of its rapid execution. C., who employs about
four hundred hands, says their dull season begins the 4th of July. L.,
who sells sewing machines, told me he frequently has applications for
operatives to go into clothing manufactories. G. & B. occasionally have
applications from other places, but always give the choice to those who
have learned with them. L. thinks the employment of operatives will not
amount to anything as a permanent reliance out of cities. He thinks in
one or two years the sewing machine will be used in almost every
family--as much domesticated as the wash tub. In cities where clothing,
bagging, &c., are made in large quantities, of course, there will be a
demand for some. L., superintendent of E. S.'s machines, employs from
three to twelve ladies, and pays from $5 to $10 a week. They stay from
eight to ten hours. A lady, who hires sewing machines, and sends out
operatives, told me she charges $2 a day for a machine and operative,
sending both, and giving twelve hours' time, or from $1.25 to $1.50 for
an operator only, according to the number of hours given. If they are
hired for a week or more, the prices are still lower. I think the usual
hire of a machine only is $2 a day. A man that hires machines told me
that he rents for from $3 to $5 per month, keeping the machine in repair
during the time, if it is not badly used. Singer's principal machine is
a strong, heavy one, most suitable for cloth, and requires much strength
to work long at a time. According to D., a clothing merchant, a woman
with one of Singer's machines can do all the stitching of twelve pairs
of cloth pantaloons in a day; and a coat that formerly required two days
to make by hand, can now be made in one sixth of a day. W., agent of W.
& W.'s machine, says the lady that has charge of L. & S.'s sewing
department, told him ladies prefer to have their sewing done by
machines, and that B. will not have his mantillas made by hand. He told
me of a woman that takes in $30 a week with the aid of two girls, to
whom she pays $6 a week each, leaving the profit of $18 a week; and of
another who makes $8 a week with her machine. Now that machines are more
plentiful, work done by them is not so well paid. The sellers of
machines say it is not unhealthy. Some people suppose the machine to be
much more injurious than the needle, if worked as long and constantly.
The tax on the muscles of the lower limbs and the weaker parts of the
system is certainly very great; yet those with treadles are thought by
some to be less injurious than those moved by steam. I talked with a
lady keeping a depository connected with an influential church for the
supplying of poor women with work. She thinks sewing machines are very
injurious--says a girl of seventeen will give out in three or five years
at most. It produces a pain first in the hips, and the jar affects the
nerves; and the sameness of the stitch on white or black goods produces
a constant strain of the eye. She mentioned a young woman who came a few
days before to get sewing, who had worked at B.'s five years on a
machine, and her sight had so failed her that she cannot see to work now
by gaslight. She was but twenty-three, but looked to be thirty years of
age. Sewing by machine, I have been told, injures some kinds of goods.
The needle being large, threads of the cloth are liable to be broken.
Changing the kind and quality of goods in operating injures a machine.
The utility and profit of sewing machines have to a great extent been
usurped by Jew men, that are tailors and cap makers. I have heard that
many respectable men in New York, after coming home from business, spend
nearly or quite all the evening in operating on machines, doing the
family sewing that has been cut and basted ready to stitch. What can we
say of such effeminacy and meanness, when done by those that are able to
give such work to poor women? A lady remarked to me: "When sewing
machines were invented, it was said new occupations would be opened to
women as the machine came in use, and deprived some of a livelihood; but
it is eight years since, and I have not heard of one." The sewing
machine has certainly thrown many women out of employment. Those who are
able to purchase one may get along. It is in this as in every other
branch of labor--a capital, however small, is an assistance in business.
One advantage always gained by machinery is that it enables the poor to
purchase more cheaply the materials used by them. Freemasons often buy
machines for the widows they help to support. In some of the large
manufactories of Dublin, where sewing machines are used, from fifty to
two hundred women are employed.
FUR WORKERS.
=332. Dyers.= Dyeing furs is wet and dirty work, and the odor is very
disagreeable. I was told by a lady that girls at such work can earn $4 a
week, or if by the piece, from $5 to $6. There are very few indeed at
it. She thinks it not unhealthy. She sometimes cleans furs, mostly
ermine, with a powder of some kind. In the fur business, people must
sell enough in three months to keep them the other nine months of the
year. In the summer they take time to examine, purchase, and make up
furs. C., a fur dyer and dresser, told me he once employed an
Englishwoman to flesh fine skins--_i. e._, take off the flesh that
adheres to a skin when removed from an animal. It is done with a sharp
knife. She earned as much as a man, $1.50 a day. But men object to
working with women in that business; and no American women, to his
knowledge, know how to do it.
=333. Sewers.= From conversations with a number of fur dealers in
Philadelphia and New York, I find the rate of wages for sewers runs from
$2.25 a week to $8. Forewomen get good wages. Some sewers and liners are
paid by the piece, and some by the week. Those who work by the week are
paid for extra hours. A small number of the women employed in New York
are English, but the majority are Germans, who have learned the business
in their own country. In Germany most of the men learn to sew, and most
of the men engaged in the fur business know how. Quite a number in New
York are married women, whose husbands are connected with the business.
Furs are sold only in the fall and winter, but made up in the summer. In
a few places they give work all the year to a small number of workers,
but the majority do not give work more than six months, from May to
December. Some fur sewers have another trade for the other six months,
as hat binding, &c. It does not require long for a good sewer to
learn--from one week to six. There are some kinds of fancy fur sewing
that require rather longer. No women are employed in preparing the
skins: that is done at different establishments, generally in the
suburbs, and exclusively by male hands. The usual number of hours of
sewers employed by the day is ten; but many of those who sew by the
piece take work home with them to do at night, and so are enabled to
earn considerably more. Men working in the fur business in New York earn
from $8 to $12 per week. The quilting for linings is done by machines,
but the linings are sewed in by hand. Liners are generally better paid
than sewers, and earn from $6 to $10. In extensive establishments, a
cutter and a certain number of sewers and liners confine themselves to
one kind of fur. Some furriers pay their learners enough to board them;
some do not pay anything. I think the supply of hands in New York is
equal to the demand. The best workers, of course, are most sure of
employment. New York is the great fur depot of the United States, but
some business is also done in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Furs
are sent from St. Louis and Chicago to be made up in New York, and part
of them returned to be sold in those cities. Those that sew furs at home
can most conveniently take learners. There are a number of middlemen in
the fur business, who get work from the stores and make a profit by
employing women to do it at lower wages. Mrs. G., an importer and
manufacturer, cuts her own furs, particularly ermine and sable. She says
furs are sometimes cut in Germany by women, but people in this country
think a woman cannot properly cut them. Work at the fur business in
England is said to pay better than any other. G--s, the largest firm in
New York, write: "We pay women from $2.50 to $6 per week. Some work by
the week, some by the piece. Men get about double wages, but their work
requires more physical strength. Men do the cutting and matching, and it
requires several years to be a good workman. Sewers receive about half
price while learning. Some women can learn all that is necessary in a
few months. The prospect of employment is not so good as heretofore. The
women work the year around. Work hours are 9½. Board, $2 to $2.50 per
week." Most furriers report the employment healthy, but it is not, on
account of the dust and loose hairs flying, for persons predisposed to
consumption. A furrier in New York writes: "I pay mostly by the piece.
It takes about one year and a half for women to learn the parts they do.
The amount of work hereafter depends some upon fashion and the weather.
The best seasons for work are from May until February. We could not
shorten the hours of work unless the business had a longer season.
Board, from $1.50 to $2." A furrier in Boston writes: "Women are
employed for sewing and lining furs here, in England and France, and
partially in Germany, Russia, &c. Week hands get from $4 to $4.50, ten
hours a day; others, from $2 to $6. Business in future is uncertain. I
am busy from July to Christmas. The best location for the business is
where furs are fashionable." A fur dealer in New York, who employs from
10 to 15 women, gives the following answers to questions concerning the
fur business: "The work is very easy, and not unhealthy. I pay women
from $3 to $6 per week, ten hours a day. They are as well paid as males,
in proportion to the amount of work done. Any apt female can learn in
three months, and is always paid by me $2.50 per week while learning.
The business is better and there is more of it every year. Work is
steady from May to December; very little at other times. The comfort and
remuneration of the employment is satisfactory among working classes.
Women are more capable of handling a needle for light, fine work than
men. The colder the climate, the better the location for business,
provided people have money to buy furs." In some establishments where
men and women work in the same departments, they are allowed to talk
while at work; but the practice, some complain, is not conducive to good
morals. The character of the people and conversation, however, would
decide that.
FITTERS, CUTTERS, AND SEWERS OF LADIES' AND CHILDREN'S WEAR.
=334. Bonnets.= The making of silk, crape, velvet, and other fancy
bonnets gives employment to many females. Connected with this is the
bleaching of straw, Leghorn, and hair bonnets. In large cities this is a
separate branch of business. The making and selling of bonnets has long
been one of the few employments open to women in the United States. If a
milliner gets a good run of fashionable custom, she can do well. Most
proprietors of millinery establishments make a handsome profit on their
goods, but some of the girls employed receive but a scanty pittance. I
have been told that in Holland men milliners are common. From a
newspaper we take this pithy article: "A stranger in Mexico is struck
with the appearance of the milliners' shops, where twenty or thirty
stout men with mustaches are employed in making muslin gowns, caps, and
artificial flowers." The cruelty exercised by some milliners and dress
makers toward those in their employ, by requiring of them too long and
severe application, is very great. Many girls suffer, as the effects,
diseases of the spine and the eyes. "In the case of the milliners and
dress makers in the London Metropolitan Unions, during the year 1839, as
shown by the mortuary register, out of fifty-two deceased, forty-two
only had attained the age of twenty-five; and the average of
thirty-three, who had died of disease of the lungs, was twenty-eight."
But the length of time required of their employés by milliners and dress
makers in London is longer than in the United States. A number of women
are engaged in the sale of millinery on the streets of London. Girls
usually spend from six months to a year learning the millinery business.
Unless a girl has taste and talent, she is not likely to be benefited
even by a year's apprenticeship, for it is rarely the case that they are
instructed in any but the mechanical work. No pains are taken to
instruct them in what is becoming or stylish, what shades are most
harmonious, how to make a graceful bow, and turn a well-trimmed end, to
arrange a face trimming, and render attractive the _tout-ensemble_. A
hundred small minutiæ are essential to a first-class trimmer, among
which is a nice discrimination of colors and shades. A knowledge of the
languages is, in cities, desirable for milliners' saleswomen. A love of
dress is said to be created by working at such articles. Many bad
effects must result from the indulgence of such a taste by those who
receive the small wages of most girls working at the millinery and
dress-making business. Over four hundred women are employed in the large
straw-goods and millinery establishments in Philadelphia. W. had, in
1854, three hundred girls making and trimming bonnets, and twenty-six in
the store as saleswomen. They were paid from $2.50 to $6 per week. W. &
L., his successors, employ about twenty-five women constantly all the
year, and about one hundred and twenty-five on an average of six months
in the year. Their best workers and saleswomen receive about $1 a day;
some get a little more, and some rather less. The business has increased
greatly during the last few years. The only kind made by that firm are
silk and fancy bonnets. One of the firm told me that the largest
establishments of fancy bonnets in Paris employ only about fifty women.
They have girls spend three months learning, and pay nothing during the
time. A girl does well to earn seventy-five cents a day. Six years ago a
good worker could earn $8 or $9 a week. C., Philadelphia, employs
twenty-six girls in the store and millinery department, and pays about
$4 a week, according to their capacity and diligence. Learners spend six
months with him. Some time ago I saw it stated that there are "450
millinery establishments in New York city, and 1,800 milliners working
in shops, and 900 at home;--35,000 silk and velvet bonnets are turned
out of the workshops of New York city, in the three months of the fall,
and the five months of what is known as the spring trade." "Of straw
bonnets, one million two hundred thousand are sold annually to the
milliners of New York for their trade alone." A tasteful and dexterous
trimmer can generally secure a good place and fair wages, but the
majority of milliner girls are apt to be out of employment, except in
the spring and fall. Most in the millinery business are Americans; yet
French, German, and English are well represented. The prices paid for
bonnets vary greatly in New York, according to the locality and
establishment from which they are obtained. No one who has not priced
them could believe the difference would be so great for bonnets of the
same material and make, merely because purchased on such a street or at
such a store. The milliner girls of New York are said to be good
looking. The time milliners and dress makers spend at their work is such
as to preclude (except in a few first-class establishments) any time for
exercise and mental culture. Their wages are so low that they could not
indulge in any recreation if they had the time. Those girls that live at
home can afford to do work cheaper generally than others. Such girls are
drawbacks to those who pay their board. Western merchants do not
purchase as much as formerly in New York, because milliners have gone
West. Southerners have purchased, until lately, nearly all their bonnets
at the North. There are, or will be openings in the South for milliners.
In 1845, "apprentices at the millinery business in New York gave one
year to learn, boarded themselves, and, in some of the most aristocratic
establishments, had to pay a bonus." Now it is different. The time given
is usually six months, and an apprentice receives her board for her
work. Mrs. S., Broadway, employs about fifty hands in the busy
season--all American girls, very genteel looking. It requires six months
to learn. They are not paid during the time; and, after that, are paid
according to abilities. I called in one establishment where there were
two girls employed, American. They received each $6 a week. A milliner
told me she wanted a first-class workwoman, and would pay from $6 to $7
a week, according to her swiftness and taste. I called in a small store
of dry and fancy goods, with which was connected a millinery. The young
lady waited on customers, and, in the intervals, trimmed bonnets for the
store. She received $1 a day, and is at the store by half past seven,
and leaves at nine at night. She lives near, so she goes home to her
dinner and supper. A lady told me of a Miss M., on Canal street, who
commenced the millinery business five years ago with twenty dollars, and
is now worth $3,000. A milliner in New York told me she could, by
piecework, sewing early and late, make $7 per week. Mrs. T. has learners
spend six months, during which time they are not paid. After that she
gives them from $3 to $7, according to competency. The number of hours
spent in the store depends on the agreement of the parties. One can best
learn where there are vacancies by inquiring at the millinery shops and
of girls working at the business. At a fashionable millinery, on
Broadway, the lady in the showroom told me the girls receive from $3 to
$12, working ten hours a day. There is one that selects, arranges, and
invents, who receives $12 per week. A surplus of indifferent hands can
always be obtained. Sometimes good hands fail to get employment, because
in busy times some indifferent hands are engaged, and it is difficult to
get rid of them. She has had to turn away many nice-looking girls
seeking for work. On back streets and avenues in New York, women work
longer, and the stores are kept open later than on Broadway. On Division
street, large cases of bonnets are exposed for sale in summer on the
sidewalks. In the poorer portions of a city, people live much and sell
mostly out of doors. Their crowded apartments and the high price of rent
account for it. D., on Broadway, informs me that he knows of an
invention connected with his business--the sale of straw goods--that
will throw ten thousand people, mostly men, out of employment. He says
his girls spend all they make on dress. He has two forewomen, to each of
whom he pays $500 a year. They never save a cent. He had one to whom he
paid $1,000, but she never laid by a dollar. Women, he thinks, have not
as much originality of thought as men. They seldom invent. He would give
$1,000 a year to a woman that would think for him, and originate styles,
and combine and arrange the trimmings of his bonnets with taste. He
walks on Broadway, and studies the fashion of bonnets; but none of his
women ever do. (Perhaps they have no time.) Women, he thinks, never
acquire such proficiency as men. They advance to a certain degree in the
art, and ever after are stationary. He thinks it is partly because the
majority look forward to marrying, and partly because they are so
constituted that they are not susceptible of acquiring the highest
degree of excellence. (I fear that D. does not consider that women have
not had as much time nor so many opportunities for improving themselves
as men, nor have they as much to stimulate them.) He pays women from $3
to $8 per week. His girls spend four months learning. B., another
Broadway bonnet-dealer, told me "good workwomen could at any time find
employment by going to the country towns around, but they do not like to
go from the city. Milliners often come to the city, and spend two weeks
trying to get hands, and then pay them more than they are worth to go.
His forewoman directs some of the trimmings, but part are left to the
taste of the girls. His is a wholesale business, and he trims many
bonnets before sending them away. Some of his girls earn on an average
$7--a forewoman more. The occupation is not entirely filled by good
hands, and pays well. He employs his hands about eight months." One of
the proprietors of a straw-goods warehouse told me "his women earn from
$6 to $10 (average $7 a week), ten hours a day. The season commences
December 1st, and runs to March 15th, and again from July 1st to
September 1st. Taste, industry, and imitative powers are the qualities
most needed. He employs about sixty in the busy season. When that is
over, some go to millinery shops and work, some to the country, and some
to towns in the surrounding States. The girls that work in cheap shops
are mostly Germans, and earn from $2 to $4. Some women, while learning,
receive their board for their work. By quilling ruches and such work, if
not by their bonnet work, they can earn their board. He does not pay
learners, because the waste of materials amounts to the worth of their
work. Girls of Irish parentage often make good milliners, and display
very good taste in trimming." A Boston milliner writes: "The wages of
the women I employ vary from $3 to $15 per week, of ten hours a day,
according to the amount of custom they can bring, and their aptness for
the business. There are comparatively few persons that make good
milliners. As a milliner, one must have good taste and nimble fingers;
as a saleswoman, she needs to understand human nature, have activity, an
honest heart, and good disposition. The best seasons are from March to
July, and from September to January." A lady in Reading, Pa., who
employs girls, informs me "she pays $3 a week, ten hours a day, to some;
to others, $1.50, but the latter she boards. A knowledge of reading,
writing, and arithmetic is desirable." A milliner in Auburn, N. Y., pays
from $2.50 to $5 per week, of ten hours a day. A girl spends six months
learning, if she boards herself; one year, if boarded by her employer.
The dull months are July, August, January, and February. A lady in
Poughkeepsie writes "she gives from $2.50 to $3.50 and board to some,
and from $4 to $4.50 and dinner to those who lodge and otherwise board
themselves. It requires one year and a half to learn the business
thoroughly, and during the time they receive only board. None should
learn millinery except those who have homes, or design to carry on the
business. Her girls work from 7 A. M. to 7 P. M. The business is easy
and pleasant to the industrious and to those who can sit much. Out of
work hours, they have time for study, attendance on lectures, meetings,
&c. Board, $2." Millinery is often carried on in connection with some
other business, in small towns. A lady who combines millinery and book
selling, in Easton, Pa., furnishes board and pays from $1.50 to $2 per
week, of twelve hours per day, to her girls. She pays about one half the
price of male wages. If they spend six months learning, she pays their
board. Two or three first-class milliners could find employment in
Sacramento, California.
=335. Bonnet Frames.= Bonnets, of course, are worn in all civilized
countries, and as long as bonnets are worn there must be bonnet frames.
Several hundred women are employed in bonnet-frame making in New York.
K. employs two hundred girls, and H. one hundred and fifty. The time of
learning is from two weeks to two months, but some never learn. The more
practice a worker has, the better she succeeds. Learners are paid
nothing. Some women working at the trade, take learners for their labor.
Workers earn from $2 to $12 a week, but it is a rare thing any earn the
last-mentioned sum. Fast hands, to work constantly from 6 A. M. till 10
P. M., sometimes can. The usual price, in all respectable
establishments, is fifty cents a dozen. In busy seasons there is
sometimes a scarcity of hands. There are no factories South and West,
consequently they present openings for the business. Apprentices
generally commence in March. The busy seasons are from January to June,
and from August to December. Some houses are not busy until in February,
and their fall business lasts till January. The art of making the wire
part of the frames is learned in six weeks. The crowns are made by
machinery attended by women. Some manufacturers have all their women to
work in the establishments, but the majority have the work taken home.
H. says "the business is the same, so far as confinement is involved, as
making up clothes at home. The girls come two or three times a week for
their work; so they have that much walking. The prospect of work to
competent hands is good. He has a great many to reply to his
advertisements for learners, but for hands he has lately advertised
seven times and got but five. Some leave the business for places as
saleswomen in millinery establishments; but that is more uncertain, for
it is more difficult to retain the same place long. It requires a year
to learn thoroughly. It is necessary that the work be uniformly done;
for instance, one hundred and twenty bonnet frames should be so uniform
that one would not differ from another. Buckram frames are used to shape
them on. The wages paid, he said, vary as much as the rainbow. They
range from $2.50 to $8. He knows one woman that earns $10 a week now and
then. He sends goods away to California, and other parts of the Union.
He also manufactures for the city trade. The season for work to send
away commences about the 20th of January, and ends about the middle of
May; the fall season begins 20th July, and ends 15th December. The city
trade gives work in the intervals. A girl of intelligence and ability
can make enough to keep her when out of work. Some employers keep their
hands all the time, for the sake of having them the next season. The
girls employed in the business are mostly Irish and Americans. He
boarded some of his girls, but they would associate with the servants.
What was said before them was repeated to the servants, and _vice
versa_. They got the impression that he was making money off their
board, though he charged but $2 a week. He thinks the result of large
numbers of girls congregating in the same house is bad. The influence of
one depraved one may be exerted over every fourteen good ones, and
discontent and rebellion be the consequence. Few persons are willing to
board working girls, because the remuneration is small, and the girls
are expected to be furnished with nearly the same advantages as
higher-priced boarders. Those that work in their rooms are about the
house nearly all the time, and all expect the privilege of using the
laundry for doing their washing."
=336. Bonnet Wire.= At a bonnet-wire factory, I was told but little of
the work could be done by women; but, if my eyesight did not deceive me,
it could all be done by women. Covering the wire was done on a
steam-power machine, which only required attention. The spooling is done
by females, and also tying it up, when covered, into bunches of twenty
yards each. A manufacturer of bonnet wire writes: "We employ some girls,
and pay from $3 to $3.50 per week, of twelve hours a day. Females cannot
do all parts of the work. It requires from one to four weeks to learn,
and they receive while learning enough to pay their board. The business
is best nine months of the year, during fall, winter, and spring. We
prefer girls to boys, for such work as they can do. Board, from $1.50 to
$2."
=337. Children's Clothes.= Quite a number of stores are devoted to the
sale of children's clothes in large cities. A handsome profit is
generally made by the merchant. At Mrs. C.'s, between three hundred and
four hundred females find employment in making up children's clothing of
all kinds (mostly infants'); also under-garments for ladies. A large
assortment is constantly kept on hand, and they are ever busy filling
orders; giving employment about nine months in the year to all, and to
some the year round. The work is mostly done by hand, and to sew neatly
is the only requirement. The work is all cut in the establishment and
given out, being piecework. The sewers earn from $3 to $6 per week;
cutters, the last-mentioned sum. Aside from these, a few girls are
employed in the establishment, who wait upon customers, and sew when
they have leisure.
=338. Cloaks and Mantillas.= Mayhew says: "In London, the workwomen for
good shops, that get fair or tolerably fair wages, and execute good
work, can make _six_ average-sized mantles in a week, _working from ten
to twelve hours a day_; but the slop workers, by toiling from thirteen
to sixteen hours, will make _nine_ such mantles in a week." At a
wholesale store, Philadelphia, where sixty women are employed, I was
told they earn from $3 to $6 per week. The head cutter has $6, the
assistant, $5. When the work is finished at the wholesale houses, the
good hands can find work at the retail houses. The best and most steady
hands are kept in work all the year. Miss S., New York, has her
stitching and seaming done by machines. She pays $5 a week to a good
operator. She does her own cutting. The prospect of employment to
learners is good, even in the city, in prosperous times. She has sold a
great deal to Southern ladies stopping at the hotels. She estimates one
machine to do as much as seven sewers. M. pays his girls $5 a week, and
they work in daylight only. A cutter designs, and consequently should
have taste, judgment, and experience. A good cutter can earn from $7 to
$10 a week, and usually has one assistant, who superintends the girls
while at work. Several mantilla manufacturers have failed, and he could
get fifty thousand mantilla makers to-day. G. & Co. make for wholesale
houses. They pay by the piece, and a girl can earn $4 a week, taking
work home with her at night. It requires from six weeks to three months
to learn. Nothing is paid during that time. Mrs. M., who makes mantillas
for S., Broadway, says she takes learners, but they do not learn
anything, for most they do is to pick out basting threads, run errands,
&c. Good sewers can make from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day.
Cutters can earn from $6 to $7. She thinks the prospect for a few, that
would properly qualify themselves, would be good in the South or West,
provided they find openings, take hands from New York, and be willing to
incur some expense for a short time. In Richmond, Savannah, and
Charleston, it has been almost impossible to get good hands. S. wanted a
woman cutter, and would pay from $8 to $10 for a competent one. His work
is done mostly in the house, and continues all the year. It is almost
entirely done by machine. B--s (German Jews) employ German girls mostly.
They prefer to keep old hands that have been with them several years.
They think German girls most industrious, and love best to make money.
American girls, B. charged (I think unjustly) with working just enough
to get along, and spending all their spare time promenading. According
to his account, cutters earn from $15 to $20 a week. He employs his
girls most of the year. The occupation of mantilla making, he says, is
more than filled in New York. Board, $2.50 to $3. At H.'s wholesale
mantilla depot, I was told it is best to learn to make mantillas with
those who sew for the mantilla merchants. Some of their girls sew in the
building, some take their work home. If they do not know applicants for
work, they require some one as security, who has property or is in
business for himself. A gentleman told me that, not long since, he saw
an advertisement by a mantilla manufacturer for men to make mantillas
and cloaks. A manufacturer in Boston writes me he "employs seventy-five
women, and pays them mostly by the piece; some receive as high as $12
per week, average $6. They are paid by the piece from the first; but
until they acquire dexterity, they can earn but $3 or less per week.
Cloak and mantilla making is constantly increasing, like the ready-made
clothing business. The busy seasons are from February to July, and from
September to December. Many are out of employment about three months in
the year. As sellers of goods, he finds men better qualified, because of
having been educated from children with views to business. The New
England States are the best for manufacturing, as in other localities it
is more difficult to obtain female help. Board, from $2 to $3." Another
cloak maker in Boston writes: "I employ from twenty to thirty women
(mostly American), and pay by the day. They work nine hours a day, and
receive from $4 to $10 a week. A good sewer, with taste, will learn in
six months. Some learners I pay, some I do not. Spring and autumn are
the most busy seasons. The girls are not out of employment two months. I
employ three ladies as saleswomen. Board, from $2 to $5 a week." A cloak
and mantilla maker in New Haven writes me "he employs twenty-five
American girls, and pays by the week, from $4 to $8. He pays learners
when they have spent six months at the trade. His girls are principally
farmers' daughters, who are rapidly taking the place of men in stores.
Board, $2.25 to $3.50." A manufacturer in Providence writes: "I employ
women in making and trimming bonnets, making cloaks and mantillas, and
as saleswomen in my store. I pay by the week, from $3 to $8--average,
$4.75--ten hours a day. Six months is the time usually spent in learning
either trade. In January, February, July, and August, some of my workers
are out of employment. All are Americans, and pay for board from $2 to
$2.50." P., of Providence, "employs about twenty girls making dresses
and cloaks, whose wages depend upon their ability as sewers; average
price per week, about $4."
=339. Costumes.= P. pays his girls (five in number), each, $3 a week.
They work from eight to five o'clock. He has no difficulty in getting
hands. Anybody that can sew can make costumes, but it requires taste for
the design and arrangement of such as his--theatrical. B.'s girls sew at
the house, 9½ hours in winter, and the best earn from $3 to $4 a week.
Their costumes are theatrical, and are very slightly put together. A
slow, careful sewer would not answer for them. They want their work done
so that it will rip up easily. They have many costumes on hand for sale.
They have a lady cutter. They give employment but four months, and they
are in winter. W., employed in both flag and costume making, has been in
the business since 1822, and employs six girls all the year. Flags,
costumes, &c., used in the South, have always been ordered in New York,
so there will be some openings in the South for such work. W. pays $3
and $4 a week to his best hands, and has his sewing done in the house.
His work is of a superior quality, and, consequently, commands a good
price. He employs only correct and fast sewers. He thinks there are
openings for girls of good moral character, properly qualified. A lady
cutting out costumes told me that it requires judgment to make the two
halves alike--sleeves, for instance; also to know in how short a time an
article can be made up, where and how to get workers, &c. It is
difficult to get good hands, and some of the materials are costly--so
they do not like to give work to any one they do not know. A spangler
receives from them 62½ cents a day. Mrs. T. employs a number of hands,
paying $3 a week to those that work in the house--ten hours a day. Those
that take their work home are, of course, paid by the piece. She does
all her own cutting out. It requires ability to fit, ingenuity to
design, and taste to execute. Spangling pays best. She had a lady
tinselling and spangling for her, that made a good living at it. She
does opera and theatrical work, mostly. She makes some ball costumes
also. Equestrian work she does not like, as it is pretty much made up of
horse trappings. The prospect for those who would learn it well, she
thinks very good. She finds it difficult to get superior workers. The
girls that sew for costumers are mostly those who prefer that to going
out to do housework, because they can have their evenings as their own.
It is usual to have a costumer travel with an opera troupe, who directs
and superintends the making up of costumes, and dresses the prima donna
before she makes her appearance on the stage. Mrs. S. takes learners,
paying them half price for two or three months, while learning. She
makes up most after Thanksgiving, for the Christmas festivities; but in
summer she makes up some ball costumes, and apparel and drapery for
tableaux, and operas at watering places. She has from one to two hundred
women and girls sewing for her at different times. Frequently she is
very much hurried, and must employ a great many to assist, for bills
announcing operas are often out before the costume is brought to her. At
W.'s, they pay $3 a week--ten hours a day--and are most busy about
Christmas.
=340. Dresses.= In Germany, many dress makers are men, and there is one
on Broadway, New York. France is the fountain head of fashion for
ladies' dress. Most of the fashions, however, are Americanized when
introduced into this country. Dress is, to some extent, an index to the
mind of the wearer. Judgment and good taste are the best guides. Several
things are to be taken into consideration--age, complexion, proportion,
means, station, comfort, and decorum. A lady, with command of a full
purse, can dress as she pleases. Rich and elegant clothing,
appropriately made, is an ornament, and well becomes those that can
afford it. With a scant purse, a lady cannot dress very handsomely, yet
she may always observe neatness and propriety of costume. A passion for
dress is apt to betray an empty mind or great vanity. Much of the beauty
of a dress depends on its tasteful make. If the figure is bad, it
improves it. If good, it adds to the beauty of the figure, which is one
of the most impressive modifications of beauty. In dress making, a lady
has only to establish a reputation as a successful fitter and
fashionable trimmer, and she will be sure of a run of custom and
handsome profits. I am sorry to say, in the majority of dress-making
establishments, no reliance can be placed on the word of the principals,
in regard to the time work will be finished. While many of those at the
head of dress-making establishments are realizing dazzling profits, the
poor sempstress, working in busy times from twelve to sixteen hours out
of the twenty-four, receives the generous allowance of from $1.50 to
$4.50 a week. But few, and those only of much skill, taste, and
dexterity, ever gain better prices. Fitters and forewomen, in some
places, gain from $4 to $7 per week. I believe it is generally thought
men fit better than women, so many ladies have their basques and riding
habits made at tailors' establishments. We do not see why the plan used
by tailors, of fitting by measure, is not more generally applied to
dress fitting. Dress making is more fatiguing than millinery work,
because you have to sit at it more steadily and there is more sameness
in it. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. Those who can secure
sewing in good families, and have some decent place to go in the
intervals, are better off than most others. They receive from 50 cents
to $1.25 per day and their dinner. It would probably require a little
time to become known; and one, to succeed, must know how to do all
parts, from the fitting to the finishing off; so it requires skill and a
thorough knowledge of the business. A lady who sews by the day told me
she often gets her system out of order by the different food of the
several families she is in, and the different times of taking it. We
think there are no regular hours for those who work by the day in New
York. The length of the day depends on the mercy of the employer. "Dress
makers in Boston, some years ago, adopted the ten-hour system, and now
average $1.25 per day. Previously they received but 75 cents or $1." The
demand for dress makers in the Northern and Eastern States is fully met,
but throughout the South and West there are openings, here and there,
for good dress makers. There is probably no occupation in which there
are so many incompetent persons as that of dress making. Many persons
take it up without having learned the trade at all, and many who become
reduced in circumstances immediately resort to it without any
preparation, and are destitute, not only of experience, but of skill,
ingenuity, and taste. In New York, the conditions on which apprentices
are taken vary greatly. Some pay nothing for six months, and even
receive $10 or $15 for instruction. The girls are kept at making up
skirts, sewing up sleeves, and such plain work, and so learn nothing
during the time. Some are taken for a year, and boarded during that time
for their work. Some live at home, and are paid from $1.50 to $2.50 for
their work. Some are taken for two years, to learn the trade thoroughly,
and work from eight to twelve hours a day. Some apprentices have not the
ability to become good fitters and sewers, and are destitute of artistic
taste; but women seldom change from one employment to another on
discovering their incompetency. The majority, probably, have not the
time or means of doing so. Miss B. says those who sew for dress makers
receive from $2.50 to $4 a week, working ten hours a day. Apprentices
that can sew right well when they commence, receive at some houses $2 a
week for six months, but they are not taught to fit unless the employer
is a conscientious woman and there is a special contract. When the busy
season is over, the inferior hands are turned off without an hour's
warning. It is desirable to get a good class of customers, that the pay
will be sure, and that the dress maker may know what to rely on. Some
dress makers in New York have kept the patterns of ladies in the South,
and made their dresses for years. If a slight change was needed, for
instance, the length increased, or the waist made smaller, or _vice
versa_, the lady wrote accordingly. Miss B. never works for servants.
They do not pay as well, and are just as particular as their mistresses.
She never works for a stranger, unless recommended by one of her
customers. Mrs. C. told me that a girl of fair abilities can learn dress
making in six months. The first three months she does not pay anything,
but the last three $1 a week. After they have learned she pays according
to their taste, skill, and industry. One girl, that has good taste in
trimming and finishing off, she pays $4 a week; another, that sews well
and is industrious, but deficient in taste, she pays $2. They all live
at home. Those girls that live at home are often willing to work for
less than the ordinary wages, as they are not at the greatest of all
expenses--boarding. They work from seven in the morning until six,
having an hour at noon. They prefer it to the hours of some of the
Broadway shops, which are usually from eight to seven. By the first
arrangement they are enabled to get home early and go to any place of
amusement. Miss H. told me that three years ago she earned $7 per week,
ten hours a day, sewing for a French lady on Broadway, who had a great
run of Southern custom. There were many strangers in the city at the
time. "Servant girls seldom pay over $1 for making a dress; yet 10,000
servant girls in New York city, will have from three to six and eight
new dresses a year." At Wilson's Industrial School, New York, some of
the older girls are taught dress making.
=341. Dress Caps and Head Dresses.= The making of ladies' dress caps is
an extensive and important branch of business. The rates at which they
are now put together, enable most ladies to buy them already made. In
large cities there are separate establishments for the sale of them, but
in smaller towns they are sold at milliner shops. Much taste should be,
and generally is, exercised in this department of business. In London,
on the streets, the caps and bonnets exposed for sale are placed in
inverted umbrellas. On summing up what was told me by eight
manufacturers of dress caps and head dresses, I find the prices they pay
the women who sew for them, run from $2 a week to $10--the average $4.
Some pay by the week, but most by the piece, which is usually most
profitable to the worker, and most satisfactory to both parties.
Superior hands prefer to work by the piece, and, when working for
first-class stores, earn from $6 to $8 per week. There is a scarcity of
good hands in New York, and I would advise some ladies to learn. Taste,
and swiftness of fingers are required. The finer and more delicate the
hands of a worker the better. Some are employed all the year, but the
majority are not. The busy season begins in January and lasts till the
middle of May, and begins in September and lasts till the middle of
October, when city work usually commences. Some houses, in the
intervals, make up for the city trade. The South has depended almost
entirely on the North for the supply of these articles. There will be
openings in the South for establishments of the kind. One keeper of a
large fancy store said to me, there are not more than ten first-class
makers of dress caps in New York. He thought the Irish succeed, many of
whom learn in the convents of their own country to use the needle well.
Hands employed by the week usually work ten hours a day. Most people
prefer to employ the hands they have had. The best place for learning is
in a shop confined to the city trade. Mrs. D. devotes herself to making
up caps for the dead, but employs sewers to make ladies' dress caps. It
requires time to get to making them tastefully and rapidly. An
experienced hand can earn from $4 to $6 a week, piecework. It is thought
three months' time is necessary for learning, and during that time a
girl cannot earn over $1 a week. Mrs. D. says some can earn but eight or
nine cents a day while learning, and become discouraged and give it up.
She will not trust any but experienced hands, on account of the loss of
materials, for when badly cut, they cannot be altered into anything
else, and, when they have to be ripped, lose their stiffening, and are
only fit for the scrap bag. They can soon judge of hands by their
appearance, the way they sew, and knowing for whom they have worked, and
the kind of work that house turns out. They always require reference or
deposit. They keep their hands all the year, making caps part of the
year to send away, and the remainder of the year for city trade. Ladies'
dress caps have been superseded to a great extent by fancy head dresses
and flowers. Miss C., Broadway, told me her best hands earn, by the
piece, from $6 to $7 per week. It requires three months to learn the
business. Learners, that have some knowledge of sewing, receive from her
$1 a week. Judgment, in size, form, and manner of putting together, is
desirable. The busy seasons are spring and fall. There is rather a
deficiency of good hands in New York, and in busy seasons it is
sometimes difficult to get enough of indifferent hands. The French are
very successful, on account of their cultivated taste. I was told that
Mme. D. employs two Austrian girls that invent beautiful styles of head
dresses. Mr. D. says the person that has the taste and ingenuity to
invent pleasing styles will receive a good price. He had to pay $4 a
dozen more for a new style of head dresses imported not long ago from
Paris, merely because it was of a new design. He playfully remarked:
"Fancy goods must bring fancy prices." A woman that has lived in Paris,
and been engaged in the business there, and accustomed to observing the
fashions and inventing them, would receive a high salary. He pays from
$6 to $9 a week, according to qualifications. The abilities and taste of
a person have much to do with the time of learning--six months are
usually given. He pays $3 a week to smart learners. He sells rather more
goods in fall, as ladies are then preparing for balls and parties. He
prefers to have foreigners to work for him, as he is himself a
foreigner. His store girls leave at 6 P. M. Those that board pay $3 a
week. In most stores for the sale of ladies' fancy articles, the ladies
in attendance make up such articles, when not waiting on customers. From
a larger establishment, the superintendent sent me the following report:
"Women earn from $4 to $10 per week, being paid by the piece. It
requires from three months to one year to learn the business. After six
weeks, the hands are paid a small trifle. Women are employed about eight
months in the year, but first-class hands find employment always. In
busy seasons the work must be done--so hands cannot limit themselves to
time, but must be employed late and early. The demand for first-class
hands is great, and enough cannot be found. I employ from one hundred
and fifty to two hundred on an average. Most of my hands are foreigners,
and married women that live at home."
=342. Fans.= In most ages, and in most countries, the fan has been used
as much by gentlemen as ladies. In Japan, everybody carries a fan. "In
M. Duveleroy's fan establishment--the largest in Paris--each fan, from
the commonest to the most costly, passes through fifteen hands before it
is ready for use and the retailer." The palm-leaf fans, which have been
so much in vogue for years past, are made to some extent in the Eastern
States. Fans are sometimes made of feathers. Peacock, duck, turkey, and
those of small birds are employed. As in other manufactures, the capital
required, the risk run, the want of operatives acquainted with the
business, and the comparative highness of wages have hitherto debarred
any one from undertaking the manufacture of fans extensively in the
United States. Taste is necessary for a fan maker. A man that has been
making fans for two years in New York, told me he took it up from
repairing fans. He cannot keep materials enough on hand, because
suitable feathers are high and difficult to get. He is raising some
peacocks and white turkeys, that he may have the feathers for making
fans. The women he employed last year he paid by the piece, and they
earned from $5 to $6 per week. He will employ more women in the course
of a year or two.
=343. Ladies' Under-Wear.= A sempstress in New York can seldom earn more
than seventy-five cents a day--fifty is the more usual sum. At Mrs. C. &
Co.'s, all the work is done by hand. They employ by the week and by the
piece. They will not allow goods to be taken out unless they know the
person to be reliable, because they find it difficult to get work back
at the time promised. They sell most articles made up, about Christmas,
and in the spring. People do not have half so much sewing done out as
they used to, because so many own sewing machines, and they are not
willing to pay the same prices that they formerly did. Some women that
live and dress well in New York, take in sewing to obtain pinmoney. She
mentioned one lady that came dressed in her elegant furs and point lace,
and got sewing, she said, for a sick young friend; but when she came
back, she said the friend was not able to do it, and so she did it
herself, and would like to have more. She lived in style on ---- street.
The cutters of under-wear, who are competent and responsible, can earn
$6 per week, and even more, but it requires considerable experience. A
lady that has sewing done told me that nothing pays so poorly as white
work. She requires a sample of work and a deposit from any one that
takes sewing out, to the amount of the value of the article. A lady that
has most beautiful under-wear made up for ladies in New York and in the
South, told me her Southern orders have all ceased. Her work is mostly
done by hand. She has a forewoman that bastes and cuts. She has not less
than ten or twelve applicants every day for work. Some of her hands earn
$5 or $6 a week, and others work just as long and do not earn $3. Some
of her workers can earn $4 by embroidering, but sewing generally pays
best. She pays her operator by the piece--so much a yard. When she had
Southern orders, she sent goods by express, and the express collected
the money on the goods. If the money was not paid by those who had
ordered the goods, the express would not deliver them, but returned
them. They were responsible for their return, in case they were not paid
for. In the first place, something was paid for transmitting and
collecting; in the latter, for transmitting both ways. Many ladies used
to send their measures and directions, and she would make up
accordingly. She finds bridal apparel most profitable. In large cities
there is a small demand for the costume of artists, sea bathers, and
practisers of gymnastics. At the Employment House, B., I was told they
have more applications than they can attend to, for plain sewing; but
fine sewing it is more difficult to get done. Fine sewing pays for
itself very well, but coarse does not. At L. & T.'s, New York, they have
every branch done, and pay sewers by hand as good prices as operators. A
right neat and fast sempstress can earn $6 a week: it is piecework.
Operators can earn $5 or $6. Part of the work is done in the building,
and part is given out. At first they found it difficult to get superior
sewers, but they have plenty now. They have sometimes employed 375
hands. About half their women are Americans. It is usual for the
forewoman to do the cutting, and she can earn from $6 to $12. When they
pay by the week, the girls work from 8 A. M. to 6 P. M., and have three
fourths of an hour at noon. They pay by the week for making mantillas
and cloaks. It is most profitable to the employées to pay by the piece.
Their customers can rely on their work, and are willing to pay a good
price for hand sewing. A lady that supplies under-wear told me that she
finds it difficult to obtain any one that is reliable to give her work
to--one that she can be sure will do her work well at the proper time.
She pays those that work in the house $3 a week, of ten hours a day.
Neatness, care, and expedition, she requires of her hands. There is an
abundance of indifferent hands, but a scarcity of superior ones.
=344. Over Gaiters.= R., Philadelphia, employs fifty girls. Some of the
gaiters are made by sewing machines, and some are stitched by hand.
Makers earn from $3 to $5 a week. Most of the work is done in the
establishment--some is taken out.
=345. Patterns.= In large cities there is a constant call for a supply
of new patterns; consequently stores are kept for the purpose of cutting
and selling them. A dress and cloak making establishment is frequently
connected with them. The sale of patterns to dress and cloak makers in
the South and West is considerable--greater, perhaps, than that in the
city. T., and Mme. D., are the leaders of this branch in New York. Mme.
D. has in pattern making mostly young girls. A large room of young girls
requires but two or three ladies to assist and direct. It takes but
little time to learn. She does not pay until they have learned, and then
pays young girls $1 a week and upward. T., son of the editor of the _Bon
Ton_, told me their fashion magazines have a circulation of three
thousand, mostly among milliners and dress makers. The plates are
colored in Paris. Leslie's and Godey's plates are colored in this
country. T.'s takes six French publications devoted to the fashions.
They look over plates and select such styles as they think will be
popular. They have a lady in Paris who writes to them from there,
describing the fashions. They employ a lady in connection with their
pattern making who, by looking at the plates, is able to cut out a
mantle, sleeve, &c., exactly like the plates. Some ladies could never
learn to do so. They employ ladies, both in pattern cutting and dress
making, and pay from $3 to $5 per week--to a competent forewoman, $10
and $15. Women are paid small wages while learning. Their business is
advancing--has advanced most during the last few years. Their trade is
Eastern, Western, and Southern--mostly Southern. Their girls are
employed from 8 A. M. to 6 P. M.; having an hour at noon. In the pattern
business, there are just about enough of hands in New York. Spring and
fall are the busy seasons. E. G. says the busy season commences the
middle of January, when she is willing to receive learners. She gives
instruction for nothing for one month; after that, she pays $2.50 a
week, if successful, and continues to increase salary according to the
abilities of the individual. A good hand can earn $5 per week, working
ten hours a day. Another lady told me that in pattern making she gives
instruction two months, paying nothing, but then they can earn $2.50,
and, as they become more expert, can earn $3, $3.50, and $4. They are
paid by the week, and it would be impossible to pay by the piece. It
requires practice to become an expert cutter. She prefers, for pattern
cutting, young girls from twelve to fifteen years old. In large cities,
some women go around to cut patterns, sell stays, embroidery, &c.
=346. Shoes.= The business of making and selling shoes opens a wide
field of employment to women. The fashion, a few years back, of ladies
making their own shoes, raged like a fever. Those that had leisure did
so with economy, as the lasts and implements for working cost only $3,
and the materials for a pair of shoes from sixty cents to $1. Afterward
no further expense was needed but the materials. The fitting of shoes is
basting, stitching, and putting them together. Fitting is generally done
by females, and is so simple that children can work at it. A good deal
of this work is done in families at the East. Crimping and bottoming are
done altogether by men. Some firms in cities confine themselves to
importing and dealing in shoe-manufacturers' tools, materials, &c. In
Massachusetts, most of the shoes are made in country towns, where living
is much cheaper than in the cities; and the business in cities is very
much absorbed by foreigners, that can live much cheaper than Americans.
The principal defect in ready-made shoes is their imperfect shape. It
would be well for every adult to have a last made the exact shape of his
or her foot, and keep it at the shoemaker's. "The application of
machinery to the manufacture of shoes has made so vast a difference in
the ease and rapidity of their production that those engaged in the
business can scarcely realize the advantage they possess, and before
they are aware of it they are in the way of creating a surplus. The
effect of this change in their production will be to lessen the number
of manufacturers and operatives." Says a writer in the _Pennsylvania
Inquirer_: "Individuals that are prominent in the shoe business assert
that about 2,000 females are employed in Philadelphia in binding shoes
or sewing uppers; but they do not obtain steady work, and the average of
their wages is only $75 to $100 per annum." Four thousand two hundred
men are employed in Philadelphia in making women's shoes. Might not a
large part of that work be done by women? Yes; the cutting, binding,
stitching--indeed, the entire making of ladies' shoes might be done by
women. Most of the stitching is now done by machines. The most depressed
trades in New York, in 1845, were those of shoe and shirt making. From
the New York _Tribune_ of May, 1853, we take the subjoined extract: "The
binding of children's shoes is paid for at the rate of two pairs for
three cents, or eighteen cents a dozen pair; while for the full size,
five cents a pair. Now a first-rate hand may succeed, by the closest
application--say from fourteen to seventeen hours a day, if
uninterrupted by domestic cares--in making, during the week, four dozen
pairs, for which, after delivery and approval, she will be paid $2.40,
that being the maximum paid, and representing the value of not less than
eighty hours' labor; and from this miserable dole the cost of light and
fire is to be deducted. We are not prepared to say this sum is never
exceeded, as some houses may pay a slight advance on these prices; but
it is more than sufficient for us to know that this is _above_ the
average that hundreds of women and girls in this city (New York) are
earning from that source." We have seen it stated, elsewhere, that good
shoebinders, in New York, usually earn from $4 to $7 a week. I talked
with a shoe fitter in New York, who works for a large and fashionable
store and employs a number of hands. Some of her operators have $6 a
week, and have better wages than hand workers, because they can do more
work in the same time. As sewing machines become cheaper, wages for work
done by them will fall. Shoemakers made more money before ladies wore
heels on their shoes, as they wore out more. Mrs. I., a shoe fitter,
told me that she pays one of her hands $7, another $6, and none less
than $4. It requires about six months for most women to learn the trade.
The business is one that will extend. Spring and fall are the best
seasons for work. Her hands usually spend but nine hours a day at labor,
as stitching shoes is heavy work. Men usually do the cutting in the back
of the store, and receive better wages than the women. The cutting is
done by hand. Her workers pay $2.50 for board. There is a scarcity of
good operators on uppers. Plenty of indifferent hands can be had at any
time. She says American women are too fond of pleasure and dress. They
make money, and then must have a day or two to rest. She was an Irish
woman. The journeymen shoemakers of New York have an association for
regulating prices and hours of work, and a lady branch was started, but
has become extinct. A shoebinder in Brooklyn told me that he employs a
number of girls, paying his operatives $3, $4, $5, and some even $6 per
week. The machines have taken work from many, and lowered the prices of
those that do it by hand. To make fancy shoes requires taste and
judgment. The late strikes have given us, through the newspapers, some
reliable information in regard to the starving rates paid for work, and
wages have been somewhat increased by it. I heard a shoemaker say he
knew one sewer that received forty cents for a week's work, stitching
sixty pairs of gaiters. Two cents is what some of the Massachusetts
women received for binding a pair of boots. Yet the consumer must pay as
high for boots and shoes as ever. The reason given is, that leather
costs more than formerly--a statement we are led to doubt when
considering the increased facilities for tanning. An intelligent shoe
fitter told me the prices of work were formerly much higher than now.
The work that would formerly have brought fifty cents is now not paid
more than twenty-five cents. Mrs. B. says well-dressed women sometimes
come and bring what they say is a sample of their work. A few pairs will
be given them to make, which they will bring in poorly stitched. She
thinks any one in the shoe-making business that does her work well can
always find employment. "In Ohio, several women are employed as
shoemakers, and others are working independently and successfully,
evincing both taste and ability in their elegant and substantial work."
A manufacturer in Albany, N. Y., writes: "I employ ten women running
sewing machines, binding by hand, and stitching with wax-thread and awl.
I pay mostly by the piece, and my hands earn from $2 to $5 per week.
Women cannot do men's labor in our branch. Learners are paid what they
earn. Mechanical talent is a desirable qualification. The prospect for
extension of the business is necessarily poor. Prison work is
interfering much with our craft. Women can have steady work, if
employers manage prudently. Women that work with awl and wax thread are
mostly foreign." The returns of 1860 give 56,039 males and 24,978
females employed in making boots and shoes in New England; and in all
the States, 96,287 males and 31,140 females. In Dublin, about five
hundred women are employed in eight of the large establishments of that
city in boot closing, and earn on an average eight shillings per week,
of nine hours a day.
=347. Stays and Corsets.= At Mrs. B.'s, Philadelphia, I was told women
are paid by the dozen for making corsets, and earn from $2 to $3 a week.
They mostly take their work home. At a place in New York, I was told
they have sewing machines, and they pay operators $4 a week, working
from 7½ A. M. to 7½ P. M. Those that sew for them by hand do not earn so
much. It is difficult to get enough of good hands; so the lady thought
there must be openings for competent workers. Girls get $4 a week for
basting. Their girls are of all nations. Every store, she remarked, has
its own way of doing business. It takes some time to learn to do all
parts, as a girl usually works at some special part. A man does the
cutting. One corset maker thinks it a valuable gift to be able to fit
well. She considers corsets necessary to the preservation of health.
American children, by their restlessness, counteract the effects of
their rapid growth. Miss C. told me those that work for wholesale houses
can, if good hands, find work all the year. They are paid by the piece,
and can earn from $3 to $6. It requires three or four years to learn all
parts. Her girls cannot take their work home. Few are willing to take
learners. At another place, I was told a good operator can get $6 a
week. They sell most women corsets of French and German make. The French
fit American ladies nearly as well as those made to order, but the
German do not. At another place, I was told it requires but a short time
to learn. There are but few manufactories in this country. The imported
corsets are mostly sold, because cheapest. The basters get $3 a week,
ten hours a day, and operators $4, and $4.50, according to abilities.
Mrs. B. thinks it difficult to become a good fitter. She employs men to
cut, put bones and eyelets in, and press. Anybody that can sew well can
soon take up corset making. All her sewing is done by hand. She sends
her work to the country, because she can get it done more cheaply. The
work pays poorly. She says the form is retained much longer by wearing
corsets. A lady who employs women to stitch corsets for her by hand,
pays from $2.50 to $3.50 a week--ten working hours a day. It requires
six months to learn, and a just eye, a knowledge of figure, and an
ability to sew by hand and stitch by machine, to succeed. She says most
corset employers in New York are French, and employés Irish. She
thought, if a lady has good apartments in a genteel part of the city,
she may do well. Mrs. B., who has been twenty-three years carrying on
the business on Broadway, says she has applications constantly, but
finds it difficult to obtain competent workmen. Men are practical corset
makers, and do the cutting. They are better able to cut the goods, so as
to make a handsome fit. They receive better wages than women. It is a
business as much to be learned as cutting gentlemen's coats. She pays
both by the piece and week, and her hands receive from $3 to $8. Some of
the stitching is done by machinery--some by hand. It requires about the
same time to learn corset as dress making. Learners receive from her
from $1.50 to $2 per week. She thinks the supply of hands just equal to
the demand. She employs from 100 to 150 hands. They are mostly from
Great Britain. The business is dependent on fashion. Spring and fall are
the busy seasons. In summer, she does not sell so much, because ladies
are then out of town; but the employés can work all the year, and do so,
as she keeps a stock on hand. Corsets are more worn now than a few years
back. A manufacturer in Boston writes: "I employ ten American women in
sewing on corsets. They work by the piece, and average sixty cents per
day. The prospect of future employment is not flattering. Board, $2.25."
Another manufacturer in Boston "pays from $3 to $4.50, and says it is
all he can afford to pay. His hands work ten hours a day. The prospect
for this work is good. July and August are the dullest months. He has
found women equal to men in all branches of business they conduct.
Board, $2.50."
STRAW WORKERS.
=348. Bleachers and Pressers.= I called in a place where I saw the
pressing of bonnets and children's hats. The rims of the hats were
pressed by a woman with a large iron, the crowns by a man with an iron
attached to a lever fastened in a frame. It is all piecework, and some
can earn from $4 to $5 a week. I have been told that Mrs. K., New York,
employs women pressers. The iron is not so heavy for bonnet pressing as
for hats, but requires too much strength for a woman. Shaping straw
bonnets is done by women--that is, placing them on blocks and pinning
them around the edge, after they have been bleached, until they acquire
shape. A man pressing straw hats, told me he is paid 5 cents a hat, and
can press sixty in ten hours. The time for learning either to sew or
bleach, I find, is usually six weeks. Mrs. M. pays learners nothing for
six weeks. Her busy seasons are from October to last of November, and
from December to spring. It is all piecework, and her girls earn from $3
to $4. A bleacher of straw hats employs a lady at $5 per week to alter
and wire bonnets, after they have been bleached, which is done by her
own family. She works ten hours a day. The work is mostly confined to
spring and fall. The bleaching process is very deleterious, owing to the
sulphur used. It produces a loss of vitality and shortens life. A stout,
healthy man, in the course of a year, becomes quite pale and thin. The
bleaching does not require all the time of any one. The bonnets and hats
are put into the bleaching room, and, when they have become white, are
taken out.
=349. Braiders.= The following is from the New York _Tribune_, of 1845:
"The Amazonia braid weavers--a large and ill-paid class of working
females--begin work at seven in the morning, and continue until seven in
the evening, with no intermission save to swallow a hasty morsel. They
earn, when in full employment, $2 and $2.50 a week. Out of this, they
must pay their board and washing (for they have no time to wash their
own clothes), medical and other incidental expenses, and purchase their
clothes--to say nothing of the total absence of all healthy recreation,
and of all mental and moral culture, which such a condition necessarily
implies. They have, many of them, no rooms of their own, but board with
some poor family, sleeping anyhow, and anywhere. For these
accommodations they pay $1.50 per week, some of the lowest and filthiest
boarding houses charging as low as $1 per week. The living here must be
imagined." At Foxboro', Franklin, Middleboro', and Nantucket, Mass., are
straw manufactories. "In 1855, 6,000,000 straw hats and bonnets were
made in Massachusetts, giving employment to ten thousand of her people."
Rye straw is raised in all the New England States. It is cut, soaked in
water (I think split), and then dried. It is sold by the pound--then
braided by women and children for 10 or 12 cents a day. It is mostly
done in farmers' families, who are at but little expense for living. In
this state, it is mostly sold to merchants or agents, who sell it at
manufactories, where it is trimmed by machinery, and then sewed. It is
then shaped into bonnets, wired, pressed, and bleached, the crowns are
lined with paper, and they are packed ready for exportation. The women
earn on an average $5 a week. In England, wheat straw is raised, which
is inferior to rye straw. N. says the largest straw-bonnet
establishments of England are not as large as those of the United
States. For making straw hats in Philadelphia, men receive $7.50 a week,
and women $4.50. Philadelphia is said to spend $6,000,000 annually in
the manufacture of straw goods. At H.'s, New York, they employ from
fifty to one hundred hands. It is usual to have learners six weeks for
nothing, and then pay full wages, if they prove competent. Work is given
about ten months. They are paid by the piece, and can earn from $4 to $6
per week. In December, they begin to make up hats and bonnets for
spring. A milliner told me she pays her braiders by the yard. Some earn
$4 a week, and some even $5. They work at home. The summer season is
over by September. H. writes: "In my opinion the best arranged
industrial establishment is the Union Straw Works at Foxboro', Mass.
High wages, cushioned arm-chairs, a literary society which carries on
the lyceum lectures of the town, are all far above any of our factories.
The proprietor would not call it a factory, to make it more attractive.
Out of three hundred operatives, sometimes, seventy-five have been
teachers."
=350. Sewers.= Mrs. K. employs about seventy-five girls for bleaching
and sewing braid and straw bonnets. She pays some $3, some $3.50, and
some $4 a week. They work ten hours. All live at home, but bring their
dinners. She bleaches by the old-fashioned process with sulphur, and has
men to do the pressing. N. & Co. employ about one hundred and
twenty-five on an average six months, and about twenty-five all the
year. The bonnet business has increased very much during the last few
years. At B.'s, I was told the wholesale work for the South begins in
November; but the city work, the last of March, and continues to July.
It is light work, and does not require close application of the eyes.
Machinery can never be used for sewing straw, because long stitches
answer, and straw is too brittle. Persons of a nervous temperament are
often the most intellectual. Such females make good straw sewers. It
requires a peculiar adaptability, as every other occupation does.
Everybody cannot learn to sing or to paint--just so some cannot make
good straw sewers. He thinks most young workpeople in New York do not
live at home, and considers obedience to parents and observance of the
Sabbath the foundation of success in life. B--s, of Connecticut, write:
"Women are employed in this country, and in Italy, France, and England,
in sewing straw. Our girls (150) are mostly paid by the piece, and earn
from $3 to $7 per week. They also trim straw hats. They spend four weeks
as learners, and are paid $2 a week while learning. To be a fast sewer
is the most important requisite. The prospect of a continuance of this
work is good. The busy season is from September to June. The best
locations are near New York and Boston." "About 200 persons are employed
in the straw factory at Nantucket. Some of the operatives are daughters
of the leading men of the town, and make $5 a week at the business." A
firm at Middleboro', Mass., write: "We employ 850 women, and have them
in preference to men, because they are more dexterous with the needle.
They receive from 30 cents to $1.62 per day, and are paid mostly by the
piece. Women are paid five eighths what the men receive, but could not
perform their labor even at the same price. Learners make enough to pay
their board the first three weeks. Good mechanical talent is needed in a
learner. They have work about nine months in the year--generally stop
July, August, and November. Nine tenths are Americans; seven eighths
live at home. A large number of them are not dependent upon labor for a
living. Board, $2 to $2.25." From a factory in Wrentham, Mass., we have
the following report: "We employ during the winter season, in the
factory, from seventy-five to one hundred females, and in families who
work at home about six hundred, whose pay is not so good by about one
third. Some of our workers are paid by the piece--some by the hour. Most
of them can earn $1 a day, twelve hours being a day for females. Men are
paid 15 cents an hour; good help extra, and poor, less. They work ten
hours. For the part done by women, we pay the same price from the first,
but their work is not received until it is well done. A person is
employed to give them instruction; five or six weeks' practice mostly
makes a good sewer of one who can learn at all. During this time most
girls earn half wages. To good help we usually give work nine months in
the year. Busy seasons from December 1st till June 1st, and from July
15th to October 1st. The rest of the year, work is given out at reduced
prices--sufficient to earn about half wages. All American women. It is
desirable for manufacturers to be near New York city, so as to keep
posted on styles. Many ladies choose this business after teaching school
for years. Most of our hands come from Maine, and board in houses
provided for them, paying $2 a week." Another straw manufacturer informs
me "the girls in straw shops earn more than in most other kinds of
business, they being, as a general thing, smarter girls, and such as
would not work in cotton and other large mills. Their work varies much,
as the styles and materials change." A firm employing about eighty
American girls write: "They are paid according to their skill and
smartness, from $2.50 to $10 per week. Two thirds work by the
piece--half will earn $5 to $6.50--average about $4.50 per week. Male
labor will average double. It cannot be done by females--they are not
strong enough. The reason of women's being paid low wages is the surplus
of female labor. They cannot be hired to do housework--it is too
confining. It requires one month, more or less, according to taste and
genius, to learn the work. Good references as to character are required,
and some skill with the needle, and an idea of form. Busy from December
to June, and from August to November. We do nothing for about three
months. Hands hired by the week are paid extra for overwork. If we could
not give them the amount of work they have, the _best_ help would go
elsewhere. There is always plenty of help in this branch in New York,
and they get work done for much less, but by a different caste of girls.
In the New England States, girls are generally brought up to work,
whether rich or poor, and we can get help from the best families, well
educated and intelligent--while in some States we could not find them.
Board, $2.25 to $2.50." A straw firm in Franklin, Mass., write: "We
employ about 400 females--60 of them in our manufactory--the remainder
work at their homes. The former have the privilege of working from 6 A.
M. to 9 P. M.; but as they work by the piece, they are not confined to
any particular time. The latter accommodate themselves. Few get less
than 80 cents per diem, and many can earn over $1--some over $1.50. All
are paid by the piece, except overseers. Males and females are never
employed in the same kind of labor. Females make and trim bonnets and
hats--males bleach, block, and press them, which is too laborious work
for females. Some years would be required to learn to conduct the straw
business successfully. Some females will make a very good bonnet or hat
after a few weeks' practice. Others take a longer time, and a few will
never make a good bonnet. Our practice is to pay all while learning. The
qualifications required by us are a good character, good health, skill
in the use of the needle, and a desire to acquire proficiency. The
supply of hands is always greater than the demand. All the females
employed in straw factories are American. Our girls have access to a
good library, lectures, &c. Those employed in manufacturing board at
$2.25 per week, including washing. Boarding houses attached to the
different straw manufactories in this town are of good character and
comfortable."
RENOVATORS.
=351. Gentlemen's Wear.= A dyer and scourer of gentlemen's clothing told
me she charges 37 cents for scouring and pressing a pair of pantaloons;
75 cents for a coat, and $1 for an overcoat. A woman could make a
comfortable living at it if she had constant employment.
=352. Ladies' Wear.= The cleaning of kid gloves saves quite an item in
the purses of the wearers. Wooden frames, the shape and size of gloves,
are used for drying them on. The renovating of silk shawls, dresses, and
other goods is best done by the French. They are sometimes made to look
almost as bright and clean as if they were new. Woollen goods, too, that
will not bear washing, are beautifully cleaned by those that rightly
understand the business. All that profess to, by the way, do not. Prices
vary, of course, according to goods, places, and renovators. Women are
mostly engaged in this business. A cleaner of kid gloves writes: "I
employ some women with pens and needles at $3 per week, working from
four to six hours per day. Cool weather is the best for work, but they
are employed all the year." Mrs. C. told me that her husband and his men
clean most gloves in winter; they can clean them in two days. I noticed
they are free from any offensive odor. They pass through the hands
several times. She charges individuals 12½ cents a pair--storekeepers
less. She has been many years at it. They used to send a wagon and
collect them from the stores, but their business does not warrant it
now--so they send a messenger. As many have attempted that do not
thoroughly understand it, the business has been injured.
GENTLEMEN'S CLOTHING.
=353. Army and Navy Uniform.= Our Government might do something toward
bringing about a reform in the prices paid women. If those who have
clothing made for the men of the army and navy would pay good prices to
men of standing, that pay their workwomen well, we think some good might
be done. At any rate, they would set a good example.
=354. Buttons.= The making of buttons is chiefly done by women, and
affords employment for a great many. The proportion of women to men in
this branch of industry is six to one. Some kinds of buttons are made by
hand, but most by machinery, moved by steam. The manufacture of cloth
for buttons is a distinct branch of business. It was estimated in 1851
that five thousand persons were employed in Birmingham in the
manufacture of buttons of different kinds, more than half of whom were
women and children. In the manufacture of buttons a variety of hands are
employed--piercers, cutters, stampers, gilders, and varnishers. "In a
factory employing five men and thirty females, from six to seven hundred
gross of buttons can be turned out daily." I called in a factory where
buttons were made of vegetable ivory. I think all the work could be done
by women, but it is a trade, and requires three years to learn all the
parts. One man might be needed to put the machinery in order when it
would get out of repair. Boys that polish buttons are paid from $2 to $3
a week. Polishing looks simple, but, no doubt, requires practice. A
little girl, whose father makes common horn buttons, says he employs
some small girls who, by presses, cut out the buttons and make the
perforations. They are paid seven cents for a thousand. Her parents
assort them. H. & C., manufacturers of cloth and gilt buttons, say it
requires some weeks to learn to chase the gilt buttons, which are done
with small metal tools and a hammer. Chasers are paid by the piece,
working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day. Those that make
cloth buttons work by the week, eleven hours a day. They pay nothing
while the person is learning. They think the prospect of employment in
that branch is good. (I think it must be, for it is a manufacture likely
to extend.) They employ their hands all the year. The girls sit while at
work. S. has girls to do most of the work in making men's coat buttons.
They cut out the iron and cloth with machines, and also cover the
buttons with machines. The girls require but a few weeks to learn. They
are paid from $1.75 to $3 a week. Some of the girls are not more than
twelve years of age. The average of the oldest girls is $2.75. They work
ten hours. Learners are paid half wages. Good eyesight and smart fingers
are needed. The gilding of brass buttons is called water gilding, though
no water is used. The mercury and nitric acid used in gilding metal
buttons renders the business pernicious to the health, the fumes of the
nitric acid affecting the lungs, and the mercury producing its peculiar
disease. A manufacturer of tin buttons writes: "Our women earn from 75
cents to $1 per day, and are paid by the piece. It requires but little
practice to learn. All are American girls from neighboring families." A
manufacturer in Middlefield, Conn., writes: "We employ from twenty-five
to thirty girls in cutting, drilling, sorting, and packing buttons. They
work by the piece, and average $15 per month. While learning they are
paid $1 per week, and their board. They have regular work, and pay for
board $1.50 per week. The prospect for an increase of the manufacture is
fair." A button company in Waterbury write: "Our hands receive $3 and
upward, as they are worth. The business is good when times are good. The
majority are Americans. Spring and fall are the best seasons." A
buttonmaker in Morrisville, Pa., writes: "We pay our girls by the gross,
and they earn from $1 to $4 per week. Men earn from $3 to $9. The
women's work is lighter. Beginners are paid small wages. The prospect of
future work is poor. Seasons make no difference in the work."
=355. Canes.= Walking canes could be painted and varnished by women. I
have been told that, in France, women are employed in making ivory,
gold, whalebone, and wire heads for canes. Mrs. F. makes whalebone heads
for canes. She offered to teach me how for $20. P. says he pays from $6
to $100 a dozen for the heads of canes--ivory, silver, and gold. The
work is mostly done by Germans. The business will not pay except in
large cities. There are only six in the business in New York, which is
the main depot. He sells most to Southerners and Canadians. The business
requires a regular apprenticeship. Making and putting on the heads could
be done by women, if they were instructed, but there would not be enough
of it to justify more than a few in learning. The South offers the best
opening.
=356. Caps.= Cap makers receive very different prices for their work,
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.
=363. Shirts.= "Women who make shirts by hand, are paid for fine shirts
from eighteen cents apiece to $1. Those who make at the lowest prices
appear to have no other mission on earth but to sew up bleached muslin
into shirts. The only time which they economize is their sleeping time;
and their food is economized for them by circumstances over which it
would appear they have but little control. In some instances we have
been informed, that where there are two or three or more women or girls
engaged in this enterprise of making shirts to enable gentlemen to
appear respectable in society, they absolutely divide the night season
into watches, so that the claims of sleep may not snatch from the grasp
of the shirt manufacturers an iota of their rights. In this way, by
working about twenty hours a day, the amazing sum of $2.50, and
sometimes $3, is earned per week. Sewing machines have so reduced the
amount of labor required for shirts, as well as the price, that they can
in some places only earn twenty-five cents by working twelve hours; and
they cannot get steady employment even at these prices." Between 2,000
and 3,000 women are supposed to be engaged in shirt making in
Philadelphia. Competition has depressed prices fearfully low. A shirt
maker in that city told me he pays by the week. He gives the bodies out,
and they are done by hand; the collars and bosoms by machines. They are
cut out by men with knives, and the cloth is from twenty-four to
thirty-six thicknesses. They pay basters now mostly by the piece. B., of
the same city, who carries on general shirt making, puts the plain parts
out in the country to be done. It, of course, costs less than the
finishing off. Good workers can earn from $3 to $4 a week for plain
sewing--more for fine. At a shirt-bosom manufactory in Philadelphia, P.,
the proprietor, told me he has the bosoms and collars made by machinery,
employing seventeen girls all the year. Some establishments employ them
only in the busy season, spring and fall. His women earn from $3 to $5 a
week. To one machine are employed three girls: one to cut out, one to
baste, and one to stitch. The fine plaits of bosoms are laid by
machinery. Cutters and button-hole makers are better paid than basters
and stitchers. A shirt maker told me in New York (December, 1860), that
the only houses there supplying the article were those that made up for
the California market. Operators, good ones, he said, usually earn $1 a
day, of nine hours in winter, and ten in summer. Those that work at home
can earn more, because they do more. On Dey street, I was told by a
gentleman that he has shirts made in Connecticut, and he often finds it
difficult to get good hands. He has shirts cut out with scissors. He
used to employ a forewoman to cut and superintend. Most shirts sold in
the South, West, and California, have been made at the North. New York,
Troy, and New Haven are the principal places. Operators usually earn $1
a day, of eleven hours; but as the work is generally paid for by the
piece, they may earn only from fifty cents to $1. Making button holes is
a distinct branch. He pays half a cent apiece for those of ordinary
size, and one cent for the larger ones of the wrists. In good times he
employs girls all the year. The spring sale commences in January, the
fall sale in July. S., another manufacturer, has common drawers and
shirts made by machine. A brisk hand can make two dozen pair of drawers
a day, and are paid fifty cents a dozen (?) He keeps workers in
prosperous times all the year. A lady who makes shirts by hand told me
she could barely make a living, though her work is done for customers.
She does most in spring and summer. The trimmings she makes by machine.
Madame P. pays eighty cents for making a shirt, except the bosom, which
is imported. She does her own cutting by hand. A shirt maker says girls
that can finish a shirt neatly get $3 a week of ten or eleven hours a
day. Work of that kind is not confined to seasons. J. has most work to
do in summer. The girls are paid by the piece, and can earn from $3 to
$4. His are made by machine, but finished off by hand. He has girls of
all kinds; idle and industrious, easy of temper and obstinate; in short,
the variety always to be met with in help. A lady told me she cuts
shirts by measure, and has a variety of styles. She pays an old lady
fifty cents a day for basting, and from $5 to $6 a week to an operator.
The neatness of machine sewing depends much on the way in which the
basting is done. W. told me his basters earn from $3 to $4; operators
from $5 to $6; button-hole makers from $4 to $6. He gives employment all
the year. No demand, except in busy seasons for good operators, and they
can be obtained by advertising. The owner of a shirt-collar manufactory
and laundry said his collars were stitched by machines, and the
operators earn from $3 to $9 per week. It is piece work. The washers are
paid by the hundred dozen. Six weeks, I believe, is the time usually
given by one that can sew neatly, to learn the trade. At L. & G.'s, I
was told the best seasons in the wholesale trade are spring and fall;
but in the retail trade there is little difference. Men and boys cut out
with a knife, and are able to cut through seventy-two thicknesses of
cloth. Women have not the strength to cut such quantities. The prospect
is fair for good hands. There is a superabundance of indifferent hands.
Their best sewers are English. Many of them are married women. They used
to employ young girls, but they wasted material and were not steady at
work. They have lost much by women that would come and take out a dozen
shirts to make, and never return them. On inquiring at the place where
the women said they lived, they would find they had never been there.
Few, except the Jews, require a deposit. It is difficult to obtain one
from sewers of the value of the material taken out. They could obtain
one hundred and fifty hands any day by advertising. Button-hole makers
earn $5 a week; some operators, $9. A factory in New Haven employs eight
hundred women; two hundred work in the establishment, the others work
out. The indoor work is done by machines. The other is finishing off,
and is sent through the country. It consists in gathering and sewing in
the sleeves, felling down the facing around them, stitching on
wristbands, sewing in the bosoms, putting on the collar, and working the
button-holes, for which they receive ten cents a shirt. A firm of shirt
manufacturers in Troy, N. Y., write: "We employ from three hundred to
four hundred women; some with sewing machines, some with needles, and
others in various kinds of labor connected with our manufacturing. They
are paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $10 a week. While learning
they are paid according to what they do. Spring and fall are the best
seasons, but they have some employment all the year. The supply is fully
equal to the demand in this locality. About half are Americans; board,
$2 to $2.50." Another firm in the same place writes: "We employ four
hundred, and pay from $5 to $10 per week to about one hundred hands, and
from $3 to $7 to those who do not depend upon it for a livelihood. Women
spend a few months learning; men, years. Midwinter and summer are the
best seasons for work." A shirt-collar firm in Troy write: "In reply to
yours we would state, we are employing in and outside of our
manufactory, from six to eight hundred women, in running, turning,
stitching, banding, marking, and boxing gentlemen's collars. Most of our
workwomen are Americans, and live with parents or relatives. Those
boarding pay from $1.75 to $3 per week. Many of our workwomen are very
intelligent. All are required to be steady and industrious. Some parts
of our business can be learned in two or three weeks, while other parts
will take as many months; but each one is paid while learning. Our work
is all done by the piece, and women earn from $5 to $8 per week during
business seasons, which are summer and winter. They are usually thrown
out of employment one month during the fall, and one in spring. The
employment requires from eight to nine hours per day, in our
manufactory. The making of gentlemen's collars must increase in
proportion to the increase of the male population of our country; and,
as styles are becoming more and more varied, this also must tend to
increase the manufacture. There is, however, no demand for help in any
department of the business, yet. We have but five or six women in all
our establishment who are required to stand upon their feet while at
work. All others can make their positions quite comfortable. We employ
but few men (from five to eight), and they are in departments which
women could not fill; nor could men well fill the women's department."
Manufacturers in Boston write: "The prospect of future employment is
good. Our women (fifty in number) are nearly all Americans. There is no
competition between male and female labor in this branch, which,
probably, is the cause of women receiving less wages. The work is
healthy, only as it involves want of fresh air and exercise. Girls in
the shop are paid from $4 to $7 per week, and work from nine to ten
hours. Good sewers are getting scarcer every year. We are always ready
to employ a really good hand--one who can do nice work. There is a
growing demand for articles of all kinds. There are a great many women
unable to sew well, who compete with each other for the work given out
by the slop shops." Shirt makers in Ithaca, New York, write: "The work
is very healthy in well ventilated establishments. What we employ men
for, women cannot do as well. There is a demand for collar finishers, a
surplus of machine operatives." Shirt manufacturers in Watertown, Conn.,
write: "We employ in our establishment from twelve to twenty girls and
women, all Americans. They work in winter about nine hours; in summer,
ten. Most of them work on sewing machines, and can earn from $4 to $5
per week. For board they pay $2 per week. There is no season of the year
when our work is entirely stopped." L., in Lynn, Mass., engaged in
custom-shirt manufacturing, writes: "I pay fifty cents apiece for making
shirts, and $4.50 per week for a machine girl. My workwomen are widows
and married women, and they average five shirts or $2.50 per week,
besides their house work. But a woman that makes five shirts a week
cannot have much spare time." A lady in Massachusetts, who has shirts
made to order, informs me she pays by the piece, and her girls earn from
fifty to seventy-five cents a day. She employs the most skilful. She
says the nature of the employment is such that no woman could enjoy
health long, who did nothing else, and the wages are so small that
anyone must work all the time to make a living; hence the work does not
suit any, except those who have homes and have recourse to this as a
secondary employment. The demand for the articles in the market is
limited, and she has never been able to carry it on in a wholesale
manner except by the aid of friends whose sympathy has created a demand
for the work.
=364. Suspenders.= J., New York, says his girls can earn from $4 to $5,
and are paid by the piece. There are but four suspender factories in the
United States, of any size. The factories at the east are mostly
supplied by the daughters of farmers from the vicinity. The one in
Easthampton is of the best standing. The girls are intelligent and well
behaved. Board too is lower. They like to employ families, father,
mother, sons, and daughters. A suspender maker, in New York, told me he
buys the woven goods, then cuts it the right length, and shapes the
leather for the ends, which his wife sews on. I expect, from the
appearance of their room, they earn but a meagre subsistence. The agent
of the American Suspender Co., at Waterbury, told me "they employ a
large number of girls to spool, weave, and pack. The straps are sewed on
by farmers' daughters, who take them home. They are paid for by the
gross. They earn less than weavers, who can make from $4 to $6 a week.
They have had constant work until this fall (1860). The bindings are
sewed on by hand. It requires some time to become a good weaver. A man
serves a regular apprenticeship--women will learn for ten years, if they
continue. Ingenuity and mechanical talent are desirable. A learner is
not paid while in with another weaver. The amount of employment in
future depends on European competition. The hands work ten hours a day,
and they employ about fifty women, one fourth of whom are American.
Women are superior to men in activity, and will handle thread much
better than men. Board, $1.75."
=365. Tailoresses.= The tailors of London have a pension society. All
the tailors' work of this country might be performed by women. It is
most suitable for them. Some say women cannot do the nice sewing of a
coat. Give them the same training, and pay them the same wages as men,
and we are confident they can. All of the clothes sold in the slop shops
of cities are made by women. Many can sew beautifully, but have not
learned the art of cutting out. This they will find an important part of
their trade. It will greatly assist those who make boys' clothes. It is
ascertained that at least 4,800 females are supplied with work by the
ready-made clothing establishments of Philadelphia, which enables each
industrious sewer to earn from $1.25 to $5 per week. A large number of
women are now engaged in making clothes for the soldiers. At most large
clothing establishments, work is done both by hand and machine. Some is
done in the house, but most is given out. At O.'s, New York, they employ
a large number. The majority are Americans, but some are Germans, and a
few Irish. The foreman finds those that are dependent on their work for
a living, do their work better than those that merely do it for pocket
money. The best work is always best paid. A good hand can earn $3 per
week. They work by the piece. Some women hire a room and employ girls to
work for them. S. says the principal reason that women do not get as
good prices as men, is that they do not learn to do their work so well.
He spent five years learning, but a girl expects to learn it in so many
weeks, or months, at most; but many women that sew for a support are
very poor, and cannot afford to spend much time learning. T. pays his
women from $5 to $10 a week, according to the work they do. R. says
girls do not feel the interest in their work they should. They forget
that three minutes lost by twenty girls amounts to an hour. If a
procession is passing, they think it very hard if they cannot have ten
or fifteen minutes to look out of the windows. The girls that sew earn
from $3 to $4.50, except those who fasten the ends of threads and take
out basting threads, who receive $2.50. They all work ten hours. They
have some who take their work home, and are paid by the piece. Those
that do their work best have the highest prices, and are most sure of
having constant employment. Some of their women become mere machines,
and that in his opinion was a recommendation. They have no life or
spirit, but plod on day after day in the same way. Such, when they do
their work neatly and thoroughly, he thinks most reliable. They find it
difficult to get their work well done. It is computed by Dr. L. that one
thousand needlewomen fall victims annually to overwork at the needle. A
city missionary told me that he knew of many sempstresses that spent
sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, stitching. I was told in D. & B.'s
clothing store, that the women who sew by hand, earn from $3 to $4 per
week. P. measures and cuts, and he employs women to operate on machines,
paying from $3 to $4 per week, working from 8 to 7 o'clock. It is done
under Mrs. P.'s supervision. The work is mostly for boys. They give work
out, and of course pay by the piece. Their most busy times are from
October to March, and from April to September. They do Southern work. L.
& Co. make boys' clothing, and pay by the piece. They require a deposit
from those that are doubtful. If business is good, they give work all
the year. He thinks there is enough of work, in busy times, for all the
tailoresses in the city. The best way to learn is to receive instruction
from journeymen who employ hands and take learners. Some require an
apprenticeship of three months, and some of six months, in children's
clothing. The busy season commences November 1st and runs to March 1st,
and from March to September 1st.
=366. Vests.= First class vest makers receive better prices than women
in the other departments of tailoring, and are more sure of work.
Superior hands can earn from $4 to $5 a week. Clothing, cap makers and
shoe binders are often crowded together from forty to fifty in a room,
where it is stitch, stitch, stitch from daylight to sundown. Some slop
shops in New York pay only fifteen cents for making a vest, and only ten
cents for pantaloons!!! There are over nine thousand tailoresses doing
custom work in New York, and of these 7,400 are vestmakers.
UPHOLSTERERS.
=367. Upholsterers.= Some branches of upholstery are hard work in
consequence of the heaviness of the materials. At some upholsterers in
Philadelphia, when a girl applies for work, she is taught during a
fortnight, and receives enough to pay her board--usually $1.50 per week.
At the end of this time, if found faithful and diligent, she is put upon
full wages, $3.50 a week. In this trade there is the serious drawback of
remaining a great part of the year unemployed, as it is only in the
spring and fall that the business is brisk. Men usually put up tapestry,
and lay down heavy carpets. The price to girls by upholsterers is about
on a par with other work done by females. H., Philadelphia, employs
several women. The forewoman receives $5.50 per week; the next best
hand, $5; the less proficient, from $2 to $5. The business requires a
good amount of intelligence, and about a year's application to acquire
it. H. is not exacting as to the number of hours his operatives work.
When business is slack they have easy times. He employs his good hands
all the year. In one of the principal importing and manufacturing
upholsteries and carpet establishments in New York about seventy females
are employed. They make up a great many lace and damask curtains, and
are under the supervision of a forewoman. Seventeen sewing machines are
kept, though most of the sewing is done by hand. Any person that can sew
well can do all the work, as it is cut out and prepared. With a very few
exceptions all are paid by the week, receiving from $3 to $4, working
ten hours a day. The piece workers can sometimes earn $5. They are
employed the whole year. An upholsterer told me that his work is done to
order, and consequently the measure for beds, mattresses, curtains, &c.,
is always taken. There are many women in Boston, I have been informed,
working in sofa, chair, and lounge manufactories that earn from $1 to
$1.50 a day. A firm in Boston writes: "I employ women to sew and attend
sales, and pay from $3 to $4 a week. Men are paid two thirds more than
women, because it is the fashion. It requires three months to learn. A
knowledge of the needle and figures is desirable. Learners are paid.
Females work nine hours and a half. Some parts of our work are in wood,
and too heavy for women; the rest they can do better than men. Board, $2
to $4. A firm in Boston, "employing two women to make sofa cushions, pay
them $4 each per week, working from eight to ten hours a day. They pay
women less than men, because female help is generally cheaper. Men spend
three years learning; women, one month. Learners have their board paid.
The prospect for work is good. Spring and autumn are the most busy
seasons, but they have work all the year." Another firm in the same
place write they "employ fifteen women, pay by the piece, and their
hands earn $5 per week. The prospect for work is good, but there are
plenty of hands there."
=368. Beds.= At a feather store I was told feathers for stuffing beds
are bought from merchants, who employ agents to travel through the
country, and buy them up. They get their feathers from the West. Live
geese feathers are the best. All imported are from Russia. It requires
great experience to buy feathers. At another store I was told feathers
must be baked to render them light--otherwise they are flat and heavy.
The salesman never knew of a woman being employed in baking--thinks it
not suitable, for the down gets in the mouth and nostrils, as the
feathers must be constantly stirred. In the spring and fall, when most
people go to housekeeping, most beds are sold.
=369. Carpets.= Two thirds of the inhabitants of Saxony are employed in
weaving. It requires from two to three years to become a good carpet
weaver. To prepare warp and rags for rag carpets is very suitable, but
the weaving is rather hard for women. Mrs. W. says it does not require a
great deal of strength to weave rag carpets, when the loom is a good one
and in proper order. In weaving, both the arms and lower limbs are
exercised, particularly the latter. She wove when she was only thirteen
years old. The exercise tends to develop the chest. The price for
weaving in small places is from 12½ to 18 cents a yard. She knew one
lady that often wove fourteen yards a day, amounting to $1.75; but her
health failed, and she changed her occupation. I called in a weaver's,
in Brooklyn. He charges 18¾ cents per yard for weaving, and can weave
from eighteen to twenty yards a day. Some rags are much more difficult
to manage than others. The dust from the rags in spooling and weaving
must be disagreeable. When not working for customers he makes carpets to
keep on hand for sale. He buys the rags of old women, who get the scraps
at tailors' shops every Monday morning, and cut them into strips, then
wind and sell them at $7.50 a hundred pounds. The women are mostly
Germans, and make a scanty living at it. In the Old Ladies' Home,
Brooklyn, some of the inmates pass part of their time in preparing rags
for weaving. Some old women buy of junk dealers the rags they sell to
weavers. A woman whose husband was a carpet weaver in New York,
continues the business since his death, employing two old men to weave.
She charges eighteen cents a yard for weaving. She says that kind of
weaving could never be done by machinery, as it would pull the rags all
to pieces. She buys listing and cloth of old women who get it from the
tailors and bring it around to sell. She pays twelve cents a pound for
listing, six for cloth. She cuts them herself. A weaver told me he
charges eighteen cents a yard. He buys pieces of cloth from the tailors
for making up a stock to keep on hand. A pile of listing lay on the
floor, for which he had paid nine cents a pound. He can weave from eight
to sixteen yards a day. I have seen the average price of weaving carpets
stated at nine cents a yard. The dust that flies in preparing carpet
rags is disagreeable, and injurious to the eyes and lungs.
=370. Curled Hair Pullers.= Hair pullers are mostly Irish women, the
wives of foreigners and laboring men. A few are women of a better class
reduced in circumstances. In Philadelphia, at the shop of a kind old
man, I saw women picking hair for mattresses. He pays two cents a pound
for picking. The women earn from forty to sixty cents a day. The dust
that flies from the hair is injurious to the lungs, and the constant
watching is trying to the eyes. At one curled hair factory in New York I
saw women employed at one cent a pound, at another two cents. A smart
woman can pick twenty-five or thirty a day. An upholsterer in Boston
writes: "We have women to sew, pick hair, &c. We pay by the piece. Men
receive one third better pay than women. Women receive less, because
they have not brass enough to ask more. Any woman can do our work. The
prospect of work in our line is very fair. We have twenty women who work
all the time. The demand for hands is small, surplus large. Large cities
are best for our trade. Board, $2.50."
=371. Curtain Trimmings.= I saw two girls, in New York, who work at the
trade. Their employer does not pay learners for two weeks, then
according to what they do. Some are paid by the week, and some by the
piece. The last plan pays best. The girls earn from $3 to $5 per week,
some even as much as $7. Plenty of hands can always be had. They have
most work in summer. At another place I was told it takes three or four
months to learn. Good hands can earn then from $4 to $5. Mrs. B., in New
York, told me her girls work by the piece, making curtain trimmings, and
earn from $5 to $6 a week. They work from 6 A. M. until 7 P. M. They can
learn it in a few weeks. At Y.'s, in New York, I saw a plain,
genteel-looking woman engaged in making tassels. She pays $2 a week for
board--washing extra. She spoke very well of her employer, for whom she
had worked twelve years. She mentioned an old lady upstairs who had been
in his employ twenty years. He has fifteen women in the tassel
department, and fifteen making gimps and fringes. Some of the hands are
paid by the piece, and some by the week--ten hours a day. They are paid
every two weeks on Saturday afternoon. In the old country women make
twisted cord, but not in this. Cordmakers are on their feet all the
time. Y.'s women get from $2 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get
from $6 to $9. It requires six months to learn, and learners receive
$1.50 per week. In winter, just before the holidays, is the best time
for work; but Y.'s hands have employment all the time. When not filling
orders, they make stock work. They have a great many applications for
work.
=372. Furniture Goods.= "At Seymour, Conn., are manufactured brocatelles
and cotalines, a fabric composed of silk and linen, or cotton, and used
for furniture draperies and carriage linings. Each loom is worked by a
girl, who requires very little previous experience to manage it
perfectly. There are about 60 persons employed at present in the work,
two thirds of whom are females from the age of fourteen upward. The rate
of wages paid by the company is higher than that given by the
neighboring factories, the nature of the work requiring a superior
degree of skill and intelligence."
=373. Mattresses.= A girl engaged in making mattresses told us they are
mostly sewed up by machines, and operators earn from $3 to $6, working
ten hours a day. In some factories women sew the mattresses, and boys
and men prepare the hair and fill them. A mattress seller told me he
employs girls to make mattresses in the spring and fall, paying $3 a
week, of ten hours a day. One bed furnisher told me her work is mostly
done by old ladies. She says some girls down street earn $6 a week,
making mattresses. One large manufacturer told me that his is piecework,
and some of his girls earn from $8 to $12 a week. He furnishes the
sewing machines. In April and May, he finds it difficult to get enough
of hands. At another large store, I was told they pay from $6 to $7 a
week to good operators, and have their work done in the building. At
another large bed and mattress store, I was told they pay women for
making ticks with machines from $4 to $5 a week. It is not very steady
work. At another place they occupied a room back of the store, and
earned from $4 to $6 a week. A firm in Nashua, N. H., write me "they
employ fourteen American women in making mattresses, cushions, &c., and
pay from $3 to $3.50 a week, including board, and work ten hours a day.
Men are paid about $5 a week, and do different work from the women. Some
of the hands are employed all the year. There is no great demand for
mattress makers at present anywhere. Board, $2."
=374. Venetian Blinds.= At W.'s Venetian blind manufactory, in
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.
=380. Cover and Edge Gilders.= I think burnishing the edges of books
could be done by women after they are put in the frames, but
considerable strength is required in the preparatory processes of
shaving and screwing up. The burnishing is done with agates. I doubt
whether it requires more strength than many other things women do.
Laying gold leaf on the edges could certainly be done by them. Men that
gild the edges of books receive from $7 to $9 a week. Men will not fold
or stitch, because it does not pay well enough. G. says gilding the
covers of books requires a longer apprenticeship than either folding or
sewing; and at H.'s, workers are paid at first eight cents an hour,
afterward ten cents an hour. It being piecework, the girls are not
strictly confined to hours. Book and card edge-gilding is done both in
England and France by women.
=381. Electrotypers.= Electrotyping is now more used than stereotyping
by those who expect to have many editions of a work published. It costs
but little more than stereotyping, and is either four or six times as
durable, I forget which. 2,000,000 impressions can be taken from an
electrotype plate, but only 800,000 from a stereotype plate. A boy
learning the business receives $4 a week the first year, and after that
more. A journeyman receives $2 a day, and some $2.50. A journeyman told
us he had spent seven years at it, and he felt that he had yet much to
learn; in fact, a person could be always learning. Electrotyping would
be a useful and profitable occupation for women. An apprenticeship of
three or four years is given to it.
=382. Envelope Makers.= At B. & G.'s, New York, girls work by the piece
all the year in busy times, and can earn from $3 to $6. Most of those
who get in factories, do so through the influence of friends or
acquaintances in or connected with the establishment. Their business is
increasing. They keep their girls all the year. They give lessons in the
busy months, August and September, February and March, and pay from the
first. A good hand can earn from $3 to $5. P. & Co. usually employ sixty
girls. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $4 to $4.50 a week. The
envelopes are made by machines, attended by women. They employ five or
six girls making envelopes by hand, as they have not machines of some
sizes. P. thinks the occupation is full. They have employed their girls
all the year. They used to take learners, and give the teachers their
profits. My companion, Mrs. F., inquired if envelopes could not be more
easily made where the paper is manufactured. He replied, they could not,
because paper (and, I believe, all other goods) are delivered free of
freight in New York, and he can make more by being here in the centre of
trade, than if he had to send his goods here to be sold, and employ some
one to sell them. He prefers the girls that can be obtained in the
villages and country, for he thinks them more honest and truthful. He
thinks the grade of morals altogether superior in the country to that of
the city. He spoke of the want of moral obligation in the lower classes,
arising from the want of proper instruction, and the lower you descend
the worse you find it. The makers of boxes for containing envelopes they
got were such a common set, that they instructed some nice American
girls how to make them, and now employ them. He says the box makers are
a common set. So I have heard bookbinders, umbrella makers, and
hoop-skirt workers spoken of. But I frequently hear one trade speak
disparagingly of another. W. told me their girls are paid so much a
thousand. The envelopes are cut by a machine attended by a man. They are
folded by a machine managed by two women, who of course stand. They are
pasted and enveloped by girls who sit. The girls earn from $3 to $5 a
week. It requires but two or three weeks to acquire the trade. A learner
is paid nothing. The envelopes are tipped or gummed by a girl, who
stands. This is the most difficult part of the work done by women, and
pays best. There are eight factories in New York, one in Philadelphia,
and one in Connecticut. Nine tenths of the business is done in New York.
There are probably between two hundred and three hundred girls employed
in the business in that city. W. requires references. Some employers are
particular in their selection of hands--others advertise, and take them
as they come. 2,700 envelopes have been made in an hour by machinery. A
manufacturer in Massachusetts writes: "The work is considered
particularly healthy. Girls from 12 years up are employed, and earn from
thirty-three to seventy-five cents a day of ten hours. Men are paid from
$1 to $2.75 per day. Two are machinists, two overseers, and two cutters
of envelopes. Women are not strong enough for this kind of work. Some
parts can be learned in a month, some in six months, and in others it
requires a year to excel. We give the same employment and pay through
the year, whether our profits are larger or smaller. I employ about
sixty, one sixth of whom are American. The work is light, and we have
constant applications from girls, who prefer this to any other
manufacturing business in town. Board, $1.50."
=383. Folders and Directors of Newspapers.= The lady at F. & W.'s who
directs the papers for them, says the business has been followed by
women in New York for fifteen years. I called at the office of the
_Independent_, and saw one of the editors, who, on learning my business,
kindly invited me into the room where the young ladies were employed in
directing strips of paper to envelop newspapers. It is a pretty
business, and well adapted to women. Some learn it easily, and some
never learn it. Dr. C. remarked: "A person may have a willing mind, but
not an obedient hand." They had one young lady who spent five months at
it, and then gave it up, because she could not succeed. It requires a
peculiar aptitude, aside from an expeditious movement of the pen. It was
followed more by women eight or nine years ago than now. Many ladies
would like to get employment of the kind, but cannot. I think all the
young ladies in the _Independent_ office were American, and were
certainly very pretty and lady-like. They have a separate room to write
in. They spend about eight hours directing envelopes for papers to send
away. One earns $6 a week, another $5, and another $4. The one that
first came is permitted to have as much work as she can do. The next has
what she leaves, and the third the remainder. The objections made by
some men to employing ladies are that they do not like to have women
work in the same room where they are. They feel under more restraint,
and not so free to say what they please. Such a restraint may be a
wholesome one. Many women make the same objection in regard to working
with men. Again, if a lady does not work as they wish, or is idle, they
do not like to correct her, because women are more quick to resent. The
last excuse is a poor one. They also waste much time by having their
beaux call on them. Some urge they find a boy more useful, because they
can put him to doing something else, when he is not busy writing. In the
_Tribune_ office, men are employed because they can do it more rapidly.
It is said some direct eight hundred envelopes in an hour. In some
offices the girls are expected to seal the papers, but not in all. At
the Cosmopolitan Art Association, I saw a lady that is employed in
directing the _Art Journals_ that are sent by mail. The covers are put
on by a boy. She receives $9 a week, and spends about eight hours
writing. At the rooms of the A. C. Association, we saw three ladies
directing envelopes for the report of the society. The Association
issues a monthly magazine, and at the time of its issue employs the same
ladies for the purpose of enveloping and directing them. At other times
they employ but one. She has been there ten years, and is very
efficient. She attends to the books containing the names of subscribers,
assists the treasurer sometimes, writes letters for the secretary, and
makes herself generally useful in that way. All the ladies complained of
women being so poorly paid. The one who has been there ten years says,
for the $350 a year she gets, they could not secure a young man's
services for less than $700 or $800. The others are paid 63 cents per
thousand for directing, and ten cents per hundred for sealing and
directing.
=384. Ink.= A large quantity of writing and printing ink is used in this
country. There are factories for making each kind. Making printing ink
is hard and dirty work, unsuitable for women. Some persons cut stencil
plates and make indelible ink, and employ agents to sell the ink and
plates. Indelible, and all writing inks, could be made and bottled by
women. Care should be taken that the acids used do not touch the flesh.
Common clothes should be worn while at work, as both the ingredients and
compound are of a kind to injure clothes. A maker of writing ink in New
York, employs three girls in summer for bottling and labelling, and pays
$3.50, working from seven till dark. He never employed any in winter,
but if his business extends, he will employ his girls all the year,
paying the same price in winter. He has found it difficult to get good
hands. The prospect for learners is poor. A manufacturer of ink writes:
"I have never yet employed female help, though I am satisfied that most
of the work in my laboratory might be as well done by women as men. The
employment is not unhealthy. My men work ten hours a day, and are paid
by the month."
=385. Label Cutters.= At P. Brothers', I was told some of their labels
are cut by hand, and some by machinery. The first are square or oblong,
the others are of different shapes. Those cut with shears are most
neatly done. For cutting by hand the price is one cent per hundred. They
take them home. A lady and her two daughters, who work for them, often
receive $50 a month. Those cut by machinery could not well be cut by
women. It requires practice to make one expert. B. pays a girl by the
hundred to cut labels at home. He would employ a girl to cut and attend
his store, paying $3 a week from the first, but she must not be absent a
day. If her health is such that she cannot always be there, he does not
want her. He had one three and a half years, who was absent only ten
days during that time. S. says cutting labels is always piecework, and a
good worker can earn from $4 to $6 a week. He gives them out, and they
are cut by hand. Common ones, for spices, mustard, &c., are cut by
machinery. It does not require long to become expert. The business is
always dull in December and January.
=386. Lead Pencils.= The young man at the agency for the sale of Faber's
pencils, says they are made at Steinway, Germany, and he thinks women
there are employed in varnishing the wood of the pencils and tying them
up. The pencils are either painted or the simple wood varnished. "A man
in New York is reported to have made $60,000 by selling lead pencils
about the streets at a penny a piece, and safely investing his profits."
Some large pencils, such as are used by carpenters, were some time back
made in Massachusetts. The writing part of lead pencils is made of lead
and clay, mixed, pressed, and burnt. The wooden part is in two pieces
that are united when the lead is put in. In Germany each man has his own
part to do. Children do some parts of it, such as joining the wood.
=387. Operatives in Paper Factories.= Paper is of various qualities and
colors, and is adapted to different purposes. At least one half of the
operatives in paper factories in the United States are females,
amounting to several thousand. Water power is used in some paper mills,
but in most large mills steam is used. Women are employed in paper mills
to sift, sort, and cut up rags. It is dusty, disagreeable work, and we
presume not particularly healthy, as much of the dust is no doubt
inhaled. In some factories, women attend the picking and cutting
machines and calenders. They are also employed for hanging, laying off,
reeling, folding, assorting, counting, enveloping, and labelling the
paper. The inability to meet fully the demand for rags in the
manufacture of paper has led to experimenting with a variety of
articles. One agent for the sale of paper made in New Jersey, and the
foreman of the same establishment, told me their girls get from $2.50 to
$3 a week. The majority receive $2.50. Part work six consecutive hours,
have a rest of one hour, then six consecutive hours more, that is from
six at night till seven in the MORNING, HAVING ONE HOUR AT MIDNIGHT; THE
OTHER HALF FROM 7 A. M. till 6 P. M., having an hour at noon. The day
and night workers take week about. They board for $1.50 a week. In Lee,
Mass., women get $3.50 and $4, and the men twice as much. Women are paid
best in the ruling department. In the paper factories in New York, women
receive from $3 to $5 per week. Paper maker's girls, $1.50 to $2.50 per
week. S. says, in some paper factories girls are able to earn $6 a week.
All the labor in paper mills, except attending to the fires and
machinery, could be done by women. All manufacturers report the
occupation as healthy, except one in South Adams, who states that small
pox is sometimes taken from the rags--_not often_. A paper manufacturer
in Lee, Mass., writes: "Women are employed in all countries where paper
is made. The time of learning depends upon their skill and developments
in certain directions in the business. They are usually paid by the
piece. Men are paid more because their labor is greater. Boys learn the
business in about five years, girls in about one year. In learning they
generally receive enough to pay their board. They work at all
seasons--sometimes have nothing to do in July. There is a demand for
hands in the loft, a surplus in the rag room." The New England Roofing
Co. manufacture a felt, which is similar to sheathing paper, but made of
a fine stock. They employ six females in sorting rags and other
materials for the felt, and pay from $3 to $5 per week, one half the
price of males. They work eleven hours, and pay $2 per week for board. A
manufacturer of wrapping and wall paper, in Connecticut, writes "he
employs a few females, and pays fifty cents per day of from eight to ten
hours. He prefers them because most economical. Those working by the
piece can earn from fifty to seventy-five cents per day. He pays men $1
per day for doing like work. They require less attention, and can
perform other work when wanted, that is not suitable for females to
perform. He usually pays beginners the same as others when they work by
the day. His most busy time is when there is most water for power. An
active person can usually earn as much in from six to eight hours as a
house girl is paid for a full day's work." A manufacturer at Niagara
Falls "employs between forty and fifty women, paying each from $2.50 to
$4 per week, without board. They are paid about one half less than men,
because boys would do. The prospect of employment is good. They are most
busy in summer, although they run the whole year, day and night (except
Sunday). They are twelve hours on, and twelve hours off. Board, $1.25 to
$1.75. A firm in South Adams, Mass., write me: "We pay by the piece and
the day. The prices for female labor, we think, compared with work done,
better than for male. It requires no time to learn to cut rags, but
experienced hands can earn more wages. For finishing, from four to six
months are given. Women are paid while learning. We employ women always,
when they can do the labor. Women are superior in the neatness with
which they do their work. New England, and such States as have abundance
of clear _spring water_, are the best. Board, from $1.25 to $2 per week.
We think, perhaps, that at present the business of paper making is
pretty fully supplied with laborers, male and female, in this section of
the country, yet _good_ help finds ready employment, at fair wages."
Manufacturers of bank-note paper, in Lee, Mass., inform me by mail, they
"pay by the piece, to women, from $3 to $4.50 per week. It would require
five years for a man to learn the business, so as to properly
superintend it. That portion done by women can be learned in one month."
A newspaper manufacturer in Taunton, Mass., writes: "Fifty or sixty
women are employed by me, in manufacturing cotton goods and newspaper. I
pay by the piece and the week, from $2.50 to $6 per week, depending on
the age. I give equal pay to both sexes for the same work. They are
employed the year round, and work eleven hours on the average. The
climate of New England is best adapted to indoor labor." Paper
manufacturers in Dalton write: "We pay women by the piece, from $12 to
$16 per month, and they have work all the year. No men are employed for
the same kind of work. For other branches of the business, men are paid
from $25 to $35 per month. Women are paid while learning for what they
accomplish. The prospect for work is good. We employ women because they
are cheaper. They pay for board $1.25." A firm in Russell, Mass., write:
"We employ from forty to fifty; one tenth are Americans. They can all
live comfortably and earn good wages. New England is the best part of
this country for fine paper mills, on account of the purity of the
water. Board, $1.50 to $1.75."
=388. Paper-Bag Makers.= At a paper-bag factory in Brooklyn, the man
pays from $1.50 to $2 a week to his girls. They work ten hours. The work
is all done by hand. The bags are considered better than those made by
machinery. He has twenty-six girls at work. Some he pays by the
quantity; for some kinds, twenty cents a hundred; for some, thirty-seven
cents. Those that work by the piece have a forewoman, with whom he makes
a contract. She cleared $14 one week. It takes but a week to learn. Work
is furnished all the year. Some have worked for him five years.
Paper-bag manufacturers in Watertown, Mass., write: "We employ six women
in tending bag machines, and pay seventy cents per day of ten and a half
hours. To males we pay one third more. It requires about one month to
learn, and all that is necessary are care and application. Summer and
fall are the best seasons, but they can have work the year round. We
will not have any but American girls. Women are more accustomed to
sitting, but cannot keep the machine in order. Their dress is
objectionable, particularly their hoops, which take up much room, and
are in danger of getting in the machinery."
=389. Paper-Box Makers.= Though this may seem a trivial business, it is
one very extensively carried on. Every size and shape is called for. The
most are made, we suppose, in New York and Philadelphia, as greater
demands exist there, owing to the variety and quantity of goods
manufactured and offered for sale. Boxes are almost entirely made by
women. I think most of the men in this trade in New York are Germans.
The occupation for women is pretty well filled. The bandbox manufacture
is a distinct branch. Some women, who make small match boxes, receive
but one cent for thirty boxes. At a place in New York where seventeen
girls are employed, I was told they are paid by the piece, and some can
earn as much as $5 a week. The calling can be learned in three or four
weeks. At one place, where they make bandboxes also, the girls earn from
$2 to $5. At another, they earn from $2.50 to $5. Some seasons of the
year are better than others. They have mostly American girls. It is
sometimes difficult to get good hands. They keep their hands all the
year. Spring and fall are the most busy seasons. Very little sewing is
ever done--mostly cutting and pasting. In some large factories,
machinery is used for much of the work. K. employs a number of hands all
the year. They work by the piece (customary plan), and earn from $1.50
to $6. They are paid $1.50 per week from the time they begin to learn.
He thinks there are not more than from five hundred to six hundred
females in New York employed in his branch. There were three hundred in
Philadelphia about fifteen months ago. One paper-box maker told me he
pays fifty cents a hundred, and a smart girl can make one hundred and
fifty in a day. He gives employment all the year; his brother, in the
spring and fall. The work is always, I think, cut out by a man. B.'s
girls are paid by the piece, and earn about $4 a week. While learning,
his girls are paid $2 a week. It requires but two or three months to
become skilful. I noticed the girls in some work rooms sat, and some
stood. I was told those making small boxes sit, but those making large
boxes stand, because of the time consumed in rising to reach the parts
needed to be joined. Learners work with F. fourteen days for nothing,
and then are paid by the hundred. Some can accomplish more than others
in the same time, because they are quicker with their fingers and apply
themselves more closely. In putting on labels, it is best to stand, as
it can be done more expeditiously. It is best for girls to learn where
the cheap kind of boxes are to be made. Those that make fine boxes are
seldom willing to take learners, because of the materials that are
wasted in learning. Good hands can get work all the year; indifferent
hands are likely to get out of employment for one or two months. The
girls in the trade are mostly Irish and German. For three months, the
past year, F. was out of hands. He deserved to be all the time, for his
factory was on the fifth floor, and the steps of the open wood kind. So
girls must have been very much exposed in going up and down stairs, as
every flight of stairs led to a floor on which men were at work. At
C.'s, I was told his best workers earn from $4 to $6 a week, and are
paid by the gross. They never work over ten hours, as his work is of a
large kind. In some factories, where the boxes made are small, the girls
are allowed to take work home with them to do in the evening. He keeps
his best hands all the year. He requires two weeks of learners, and then
pays them according to the amount of work done. Another box maker gives
his work to three or four families in an adjoining city. His workers
earn from $3 to $4 per week. A girl sewing small bandboxes told me she
is paid six cents a dozen, and can usually sew ten dozen a day. It takes
but a week to learn. They are most busy in spring and fall. In pasting,
girls can earn from $4 to $5 a week. The girls sewing, sat; those
pasting, stood. At another factory I was told April and September are
their most busy months, and then they take learners. Most box makers
have steady work. If they are not making boxes for one branch of trade,
they are for another--confectioners, candle makers, &c. The business is
increasing. Girls can earn from $3 to $7. There are openings in New
Orleans. It is difficult to get good hands in busy times. It takes some
time to become expert. A boy remarked to me that paper-box makers are a
hard set; but I find there is considerable jealousy and envy existing
between some members of the different trades, and consequently always
make some allowance for what I hear. A firm of paper-box manufacturers
in Connecticut write: "Women are employed by us to run machinery, making
paper boxes, &c. It is healthy, clean, neat work. Average wages are
seventy-eight cents per day, including board. Our male help are employed
at some laborious work, which females could not perform. Average price
paid men is $1.25 per day, of eleven hours. No time is required to learn
the paper-box business, but practice makes it more remunerative. There
are advantages in being in large cities; but, having no market near, we
prefer the country, on the ground of better advantages for our help, and
its being easier to procure trusty, intelligent girls to labor. Our
women have constant employment, and are superior to men in their work.
Most of them are well suited for making good wives, being from eighteen
to twenty-five years of age. Board, $1.75." B., of Philadelphia, writes:
"We pay women from $2.50 to $5 per week, working by the piece. Men's
wages are double, as they generally have families. Neatness and to be
good sewers are desirable. They generally have work the year round. The
demand is greatest in Philadelphia, New York, and the Eastern States. We
employ them because of their ability to use the needle. Women are
superior in their own branch." A manufacturer of hook-and-eye and button
boxes writes: "We employ twelve women, and pay by the piece, from $4 to
$6 a week. Women's wages are low, because of the competition in the
article manufactured. Time of learning depends upon the natural skill of
the learner--one can learn for years. The prospect for a continuance of
this work is good. The price, and fittedness for the work, recommend
women to us."
=390. Paper Marblers.= I saw the process of marbling--something very
suitable for women, if they would properly qualify themselves for it.
The young man said a paper marbler in Philadelphia used to employ some
women to assist him, but he had to mix their paints. A paper marbler in
Boston writes: "I do not know of any females being employed as marblers
of book edges in the United States. Some are employed in marbling paper
for the covers and linings of books."
=391. Paper Rulers.= In ruling paper for blank books and ledgers,
females are employed in some establishments to feed the machine. It is
not difficult to learn, though there are not many willing to take
learners, as considerable paper must be wasted before they can become
proficient. Only a few weeks are required, and they are seldom paid
while learning. $4 a week is a fair average for female workers. Very
closely connected with this branch is that of paging blank books. It may
be learned in from ten to twelve days. This is a limited business, and
would not justify many in learning. K. thinks thirty girls would supply
the demand for the whole United States. The most busy season is from the
first of July to the last of October, and they seldom refuse any
applicants during this season. March and April are also busy months.
About half the hands are retained through the dull season. The girls
earn from $5 to $6 a week; the forewoman something more. All are
required to be orderly and respectable, and there are no associations
that would have an immoral tendency. A journeyman paper ruler in Boston
writes: "There are a few girls employed in this city at ruling, _i. e._,
where they feed on the paper, watch the work, fixing it when it requires
attention, &c. The paper is trimmed for them, it being hard work, and
requiring a man's strength to do it. The wages are from $3 to $4.50 per
week--$3.75 about the average--and when they board away from home, pay
$2 to $2.25 per week. I work by the piece, and make sometimes $10,
sometimes $16 per week; can make $12 and $13 per week well enough, nine
hours to the day. One disadvantage females have, is, that some of them
are inclined to marry when a good opportunity is offered. I wish to be
understood that this is a disadvantage only as keeping down the price of
female labor. The young man learns his trade, then he marries. He does
not quit the shop, but still improves in skill in his trade. The female,
when she marries, bids farewell to the shop and her trade. Nine or ten
hours a day is as long as girls work at our trade here. One great
objection girls have to our trade is, they do not like to soil their
hands with the ruling ink, and one cannot get through much ruling
without soiling their hands more or less."
=392. Press Feeders.= "The number of women who feed power presses in
printing offices in Philadelphia may number one hundred and fifty. They
can earn, upon an average, $4 per week." At the Methodist Book Concern,
New York, they pay to press feeders the usual price, $4 per week. It
requires about six months to become a good press feeder. When work is
scarce, they retain all their hands, if possible, but work a less number
of hours, and pay in proportion. At a blank-book manufactory I was told
their girls are paid $6 a week for feeding. Their girls think they make
poor wages when they earn but ten cents an hour. Some embossers, in
Boston, who employ thirty women in binding and press feeding, write:
"They pay both by the week and by the piece. Their women, on an average,
earn $5 per week. Female labor is thirty-three per cent. cheaper than
men's, and the part done by women is too effeminate for men. Women spend
from one to two months learning. Prospect of employment in this branch
is good. The women work ten hours. They are out of employment in summer.
Board, $1.50 to $2.50." At a printing office where from forty to fifty
women were employed, I was told the girls were mostly German, because
the foreman was a German. It requires four weeks to learn. They work ten
hours a day, and are never thrown out of employment. The demand seems to
be fully met in New York.
=393. Printers.= "In 1476, Fra Domenico da Pistoya and Fra Pietro da
Pisa, the spiritual directors of a Dominican convent, established a
printing press within its walls; the nuns served as compositors, and
many works of considerable value issued from this press between 1476 and
1484, when, Bartolomeo da Pistoya dying, the nuns ceased their labors."
In the Victoria Printing Office, of London, all the compositors' work is
done by women. The Printers' Unions in the United States have done all
they could to prevent women from entering the occupation and obtaining
employment. Men's employments in the cities, they say, are now filled,
and if women enter, men's wages will fall. They do fall, at any rate,
because women will work for less than men. To obviate this difficulty, I
would suggest that more men engage in agricultural and other occupations
that will take them out of the cities. At present, the war demands large
numbers. A printer told me that type setting could be carried on more
easily by women in towns and villages than in cities, where men are
slaves to the Unions. In the latest rules of the Printers' Union, New
York, a printer is not prohibited from working in the office with a
woman. Yet few publishers are willing to employ them, because it is
supposed they are employed for less wages. At a printers' convention,
held recently in Springfield, Ill., the following resolutions were
adopted: "Whereas, the employment of females in printing offices, as
compositors, has, wherever adopted, been found a decided benefit, both
as regards the moral tendencies inculcated and the dependence to be
placed in their constant presence and attendance upon the duties
required of them, and as a means of opening a wider field of
remunerative labor to a deserving class of society; therefore, be it
resolved, That the Association recommend to its members the employment
of females in their offices, wherever and whenever practicable."
Printing is mostly paid for by the thousand ems. More is paid for
printing from manuscript than for reprint. Newspaper is paid rather
higher than book printing, and morning papers more than evening. Much
has been said of the unhealthiness of a printer's work. The majority of
causes that render it so are not confined to the occupation itself. Some
printers must work during the night. Their habits become irregular, and
many run into dissipation. The rooms occupied by some are poorly
ventilated, and so poorly lighted as even in the day to require
artificial light, which helps to absorb the oxygen of the atmosphere.
When type are heated they emit an odor that affects respiration, and
will in the course of time paralyze the hand. But there is no necessity
for using them when heated. The standing position of compositors weakens
the organs of digestion; but compositors can as well sit as stand.
Stools may occasionally be seen in the offices of men. Bending over the
stone to correct is not more tiresome than bending over cloth when
sewing. A good education and general intelligence are necessary for a
printer. A gentleman connected with a printing office remarked to me
that printers generally possess much desultory information, but have not
their faculties more fully developed than people in most other trades.
Women's fineness of touch and quickness of motion will fit them for type
setting. "They might be instructed, not merely to compose and
distribute, but to correct, make up, impose forms, and prepare the type
completely for the press or stereotype foundery." A man should be
employed to carry the chases to the press room. When the pressman has
had the type inked and used them, he should have the form washed and
returned to the compositors' room. When women have had as much
experience as men in the printing business, they will be fair
competitors. In most large cities, and even towns, many are now employed
in type setting; but they are much scattered, and consequently not much
is known of them. In Boston, women have been engaged in type setting for
nearly thirty years, in New York eight years, and in Philadelphia five
years. More girls are employed as type setters in Boston than any other
city of the United States. They set type for nearly all the large
periodicals. They are paid less than men; but some earn $8 a week. F.,
of Boston, who employs some women as type setters, writes: "I pay twenty
cents per thousand ems, which averages to a good hand about $6 or $7 per
week. It requires about six months to learn type setting. I pay my
learners, because I consider it to my advantage in the long run to do
so. Type setters with an ordinary education will improve as they
progress. In a few years, women will work in many branches that to-day
would be termed innovation. I consider winter the best season for
printing books and periodicals. On account of neatness and taste, women
are well suited for the ornamental branches of printing." The
proprietors of a printing house in Boston, who have some thought of
employing females, write me: "The printing business is considered rather
unhealthy, on account of its being both mental and physical. It requires
from two to three years to become good workmen at our business for
males, and would take about the same time for females, although our
business is now classed composition room and press room, and females are
sometimes employed in other offices in both rooms. Our business does not
vary much, except in the month of August, when it is generally dull. Our
number of hours for work are ten, the year through. Our business is not
considered very laborious, and females make from $4 to $8 per week. Men
are generally superior to women in education and judgment. The printing
business is almost a school for learning. Board, from $1.50 to $2.50."
The largest number of printers in New York are employed on books and
periodicals. I think it likely there are more Americans employed in the
book-making trade in New York than any other trade. From an article on
"Printers," in the New York _Tribune_ of April, 1853, we extract the
following: "We estimate the services of a competent young woman at type
setting as worth in this city $2 per week, after a fortnight--$4 per
week, after three months--$6 per week, after a year--$8, after two
years. Every compositor on the _Tribune_ at work at the case has
thirty-seven cents per thousand ems, and thirty cents per hour for
steady time." The present price required by members of the New York
Typographical Union for newspaper work, when employed by the week, is
$12--ten hours constituting a day's work. For book and job work $11 is
required. At the _Day Book_ office I saw one of the editors, who thinks
women do not correct so well as men, and they want self-reliance.
Besides, they cannot lift the forms. Men are paid better for these
reasons. He thinks more women might very advantageously be employed in
setting type for papers. Job printing he thinks not so well adapted to
them, because of the variety in the work, and the judgment and
self-reliance required. Two of the girls in the _Day Book_ office have
with their earnings bought their mother a home in the country. Their
girls are more intelligent, have more pride, and dress better than most
working girls. To set type requires more intelligence than most shop
girls possess. The foreman of the same paper writes: "We employ ten
women, whose exclusive business is type setting. Seven are American
women. I deem the employment of type setting unhealthy, but not more
injurious to women than it is to men. We pay women twenty cents per
thousand ems. Men receive thirty-one cents per thousand ems in our
office. Women are not as competent to do all kinds of work as men,
particularly in a newspaper office; hence the difference in wages. The
time of learning depends almost wholly on the aptitude of the new
beginner. Some persons (men as well as women) would or could not learn
the business in a lifetime. Women have been paid while learning in this
office. A knowledge of the English language, and a disposition to
improve that knowledge on all suitable occasions, are the principal
requisites. The general order of intellect did not amount to much, when
we first tried the experiment; those who have worked steady have
improved wonderfully. They work ten hours per day. Average wages $6.50
per week in this office. With proper training and instruction, they
would be competent to do any portion of the work not requiring too much
physical exertion. The best seasons for a printer's work depend almost
wholly on circumstances. Large cities are the best places for the
printer who wishes to have steady employment." T., of New York, told me
"he employed girls for a while, and would have retained them if he could
have had time to attend to the composition department. He paid his girls
the same price he did his men. He thinks it strange that more
broken-down ministers and worn-out school teachers do not turn to type
setting, as it is learned in a very short time, requires intelligence,
and demands no outlay of muscle. On the principle that a stout muscular
man should be a blacksmith, and a small delicate one a watchmaker, a
woman should be a type setter. A girl should begin when young. Women are
no more thrown with men in type setting than in feeding presses. In all
large establishments, type setting and press work are done in separate
rooms." I think if some lady teachers would learn the art of printing
and get places as forewomen, they could from girls obtain as much work
as a foreman does from boys; but he thinks it difficult for a foreman to
be exacting with women, particularly with those who are old enough to be
sensitive and self-willed. He thinks, "in New York, women are not so
much employed in intelligent occupations as in Boston. In the cities
printers make most all their profits off two-thirders, as they are
called--boys who have not attained their majority, and do their work as
well for much less than journeymen. His son, a boy of sixteen, earns
from $5 to $6 a week as type setter." H., in New York, employs three
girls. They get $6 a week of ten hours a day. They can sit if they
choose. They have a room to work in, separate from the men. At W.'s,
opposite, a youth told me a fast worker could earn $8 a week. The girls
there were working in the same room with the men. J., of Philadelphia,
said he used to employ women to print his labels, but they demanded $6 a
week, and men he could get for $9. He told the women they were cutting
their throats in asking so much. He said women should not expect as high
wages as men, even if they did their work as well, and as much of it,
for they would thereby displace men; and besides, you could not order
women about as you could men. B., editor of the Pittsburg _Commercial
Journal_, employs six girls as compositors. Connected with his office
are two journeymen, who set type after 6 P. M., reporting telegraphic
and local news. All type setting should be done by women in the day,
unless they board very near, or in the house of the printing office,
because of the exposure of going home late at night. Three fourths of
the work of a printing office could be done by women. Afternoon and
weekly papers could be very well printed by ladies, as they are printed
in the day. One of B.'s lady compositors receives $7 a week, another $6,
and the others $4 and $3.50. They work eight or nine hours a day; and to
a learner they pay $1.50 a week, until she can set type correctly--then
more; and in two years she will be very nearly or quite perfect in the
art. It requires quickness of eye and finger to succeed. At the office
of the Detroit _Daily Democrat_, girls as apprentices are paid from $3
to $4 per week, and those advanced twenty-five cents per thousand ems.
"The compositors' office of the _Ohio Farmer_, at Cleveland, has four
apprentice girls. Compensation light at present, but after the first
year they will have the same that journeymen are receiving in this
place, _i. e._, twenty-five cents per thousand ems." A lady learning to
set type in Indiana writes: "I think the reason of the printers
objecting to my learning was that I was not required to run of errands,
or, in other words, be the 'devil' of the office, as boys are who learn
the printing business. Besides, my compensation is better than theirs,
in consequence of my ability to do more than they. I receive my board
and $50 a year while learning; after that, journeyman's wages by the
week or by the thousand ems, as I prefer. In this time I can learn to do
all, except the press work, making up, &c. The girls employed as type
setters in the office receive $3 per week while learning." I have been
told that in Rochester, Buffalo, and New Haven, printing is done more
cheaply than in New York, and some publishers send their printing to
those towns to have it done. A great deal of raised printing is done for
the blind in the United States, but women do not work at that. Printers
were wanted some time back in Charleston, S. C., and when affairs become
settled in the South, we doubt not there will be many openings for
printers. An institution has been founded in Edinburg for teaching girls
the art of printing. Monsieur P. says in many of the villages of France
it is difficult to get printers. He proposes that a certain number of
girls be qualified for the work, as women are well suited to such work,
and it is of a kind that pleases those who have tried it.
=394. Sealing-Wax Makers.= D., sealing-wax, ink, and mucilage
manufacturer, employs two girls in putting up carmine ink and gum
mucilage, also in rolling, stamping, and boxing sealing wax. To one he
pays $5 a week, to the other $4. He employs his girls all the year.
Making sealing wax is too heavy work for women, D. thought, and there is
not much demand for the kind used in sealing letters. Self-sealing
envelopes and mucilage have done away with both wafers and wax. In the
United States, one pound is sold where formerly one ton was sold. Had
the use of wafers increased with correspondence, it would have been an
extensive business; but the making and baking of wafers, D. thought, was
too heavy work for women. I expect it is not more so than making and
baking bread. But little ink is made in the South and West. C. said
women could not make sealing wax, because of the danger of being about
the fire. I suggested there is not more than in cooking. He said lifting
the vessels is very heavy.
=395. Stereotypers.= All the first plates in this country were moulded
by a Mrs. Watts, the wife of an Englishman, who introduced the art from
London. Stereotyping could be learned by women. It is an interesting
employment, but requires intelligence and judgment. In stereotyping, one
department of labor is that of correcting metal plates. If a letter is
wanting, a type is soldered in the plate. If any of the letters or
spaces are filled with superfluous metal, it is removed. I think
stereotyping an occupation well adapted to skilful and educated women.
It requires an apprenticeship of three or four years.
=396. Type Rubbers and Setters.= At P. & Co.'s, I saw the whole process
of type making. They employ some women to rub type, and some to set them
up. The setters earn from $1.50 to $2 a week. It is very simple, but
there is much difference in the quantity done by different individuals.
A careful and rapid manipulation is desirable for the worker, as it is
paid for by the number of types set up. The rubbers are paid by the
pound, and earn from $8 to $9 a week. Some people can rub 2,000 types in
an hour. The fingers become hardened. P. & Co. do not employ many
American girls, for American girls do not like such dirty work, and most
of them dislike to work where men are. Breaking off the jets is in some
places done by women. It is a mechanical operation for removing the
inequalities of the metal, caused by the imperfect chasing of the
moulds. It requires a very rapid movement of the hand, but is not a
laborious operation. It is said that some fast workers can break off
5,000 in an hour. Girls are employed at type rubbing and setting, in the
same room with men. Type are cut of a soft metal, from which copper
moulds are taken for forming printers' type. It requires a steady hand,
a correct eye, and some practice to cut them, but not much strength. It
could be done by women. B. thinks the work is not unhealthy. I suppose
the same objection as regards health might be made to breaking off the
jets, type rubbing, and type setting, that is often made to the business
of a compositor--that the lead in the metal has a tendency to paralyze
the arm; but I have never heard the objection offered. B. does not pay
learners. Prospect for employment tolerable. When times are good, he
keeps girls all the year. They are paid by the quantity. The little
girls can earn $2.50 each, and some of the larger girls, who are very
expert, can earn $4.50. Girls always sit in rubbing type. In setting up,
I think they can sit or stand, as they please. There will be a demand
for type so long as books and papers are printed. I suppose there will
now be an opening in the South for type founderies. W. takes learners,
and pays by the quantity from the first. All his women sit while at
work. It is not healthy work, because of the lead floating in the
atmosphere being inhaled. He can always get hands by advertising.
Setters get about $2.50 a week, and rubbers $3, and $3.50. C. says, if
type rubbers are industrious and attentive, they can earn from $3 to $7
a week. Rubbing pays better than setting, but is quite laborious.
Setters earn from $2 to $3.50, and are generally small girls. They are
always paid by the quantity. It does not require long to learn. The
prospect is good for employment. In ordinary times they are employed all
the year. At H.'s, I was told that girls are never taught rubbing until
they have learned setting, as rubbing pays best, and it is not fair to
give a learner the advantage of an old hand. Setters cannot earn more
than $2.50 a week; rubbers, from $4 to $6. He gives work all the year.
Some of his girls are always absent on Monday. He thinks there are from
700 to 800 girls in founderies in New York. His girls earn from $3 to $6
a week. Printers, he says, are always first to suffer in a panic. A type
founder in Buffalo, writes: "I employ fifteen American girls in
finishing type, and pay by the piece. They earn from $3 to $5 per week.
One day is sufficient to learn, and nimble fingers greatly assist.
Seasons make no difference with the work. The work is easy in a warm
room in winter." The proprietors of the Boston Type Foundery sent me the
following intelligence by mail: "We employ about twenty women in
breaking, rubbing, and setting type. The metallic dust from the type is
considered unwholesome. We pay by the piece. The girls are from ten to
twenty years of age, and average from $1 to $6 per week, working from
six to nine hours. But a short time is required to learn the parts,
except rubbing, which occupies some months. They are paid while
learning. All other parts of our business, except those mentioned, are
too severe for women. The prospect for a continuance of work is
tolerable."
=397. Wall Paper Gilders.= Most of the wall paper used in the United
States for many years past has been made in Philadelphia, and I believe
it is still thought to produce the best qualities. There are three modes
of impressing wall paper: one by printing, another by stencilling, and
the third by painting with a brush. In the cheapest paper, the outlines
are printed and the colors put on by stencil plates. For printing, large
blocks are used that are cut by hand, and for each color a separate
block must be used. This work forms a separate occupation, that of a
block cutter. For the finest papers, the outlines are printed, and then
filled by the use of the brush. The ailments of colorers of wall paper
arise principally from the coloring matter, much of which is very
poisonous. "By laboring upon arsenical paper in the finishing
department, small tumors are produced, and some have to change their
occupation in consequence." At H.'s store, Philadelphia, the young man
told me they employ girls from twelve to sixteen years of age, for
putting gilding on paper. They work ten hours, and earn from $3.50 to
$4.50 a week. They merely lay gilding on, which is fastened by the
pressure of machinery. Some manufacturers have the gilding put on with a
size. At C.'s, New York, the foreman told me they employ two girls, at
$3 a week each. A powder is sprinkled on by boys, which, by the way,
could be done by girls. The girls then lay the gold leaf on the powder.
A machine then passes over the gold leaf, making an impression by a die,
of the pattern desired. Another branch of labor in which they employed
girls for a time, was the rolling of paper for the store. It requires a
peculiar tact acquired by practice only. They are paid seven cents for
100 rolls, each roll containing eight yards. It would take a brisk and
careful hand to become at all expert three months, at which time she
could earn about sixty cents a day, of ten hours' work. At the end of
three months more she would, perhaps, be able to earn an additional
twenty cents a day. It makes the fingers very sore, as considerable
force is thrown into the tips of the fingers. Some fingers cannot become
hardened to it, and the individual has to give it up. C----'s have work
all the year, except a week in summer, and one in winter, and when the
machinery is out of repair. They have most to do in winter, getting
their paper ready for spring sale, and to send away to the West and
South. It is not unhealthy labor. Many girls might be employed in
departments now occupied by boys. At N. C. & Co.'s, I was told by a
young German that from one hundred to one hundred and fifty boys are
employed in that building, but no women or girls. There are several
parts that could be done by women. The common paper is rolled by
machinery, the fine by hand. In one factory in Boston, girls are
employed to roll, and in one in some other part of Massachusetts. Paper
stainers in Nashua, New Hampshire, write: "Women are employed in
coloring and finishing papers. The work is healthy, though all cannot
use green. We pay some by the week and some by the day: $3 per week for
day hands. It requires two or three months to learn. A light hand, quick
motions, &c., are desirable qualifications. The prospect of employment
is the same as all other branches of manufacture. Warm weather is our
most busy season. The hands spend a few weeks in the country in
midsummer. We employ from twenty to twenty-five women, and they work ten
hours a day. They have the advantages of libraries, religious services,
&c., and pay for board $1.50 per week." A wall-paper manufacturer, in
Boston, writes: "The different kinds of work and a fair knowledge of the
manufacture of paper hangings must be seen to be appreciated. For one to
be capable of taking charge of a manufactory in my line, he must devote
many years of close application, and must be a man of fine taste, in
order to get up a _taking_ style of goods, as the success of the
business, in a great measure, depends upon that, coupled with a fine
finish. The perfection of the manufacture may be all that could be
desired, but if the arrangement of the shadings of the colors were
faulty, there would be a very limited sale of them. A woman might
perhaps make a color mixer (as we call them), if the work was not too
hard and too dirty. We employ three girls to roll paper. It is light
work, and they are paid from $2 to $4 per week--day hands, ten hours.
The time to learn depends upon the capacity of the learner--say a month.
The women are not out of employment long. The women are mostly foreign,
and can make a comfortable living if they choose. Women have not
sufficient strength for some parts of our work."
CHEMICALS.
=398. Chemicals.= One chemist wrote me that some part of the work in the
manufacture of chemicals is wet and disagreeable. Another writes that
"women are not employed in that branch in this country, but may possibly
be employed in England, Germany, and France; but if at all, only to a
small extent. The employment is not generally unhealthy. To learn it in
all its details, a pretty thorough knowledge of chemistry ought to be
acquired. But a short time is required to learn the ordinary part of the
business. The prospect of the employment of women is slight, but your
inquiries have, however, suggested the idea and possibility of employing
women to a small extent. Men in chemical works are employed at all
seasons, and constantly for eleven hours per day. No particular locality
has advantage over another, except its proximity to market. Uneducated
persons, of ordinary intellect, can be employed to some extent in the
labor." Another informant writes: "The manufacture of those chemicals
most largely used in the arts, requires laborious work. It is, besides,
rather severe on the clothes and hands, and is entirely unsuitable for
women. There is, perhaps, room for the employment of women in the
manufacture of the finer chemicals, but rather in the way of putting up
than in the manufacture itself. We are not engaged in this branch. The
demand for pure chemicals is so very limited, that only regularly
educated chemists engage in the business, and they do most of the nice
work themselves. There is nothing to hinder women from studying
practical chemistry, but there are few chances for educated chemists;
and there are more than men enough to take all the places that are to be
filled." A manufacturer of acids writes: "We employ no female labor in
our establishment, it being heavy work, not suitable for them." The
present style of female dress would be inconvenient, if not dangerous,
in the preparation of such chemicals as require the operator to be near
the fire. This difficulty, however, could be obviated.
=399. Baking Powders.= D. employs girls to put up baking powders,
spices, &c. It is piecework. A very brisk hand can earn $5 a week, but
few can do so. They work longest in summer days. They like to close
early enough to give their girls time to get home before it is very
late. Mechanical talent only is necessary.
=400. Bar and Soft Soap.= Large quantities of soap are made in the
United States. That sold in groceries is made mostly in towns or the
country. It is hardened by muriate of soda, and called bar soap. That
used by people in the country is generally of their own make, and called
soft soap. In New York, we observed in some groceries barrels of soft
soap of a very light color, almost white. Vegetable substances were used
previous to the invention of soap, for washing the person and garments.
A plant growing in California is said to yield a very good substitute.
Some kinds of earth, mixed with lye ashes, have been used. Making soap
in large quantities would be very heavy work for women. A machine has
been invented for cutting soap into bars, which will doubtless in time
do away with the primitive plan of cutting it with wires. At a soap
factory, a man told us that women are never employed in factories in
making coarse soap. Attending the kettles could not be well done by
them. The only part that could be done would be cutting it in bars, but
that is rather too hard, on account of the strain and change of
position. It is cut with wire after it has become hard.
=401. Blacking.= In London, in 1852, there were, by Mayhew's estimate,
one hundred and fifty women and girls selling cake blacking. M.,
manufacturer, Philadelphia, occupies a four-story granite-fronted
building. He employs about fifty women in making tin boxes, filling them
with blacking in paste, and labelling them. It requires but a few weeks
for a smart girl to acquire dexterity. We saw the women at work in two
large rooms (each being the whole floor of the house). They looked
cheerful, though somewhat grimy. They work ten hours, and earn about $3
a week. The steady hands are kept in work the year round. The tin boxes
pass, almost with the swiftness of thought, through eight hands, three
of these operations being performed by steam machinery, tended by women.
The boxes are soldered by men, who receive $6 per week. It was once done
by women, but is right warm work, particularly in summer. All stood
while at work, except the women sorting bands. The premises had been
rendered as healthy as possible. All the small pipes of the soldering
stoves led into one large pipe, which carries off the fumes of the coal;
and a cylinder has been made to confine a white powder which is used in
the business, and which formerly floated through the atmosphere of the
work rooms. The women are sometimes employed in bottling ink, and earn
from $2 to $3 a week, working about the usual time--ten hours.
=402. Candles.= Candles are made of different materials, of which wax,
tallow, and spermaceti are most common. Some candle makers employ women
to prepare the wax for candles. Candle manufacturers write us: "Women
are never employed in our business, and we never heard of their being so
employed. We consider the work too heavy, and too cold. The principal
part of the work is done in winter, and the manufacturing rooms must be
kept cold. Women were at one time employed in cutting and preparing the
wick for candles; but since the introduction of machinery, that part is
dispensed with." A manufacturer writes from another city: "Men sometimes
work all night, at the season when the nights are long. The only place,
I think, where there can be a demand for female labor in my branch, is
where there are no men." Another informant writes: "I think women could
not be to any considerable extent employed in making soap and candles,
for several reasons: 1st. It is for the most part a heavy business,
requiring more than female strength. 2d. It is objectionable on account
of the dirt, which is the result of coming in contact with tallow, &c."
Another says: "Our plan for moulding is too heavy for women to work at."
At an oil and candle manufactory, New York, I was told they used to
employ some women in putting wicks into moulds, drawing candles, and
packing them. Machinery is so much used now, that women cannot do as
much of it as they did. Besides, candles are not used so much as they
were, owing to the introduction of gas and various oils. They paid their
girls $4 a week. They now employ one woman in putting the wicks in
moulds for wax candles, and drawing and packing them. J. employs two
women in making sperm candles, but they have been at it twenty years.
They each get $4 a week. M--s, New York, write: "We employ six women in
making and packing candles. They are so employed in France and England,
and very likely in Germany. The work is not unhealthy. Our women are
paid from $2.50 to $4 per week, of ten hours a day. They are generally
paid by the week, though sometimes by the piece. Men's wages are from $9
to $12. We know of no reason why women are paid less, except that it is
the general custom. It requires from two to three weeks to learn. Women
are paid while learning. Dexterity of the hands is the best
qualification for a worker. The occupation is gradually decreasing.
There is no material difference in the seasons for work. Women are
sometimes thrown out of employment in the summer months. We employ women
because they are more nimble fingered than men, and female labor is
cheaper. Workwomen are more apt to get in trouble among themselves,
where many are employed, and are more difficult to control. We have
generally found them more careless and less uniform in their work than
men; so much so, that their employment is constantly diminishing in our
work, being replaced by machinery. We find them in no way superior to
men, except their nimble fingers." We place against this the preliminary
report to the United States Census of 1860, where one hundred and
forty-two women are returned as being employed in soap and candle
manufactures.
=403. Chalk.= I saw a man making prepared chalk. He sometimes employs
small girls to put it in boxes, and pays from seventy-five cents to $2
per week. They work ten hours a day. There is nothing unhealthy in it.
He thinks there are but few manufacturers of it, and consequently there
is not much prospect for employment.
=404. Emery Paper.= G. would be willing to employ girls to pack and tie
up emery paper, paying $3.50 a week. It is dirty work, on account of the
glue that is used, and is very severe on the fingers, causing the blood
to flow often, and unfortunately does not harden the fingers by
practice.
=405. Fancy Soaps.= Some of the fancy soaps of American manufacture are
equal to any in the world. Those of Bazin, Philadelphia, are considered
best. Those of Jules Hauel and Harrison are nearly equal. There are
other manufacturers of fancy soap in the United States. On Spruce
street, Philadelphia, is a place where they employ girls to put up fancy
soaps, and pay by the piece, from $2 to $5 per week. L., New York,
employs girls by the week, for from $2 to $3.50. It requires practice to
put up either soap or perfumery. They are most busy in spring and fall.
None made South or West. L. has lost the custom of shop girls by the
hard times. They have no money now to spend for fancy soap and hair oil.
=406. Fire Works.= Two hundred and eleven females are reported in the
census of Great Britain as being employed in making fire works. S. &
Co., New York, employ ten or twelve women for pasting the paper covers
on fire works, but not for filling with powder. All the work is done in
daylight. They are paid something while learning, and then from $3 to $5
a week. For overwork, they are paid by the hour. Their factory is in
Greenville, N. J. There is one in Cincinnati, one in Boston, and one in
Philadelphia. Girls sit while at work. The prospect for learners is
good. S. & Co. are most busy in spring and summer but able to keep their
hands employed all the year. They have a great many children employed on
Long Island, in making torpedoes, who cannot earn more than $1.50 a
week.
=407. Flavoring Extracts.= Manufacturers in Rochester write: "We have
about twenty women engaged in putting up and packing perfumery, &c., and
pay from $2 to $3 per week. A smart girl will learn in a week. Quickness
of movement and steadiness of habit are the best qualifications. The
prospect of work in this line is good. They are employed all the year,
and work ten hours a day." C., of Boston, employs a number, "because
they can work cheaper than men. They are paid by the day or week,
according to their experience. Good workers earn 50 cents a day, of nine
hours. To thoroughly understand the business requires a lifetime.
Women's part of the work is learned in six months. Women are paid while
learning. All seasons are alike. The work is easy, and the pay good.
Board, $1.50." H. C. & Co., of Boston say: "In compliance with your
wishes, we give below answers to your inquiries. We manufacture
perfumery, cooking extracts, hair oils, &c. We employ females to bottle
and label them. We pay by the amount of labor done, and the average
earnings are about $4 per week. Why women are not generally better paid
is a difficult question to answer. We think, however, the argument is
good that they do not as a general thing have family expenses to bear.
If they were taxed (are not those that own property?) and also bore a
proportionate share of family expenses, there is no good reason why they
should not have the same pay for the same labor as males. (Have not the
majority of workwomen some one dependent upon them, even with their
scanty wages?) The work may be learned in a few weeks. An aptness and
tact to handle small bottles, to tie ribbons, and cut corks quickly,
best fit one for this work. There is a constant demand for the kind of
goods we manufacture. Our females work ten hours a day, and their
employment is steady. The work is clean and comfortable; the
remuneration, we think, just. Women are superior to men, from being
quicker in their movements and displaying better taste. Board, $2.50."
Other manufacturers in Boston write: "We employ ten American women,
because they do the work cheaper than men could. We pay by the piece.
They earn $6 a week, and receive three fourths of the wages of men. They
are paid $3 per week while learning. Women are inferior in business
capacity, superior in details. Board, $3 per week."
=408. Glue.= Glue is made from the parings of hides, and refuse leather.
First they are put in alkaline water to be cleaned, and then boiled in
large vessels. The liquid is poured off from the gelatine which coats
the vessel and forms in sheets. I think women might spread the substance
on nets in drying rooms, and, when dry, cut it and pack it. It is cut by
wires having handles, which are held in the hand, to assist in pressing
the wire with more force across the glue. S. employs several girls, who
earn from $3 to $6 per week. He pays by the gross. Most of the girls
have been with him ever since he commenced manufacturing, eight years
ago.
=409. Gunpowder.= The agent of the Hazard Gunpowder Company told me they
employ at the manufacture as many of the widows and children of those
killed by explosions as they can, in making linen covers for kegs, and
putting gunpowder in envelopes, and cutting labels, and putting on them.
D. writes to an acquaintance for us: "We employ women at times in
labelling canisters, and then only two."
=410. Oils.= A manufacturer of machine oil says a lady that understands
the business could give men orders, and keep the office, and so carry on
the business; but the work is too warm for women, and too laborious. It
is certainly greasy work, and therefore hard on clothes. A manufacturer
of oil writes me "he thinks the business not at all suitable for women:
the only part that could be done by them is such as pertains to the
office, which would be the same as that of other merchants." The
manufacture of hair oils forms an extensive business. A manufacturer of
linseed oil told me he could employ a woman to remove the seed from the
bags, after the oil has been pressed out, but it would be greasy work.
Some oil manufacturers told me they would employ girls to put oil in
bottles for sewing machines. They would also be willing to employ female
agents to sell oil for sewing machines. If a lady could sell twelve
bottles a day, at 25 cents a bottle, she could make $1.75.
=411. Paints.= Oil paint is so disagreeable to handle and put up in such
large quantities that it is unsuitable work for women. An English
workman in B. & I.'s factory told us that women are employed in the
paint factories in London and Hull as extensively as men. What they do
we could not exactly learn, except that they put the powder for paint in
cans, and label them. The man said the business is pernicious to the
health. Ex-Mayor T. employed some women in his color factory at
Manhattanville to label. At O.'s Philadelphia, a few women are employed
in moulding the cakes of water paints, and stamping them, and in tubing
and packing fine oil paints. A paint manufacturer in Brooklyn writes:
"The only way we can employ females is at putting up paint dry in
six-pound boxes or in cans. This last is ground in oil. We have
generally employed boys for this purpose, but I think females would suit
better, provided they were kept by themselves. If this could be done, we
might be able to employ from four to five hands. The work is rather
unhealthy, as it affects the lungs. We pay one woman $4 per week,
working ten hours a day. It requires a week to learn. We do not work for
four months in winter. Cleanliness and tact are necessary for putting up
goods. Women would attend to their work better than boys."
=412. Patent Medicines.= Women are very extensively employed in putting
up patent medicines. At H.'s, Philadelphia, where extract of ginger is
made, they once employed women in the summer. They prefer boys and men,
because in intervals men and boys can do other work that women cannot.
Women were only employed by them to put up, seal, and label. Where H.'s
bitters are made, women are employed to envelop, seal, and label, and
paid according to the industry and skill of the workers. They receive
from $3 to $4 a week. Dr. Ayres, I have been told, has his medicine put
up by females in Canada, because he can have it done there more cheaply,
although a duty of 15 per cent. is paid for importing.
=413. Pearlash.= Women could make pearlash in the country, where large
quantities of wood are burned in clearing off land, and would no doubt
find it pay very well for the trouble.
=414. Perfumery.= Perfumeries have been used in oriental countries from
the most remote ages. The finest and most costly perfumes are still
brought from the East. They were much used in England about the time of
Queen Elizabeth. The essential oil of plants confers their odors. This
oil may be obtained by expression, infusion, or distillation. In some
cases, it may be pressed out of the cellular structure that contains it.
Roses and such plants are mostly steeped in water, but some plants are
steeped in wine and similar substances. There is a difference in oils
obtained from different parts of the same plant; for instance, the
leaves, flowers, and fruit of the orange tree yield distinct oils. The
perfumeries of France have the best reputation of any others.
Considerable perfumery is manufactured in this country, that meets with
a ready sale at a good profit. At J. H.'s, Philadelphia, the woman who
superintends others employed in putting up perfumery, told me that the
hands work three months before they are paid. They then receive from
$1.50 to $5 a week. It would require two years, she thinks, to acquire
proficiency. J. H. finds employment for his hands all the year round.
The girls cut kid for the tops, tie them on, label the bottles, lay them
in cotton in small boxes, and then put them in large boxes ready for
nailing and sending away. The girls each perform the entire process. It
is not divided into separate branches. Sometimes they are employed in
putting up fine soaps. The labels are all imported from France. They sit
while employed, and spend from ten to twelve hours at it, according to
the work on hand. R. says some perfumery is made by machinery and some
by hand. He thinks a woman should spend from six months to one year
learning to put up perfumery, as it must be done very neatly. He pays
his girls, while learning, $2.50 a week, and after that according to
ability and industry. The business is now dull, for people cannot afford
to indulge in luxuries. At P.'s perfumery manufactory, I learned that
the girls work from 7½ to 6, and earn from $2 to $8 per week--the
average, $3.50. They are mostly Americans. Spring and fall are the best
seasons, but they keep them all the year. They have many applications,
but are often puzzled to get enough of good hands. Girls do better than
men for putting up perfumery. It requires some taste. Poor workers are
very destructive, for the articles of which some perfumeries are made
are very costly. There are employed in packing fancy soap and preparing
perfumery, between six hundred and seven hundred girls, in New York;
average wages, $4. A manufacturer of hair oil pays his men from $10 to
$15 per week. Good taste and a quick hand are the requisites. Near a
city is the best location. At H.'s perfumery and fancy soap manufactory,
one of the firm told me they "import" Frenchmen to make the perfumery,
who impart to them the secret, and they furnish the materials. Their
busy season commences in January. They pay their girls from the first,
but not much until they get to working well. It requires some time to
become expert and tasteful in putting up perfumery. They are paid by the
piece (customary plan), but do not work over ten hours, as it is all
done at the factory. They can earn from $3 to $9 a week. They keep their
hands all the year, but in busy times employ extra hands. They employ a
number of girls in making boxes, who earn about $3 a week. P. & F.
employ one woman, paying $3.50 a week. P. told me such work is usually
paid for by the gross, and workers earn about $4.50. The business is
likely to increase. No manufactures West or South. It requires six
months to become expert. Vacancies are often occurring among the hands.
Some are employed in label cutting some in filling bottles, corking,
tying, labelling, and boxing, while others envelop and seal the soap.
They sit most of the time, but change their position every little while.
There is but one establishment of the kind west of Philadelphia, and
that is in Cincinnati.
=415. Quinine.= At P. & W.'s laboratory, Philadelphia, they employ a
number of girls in weighing and putting up quinine, calomel, &c., to
send away. The girls work eight hours in winter and nine in summer, and
receive from $3 to $9 a week. The employment is thought not to be
healthy. It changes the fairest complexion to a sallow, just as the
taking of the medicine would. The air of the room where we sat, and
where the girls were corking, sealing, enveloping, and labelling, was
strongly impregnated with the quinine. It was so offensive that I could
not rid myself of the taste for several hours after I left the room. In
one apartment a man and woman were weighing the article. The woman wore
a bandage over her mouth and a muslin cap on her head, and spectacles
with large, dark, convex frames, to prevent the quinine from getting in
her eyes, as it turns the white of the eye yellow. The women had each
their own apartment of labor. They looked as healthy as you generally
see, but I do not know how they may have looked when they commenced
working there. The lady who accompanied me, said her friend had fallen
off very much and lost the beauty of her complexion while working there
during the last two years.
=416. Salt.= "In certain cities, especially at Dieppe, France, women
have the business of carrying salt; it is a monopoly which has belonged
to them from time immemorial. They form a corporation, have a syndic,
and salt in the sack cannot, in this city, be transported from the
vessel to the depots or warehouses by any but them." According to the
statistics of the salt manufacture in 1850, there were 2,699 males
employed and 87 females in the United States. Water from the ocean,
lakes, and salt springs, I suppose, could be boiled by women. A
rock-salt manufacturer writes: "Women might do some of our work better
than a man; but one man can tend the hopper and tie as fast as another
can fill. The best salt for dairy purposes is imported, and therefore a
seaport is the best place for our business." A manufacturer in
Barnstable, Mass., writes: "Women are not employed in my branch of
industry, as far as my knowledge extends, _in making salt_; but, when it
is ground for table use, women are sometimes employed _in making the
bags_ to put the salt in. They formerly made good wages in this
business; but, since sewing machines have come into almost general use,
the price of labor has fallen, and I am not posted as to the price now
paid, as most of the ground salt and the bags are manufactured in
Boston. Working with salt is very healthy. We manufacture our salt
between the 1st of April and the last of October, by solar evaporation;
but very little if any salt can be made in this way after the latter
month, as the sun runs too low for salt making. Our works are provided
with covers, which require too hard labor for women to shove on as rain
approaches, and to be opened every fair day. Women can, and occasionally
do lend a hand in this business; but it is too laborious. Then, the salt
has to be taken out by men with shovels, and this is too hard labor for
women. They might assist in drawing the water from one room to another,
by simply taking out and putting in plugs; but under a hot summer's sun,
we think our business entirely unsuitable for them. In the winter, we
manufacture epsom salts; but even this work we consider too laborious
for women." A salt manufacturer in South Yarmouth, Maine, writes: "I
believe women are employed in the mills in Boston for grinding salt, in
making the bags, putting it up, &c., for table use. Otherwise, the
service is too hard." Manufacturers in Syracuse, N. Y., say "they have
but a limited number of women employed in making sacks. The most of
their sacks are furnished by the manufacturing establishments." Salt
clarifiers in Burlington, Vt., write: "We employ one woman, because it
is cheaper to do so. We pay her $4 per week--a man we would have to pay
$6. The work is healthy, and women's part soon learned. Spring and
summer are the best seasons. The prospect for work in this line is good.
Board, $1.70 per week." A gentleman in the salt business at Geddes, N.
Y., writes: "There used to be employed far more women than now in making
bags to hold dairy or bag salt. Now, sewing machines have entirely
superseded them in this branch of our business. During the summer
season, formerly, there were from one hundred to three hundred women at
bag making. There are now, say one hundred or more women engaged in
packing and filling the barrels with salt. They are all foreigners. It
is dirty, heavy, and laborious work, and not suitable for women, but is
extremely healthy. No difference is made in the price paid men and
women, all being paid by the piece, and earning from 75 cents to $1 per
day. A strong woman can learn very soon. The amount of work, probably,
will not change much in future. The work is done only in the summer
season. A large proportion of all the salt made in this country is made
here. The annual product of our salt springs is about seven million
bushels salt, produced at an expense for _labor_ of not less than ten
cents per bushel. Nearly all is paid to men, Irish and Dutch getting the
most of it. A very small part of the work, if any, is adapted to women.
Most of our women workers are the wives or mothers of men and boys who
fasten hoops on barrels. Most of the salt at Syracuse, N. Y., is made by
boiling down the water that springs from artesian wells. At Turk's
Island, salt is made by simply digging vats in the meadow and throwing
the water into them. As it rarely rains there for a number of months,
they require no covering to their works, and have only to take out the
salt and stack it up when it is made."
=417. Soda.= I find that in factories of this kind, girls are not
employed in this country, except for putting the article in papers. They
are paid from twelve to sixteen cents per hundred, according to the
size. At a factory I saw many at work. They looked very neat. All wore
clean calico dresses, and snow-white handkerchiefs over their heads, to
prevent the soda from lodging in their hair. They must inhale
considerable of it, as the atmosphere was strongly impregnated. One of
the workers told me they are paid eighteen cents per hundred packages,
which were rather large. A box contained sixty packages. Some are able
to put up as many as seven hundred packages a day. The proprietor and
one of the girls said it was not unhealthy work; but it is my impression
that it is, if worked at constantly. It requires but a week to get in
the way of doing it, and expertness is gained by practice. They work all
the year, but sometimes there is not much to do. They are most busy in
spring and fall. Some of the hands live near; so, in slack times, if the
proprietor receives an order to be filled, he sends immediately for his
girls. At another factory, I was told September and October are the most
busy months for their hands. They cannot send much away in winter,
because the rivers are closed and railroad freight is high. Soda, I was
told, is more used in the South than saleratus. Some of their girls are
paid by the week, and some by the box. They earn from $3 to $4. The
gentleman said the dust was disagreeable, but not unhealthy. Their girls
stand while at work.
=418. Starch.= A large number of plants and vegetable substances contain
starch. Wheat, potatoes, rice, and maize are the principal. It is also
found in the seeds and stems of plants. It is not soluble in cold water,
consequently may be easily washed out of any vegetable substance. For
those from which it cannot be so removed chemical decomposition may be
employed. Manufacturers write us: "The making of starch is hard and
unsuitable work for females; but girls are employed to put up the starch
in papers and label it, receiving from thirty-seven to seventy-five
cents a day, according to what the worker accomplishes." The following
intelligence we received from the Oswego factory: "We employ from
fifteen to twenty women, because we find them more attentive than boys.
They paste labels on packages of starch, and receive thirty-seven and a
half cents per day, of from eight to ten hours. A smart girl can learn
in a few hours. The prospect of employment in future is good. They are
paid the same that boys would be, and have work the year round. There
are no parts suitable for women, in which they are not engaged. Board,
$1.25 to $1.50."
=419. White Lead.= At the store of a white lead manufacturer, I was told
they employ a number of girls, when busy, to label the tin cans. The
making of white lead is unhealthy, and, I suppose, very disagreeable
work. Women are employed in England in the manufacture of white lead.
=420. Whiting.= This article is used for cleaning silver, and one
preparation of it for the face. There are not more than from twelve to
twenty women at the work in the United States. B. used to employ women,
and paid by the pound. The women earned about $3 a week, of ten hours.
They were employed merely in putting up the article.
COMMUNICATING MEDIUMS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND OTHERS.
=421. Assistants in Public and Benevolent Institutions.= There is a wide
field of usefulness open to ladies, as matrons in charitable
institutions. Blessed is the influence a woman exerts as a matron, if
she is a kind, good woman. Her responsibilities are great, but a
consciousness of the vast amount of good she may accomplish should
reconcile her to them. The discharge of her duties will often cast her
in the society of visitors, many of whom are refined and educated
people. In _reformatory institutions for children_, a matron may do
incalculable good. _The female department of almshouses, lunatic
asylums, hospitals, prisons, workhouses, and all other public and
charitable institutions_, should be in the hands of women. They can
exert a better influence. They know better the wants of their sister
women. They can enter into their feelings. They can check familiarities
with the male inmates, and exert more influence when temptation is
offered. In short, they are women, and know a woman's heart. _Orphan,
and deaf and dumb asylums, houses of refuge, eye and ear infirmaries,
schools for imbecile children, and all such places_, should be managed
by women, as far as practicable. The managers of the home department of
such institutions should be firm and efficient, yet kind hearted. Nor
should merely the filling of these offices be given to women, but there
should be a number of lady visitors to coöperate with the managers. They
can often suggest many improvements for the comfort and health of the
inmates, that would escape the notice of men. I was told by a friend,
now deceased, who took an active part in establishing and advancing
benevolent institutions, that she found it very difficult to obtain
matrons, seamstresses, and tailoresses, willing and competent to
instruct the inmates of the institutions in their various branches of
labor. She thought it would be well to instruct women so thoroughly in
their business that they might efficiently impart a knowledge of it to
others. She thought there should be a house where women and girls could
be properly prepared to perform the duties of cooks, nurses, and house
servants. A lady friend suggested that many of the situations in the
public institutions of New York might be filled by some of the women who
are now keeping boarding houses, and so, the pressure in that quarter
being removed, there would be fairer and fuller play to those that are
left in the occupation. A principal reason of the order and cleanliness
of the workhouses in Holland, is the attention and humanity of the
governesses; for each house has four, who take charge of the inspection,
and have their names painted in the room. For the moral management of
convicts, men are systematically trained in some countries of Europe. In
the hospitals, prisons, and reformatory institutions of England,
supported by the government, women are employed. They are even eligible
as overseers of the poor. The President of the Board of Public
Institutions in New York city furnished me with answers to questions in
regard to the women employed therein, as follows: "Women are employed as
matrons, nurses, and laborers in this city, and on Blackwell's and
Randall's islands. They receive from $5 per month to $430 per annum, and
are paid by the month. The labor performed, properly belongs to women,
although we employ some men for part of the same labor, but their pay is
about the same. There is no need of an apprenticeship to become familiar
with their employments, and the only special qualifications are health
and strength. There is no difference as to seasons with us. They work
only as many hours as are necessary. The demand for those occupying this
position grows out of the number of the destitute and criminal thrown on
our hands. About twenty-five per cent. employed are Americans. We employ
women in all work for which they are suited. The more intelligent are
selected for the most responsible positions. If so disposed, they have
ample time for mental and moral culture. They live where they labor, and
their places of residence are comfortable." Each of the janitresses of
the public schools of New York receives a salary of from $100 to $400
per annum. At the Tombs of New York, a woman has charge of the
department where the female convicts are. At a meeting of ladies in
Dublin, for the employment of women, Mr. McFarlane said that "for the
last twenty-five years, the Grangegorman Penitentiary had been under the
management of a lady, and it had been most admirably conducted."
=422. Commissioners of Deeds.= There are about two hundred in the city
of New York, and, with a moderate run of custom, each can make several
hundred dollars per annum. Their duties are very light, and, I have been
told, could as well be performed by women as men.
=423. Housekeepers.= A kind, yet decided manner, will more effectually
govern a household than fretting and scolding. A portion of time should
be regularly set aside for servants to feel as their own. It will often
prove a matter of economy to those who exact work of them. Those of
principle will work more diligently. Everybody needs some rest. Gain the
good will and confidence of servants, and they will reward you in the
labor of their stronger muscles. But avoid familiarity, by all means.
Much of the long, wearing toil of servants might be avoided by
consideration and management on the part of a housekeeper. Domestics
labor hard, and much of the comfort of a family depends on them. Do not
accuse on suspicion those in your employ of doing or having done wrong.
Be careful of the reputation of others, particularly dependent females.
A man of standing, to whom I expressed the desire that more occupations
should be opened to women, expressed the wish that our domestics should
be Americans, and of a more intelligent class. An effort should be made
to elevate the standard of servants, he said, to induce more respectable
and intelligent women to enter domestic service. Those engaged in it, he
thought, should find something else to do, and will be pushed out as a
more competent class enter. I would prefer to see our present class of
servants fit themselves better for the discharge of their duties, and
American girls enter occupations of a more refined and exalted nature.
The same gentleman referred to, stated that his servants each receive $2
a week, dress handsomely, and lay by money. (?) They do better for
themselves, he remarked, than the girls in his bookbindery. In some of
the convents of France, the sisters go through a course of training to
prepare them for the duties of housekeepers, and are then sent to take
charge of religious and charitable institutions connected with their
church. Why might not some such plan be pursued by Protestants? Says an
English review: "In Germany, the employment of women in the offices of
house-steward, maitre d'hotel, butler or lackey, sanctioned by universal
custom, is not considered so incompatible as it would be with us, with
the other branches of a first-rate establishment."
=424. Keepers of Intelligence Offices.= Intelligence offices are
established for the purpose of giving information to or respecting
persons seeking employment. They are individual enterprises. From fifty
cents to $1 is paid by an applicant for information of persons desiring
one of such capacity as they seek to fill. The same price is paid by the
person seeking an assistant or domestic. Most offices are limited to
supplying domestics; but one or more might be established for the supply
of seamstresses, saleswomen, milliners, dress makers, &c. Girls often
find it an advantage to apply at an office, if they have not friends to
interest themselves and secure them situations. But they should be
particular to know the character of the office they patronize. A lady
remarked to me, if a girl was willing to spend a year in a family where
she could be well instructed for her work, she could then be sure of a
good home and fair wages. Servant girls are universally complained of at
the North. Many of them are very exacting. Most are raw Irish girls, who
think, when they come to this country, everybody is equal. Consequently,
they do not know their places as they do in the old country, where there
are distinct grades in society. Another thing that makes some so
trifling is that such swarms come, and they are so ignorant, and many of
them so corrupt, that they instigate each other. I was told, by the
keeper of an intelligence office, that girls and women always ask more
than they expect to get. Some cooks get as high as $20 a month. They are
mostly French and German. Now and then he has a good American. He has a
lady in attendance that can speak French and German. His terms are fifty
cents a month from the employer, and the same from the employée. It
gives the privileges of the office for one or two months. Few are
willing to go to the country. Many girls come from the country that do
not know where to board. The keeper of the office sends them to a cheap
but respectable house. His office is open from eight to five. To
employers he sends a blank certificate of character, to be filled when
the servant leaves. There is a Protestant office in Philadelphia, and
one or more in New York. At an intelligence office on Grand street,
where girls pay fifty cents and the employer fifty cents, the girl has
the privilege of being supplied with places for two months, if she
remains on trial the time specified by agreement with her various
employers. If not, she forfeits the privilege. This office had a
servants' home connected with it, that is, a boarding house for servants
out of employ. The girls paid $2 a week. A training school was connected
with this, in which the servants received instructions in cooking and
the various details of housekeeping. The cooking of the boarding house
was done by some of the number. He failed in his enterprise, he said,
from want of capital. One has been in operation in England for eight
years very successfully, connected with which is a training school. They
have few Americans to apply for places; for Americans like lighter work,
as nursing, sewing, being lady's maid, &c. In summer there is a scarcity
of girls, for they go to the country and watering places to cook and do
housework. In the fall they flock to the city, and there are more
applicants than situations. At some offices the privilege is accorded
for three months, and at some only one month. A lady who keeps an office
in Williamsburg told me, when the girls come to her, she takes their
names and qualifications. She receives the calls of ladies wanting
girls, and also records their wants. After five o'clock, and on Saturday
after two o'clock, the office is closed, and she then compares the wants
of employers and employées, and makes out a corresponding list. Next day
she sends girls to their places. I could have got a lady's maid for $5 a
month with board and lodging. I saw a lady securing a nurse for her
child at the same price. Fifty cents is the fee for the privilege of her
office for three months. She furnishes girls during that time until the
mistress is satisfied; and the girl pays the same, and is furnished with
places for three months until she is satisfied. She does not require
references from her girls, but sends the lady to the last employer of
the girl. I called at Mrs. Y.'s office, New York. Girls, she says, get
different prices in different States. In wealthy States, as
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Southern States, they get good
prices. In Cincinnati, and the States of Wisconsin and New Jersey, poor
prices. She sends many from the city to every part of the United States.
People write to her, inclosing the money for the girl's passage. She
then buys her a ticket and provisions, and sends her on; but the
arrangement is always for a year or six months, as people are not
willing to incur the expense of paying the passage of a girl for less
time. She could get many more places for girls, if they would go to the
country; but they do not wish to go, and, if dissatisfied, be at the
expense of returning. The girl may be deceived, by finding there are
twice as many in the family as represented, or the work is much harder.
Mrs. Y. learns the character of a girl that applies to her, and then
registers it in her book. So ladies applying for a girl have from her
the true character. She has no difficulty in finding places for her
girls. She is always busy but on a rainy day. People object to having an
intelligence office near them, as the girls are inclined to stand about
the door. It is said that the majority of the keepers of intelligence
offices furnish the best places to those by whom they are bribed. A few
years ago, the number of white female servants in New York city was
estimated at 100,000, that of Boston 50,000, Philadelphia 30,000, and
Baltimore 20,000. There is a lady in Boston who goes around among her
friends and secures to them good domestics, receiving some compensation
for her services--I think, fifty cents a domestic. When the influence of
servants over children is considered, I think parents cannot be too
careful in the selection of their servants; and to obtain good ones,
they should be willing to pay a fair price. There is a waste of time to
girls sitting in offices, and a risk run of being sent, by a person of
whose moral character they know nothing, to a house that may prove the
wreck of their virtue. At a boarding house and intelligence office for
workwomen, the lady told me they charge $2 a week for board, allowing
the privilege of the wash room, and of sitting in the parlor in the
evening, which is warmed and contains a piano. To those who cannot pay
as much as this, they charge from $1 to $1.25, giving them rooms in the
attic. They have been applied to often for persons of a higher class
than usually frequent intelligence offices, but only until since the
times have been so hard have they had such applicants. I was told, at
another office, they seldom have American girls apply for places, except
as house girls, and they are mostly girls who have worked in factories.
They send girls to California and all parts of the United States, and
they have some who travel through Europe in the capacity of ladies'
maids. Their office is open from nine to five o'clock. When a girl is
sent for from another place, the money is sent by express and a receipt
taken, or by mail, and a receipt taken at the post office. One of a high
order for cultivated women, who desire places as bookkeepers, copyists,
secretaries, &c., is quite necessary. We would suggest the establishment
of such an office for furnishing female workers to different parts of
the United States, where they are wanted in the higher branches of
woman's labor. It would confer a blessing on virtuous and industrious
women, and be an accommodation to employers. A paper devoted to the same
interests might do much good also; but we think it doubtful whether it
would pay its way.
=425. Lighthouse Keepers.= Miss H. told me of two young women whose
father keeps a lighthouse, but he is very feeble and infirm. They attend
the lights, and often row out, if they see a wreck, and do what they can
to rescue the passengers. We observed this newspaper paragraph a few
years back: "A Mrs. Lydia Smith has been appointed assistant keeper of
the lighthouse at Manitou Island (Michigan) at $250 per annum." "They
have a Grace Darling at Bridgeport, Conn. On the night of the 13th
inst., Miss Moore, an accomplished young lady, the daughter of the
keeper of the lighthouse on Fairweather Island, just below Bridgeport,
heard cries for help at a distance from the shore, and determined that
an effort should be made to rescue whom it might be. It was too dark to
tell the direction or the distance, but, summoning two young men to her
aid, she launched the boat belonging to the lighthouse, and ordered them
to pull out in the direction of the cries, herself holding the tiller.
About two miles out in the Sound, they found a sailboat capsized, and
clinging to it were two men nearly exhausted. One of them was entirely
helpless, and with great difficulty got in the boat; but both were
finally rescued from death by the courage and efforts of this brave
girl, and brought safely to shore. Mr. Moore, the keeper of the
lighthouse, has been for some time afflicted with ill health, and when
unable to see to the details of his office, this daughter assumes the
entire management, and, through the lonely watches of the night, it is
her fair hand that trims and tends the beacon that guides the mariner
safely on his way."
=426. Pawnbrokers.= I suppose this business requires a general knowledge
of the value of goods. Some pawnbrokers profess to make liberal
advances, but a very heavy percentage is usually charged. Indeed, some
pawnbrokers extort an incredible interest on money loaned to the poor.
S., an intelligent Irish pawnbroker, into whose office I went to ask
something of the business, told me he never knew of but one woman in the
business. She was nominally a widow, and employed a young man to stay in
the shop. When women are employed in pawnbrokers' establishments, it is
nearly always as auxiliaries, being the wife, sister, or daughter of the
keeper. He thinks it not a suitable business for a woman, as the class
of people that come require a strong man to deal with them, who can use
their slang language, and drive them away if they become very rude. No
doubt, many go to pawn what they have when under the influence of
liquor, or to pawn their clothes to get liquor. The broker retains what
is pawned for a year, if it is not redeemed in less time. It is then
sold at auction. There is a law that permits it. His shelves were filled
with bundles, on which were pinned numbered papers. Another pawnbroker
told me that the fashion and quality of goods decide the price put on
them, particularly wearing apparel. There may be a difference in the
value estimation of pawnbrokers, just as there is in different
establishments where the same kind of new goods are sold. I saw the name
of a female pawnbroker in a business directory, and called. I did not
see her, but the young man who was employed to assist her in attending
the store said they have most business to do in summer, and that it is a
business requiring experience. They pay on articles taken to them what
they will be likely to sell for at auction. They must make some
allowance for what they may lose on the article. They charge at the rate
of twenty-five per cent. for a year's time, which is as long as anything
pawned is kept. They lose more on clothes than other goods. They allow a
depositor to draw any sum of less amount than the estimated value of an
article; and when the article is redeemed, a percentage is paid on the
amount of the money drawn, and not on the full value of the article.
=427. Postmistresses.= There are (1854) 128 postmistresses in the United
States. They receive the same salaries that postmasters do. The clerks
in post offices sometimes count at the rate of sixty letters a minute.
There are 29,000 post offices in the United States, ninety clerks in
Chicago, and, I think, nearly three hundred in New York. Might not a
large number of these be women? I have read that it is in contemplation
to place in the general post office in London a number of lady clerks. I
called on Mrs. W., who was for nearly two years at the ladies' window in
the general post office, New York. Very few approved of a lady being
there. She found some advantages, but many disadvantages, arising from
her position. In the first place, it yielded her and her child a
support, the salary being $600. She was treated with respect by all the
attachés of the office except two--one of whom was immediately
dismissed, and the other removed. But the class of women who go to the
general post office constantly for letters, are of a kind a respectable
woman would not like to come in contact with. The majority receive
letters under fictitious names. Some of them were very impudent to her.
And sometimes men would come to the window and insist on her getting the
letters of their lady friends for them. Besides, there were about fifty
clerks immediately around her, and altogether in the office between two
hundred and three hundred. They were men of all classes and nations. The
office is one influenced by political motives, and a man has the
advantage as candidate by gaining the votes of his friends. She says she
was kind and courteous, but found it necessary to be very decided, and
keep at a distance from every one. The men in the office did not like
it, because they had to guard their tongues. She remained there from
8.30 A. M. to 4.30 P. M., and was on her feet all the time, with the
exception of a few minutes. There were no conveniences or comforts for a
woman. So she suffered severely from the effects. She thinks the plan of
employing ladies in the post offices of towns and villages might be done
more easily. Even here it might be done more advantageously, if the
office was situated farther up street, the regulations were different,
and a number of ladies were employed instead of but one. A lady could
not well use a ladder to reach down letters from the upper boxes. A
young man did that for her. For a postmistress we might enumerate the
qualifications of quickness of eye, strict integrity, a retentive
memory, and patient industry. "Unmarried females only can hold the
office of postmistress. They are appointed, give bonds, and are
commissioned in the same manner as postmasters, and receive the same
compensation. There is, however, a larger number of females, generally
the wives and daughters of postmasters, employed as assistants; but as
the latter are appointed and paid by the postmasters themselves, to whom
alone they are responsible, their names are not recorded on the
government books."
=428. Sewing-Machine Instructors.= In many of the stores of New York,
where sewing machines are sold, we notice that many of those who give
instructions to buyers of machines are men. Shame on the men that teach
women to sew! When such is the case, to what may not a woman resort for
earning a livelihood? Shame on the man that engages in such an
effeminate employment, save he who is deformed and cannot engage in
harder work! Shame, I say, on the man seen at a sewing machine, or with
a needle in his hand! Surely the muscles and bones and sinews of men
were never given for such a purpose. W. & W. employ five young ladies as
instructors on machines, paying each of them over $6 a week. They have
one to sell thread, and two to go about the city adjusting machines. It
is something difficult to do, as it requires almost the mechanical
talent of a machinist. They have no applications for instructors on
sewing machines out of the city, but have for some in the city. They
employ females because the purchasers of machines are generally ladies.
G. & B. employ a lady for adjusting machines, as they find ladies prefer
one of their own sex for the purpose. I was told at S.'s, by the
bookkeeper, they do not employ female instructors. They used to employ
both young men and young ladies, but they spent so much time talking to
each other, that they found it necessary to dispense with either the one
or the other. So they gave up the girls eighteen months ago, and have
not employed any since. They paid girls $4 a week from the time they
took them, and increased their wages to $5 or $6. Many of the women
earned $6. They worked, on an average, ten hours a day. Ladies are
employed in Boston to sell machines. The ladies of New York (said a
young man selling machines) prefer to buy of a gentleman. (?) Yet, he
thinks the crying sin of civilization is, not furnishing remunerative
employment to women. Simply learning to sew with a machine is by no
means difficult, though the time required depends very much upon the
abilities of the learner. Some become proficient in all its
accomplishments of hemming, tucking, gathering, preparing work for the
machine, &c., in from three to six months, while others do not become
efficient workers in less than a year. The time required to learn
depends very much on the machine used, as some are more complicated than
others; and a thorough knowledge of the machine is desirable for every
good worker. It is more difficult to learn to operate on one kind of
machine after learning on some other kind. By paying $1.50, a person can
receive six lessons on sewing machines at S.'s. At W. & W.'s, and at G.
& B.'s, purchasers and those who cannot pay are taught free of charge.
Some people charge $3 for teaching to operate. L. & W. will teach any
one to operate who buys a machine, but they charge others $2.
=429. Shepherdesses.= Boys who keep sheep in Scotland, knit while so
employed. Girls and women who tend sheep, might perhaps do the same.
Sheep are being raised to considerable extent in Texas, and the raising
of them is on the increase in the Western States, but we do not know
that females have ever been employed in this country to tend sheep.
=430. Toll Collectors.= It is not unusual to see women receiving toll at
the gates, but they are mostly foreigners, or poor widows, or the wives
of the gatekeepers.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THE COMFORT OR AMUSEMENT OF OTHERS.
=431. Bathhouse Attendants.= There are some people that cannot afford to
have bathhouses in their dwellings, and for such it is well there are
houses where, for twenty-five cents, they may enjoy the luxury of a
bath. Particularly is it well for hard-working people, on whom the dust
and perspiration collect, and who are refreshed and rendered more
healthy by frequent baths. Where a bathhouse is used for women
alone--there being no department for men--we think it might be owned and
superintended by a lady, just like any other branch of business.
Females, of course, would be in attendance to wait on those that
frequent the bath rooms. Quite a number are employed at water-cure
establishments, which are open for patients at all seasons of the year.
Not only does cleanliness promote comfort, but it is conducive to
health. Many of the diseases of the poor arise from a want of
cleanliness. Even the morals are improved, and the mind freed as it were
from its cobwebs. Most medicinal baths should be superintended by some
one that has a knowledge of medicine and the human system. And those
employed, if unacquainted with the business, should be particular in
observing directions given. For baths, a person should have means to fit
up rooms neatly, and enough to live on until their establishment becomes
known. I called on the wife of a gentleman who has electro-magnetic
baths administered. He is a physician, and gives medical advice as to
the kind of bath required. He does not give much medicine, thinking the
article that would be prescribed had better be administered externally
in the form of a bath. The baths are $3 for a single one; $10 for four.
More people take the baths in summer than winter. After a vapor bath the
system is stimulated, not relaxed; it is then better prepared for the
reception of medicine. The charge at one establishment I know to be 50
cents a bath, or $5 for twelve. In New York, I saw the People's Washing
and Bathing Establishment, which was put up by some philanthropic
citizens, for the benefit of the poor. A man is employed to take charge
of it; and in summer, several women attend to bathers, and some wash and
iron towels. They pay $3 a week to a bath attendant, and from $3 to
$3.50 to washers and ironers. They have had 1,500 bathers a day, in
summer. For a bath in a small room and one towel, six cents are charged;
for better accommodations, twelve cents. A swimming bath for boys is
attached, and a charge made of three cents a swim of half an hour.
=432. Brace and Truss Makers.= I went to M. & Co.'s, New York, who are
surgical and anatomical mechanicians, inventors, and manufacturers. They
want to employ several good female workers. They will not take any to
learn, because it requires time to teach them; yet a person of moderate
abilities, that can sew neatly, can learn in a few days, or weeks at
most, to do the cutting out and stitching. Part of the stitching is done
by hand, and part by machinery. The workwomen are paid $3 a week, and
work ten hours. At L.'s truss and bandage institute, I learned that he
employs a number at $3 a week. He cannot get as many good hands as he
wants. He drew several hands from his former employer by paying them a
little more. His wife does the fitting for ladies. A truss maker in
Middletown, Conn., pays his women by the piece, and they earn from $3 to
$4 per week. A., Brooklyn, pays a girl that sews neatly, but has never
worked at the business, $3 a week. Any one that can sew well or operate
on a machine, can do the mechanical work. He pays experienced hands over
$3, according to what they do. His girls work but nine hours a day.
Manufacturers of surgical apparatus in Boston write: "We employ women in
sewing exclusively, generally about twenty, and all American. The work
is not more unhealthy than any sewing. We consider any steady sewing,
and the consequent confinement, more or less injurious. Average wages,
perhaps $4 per week--something depends upon capabilities, however. Some
have earned $6 per week, though such cases are exceptions. All our work
is done by the piece. Females are paid about half the price of males.
There appears to be an ample supply of female labor. On this basis,
prices, details, &c., are governed accordingly. That portion of the work
done by males, it takes three years to learn; that done by women, three
months, presuming they were good sewers at the start. Learners are paid
the same as old hands. Of course, they are slower, and accumulate less
until well learned. To be a neat sewer and possess some mechanical skill
will prepare one for this employment. We are seldom idle more than two
weeks in the year. The male portion of our work would be no more adapted
to women than horse shoeing. Our hands work from eight to twelve hours
each day, and have none too much time for the improvement of their
minds, considering they must be occupied more or less upon their own
private sewing in addition to their business." A truss maker in Boston
writes: "I pay by the week, from $4 to$6 to women; to men, from $7 to
$12, because they can do more. They work from nine to ten hours. All are
Americans. It requires from three to six months to learn. Some portions
of the steel work would not be suitable for women. Board, $2 per week."
"W. & F. employ eight women for making braces, bandages, &c. They pay $3
a week to those who are employed by the week. Those that work by the
piece can earn from $4 to $6, and sometimes by overwork $7 a week. Their
work is steady in good times, and they are able to employ their girls
all the year. All sew by hand but one, and she receives but $4 as an
operator. The business is mostly confined to cities."
=433. Chiropodists.= W., of the firm of L. & W., was quite a gentlemanly
man in his manners, conversation, and dress. He mentioned three women,
each in different cities, engaged in this occupation. He thinks his
pursuit preferable to dentistry. Both depend on the class of patients.
To follow the calling professionally requires a knowledge of anatomy and
surgery. There is a great deal of charlatanism practised by some in the
calling. A knowledge of how to extract corns is not sufficient. Bunions,
inverted nails, &c., require scientific treatment. He charges $1 for
removing one corn, fifty cents apiece for two, and proportionately less
for three or more. There are a great many itinerant doctors. If any
individual fits himself properly for the calling, he may, after three or
four years, in a large city, living from hand to mouth during the time,
succeed in establishing a name and gaining respectable practice. The
number of ladies suffering from corns has not decreased, judging from
his experience. Men are more liable to have corns than women, because of
more severe and constant exercise. He thinks it would not do for women
to work at men's feet. I think it would not be more agreeable to a woman
to have a man work at her feet; and as far as propriety goes, one is no
better than the other. He would discourage any lady friend of his from
undertaking the business. I called on Mme. K., a French lady. Her father
is a chiropodist in Paris, and what she knows of the business she
learned from seeing him. She found it unpleasant at first, but now she
does not mind it. She goes to the house of the patient for the same
price as she operates at her own room, namely, fifty cents a corn. She
has as much to do as she wants. She thinks, in other places there are
openings, and a woman that thoroughly understands the business is in
every way as fit and capable as a man. She knows of but one other lady
in the business in this country, and she is quite aged. She thinks, by
three months' study and practice with a skilful operator, one might do
very well to commence for herself. She would as soon operate on a
gentleman's as a lady's foot. It might be well for one commencing to
practice to travel, or get custom in several towns and villages in the
same vicinity. I think she would instruct any one for a satisfactory
compensation. A chiropodist says, as long as people are fools enough to
abuse their feet, the prospect for his employment is good. L. is the
oldest practitioner in the United States, and has practised in New York
for twenty years. He would be willing to instruct pupils, charging $100
for each student. He would give thorough and systematic instruction, and
teach to make the material used. People have not had much confidence in
ladies, because of their deficiency in surgical skill. Incompetent
persons have injured the business. Times do not affect the amount of
practice. There are openings in Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago. Many
ladies come to L. to have their finger nails trimmed, polished, and
tinted. They would no doubt be as willing to have a competent lady.
=434. Cuppers and Leechers.= This business is sometimes connected with
that of a barber. But in cities, some women engage in it, and, no doubt,
are as competent as men. Indeed, for their own sex and children they are
better fitted. Mrs. A., a cupper and leecher, told me the best way to
obtain custom is to form the acquaintance of some of the best
physicians, as they will then recommend you but you must always be ready
to attend their patients, or they forget you. Her father was a
physician, and in that way she learned the treatment of leeches. It is
well to get into the favor of persons that serve as leechers at the
infirmaries--they may be willing to instruct you. The Germans have
killed the business in New York. Some charge but twenty-five cents for
cupping, and proportionately low for leeching. Leeching is sooner
learned than cupping, but there is much less of both done than formerly.
Homoeopathy has interfered with their use. She used to be out all day
and up all night, but now she seldom has a call; and yet she must be
always at home, and ready for a call. She never goes to take a cup of
tea with a friend, and is frequently called out of church. Leeching and
cupping require a steady hand, and ability to use the scarificator. A
person in the business must go into all kinds of sickness, without even
asking what it is. Accidents give considerable custom, and in the sickly
season there is most. It has become common for lads in apothecary shops
to be sent out to apply leeches. When they are to be applied to any
hidden part of a lady, a female leecher, of course, is preferable. Mrs.
A. charges twenty-five cents a leech, if more than one is applied--if
not, thirty-seven cents. For cupping she charges $1. One lady in New
York charges not less than $1 apiece for applying leeches, and in some
cases more. Mrs. L. thinks a lady could not make a living at the
business in New York, because the Germans have killed the trade by
working at half price, and, as might be supposed, do not properly
understand it. A good location should be fixed upon for an office. A
cupper and leecher is expected to go in all weather, and in all hours of
the day and night, and in any kind of sickness. Most of it is done in
fall and winter, because there is then most inflammation. Judgment must
be used in the quantity of blood to be drawn. A leecher should be a good
judge of the quality of leeches, and the proper treatment of them.
Particular attention should be paid to the directions of the doctor in
applying leeches. Mrs. L. says there is an opening for a cupper and
leecher in Albany, N. Y. A friend of hers there had to pay exorbitantly
for the services of a leecher.
=435. Fishing-Tackle Preparers.= In Philadelphia, I was told at the
store where most fishing tackle is sold, that one woman is employed by
them in fastening small hooks, with silk thread, on the end of worm gut.
Large hooks are prepared in the same way for other kinds of fishing. It
would seem that few women know of the existence of that kind of work in
Philadelphia, for when the proprietor advertises for a female hand, he
never has any applicants. It is clean, healthy work, and the materials
can be easily carried home. Fifty cents a day a woman earns at it, but a
man $1. There is but a small demand for fishing tackle in Philadelphia,
but in New York the trade is much more important. C., of New York, says
most engaged in this work are English women. A fast and correct worker
can earn $6 a week at it. They are paid for by the dozen. He finds women
more honest than men, and therefore prefers them. Men will steal some of
the line or some of the hooks. For making flies, a superior hand may
earn $8 a week. Something of a mechanical turn is all that is necessary
to make a good workman. They have more work of that kind done than any
house in New York, and pay a better price to have it well done. Nets pay
very poorly, because all the large nets are now made by machinery, and
the smaller ones are made by infirm people, who do it to keep employed
as much as for the compensation. When the coarse netting is done by
machinery, it can be obtained at 12½ cents a fathom, and a fathom of the
same kind done by hand would require a day. The peculiar system of the
business is that the work is all done in winter, and the goods sold in
summer. It is a luxury, and consequently dispensed with when times are
hard. C. pays for putting hooks on the lines by the gross. The silk
lines are manufactured in England. G. & B. employ four women who work at
home in making fishing tackle and artificial flies. They are made in
winter. An experienced hand can obtain $15 a week, working from six in
the morning till ten at night. He thinks, there are so few in the
business, workers would not give instruction without good pay. A woman
may possibly earn $4 a week making nets. They employ Irishmen to weave
the silk worm gut on the hooks. The three or four large fishing-tackle
establishments in New York could furnish all that is needed for the
United States. Mrs. R., who makes artificial flies and fishing tackle,
says she has now and then earned $9 a week--a difference of $6 in the
report of the clerk. But there is considerable difference in the amount
of work of the different kinds; and as they are paid for by the gross,
some kinds of work pay better than others. There is now considerable
competition in this work, because of the many that are out of
employment. Girls apply at the store, offering to do the work at
forty-two cents a gross. None are prepared South or West--so there may
be openings before long in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, &c. Making
artificial flies is mostly in the hands of Irishmen.
=436. Fortune Tellers.= In London is a class of men and women called
Druynackers, that take goods around in baskets to sell, and profess to
tell fortunes. This magic power gives them influence over many silly
girls, that are tempted to buy of them on that account. We cannot
believe that God would vouchsafe to a mortal the power to foretell
future events--to unite the present and future--time and eternity. The
constitution of all nature and the teachings of the Bible confute such a
belief. "The veil," says some one, "which covers futurity is woven by
the hand of mercy. Seek not to raise the veil therefore, for sadness
might be seen to shade the brow that fancy had arrayed in smiles of
gladness." Wherever there are people tempted to pry into the future,
there will be some to take advantage of it. Many a fortune teller sells
her soul to Satan for the power of imposing the belief that she reveals
future events. The prices charged by fortune tellers for their services
vary from 25 cents to $5.
=437. Guides and Door Attendants.= "In Paris, the box offices of all the
theatres are tended by women--not only those of the evening, but those
open during the day for the sale of reserved places. The box openers and
audience seaters are women." "The proprietor of the London Adelphi
advertised, at the opening of the last season, that his box openers,
check takers, and so on, would all be women." We have seen it stated
that in some of the Roman Catholic churches in Paris, ladies of the
congregation pass around the plates to take up a collection. Women in
some of the old countries are occupied as doorkeepers at museums and
galleries of paintings. In Great Britain, many of the door attendants
are females, where the houses are occupied by several families, as is
often the case. In England, some women are employed as pew openers. To
come nearer home. Those who have visited the Academy of Fine Arts, in
Philadelphia, will remember the pleasant face of the janitress who
receives the tickets of the visitors, and that an obliging young woman
checked the canes and parasols. In New York, most of the picture
galleries have female doorkeepers.
=438. Lodging and Boarding House Keepers.= Patience, a spirit of
forgiveness, and an ability to overlook faults, are very necessary for
gliding along smoothly in this difficult and often ungrateful calling. A
cheerful disposition, too, is almost indispensable, for everybody likes
smiles better than frowns. A love of society is desirable. It is a
principle that has been wisely implanted in the human heart, and one
that affords numerous and important advantages to mankind. It is one
that tends to produce a desire for the comfort and happiness of those
around. Yet too great a fondness for society may cause a neglect of duty
and a love of gossipping. It is sometimes the case that light, frivolous
talk and too great fondness for excitement characterize the keepers and
inmates of a boarding house. Yet such, of course, is not always the
case. Keeping a boarding house is an office that will give to one of a
kind and benevolent nature a good opportunity of exercising her native
qualities. Sympathy closely binds such to the unfortunate, and pleasures
are doubled by participating with others. Whether those who keep
boarding houses happen to have by nature more idle curiosity than
others, or whether the business is one calculated to create and foster
such a quality, I cannot say, but favor the latter opinion. The tempers
of those who keep boarding houses are apt to be very much tried. They
need great firmness and uniformity in deportment. The price paid for
boarding is usually proportioned to the comforts enjoyed, but not
always. In early times, houses of entertainment for travellers were kept
mostly by women. In a region of country where hunting and fishing are
good, or the scenery fine, and the roads pleasant, ladies often
accommodate, for the summer and autumn, families from the city. It is a
very general fashion for people in the cities to go during the warmest
weather to the country, seaside, or springs. Boarding house keepers
usually find it most profitable to keep a large house, as only one
kitchen and parlor are needed, and many other expenses attending a house
are proportionately diminished. Good boarding houses for workwomen are
scarce in all large cities, particularly New York. Most keepers of
boarding houses prefer men, because they are less about the house. I
have been told that it is very difficult for work girls to get board in
well kept houses. I think several respectable boarding houses should be
established in large cities by wealthy and influential ladies, or
religious societies, for working women. In New York are some houses
where none but merchants' clerks board. Why might not one or more be
established for shop girls? A list, as given by employers, of the prices
paid by work girls for their board, I will annex at the close of this
work; but I would add that comfortable rooms and wholesome food cannot
be furnished _in cities_ at these prices, and afford a reasonable profit
to the keepers of the houses. And I would further say, the prices paid
women for their labor does not enable them to pay higher rates for their
board.
=439. Makers of Artificial Eyes.= The science of supplying defects in
the physique is such that an artificial man can almost be manufactured.
Artificial teeth, hair, eyes, ears, noses, chins, palates, arms, hands,
and legs, are some of the missing parts of the frame that can be
supplied. In the census report of Great Britain for 1850, we find four
women under the head of artificial limb and eye makers. G., of New York,
knows two or three ladies in Paris, and one in London, that are engaged
in making the whites of glass eyes. G. may be able to give employment to
a lady in making the white of the eyes, in a few months. It is done by
blowing the glass, and requires but a short time to learn. He says he
would pay a woman well for the work. I called at D.'s, a manufacturer of
glass eyes, and saw D.'s son, a youth about eighteen years of age. He
says there are but two other makers of glass eyes in the United States,
and only two or three in London. D. spent fourteen years in London and
Dublin, manufacturing eyes at the infirmaries, and giving them away. He
did it to get in practice. He prefers to insert the eyes himself. They
move as a natural eye does, and certainly were very natural in color. He
sells them at from $10 to $20. Some physicians furnish their patients
with them, charging $60 or $70 for one, and so making a handsome profit.
When a person that does not understand the form of the glass eye and the
anatomy of the human eye inserts one, the inside of the eye is liable to
become inflamed, and proud flesh is formed. D. spent a fortune
experimenting. It requires an extensive knowledge of chemicals, and the
effect produced on them by heat. A small furnace is used for burning the
colors, in the glass. Some people would give thousands of dollars to
know the chemicals used, and their proportions. The young man says his
father has never even imparted to him the information. Some people that
wear glass eyes take them out at night. D. judges of the shape and size
required by merely looking at the remaining eye of the individual. We
think a competent person in this business might establish himself at the
South. I called on an Englishman who has been at the business twenty
years in New York. He is over sixty years of age, and has been in the
business fifty years; learned it with his father in London. He had a
number of certificates on his walls. He says a woman would go into a
decline directly, if exposed to the heat of a furnace in baking eyes. It
is necessary to stay in the oven while the change is taking place in the
chemicals. In summer it is intolerable. His son would not continue the
business on that account. He says the French eyes are made of glass,
covered with porcelain, and break easily; the white is made by being
blown. The English are not blown, and are made entirely of porcelain. He
says they will not break unless very cold water is applied in bathing
the eyes (a common fashion in the United States). He has had eyes worn
for a year without being taken out. He takes the dimensions of the eye
by fitting in different sized ones. If an eye is too small, it will slip
out, fall, and break. It requires long experience to become proficient
in making glass eyes; but it is a beautiful art, and not inappropriate
to competent women.
=440. Artificial Limbs.= We had thought, perhaps, a few women could be
employed in this vocation, and accordingly addressed a circular to a
gentleman so occupied. He thinks no women are engaged in this business
in the United States or any other country; but says they could be, and
the reason they are not is, there is not enough of the kind of work
connected with it, that could be done by women, to employ them. "It
requires some men one year to learn, some five years, and some never can
learn. It depends on natural ability and skill. The qualifications
required are skill, judgment, sobriety, morality, pleasing address,
dignity, imitation, industry, love of the beautiful, and anatomy. The
prospect of work is good; superior workmen will succeed. The best
seasons for work are from September 1st to July 1st. There is a demand
for the work in California. Large seaport towns are not good
localities--patients generally charity cases. Inland cities surrounded
by a populous country, the best localities--patients better able to
pay."
=441. Artificial Teeth.= It is said that 3,000,000 artificial teeth are
made in the United States annually. The materials are all found in the
United States. Each tooth passes through ten different processes. I
called at J. & W.'s, Philadelphia. They employ sixty-two girls, all
American. They pay a learner, after two or three weeks' practice,
according to the quality and quantity of her work. Their girls earn from
$1.50 to $7 per week; average $4.50. They have but one hand earning $7.
They would be glad to get more such at the same price, for it is
difficult to get good hands. They have to turn away a great many
applicants. The prospect is good to learners. They keep their hands all
the year. The business has advanced rapidly during the last few years,
and is likely to continue increasing. There are constant improvements in
the business. Consequently a hand may be always improving. They will not
receive a girl without reference, or credentials of moral character.
They do not want any but intelligent girls, for the hand is guided by
the mind. There are three or four processes carried on in different
rooms. They work at the establishment, and never carry work home, unless
a mother or sister is sick and requires their attention. It is a light,
genteel business; and one well adapted to women of some education and
intelligence. A lady in the cars told me she knew a lady who received $7
a week for making teeth in Baltimore. She came to Philadelphia, but
could not get as good wages; so she returned to Baltimore. The New York
Teeth Manufacturing Company pay from $3 to $5 a week. Learners are paid
$2.50 a week, from the first, for six months; and then, if competent,
paid more. The work is not unhealthy. Men average $10, but their branch
is different; the work is heavier. It requires about two months to
learn, in one department. Neither men nor women are often taught more
than one branch. All seasons are alike, and they are never out of work.
The supply of hands is greater than the demand everywhere. Small hands,
nimble fingers, and good eyesight are important to a worker. In the
establishment of R., New York, four processes in the making of
artificial teeth are performed by women. Some branches require a longer
time to learn than others. It takes six months to learn any one
perfectly. R. pays $3 a week to his learners, and $5 a week to
experienced workers. Careful manipulation is the most that is needed.
Judging from the increase in the last five years, the prospect for
employment is excellent; yet the openings in New York are limited. Women
are the best workers, but some prefer men. The only manufacturers are in
New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, and Bridgeport. It is desirable to
have careful workers. B. had a girl ruin $500 worth of teeth for him.
The parts performed by women are cleaning the moulds, setting the pins,
filling the moulds with the tooth materials, and trimming, and putting
on the pink color answering the place of gums; also placing them on
slides preparatory to baking and carding.
=442. Nurses for the Sick.= Attention to this subject has been awakened
during the last few years, by the heroic conduct of Miss Florence
Nightingale and the ladies who went with her to the Crimea to wait on
the sick and wounded. When the people of England proposed making some
testimonial of regard to Florence Nightingale, she proposed that, with
the means expended in doing so, they should establish an institution for
the training of nurses. We would not fail to notice a fact that reflects
much credit on Miss Anne M. Andrews, of Syracuse, N. Y. While the yellow
fever raged in Norfolk, Va., she left her home and went alone to
Norfolk, devoting her time and services to the sick of all conditions.
She received the medal that is usually awarded to a physician on such
occasions, and the citizens talked of placing a statue in a conspicuous
part of their city, as a memorial of her goodness and their
indebtedness. In Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and Halle, hospitals have been
established for the education of nurses. In Germany, there has been one
for many years. A number of good ladies connected with that institution
are now in Pittsburg, where they form an order of deaconesses. Some take
care of the sick, and some have charge of an orphan asylum. St. Luke's
Hospital, New York, is under Episcopal supervision, and connected with
it is an order of Protestant deaconesses, who attend the sick. Most of
the hospitals in this country have been established by the Roman
Catholic Church, and are under its guidance. We think Protestant
hospitals for the sick are greatly needed, especially in the Western and
Southern cities--Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and New
Orleans. It may be that some exist in those cities; but, if so, we think
they must be quite limited in extent. Asylums for sick children are
established in some of our largest cities. A number exist in Europe. A
nurse should have a kind, sympathizing nature, good health, strong
nerves, great powers of endurance, ability to sit up all night, and bear
exposure to extremes of temperature. In addition, she needs a good
memory, that she may give the right medicine at the proper time. If she
has not, she should commit to paper such orders, and consult them
frequently. A long and thorough training is needed by an attendant on
the sick. Great self-control is necessary, for many persons are very
impatient in sickness. A bright, cheerful spirit should be cultivated. A
sweet voice is pleasant in a nurse, because a sick person is sensitively
alive to the smallest matters. It requires a woman of education,
consideration, and delicacy of feeling, to be an acceptable nurse to
people of refinement; and such a one must become attached to those she
serves, if treated kindly. To make a kind and sympathizing nurse, one
must have waited, in sickness, upon those she loved dearly. A nurse
should use the precaution of wearing camphor, or something of that
nature, on her person, particularly where there is contagious fever. The
room should be large and well ventilated, and preventives used to keep
the infectious air from spreading. A better class of women are employed
to wait on the sick than formerly. The infirmary for women, established
by Dr. Blackwell, in New York, is designed partly as a school for
nurses. There is also an institution in Philadelphia for training them.
Nurses earn from $4 to $10 a week. Some wait only on male patients, some
only on ladies; some attend incurables, but the most serve in general
sickness. Mrs. B. gets $7 and sometimes $8 a week and her board for
monthly nursing. She knows some that get $10 a week. She stays in the
room with the lady and her infant, and takes care of and waits on them.
When food is to be prepared, the child's clothes washed, or anything of
that kind done, she rings a bell and gives orders to a servant. Mrs. B.,
another ladies' nurse, charges from $8 to $10 a week, according to the
amount of rest she loses at night. She told me that most good physicians
keep a list of the best nurses. A nurse is expected to be able to make
all the nice dishes required by her patient. In most small places, she
is not expected to have the assistance of any one else, unless the
sickness is very protracted, or the patient is delirious. In some
places, a nurse is expected to close the eyes of the dying, and wash
them after death, and perform any other service of that nature. But it
is not uncommon for an undertaker's wife to be sent for to perform these
duties, and take a measure for a shroud. For these services she is paid
from $3 to $5. A nurse runs the risk of contracting a contagious
disease; but, if the system is in a good condition, there is not much
danger. As long as people are sick, which will be as long as there are
any, nurses will be employed. Of course, there is most to do in sickly
seasons. I called on Mrs. P., who charges $5 a week for her services.
She does all that is required for the patient, except give medical
advice. She would rather wait on men than women, as they are sure either
to pay better wages or make presents. As she has had children of her
own, and raised them all, she feels competent to take care of children
in sickness. It is well for a woman to have a home to go to, when
relieved from the labor and anxiety of nursing.
=443. Steamboat and Railroad News Venders.= Boys and men are much more
frequently engaged in the sale of newspapers, than women and girls. They
are more disposed to sell edibles. We have seen some little girls
selling papers on the streets of New York and Philadelphia; but we do
not remember ever to have seen women selling papers at railroad depots
or on steamboats, though many are seen with baskets of sweetmeats. Many,
perhaps, cannot read, and do not wish to sell papers with whose contents
they are unacquainted. Others may think they will be less likely to make
any profit by their sale. Some women sell papers at stands on the
streets of New York, and about the hotel doors. I saw a newspaper boy
with an armful of _Ledgers_. He had sixty that he had bought at three
and a half cents apiece, and was selling at four cents apiece. A girl
that sells newspapers at the door of a hotel on Broadway, told me that
she and her mother take turns about in being at the stand, and the
profits of their joint sales are from 50 cents to $1 a day. She has
several Sunday customers, to whose houses she takes ordered papers.
=444. Street Musicians.= Organ grinders and street harpers have ever
found a fair representation in the softer sex. Such representation is,
however, among our foreign population--German and Italian, mostly. Last
summer, in the streets of Philadelphia, might be seen, from day to day,
a German woman with an organ on her back, and a baby in a hand-wagon,
going from street to street, stopping now and then under a window to
play. And in New York was another, whose organ was placed in a small
barrow, which she wheeled through the streets of the city. We have seen
two old women going through the streets of New York, one playing an
organ, the other a tambourine; and a few days since, we observed one
drawing very creditable music from a violin. Girls in the Swiss costume
are sometimes seen walking from place to place, with a harp and
tambourine. Some people say that, by the encouragement of street
musicians, we encourage idleness. Most such people would treat a
musician with scorn, and close the door in their faces, but step out
where they could enjoy the music and save their pennies; or they would
stand behind closed shutters, that their neighbors might not think them
capable of having such vulgar taste as listening to a street musician.
Now, we may encourage a disposition to roam, but scarcely idleness. This
propensity to roam may be unfavorable to the cultivation of business
habits; but the class of listless Italians who engage in it could never
become business people. In the first place, harpers, violinists, and
flutists must depend on their own skill and knowledge of music, to
perform. They must prepare for their particular vocation, as others do.
Those who play on organs, harmonias, and similar instruments, where no
knowledge of music is necessary, we must admit, require no training; but
walking, as most musicians do, from eight to twenty miles a day, is in
itself laborious. We have been told that in New York most street
musicians are employed by two or three individuals, who furnish the
instruments, and allow the carriers to have so much of the proceeds. In
older countries, there is a greater variety in the instruments used by
street musicians. "There are sometimes fifty persons engaged in the sale
of second-hand musical instruments on the streets of London."
=445. Tavern Keepers.= The keeping of taverns in small villages, or on
the roadside in the country, furnishes some with the means of gaining a
livelihood. Women engaged in this business should be wives whose
husbands can attend to receiving travellers, settling bills, ordering
horses, and such duties, or widows with sons old enough to do so. It is
laborious enough for a woman to superintend the table and bed rooms, and
the man must be in wretched health, or good for nothing, that cannot
attend to the outdoor duties. Much money has been accumulated by some
people keeping taverns in the Western country, where fifty cents is the
usual price for a meal. Indeed, the accommodations are often such that a
person cannot be rendered comfortable, and yet the price paid would
command all the comforts of a good boarding house in a large town. It is
the same case with the hotels, or saloons, at some railroad depots. At
others an abundance of life's good things is furnished. The tavern
keepers of London have a pension society.
=446. Travelling Companions.= Travelling alone, is most favorable to
thought, but not to pleasure. How much more we enjoy a lovely scene in
nature, or the novel and brilliant sentiments of an author, when in
company with one to whom we can talk freely! Good conversational powers,
and an ability to appreciate the beautiful, are desirable in a
travelling companion. Conversation should flow in a free, easy,
unrestrained current. Will it not promote the entertainment and
edification of rational, responsible, and immortal beings, to engage in
wholesome conversation--to exchange sentiments in regard to books and
the improvements of the age--to learn of the heavens above and the earth
beneath? In talking with strangers, might not much be learned of their
various countries, and a thousand things pertaining to them?
Conversation exercises the imagination, gives play to a talent of
invention, and strengthens the reasoning faculty. It sharpens thought as
fermentation does wine. It tends, also, to restore the diseased
imagination of the secluded and morbidly sensitive.
MISTRESSES AND DOMESTICS.
=447. Mistresses.= We scarcely know that it is in place to say anything
to this large and influential class of ladies. Yet, as we treat of
servants, and endeavor to impress their duty upon them, we hope we may
be excused for saying a few words to those who have charge of them. From
the relation existing between a mistress and her servants, the mistress
is supposed to have had superior mental and moral advantages. Then let
that strongest of all incentives, a good example, be given. In some
cases, the only good influence likely to be exerted over the servant, is
by the mistress. No woman of right feelings can look upon her servants
as mere beasts of burden. She knows and feels that they have souls, and
are accountable beings; that each one is capable of extremes of misery
and happiness. Should they not therefore receive kind and careful
instruction in what is right? If the same regular system of domestic
service were employed in this country that exists in Europe,
housekeepers would be saved much labor. There, each department, even of
kitchen labor, is distinct, and a servant is promoted according to her
industry and improvement. But the expense of a large number of servants
is one that most people in our country feel unable to support.
Difficulties often arise from labor being required of servants that they
have not stipulated to perform; and no definite understanding as to the
extent of the privilege of receiving visitors is likely to prove a
source of trouble. The thousand petty annoyances to which a mistress is
subject, renders it necessary that she have a perfect command of her
temper. A mistress must make great allowance for ignorance of what is
right and wrong, for untamed passions, strong appetites, unimproved
reason, and want of self-control. Many domestics are foreigners--ignorant,
dull, and unacquainted with our language. We are sorry to say some
mistresses expect their servants to be faultless, when they themselves,
with their superior advantages, ar e not so. Mistresses are responsible,
to some extent, for the spiritual, as well as the mental and physical
good of their servants. They are in charge of immortal souls. The
tendency of their influence and example must be either elevating or
depressing. The quiet of the Sabbath, we think, might be granted to
those in most departments of domestic labor. Cooks, we think, might
prepare a dinner on Saturday, to be served cold on Sunday, with tea, if
the weather be cold, or the habits of the people require it. Sabbaths
have been called "milestones in the journey of life," and has not the
poor cook, steaming over the fire day after day, need to count the
milestones in the journey of her toilsome life? Says Mrs. Graves, in her
"Woman in America:" "Is it not strange, that, among all the societies of
the day, not one should have been formed for the intellectual and moral
improvement of domestic servants, and for instructing them in household
employments?" At the House of Protection, a Roman Catholic institution,
New York, girls and women of good character, out of employment, or
strangers in the city, are received on application. The girls are taught
to wash, iron, do housework, sew, and embroider. Would that the
Protestants would imitate this noble charity more fully! I am happy to
add that in connection with the Child's Nursery (a Protestant
institution), Fifty-first street, New York, has been commenced a
servants' school. Young girls taken into the institution receive a
year's instruction in washing, ironing, house cleaning, and sewing.
=448. Domestics.= We think an important work of benevolence presents
itself in Free States. It is providing homes for servant girls, when
they are out of employment or sick. Many of them are in a strange land,
unacquainted with the language and the ways of the people. When sick,
some of them are immediately sent off by their mistresses to save the
trouble of waiting on them. The negroes of the Slave States, when sick,
are (if they have kind masters and mistresses) as tenderly cared for as
any member of the family, and are never without a home in health or in
sickness. That lonely and wretched feeling of having no place to
consider home, is not their experience. Connected with this subject,
arises one to which we have never yet given much attention, but which
forces itself on our mind as one calling for attention from the
benevolent: it is the establishment of institutions for the afflicted
portion of the colored population, both in Slave and Free States. We
refer to the blind, the deaf and dumb, and the insane. We know of no
separate institution for such, and no arrangement whatever, with the
exception of limited arrangements for the insane, in connection with
institutions for white people. Now and then we hear people advocate the
old plan of binding orphans and destitute children. Whether that would
be advantageous, would depend altogether on the kind of people to whom
they were bound. Some servants soon fail, and are not fit for service
more than a few years. It arises mostly from their exposure to cold and
dampness without being properly clothed and fed, and sometimes from a
too free indulgence in the pleasures of the palate, particularly that of
the consuming liquid which burns out life and sense. The hard work that
most Irish women can perform, and the large number in this country, have
made them the most numerous domestics in the Free States. They are
generally employed as maids of all work. I think the number of American
girls going into service is increasing. The majority of white female
domestics in this country are single women, from sixteen to thirty-five
years of age. In Providence, R. I., a census was taken in 1855, stating,
among other particulars, the number of American families having
servants, the number in foreign families, and the aggregate; but the
number of white domestics has never been fully taken in the United
States, even when collecting statistics for the census. A short time
ago, we counted in the New York _Herald_ eight columns of situations
wanted, three fourths of which were by female domestics. It shows what a
surplus there is of domestics in the cities, that no doubt could find
situations through the country, and in the villages. The majority of
female domestics would rather starve in New York than go to the country,
or even little towns around for fair wages. I think it arises from the
fear that they will not find associates. A social feeling is natural,
but should be controlled by circumstances. With many, the great drawback
is the fear that they may not be able to have the privileges of their
own particular church; and still another is that they may not find the
place to which they go, or are sent, exactly what it is represented to
be, and the expense that would be incurred by a return. Domestics are
more respected in the country, and treated more as members of the
family, than domestics in towns. The preference is usually given, in
towns and cities, to domestics from the country, because of their
superior strength and better health. "For a person to be a good servant,
there are three requisites: first, she must have professional skill in
her calling; secondly, she must be a good woman; thirdly, she must have
feelings of kindliness and regard to her master and mistress." In 1853,
domestics were receiving wages in San Francisco proportioned to the
prices paid for everything else. Cooks got $100 a month, and board;
house servants, from $35 to $70, and board. Chambermaids $40 to $70, and
board. Prices have fallen since 1853 in California, but good female
domestics can now earn there from $25 to $30 a month besides board. "In
most towns through our country domestics get from $1.25 to $2.50 a week,
and board. We give the rates of wages of domestics in New York (1857) at
the intelligence offices. Maids of all work, very raw, $4 per month;
average, $5; good, $6 to $7. Chambermaids--good, $6. Cooks--good, $7 to
$8--extra $12 to $16. Laundresses $8 to $10. The cooks who obtain the
highest rates, sometimes reaching $20, are employed mostly in hotels or
private families, in New York. Five or six years' education in a
restaurant, during which period the pupil is supporting herself, will
thus often add seventy-five per cent. to the market value." I have had
numberless statements from different parts of Free States that it was
almost impossible to obtain good domestics. I have just taken up a paper
in which I read: "Female domestics are scarce in Minnesota and
Wisconsin, and obtain employment readily at good prices in almost all
the river towns." More particularly are female domestics scarce, where
there are factories. Girls, especially American girls, prefer to work in
factories to being servants, as they think it more honorable, and it
secures to them more time--in short, they are more their own mistresses.
=449. Chambermaids.= "Of the 200,000 female servants in England, the
largest in number, the shortest in life, and of course the worst paid
are the general housemaids, or unhappy servants of all work."
Chambermaids in the United States may be classed under three heads:
those in hotels, those in private families, and those on steamboats. The
business of a chambermaid in a hotel, or on a steamboat, is an
occupation affording variety in frequent change of faces. Of course,
prices and conditions are stipulated for. Many get $20 a month, and do
the washing of the boat, that is, the table and bed linen. Others get
$25, $30, and $35 a month. On small boats, they are expected to do the
washing of the boat, but in some cases have a woman hired while in port
to assist them. On large boats, or small packet boats, there are
generally two chambermaids. The first chambermaid attends to receiving
lady passengers, seeing that they are furnished with berths, and giving
them such attention as they need. She cleans the state rooms, and wakes
any lady passengers that are to land in the night. The second
chambermaid does the washing and ironing. In some cases, the washing is
sent up from the boats, while in port, to laundries. But clothes are
thought to be injured in that way, and the plan is not so popular as
while the novelty lasted. Most of the rivers of the United States are
either too low to be navigable, or are frozen over, part of the year;
so, constant employment in that way cannot be found. The first
chambermaid on the steamboat E. received $20 a month. Her business was
to wait on the ladies. She had several hours' time that she could devote
to sewing for herself. The second chambermaid did the washing of the
boat, and received $15 per month. A steamboat chambermaid told me she
averages $20 a month (and board, of course); but, in addition to her
services as chambermaid, is required to do the washing for the boat;
that is, the sheets, table linen, and towels. In families, the prices
for chambermaids are about the same as at hotels, and of course the
duties are pretty much the same, except that in families all of a
chambermaid's time is expected. In a hotel, a chambermaid is often
through her work in the early part of the afternoon, and has several
hours as her own. We think it advisable for a servant to keep a place
with good people, even if her wages are less, rather than with more
selfish and more remunerative people. The first mentioned would feel an
interest in, and be more ready and willing to do for a servant in
sickness or distress. Besides, they would be more apt to keep a watch
over her welfare, should circumstances intervene to bring about a
separation. It does not answer well for servants to move about much from
place to place; it is likely to create suspicion of unfaithfulness or
want of qualification. Yet, if they are not comfortable and satisfied, I
would advise them to move, if confident they have a prospect of
bettering their condition. The usual wages of chambermaids in cities are
from $1.50 to $2.50 per week. In the Northern cities, white chambermaids
are rather better paid than in Southern, as colored servants are
preferred in the South. For doing housework by the day women receive in
New York, fifty, seventy-five cents, and $1; for cleaning stores, they
often receive $1.25 per day. Tidy, honest American girls will not find
much difficulty in getting situations. If every family in New York city
would take a girl, and either instruct her thoroughly or have her
instructed in one branch of domestic service, there would not be such
universal complaint of bad servants. In Paris, men are employed in some
hotels as chambermaids. In a newspaper, we met with the following
paragraph some time ago; "Females are so scarce in some of the interior
towns of California, that men have to be employed to do the
chamberwork."
=450. Cooks.= I know of several benevolent institutions in Philadelphia
and New York where poor women are furnished with employment. From most
of them sewing is given out; but, in a few, housework is given to those
who cannot sew. A school of cookery is now in operation in London. The
object is to give instruction, gratis, to the lower classes, in
preparing the most common articles of food in general use. It was
established by Miss Burdett Coutts. To acquire the higher branches of
the art requires much time and practice. Much of the nutriment of food
is lost in cooking. Health depends much on the kind of food eaten, and
the way in which it is prepared. Simple diet is most healthy; yet what
contributes to the nourishment of one person may not to another. Persons
can better learn what is nutritious and beneficial to them in health
than it were possible for an Æsculapius to prescribe. Eating too hastily
and too hurriedly, when the mind is excited and agitated, is one cause
of bad health. The modes of preparing food, in the most wholesome way,
should be a matter of study and interest to all engaged in a matter
where health is so much at stake. Articles of food that contribute to
the nourishment of every part of the body should be used. Children
should have not only wholesome food, but as much as nature craves, when
the system is in a state of health. A morbid appetite, of course, should
be regulated. Some cooks devote themselves exclusively to the making and
baking of pastry. At hotels they command a good price. In New York and
Philadelphia, cooks receive from $1.50 to $5 a week, but in the small
towns adjoining do not get more than from $1 to $1.50. Much of the
success of servants will depend upon themselves. They may rest assured
they will be able to please most families if they are good-natured,
honest, truthful, active, and willing to do what they can. They will
need patience. They should consider there are many trials, cares, and
griefs attendant on those occupying a more responsible station.
Punctuality is a desirable item in a cook. A skilful cook, of taste and
experience, can, at any time, for reasonable wages, obtain a situation
in one of the Northern cities. Hotel cooks are most frequently in
demand, and receive from $12 to $25. A woman who cooks for a saloon
frequented by gentlemen only, in a business part of New York, told me
that she goes at 8 in the morning and remains, generally, until 2
o'clock next morning, when she goes home. She is paid $12 a month for
her work, having her meals besides. A colored man, a public cook, told
me he employs two or three women to assist him in getting up parties. He
pays them from $6 to $7 a week. He loans plate for parties, charging for
plated knives twenty-five cents a dozen, and the same price for forks,
and thirty-seven or fifty cents for a basket. He keeps some articles,
but hires most from another party. Sometimes he will receive three or
four orders a day; then again he may not have one for two weeks. It is a
very irregular business. He prepares lunches for bankers and political
men, mostly; but finds it inconvenient, as these lunches are often given
in their offices, and he prepares the dishes at home, and must have them
warm when served up. In some offices, he can have an apartment for that
purpose; in others, he cannot. A colored woman, who goes on a propeller
in summer, and does the cooking for ten men, told me she receives $19 a
month. The boats at New York seldom stop running longer than three
months in the year. She thinks the trouble in New York is, you cannot
have one kind of work regularly. In Germany, most of the women, in every
class of society, learn to cook. In Stuttgart, a wealthy man died,
leaving a certain sum, the interest of which goes to a given number of
the best hotel cooks, to teach a limited number of young women the art.
In some cities in Germany, ladies pay something to pastry cooks at
hotels and restaurants for instruction in cooking.
=451. Dining-Room Waiters.= It would be well, had we such laws as
England, for the protection and rights of servants. There, a servant
cannot have her character scandalized, her good name maligned, or her
faithfulness as a servant belied. Neither may a servant say aught that
is false against her mistress. Scandalizing becomes, oftentimes, a curse
in our Free States, and consequently self-respect, with servants,
becomes, to a great extent, a defunct virtue. Nor is the fault confined
to one party. Both are often culpable--mistress and servant. A good
character is the best capital a servant can possess. Servants have an
opportunity of improving themselves, and gaining much practical
information from intercourse with their mistresses while in the
discharge of their duties. If worthy American girls would get situations
as domestics in respectable families, they would be likely to fare
better than by working in shops; for they would lay by more money,
secure the interests and good wishes of their employers, and be more
certain of lasting employment. A servant should be active and quick in
motion, to perform well the duties of a waiter. In 1854, from seventeen
to twenty-four white girls were employed as dining-room waiters at the
Delavan House, Albany, N. Y. Their wages were from $5 to $7, in one or
two cases $8, a calendar month. The wages of men for similar service
were from $14 to $20. The ages of the women were from seventeen to
twenty-four. They dressed uniformly in calico, and were under a head
waiter--a man. At that time, women had been employed at the
establishment about two years and a half. The result was entirely
satisfactory in every respect. A gentleman inquired of the proprietor,
after he had employed them two years, if there was any inferiority to
men's service, and was informed there was not any. They were more quiet
than men, and less troublesome. In this time, only four had left the
house of their own accord, and then to be married. When more hands were
needed, there was no difficulty in getting them. It was apprehended that
improprieties might occur, from the gallantries of the gentlemen. No
difficulty of the kind had been experienced. It was suggested that it
might be otherwise in a liquor house. In April, 1860, we had a few lines
from the proprietor of the Delavan House, saying he found women would
not answer for first-class hotels, where the crowd is very great, as the
work is too severe. He changed the plan of having them in 1858.
=452. Ladies' Maids.= Some of the most wealthy or self-indulgent ladies
have a female attendant to dress and wait on them, but it is not so
common in the United States as in older and more wealthy countries. In
Slave States, a colored woman, graceful and good natured, is often set
apart from the family servants for this purpose. The difficulty that
attends the taking of a colored servant in travelling, sometimes calls
for a white attendant to act in this capacity. The business is light,
and brings good wages. A maid should endeavor to secure a place with a
lady that is amiable and patient. She will find ability to perform the
services of a lady's hair dresser a valuable acquisition.
=453. Nurses for Children.= None should enter this occupation unless
they have a love for children. It requires affection and patience. Added
to this, is needed a degree of mild firmness that children find it
difficult to resist. It requires strength too, and a lady had better, if
possible, furnish a grown nurse for her child. Nurses receive as wages
from $1 to $1.25 per week. Wet nurses receive higher wages. Being able
to speak the French and German languages correctly, is in some places a
desirable qualification. Fashionable and educated people, who desire to
have their children early instructed in the languages, are willing to
pay a better price for such a nurse. The habit of nursing children is
indicated, in both mothers and nursery maids, by the right shoulder
being larger and more elevated than the left. C. thinks it would be well
for young American girls to devote themselves to domestic
service--thinks it a misplaced pride which prevents their doing so. Many
would certainly be much better off in every respect than they now are,
and, if their affairs were well conducted, would save money.
=454. Saloon Attendants.= "This class of labor is performed by young men
and girls. Although the girls are preferred in some places, and do make
most excellent waitresses, their remuneration is not as high as that
paid to men. In some cases the men get as high as $14 a month; in most
cases, however, they do not receive more than $12 a month. The girls get
paid from $8 to $10 a month, varying according to experience. The hours
employed do not exceed, in most cases, ten per day. These rates are
exclusive of board and lodging. Where lodgings are not provided, an
allowance is made for the purpose." The ladies that T. employs in his
saloon, board in the International--a hotel connected with the saloon
and confectionery. He pays them $6 a month, besides their board. M.,
Broadway, pays those that stay in his confectionery $12 a month, and
their board. In the northern part of France, women are employed on some
of the packet boats as table waiters. They are young and pretty, and
misconduct among them is very rare.
=455. Washers, Ironers, and Manglers.= The plan of washing by steam is
said to have been practised many years back in France. There were, some
years ago, over 300 different models of washing machines at the Patent
Office in Washington. Some families have their washing done by hand,
some by machinery, and some at laundries. Where washing, ironing, and
mangling are carried on extensively, it is mostly by men, but _women are
employed to do the labor_. It is thought by some that clothes are
injured when washed at laundries. We do not know whether it originates
from the plan of washing, or the carelessness of those employed. In New
York is a public washing house, where, for four cents an hour, steam,
water, and troughs can be used for washing clothes. At the same price,
the privileges of the wringing machine, the drying room, and the ironing
room are granted. A mangler costs from $50 to $100. Those that are
operated on by steam cost more, and are often used in laundries. A woman
told me that she is paid fifteen cents a dozen for mangling sheets and
table cloths. She can mangle eight or nine dozen pieces a day, and so
earn from $1.20 to $1.25. It takes but a very short time to become
expert. Strong arms and a strong back are more necessary than anything
else. She could work her mangle all day, but it would be a hard day's
work. She has much work in summer, before people go to the country. The
prices given for family washing and ironing by the dozen, range from
fifty cents to $1. Others make arrangements by the parcel, at so much a
week or month. Those employed in ironing receive good wages. Where new
shirts are done up for stores, the best prices are given. A woman
employed in an establishment of the kind in Cincinnati, told me that she
received for her work, which was ironing the bosoms of new shirts for
stores, $7 a week. She ironed thirty or forty a day, averaging one, I
think, every twelve minutes. I called on Mrs. S., who has a laundry.
Women in that branch are well paid, both principals and employées. Some
of the laundry keepers in New York go down to Castle Garden and get
fresh emigrant girls. They give them their board until they can wash
right well (for about four weeks), then pay them by the week or the
piece. If by the week, $6 a month and their board, or allow them $1.50 a
week to pay their board. They instruct some hands in ironing, if they
need hands in that department. When qualified, they pay three cents a
shirt for ironing; or, if by the week, 4.75. It is most satisfactory
generally to both parties to pay by the piece. The best doers up of
muslin and cotton goods are the French. New shirts are sent from Boston,
Philadelphia, &c., to New York, to be done up. The openings for ironers
are good, and the work pays well. A right active, skilful hand can iron
fifty shirts a day, and so earn $1.50. When women are employed by the
week, they are required to iron twenty-five shirts a day, and, if brisk,
may get through by one or two o'clock. Mrs. S. charges $1.50 a dozen for
store shirts, and $1 for others. Washers earn $12 a month; ironers, $21;
and starchers, $14. The girls employed in laundries are mostly Irish,
with strong muscular power. A shirt manufacturer told me that ironers of
new shirts are much needed. He cannot obtain enough. Ironers can learn
the business in three months. Ironers earn from $5 to $8 per week. I
called on A. G., who charges from $1 to $1.50 a dozen for doing up new
shirts, according to the quality and the work on them. She pays her
ironers from $10 to $12 a month. I called at B.'s laundry. The
proprietor and his family are Americans. They do only store shirts. They
employ more than one hundred hands, who are boarded and paid by the
month. Learners receive their board. Ironers are paid best. Those that
work fast get through earliest in the day, each one having a certain
number to do. I called at another laundry, where I was told all the
girls receive $1.75 per week for board money. While learning, they are
paid their board money, and more, if their services are worth it. The
washers are paid $12 a month, and ironers from $10 to $25, boarding
themselves. Some are fast, and some are slow; some smart, and some
stupid. The ironers are paid 2¼ cents a piece for common shirts, 2½ for
fine ones. The proprietor says experienced ironers are so scarce, you
never find a good one in an intelligence office. If a laundryman fails,
a good ironer can go to another laundry and get a place at once. At
another place, I was told their washers receive $5 a month and their
board. Ironers are paid by the month, and required to do so many in that
time. She corroborated the statement of the other that a good ironer
need never want a place. I heard a washerwoman say that, as the system
is very much relaxed by washing, the vapor from the suds and soiled
clothes renders it unhealthy. H. pays ironers $10 a month and board;
$1.75 a week. Some he boards in his own house. An ironer is expected to
iron from twenty to thirty a day, according to the contract. It requires
a long time to iron well. Almost all washers and ironers are Irish
girls--they are stronger and quicker in their motions. He has washing
done only for the New York stores, because the time and trouble of going
to steamboats for those from other places and returning them, are more
than he wishes.
MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS, AND WORKERS THEREIN.
=456. Backgammon-Board Finishers.= We called at L.'s backgammon-board
manufactory, and saw a girl about thirteen years old, who has worked at
the business for one year. She pastes the morocco on the back of the
boards, and lays the gold leaf on, which is passed under a press, and
receives, from a man who has charge of it, the ornamental gilding. They
used to employ girls, and paid $4 a week, working from 7 to 6
o'clock--eleven hours. L. does not take learners--it is too much
trouble. K. used to employ girls in finishing boards, but those he had
were not steady and reliable.
=457. Balloon Makers.= Large balloons are stitched up by sewing
machines. Prof. L.'s required several days' work. Prof. W.'s sister and
niece make both cotton and silk balloons. They have the substance put on
the silk by men with a brush. They think that part of the work would be
rather hard on women, because of the stooping and bending.
=458. Billiard-Table Finishers.= I saw G., who employs one woman to make
and put on the billiard bags at the corners and sides. He pays her such
wages for her work that she can by industry earn $1.50 a day. He does
not know of any woman that makes it a regular business, but thinks, if a
woman could engage all that kind of work to be had at the billiard
manufactories in New York city, it would be a good business, and
probably pay about $3 a day. It is very easy work, and would require but
a few weeks' practice. Besides, it would not require any capital, as the
manufacturers furnish the materials. They pay twenty-five cents for
making a cover of unbleached domestic, when two seams are sewed and it
is hemmed at the ends. The cloth that is fastened on the table could not
be put on by a woman, as it requires too much strength. Netting the bags
is done by hand. I was told by a manufacturer that two women could do
all the work for New York.
=459. Bill Posters.= This is a business confined to cities. W. heard of
one woman that went through New York distributing circulars for some
benevolent institution. I do not see why a woman might not be so
employed. An immense quantity of waste paper is sold in London to
grocers, butchers, fishmongers, poulterers, and others that need paper
for wrapping up the articles they sell to purchasers.
=460. Block Cutters.= Block cutters prepare blocks of wood for the
coloring of wall paper. A block about eighteen inches square and two
inches thick is made perfectly smooth. The pattern is then traced on it
with a lead pencil. It is then cut with chisels, which are of all sizes
and many shapes. Each one, as required, is driven into the wood with a
mallet. It requires considerable physical strength, but is remunerative
when sufficient orders are given to keep one constantly employed. Each
color, and even shade, in wall paper, requires a separate block. It is
the same case where wooden blocks are used for printing calicoes. The
wall-paper establishments in Philadelphia are the most extensive in the
United States. A lady in Philadelphia, engaged in the business, told me
that she got about $10 a week, working ten hours a day, but that she had
not orders enough to keep her constantly employed. At N. & C.'s
paper-hanging factory, New York, they employ six male block cutters, who
earn from $2 to $2.25 a day. A boy, when apprenticed to a block cutter,
receives $2.50 a week the first year, $3 the next, $4 the next, and $5
the last. There are probably from sixty to one hundred block cutters in
New York city. Block letters, we were told, are made by machinery. A
gentleman in Maine writes: "There are but very few females in this
section who work at block cutting (blocks for printing oil carpets); but
three or four in this State, I think. I have none with me excepting my
wife. It is a branch of business that females cannot carry on alone, as
the most of it requires considerable labor that women are not able to
perform." In the census returns of Great Britain for 1850, we find four
women under the head of block cutters.
=461. Boatwomen.= In the countries of Europe, it is not unusual to see
women employed as rowers of boats, on the lakes and rivers. On the lakes
of Scotland, made famous by the poetry and fiction of Sir Walter Scott,
women are seen waiting in their little boats to take passengers out on
the lakes. In the sealochs of Scotland, fisherwomen manage their own
boats. In Germany, women also ply the oar. In the United States, it is
seldom done; but I think Miss Murray, in her Travels, mentions being
rowed upon a lake in New York State by a woman. Some of the Indian
women, of the Arctic regions, are noted for their skill in the
management of a boat; and some of the women of the Polynesian Islands
are distinguished in the same way. In the census of Great Britain for
1850, in class eight, and third division (Carriers on Canals), are
reported 1,708 bargewomen over twenty years of age, and 525 under that
age.
=462. Bone Collectors.= Some collectors of bones sell them to people who
make soup of them, and sell it to the poor at a penny a bowl. Some sell
their bones to soap manufacturers, who boil them to obtain the marrow
and oily substance, and then sell them to button makers, or makers of
cane and whip handles. Some sell them to glue manufacturers, who boil
them to obtain the gelatine for making glue. Some have establishments
where they are ground and sold as a fertilizer for the soil. Some bone
gatherers give toys to children for collecting bones. I saw a girl
gathering some, who told me she sold them at fifteen cents a half
bushel. She gathers sometimes half a bushel a day, and sometimes more. A
boy told me he got thirty cents a bushel for bones; and another, that he
got one cent a pound. The profit must be great of those who sell them
again, judging from the price paid by the makers of cane handles. Yet it
may be, so much is not paid by manufacturers for those taken from the
street as for new ones.
=463. Bottlers and Labellers.= In large establishments where wine,
porter, ale, or beer is corked, women could, and in some places do, have
the job. When it is done from day to day, it affords a reliable
resource. The payment is generally, I believe, by the dozen or hundred
bottles. "In one house or more, in London, are seen from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty women bottling pickles all day long, at the charge
of sixpence a score of bottles, at which an industrious woman, without
any extra exertion, will earn her two shillings a day." In
establishments for the sale of patent medicines and other articles of a
similar nature, women are employed. I saw a man bottling lager beer by
hand. He is paid $15 a month, and full board. For labelling, another
received $6 a month, and full board. In Europe, where women do such
work, they wear wooden shoes to keep their feet dry. A woman could as
well cork as a man, when it is done by hand, and, no doubt, could use
the machines employed for corking. A large manufacturer of hair
restorative employs two girls to put it up, and pays from $3 to $4 a
week. A brewer writes that "women might be employed in the bottling
department, cleaning, filling, corking, &c., but the proportion would be
small in comparison with the number of men at work." A woman that buys
and sells empty bottles says she and her husband made a comfortable
living at it. If they make three cents profit on a dozen they do well.
They send a wagon to hotels, groceries, and private houses, if the
number is sufficient to justify it. They find a ready sale for their
bottles. The bottles must be washed clean before they will buy them. I
was told at the office of Mrs. W.'s S. Syrup, that girls are paid by the
week, from $5 to $6. R., in putting up his Ready Relief, employs several
girls to fill bottles, cork and label them. They earn from $3 to $6 a
week. They are paid by the quantity, and the work is all done in
daylight. Until the last few days they have had work all the year round.
S. employs from five to ten girls, and pays from $4 to $5 a week for
bottling medicines and putting up Seidlitz powders. He keeps his hands
all the year. They can either sit or stand. He does not know of any
women being so employed South or West. L. employs three, and pays $5 a
week, ten hours a day. One is employed in putting up Seidlitz
powders--the others in bottling. All three work at the store. K. employs
three girls to put up Seidlitz powders, perfumery, &c. He pays from $3
to $3.50 a week. B. & M., stove-polish manufacturers, employ girls to
put up the polish in papers. The paper is folded on a wooden block and
pasted, then withdrawn, and the polish put in and sealed.
=464. Broom Makers.= C. employs a girl to paint the handles of brooms,
paying $4 a week, of ten hours a day. After New Year is the most busy
season. It requires but a short time to learn. A man can earn at broom
making $1.25 to $1.75 a day. At some of the broom factories girls are
employed to assort the broom by laying perfect pieces of a certain
length in one pile, and those shorter in another, &c. Only strong,
robust women could perform the entire process of broom making.
=465. Bronzes.= When a bronze appearance is desired for some metals,
bronze powders are used. I have been told that a patent has been granted
for the making of them. Parties that we think competent to know tell us
that "bronze powders are made in very few establishments in this
country, and they think women and boys, much more than men, are both
here and in Europe engaged in the making and working of bronze. They
suggest that manufacturers, printers, japanners, and all who have
operatives engaged in handling bronze powders should, in _all cases_,
see that their people are protected, by gauze, sponge, or some sort of
screen over the mouth and nostrils, from inhaling the fine particles
that arise and impregnate the atmosphere where the powders are handled,
and which are liable to cause serious injury to those who inhale them.
The same might also be said of Dutch metal or gold leaf used in gilding
house paper and other things." Magnetic masks are used by some grinders
and polishers to prevent iron filings from passing down their throats.
We suppose they would answer also for bronzers. Men oppose the
introduction of women into the business. I saw three sisters bronzing in
New York. They told me each receives $5 a week, and works about nine
hours a day. It requires but a few months' practice to become perfect,
and seemed to be an easy business. The young ladies employed at it
looked genteel enough to grace any calling. Men get $10 a week. Women do
it just as well, if not a little better, and accomplish just as much,
yet receive only $5. I called in the store of the Ornamental Iron Works,
New York. The young man says they employ about twenty-five German
bronzers. It is a work easily done, and would require but a short time
to learn. Women could just as well do it as men. If women were employed,
it would be desirable to have a separate room for them to work in. Their
men work ten hours a day, and receive from $1.50 to $2 a day.
=466. Canvas and Cotton Bag Makers.= The firm of B. E. C. & Co. employ
about forty females during the whole year, and seventy during the
summer. Men cut out the bags. The folding and turning is done by little
girls, who receive, some $1.50 per week, and some more, while the sewing
is done by machines, for which the operators receive $4.50 per week. I
do not remember what the spoolers were paid. This business is confined
exclusively to seaports or river cities, and is not very extensive. The
usual time required is ten hours. For extra work, girls receive double
wages. C. & Co. have certain regulations, requiring morality and order.
The girls were more cheerful, neat, and genteel-looking than the general
run of work girls. They have a dressing room, where each one has a peg
for her bonnet and shawl, and a small box in which to lay her dinner.
They have washbowls and all the conveniences needed. Spring and fall are
their most busy times, but they are able to keep their hands all the
year in prosperous times. They are always busy just before the sailing
of vessels, as they supply many vessels with bags to carry grain. They
are well located for their business, being immediately on the river. The
prospect for learners C. thinks very good, as bags are considered almost
as essential as boats; and now they can be purchased so cheaply they are
used for purposes to which they were never applied before. V. employs
fifteen girls all the year, and sometimes extra help. Some girls get
$3.50, and some $4 a week, of ten hours a day. Most of their machines
are propelled by hot air. They never have any trouble in getting hands.
There are a few bag factories in the West. W. & O. make cotton bags for
flour, seed, grain, &c. We saw the girls sewing on machines moved by
steam. They are paid $3 a week, ten hours a day. Their girls are not
punctual, and are so often absent that they find it necessary to employ
more hands than they want, that they may not get out of a supply. I met
an old woman with bolts of heavy unbleached cotton, who was going to
make up bags, sewing them with the needle. She receives seventy-five
cents for one hundred bags. A bag manufacturer in Boston writes: "We pay
by the week; girls, from $3 to $4--men, $7.25. The men's branch requires
from six to twelve months to become proficient and reliable. Women
require about one week. Perseverance and industry are needed by workers.
Business in future is dubious. Winter and spring are the best seasons,
but we are generally employed ten months out of the year. The hands work
ten hours, unless driven up by brisk trade, when extra wages are paid
_pro rata_. They receive all the comforts which women of this class
require, viz., sufficient to live upon, with a small surplus for the
priest, and to send to 'ould Ireland.' The labor of the men and women
are entirely dissimilar. The advantages have been entirely in favor of
the city of Boston; but from present indications, I fear that this
business, if done at all, will be done in the cities of Charleston,
Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans. The women can scarcely read; none can
write. They can have free access to the city library and free evening
schools. Board, $1.25--mostly whole families in one room."
=467. Carriage and Car Painters.= At a very large car establishment in
New York, I was told that when they take boys to learn ornamental
painting, they pay $2.40 a week the first year. After that, eight cents
a day more, the next year; and so continue until the apprenticeship
expires. Three or four years are usually given. We saw a foreman
ornamenting the side of a car to be sent to Liverpool, who was taken by
the firm when a penniless boy. He now has $3,000 deposited with his
employers, drawing a handsome interest. The painters are paid
twenty-five cents an hour while ornamenting cars, and omnibuses. They do
their work better than when paid by the piece. They prefer Germans, as
they have more taste, and are more easily obtained. Miss H. knew a young
lady that painted a cutter. Her father was a coach painter, and she
painted in oils on canvas. A lady, if she would give time and attention,
might become an ornamental painter of carriages, omnibuses, and cars. E.
G. & Co., car builders, in Troy, write: "There are some portions of our
ornamental painting women might be instructed to perform, that would be
suitable for them, and, if proficient, they could make good wages at
it."
=468. Carriage Trimmers.= I was told by G., a carriage maker, that women
usually make the cushions and trimmings for carriages. At a railroad-car
and omnibus factory, the trimmer told me the work was too hard for
women. The sewing is all done by hand. Much wax must be used on the
thread, and a machine will not draw the threads tight enough. A shield
of leather is worn on the little finger. I have read that "landscape
painters, upholsterers, and trimmers of cars and carriages receive from
$1.50 to $2 per day, of ten hours, in New York and New Jersey. Women are
not generally employed; but they are occasionally serviceable in
preparing the hair for seats, by which they could make, at steady
employment, from $3 to $5 per week." B., at his carriage manufactory,
said he intends employing two women to make curtains for his carriages.
He now employs a girl to make covers for them. He thinks the curtains
and much of the lining might be stitched by a machine. He thinks women
might make fair wages at it--say, $4 or $5 a week. A carriage maker in
Boston writes me: "I employ female labor only to the amount of about $50
a year. It is done by the piece, and a woman who is tolerably smart with
her needle can in a very short time learn to do it, and can earn from
eight to ten cents an hour. The work is irregular, a large portion of it
coming in the months of April, May, and June, and sometimes requiring to
be done at short notice." Car builders in Albany, N. Y., write: "Dear
Madam--In reply to your inquiries, would say that, out of seventy-five
to eighty hands employed by us, two only are women. One has charge of a
sewing machine, the other picks curled hair. They have constant
employment, at $5 a week." Carriage makers in Syracuse reply to a
circular, saying: "We employ one lady to run the sewing machine in
making leather and cloth tops for carriages. The work is healthy. We pay
from $3 to $4 per week, of ten hours a day. Girls receive from one third
to one half as much as men. It requires about two months to learn.
Learners receive from $2 to $2.50 per week. The prospect for more such
work to women is increasing. The employment is steady. There is a demand
for women capable of good, heavy stitching." C--s, of New Haven, write:
"We employ about twelve women in carriage trimming, running sewing
machines, &c. Good wages are earned--from $5 to $9 per week, of ten
hours a day. We pay mostly by the week. At the same kind of work our
girls earn as much as men. The main part of their business being sewing,
women are preferable at the same wages as men. In two days any ordinary
person can learn to use a sewing machine; but to learn all parts of the
business would require from two to three months' time. Girls receive a
small compensation while learning. They are never out of employment,
except in hard times, like the past winter. Two thirds are American
girls. The girls employed by us are intelligent and happy; earning good
wages, and always have work when we are doing anything. Board, $2.50."
=469. Chair Seaters.= The putting of seats in chairs, the material being
of cane, hickory, flags, willow, and corn husks, is carried on very
often in orphan asylums, institutions for the blind, or for the deaf and
dumb, and in penitentiaries. There is a large establishment in
Worcester, Mass., where women are employed. At the House of Refuge, on
Randall's Island, I saw the boys seating chairs with rattan. It is
learned in three months. It is very severe on the fingers at first. In a
small second-hand furniture store, I saw a woman seating chairs with
cane. I stepped in and inquired of the woman how long it required to
learn the work. She said she learned it in one day, of a German who kept
a furniture store next door, and who wished her to work for him. She
could seat two chairs in a day, and earn by doing so a dollar. For such
a chair as she would be paid sixty-two cents the cane would cost twelve
cents, leaving her a profit of fifty cents a chair for her work. It cuts
the fingers some. She has most family work in winter; but her husband
can always get enough for her from the stores. Another German woman
seating chairs said she could seat three in a day. She charged fifty
cents apiece for ordinary chairs. At a chair-seating factory, I saw
several girls caning chairs for the proprietor, who receives orders from
stores. We were told that it is always piecework. Some girls earn from
sixty to seventy-five cents a day. They have work all the year. The
girls were very clean-looking. They stood while at work. A girl told us
it would take but three weeks to learn. Work is most apt to be slack in
January, February, August, and September. The work is mostly done by
German women. At another factory, I was told the prospect for work is
very good. The man said, three years ago he had more work for his women
than they could do. They are not paid while learning, and have work the
same all the year. His best hands can earn $4 or $5 a week. The work is
always paid for by the piece. The superintendent of the Monroe County
Penitentiary, N. Y., writes: "We employ our female convicts at the
manufacture of both flag and cane chair seats. They are equally adapted
to the employment of women; the flag seats, however, cannot be made
except near a chair manufactory, because of the expense of transporting
the frames upon which they are made. The cane-seat frames can be easily
transported; but the market is overstocked, and has been for years. They
are made in many Northern and more Eastern prisons, and are made by both
sexes. At the Albany (N. Y.) Prison, the females are employed at
cane-chair seating, and at some part of the manufacture of shoes. At the
Erie County Penitentiary, Buffalo, N. Y., the female convicts are
employed at cane chair seating and packing hardware, manufactured by the
male convicts; and at the Onondago County Penitentiary, Syracuse, caning
chair seats. New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are the
only States, probably, having county prisons, where the convicts are
regularly employed. Cane seating is a business employing many females
(free labor) in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and is well adapted to
girls and women of the lower grades of intelligence; and the same is
applicable to flag seating. They can earn, on an average, about thirty
cents per day. The business may be acquired in a few days--say, thirty."
The proprietor of the Oswego chair factory writes: "I have in my employ
about forty women and girls in the cane-seating department. An attentive
worker, possessing ordinary skill, can earn about fifty cents per day,
of ten hours. Young persons of either sex are much more sprightly at the
work than older persons." By a chair manufacturer in Fitchburg, Mass.,
several hundreds of women, girls, and children are employed in seating
chairs, which they do at home.
=470. China Menders.= All parts of this work are very suitable for
women. Covering and repairing fans, mending china, wax dolls, works of
virtu, &c., require care and taste. Connected with this might be the
mending of jewelry, card cases, work boxes, and other ornaments of the
toilet. A china mender told me he estimates his time at twenty-five
cents an hour. His prices vary, according to the quality of the article,
and the time and care required. He sells the composition for cementing
at twenty-five cents a bottle. His work was beautifully done. I talked
with another china mender and glass driller. After the fourth of July he
goes to the country and mends ware. Some learn his business in a short
time. He charges $10 to teach to make cement, drill, and mend articles.
He thinks, in Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, there are probably
openings. He says money can be made at the business by advertising, and
having some one to go for the articles and collect the money. He is
recommended by one customer to another, and so has enough to do; yet,
from the want of capital, barely makes a living. If he could get a place
in a china store, ladies could get their china mended there, and the
store would give him some. He makes between thirty and forty kinds of
cement. Some of them stand water. If a lady would learn, he would pay
her $3 a week for her services.
=471. Cigar Makers.= At F.'s, Philadelphia, we were told that girls who
make cigars are usually idle; but when we afterward saw the rapid motion
of their fingers, we felt disposed to doubt the charge. Habits of order,
temperance, industry, and the _reverse_, are said to run in some trades.
F. had heard some employer lamenting that there is no such thing as a
sober reed-cutter. May not the flavor of tobacco, in making cigars,
produce an excitement that craves some artificial stimulus? We think it
would not be strange if it did; but have no means of ascertaining, and
hope that it does not. Bending over was the only item mentioned by F. as
being uncomfortable or injurious in the work. "In Philadelphia, the
whole number of employés, journeymen and girls, engaged in making
cigars, is fully four thousand. The average labor expended upon each
thousand cigars costs $3.50, and the average cost of each thousand
cigars is $8." In Philadelphia, many Americans work at the business; but
in New York, almost all are Germans. In Germany, many women make cigars.
A cigar maker told me that some women find the odor too strong; and even
men with weak lungs are likely to have the consumption, if they work at
it long. He pays women the same price as men, and he pays according to
the quality and the workmanship--$2, $3, $4, $5, and $6 per thousand.
Quickness in the use of the fingers is necessary. He has never known
women to make the finest cigars. At K.'s, New York, I saw some bright,
pleasant-looking girls at work. They are paid six cents a hundred. One
girl told me she generally made thirteen hundred a day--seventy-eight
cents. Women receive the same rates of wages as men. The son of the
proprietor told me he had thought the work not altogether healthy; for
the men you see working at the business are pale and thin. His father's
girls are kept busy all the year. Girls generally make from $3 to $4 a
week. There are enough of girls at it in New York, though there are but
few places where girls are employed. The atmosphere almost stifled me,
the tobacco scent was so strong. I inquired of a girl if she thought it
unhealthy. She said no--that when she first came there, her head ached
all the time, and she had constant nausea of the stomach; but now she
never notices the smell of the tobacco, and does not feel any bad
effects. She said she had learned to make cigars in three weeks; another
girl said she learned it in one week. In summer, when the days are long,
a girl earns most. A bundler is paid the best price, as she receives six
cents a hundred. It is very dirty work. A cigar dealer told me he pays
from $2 up to $6 per thousand. A man can make two hundred per day, and
so earn from 40 cents to $1.20. He thinks it not unhealthy, where there
is a circulation of air. The rapidity in making cigars depends much on
the quality of the tobacco. Some leaves are not so well dried, nor so
fine and perfect, as others. Such, of course, require a longer time to
make. D., New York, says women mostly make the quality called sixes; and
he knows that, farther East, in making that kind they often earn $1 a
day. They can make the common ones more rapidly than men. He attributes
the inability of women to make fine cigars to the want of instruction.
Men do not like to teach them, because they are afraid of the
competition that may be created, causing them to lose work or have to do
it at lower wages. Now and then a woman may be found who makes cigars
equal to any man. It requires a knowledge of tobacco, to select the
different kinds for the various grades. Some judgment and intelligence
are needed to cut the leaf economically, and to select tobacco of proper
strength for making various brands. It is usual for a boy to serve three
years, who is paid about $30 a year, and boarded. He has boys fifteen
years of age working for him as journeymen. He says cigar makers in New
York earn from $6 to $15 per week. Good hands can usually find
employment. It can easily be learned in one year. All seasons are
favorable for the work. From five hundred to fifteen hundred cigars are
made in a day, according to the expertness of the manipulator and the
kind of tobacco. Machines have not as yet been found to work well. The
machine cigars are finished at the end by hand. He remarked that
machines never can succeed so well as men, until they have the brains of
men. A very nice widow, who kept a cigar store in New York, told me that
many more women are employed in making cigars in Philadelphia than in
New York; but the cigars made and sold there are mostly of the cheap
kind, selling for two or three cents apiece. Six months' practice is
required by a learner, to become perfect. Careful and rapid movement of
the fingers, and ability to use the left hand, are desirable. I would
suggest that a few smart women learn of a competent workman to make the
best quality, and instruct several of their own sex. I find the making
of cigars is paid for, altogether, by the thousand, and cigar makers
earn from $3 to $18 a week. The usual price paid for a thousand cigars
is $5, and a fast worker can make fifteen hundred a day.
=472. Cigar-End Finders.= Mayhew says: "There are, strictly speaking,
none who make a living by picking up the ends of cigars thrown away as
useless by the smokers in the streets; but there are very many who
employ themselves, from time to time, in collecting them. How they are
disposed of, is unknown; but it is supposed that they are resold to some
of the large manufacturers of cigars, and go to form a component part of
a new stock of the best Havanas. There are five persons, residing in
different parts of London, who are known to purchase cigar ends. In
Naples, the sale of cigar ends is a regular street traffic. In Paris,
the ends thus collected are sold as cheap tobacco to the poor. In the
low lodging-houses of London, the ends, when dried, are cut up and sold
to such of their fellow lodgers as are anxious to enjoy their pipe at
the cheapest possible rate."
=473. Cinder Gatherers.= I saw some girls gathering cinders. They burn
them at home, after washing them. One pailful lasts from one and a half
to two days. The larger girls gather two pails a day, generally; the
smaller girls each gather one.
=474. Clear Starchers.= The doing up of muslin, in large cities, has
made for itself a separate calling. Where there is constant employment,
it pays well. Mrs. N. charges from sixteen to twenty-five cents for
doing up a set of muslin. She does most of the work herself, as she
feels responsible for the way in which it is done, and would be afraid a
stranger might tear or burn the muslin. When she has not enough to do,
she fills up her time crocheting for the stores. I think the best
locations must be in a part of the city where the best residences are.
=475. Clock Makers.= The amount and variety of wooden clocks
manufactured in this country are very great. The low price at which they
sell, puts it in the power of almost every one to purchase. Clock-case
and clock-movement making are two distinct branches. Connecticut is the
only State in which clock movements are made; but there are many shops
all over the North in which the cases are manufactured. In 1845, there
were twenty establishments in New York city, in which the cases were
made. "Wages of clock makers are poor. Women are occasionally employed
in painting the cases of clocks, painting the dials, and making part of
the movements." The New Haven Clock Company employ women to paint the
glass tablets, and in lettering, or putting the figures on the dial, at
which work they can earn from 90 cents to $1 per day, of ten hours. They
also use quite a number in making trimmings, and the lighter part of the
movements, at which they earn about seventy-five cents per day. All
their work is done by the piece. The time necessary to learn depends
much on the intelligence and aptness of the person. Manufacturers of
clock dials in Farmington, Conn., write: "We employ twelve American
women figuring clock dials. The spirit of turpentine used is unhealthy
to some. They are paid by the piece, and average $2.50, with board. Men
are not employed in the same department. It requires about four weeks to
learn, and learners are furnished with board. The amount of employment
in future is indefinite. Fall, winter, and spring are the best seasons
for work; but constant employment is given by us. Board, $2."
=476. Clothes-Pin Makers.= A clothes-pin manufacturer in Vermont writes:
"Women are employed in packing clothes pins, and are paid from 25 to 50
cents per day, usually working ten hours. Our women are Americans. The
clothes-pin business should be carried on in a sparsely settled
community, where timber can be obtained at cheap rates."
=477. Clothes Repairers.= We have seen it suggested that shops for
repairing, remodelling, and remaking ladies' clothes, would, in large
cities, if conducted by competent persons, probably yield a support. The
mending of ladies' shoes, and mending second-hand ones to sell again,
could employ the time of a number.
=478. Cork Assorters and Sole Stitchers.= The principal use made of cork
in this country is for bottle stoppers. It is also used in making cork
soles for shoes. Cork is mostly imported from Spain, Portugal, and the
south of France, in large blocks, and cut in the shapes wanted. A member
of a large cork-cutting company at the East writes: "In France, Spain,
and Portugal, women are employed to a limited extent in cutting the
smaller description of corks, and a few are also employed in England,
but not to any extent." He thinks the employment not suitable for women,
and says none are employed in this country. But from the public reports
of the city of his residence, I find women are employed as cork cutters
in that city. At one establishment, we saw men at work cutting corks.
There did not appear any objection to women employing themselves in this
trade. A good deal of practice is required. S., of New York, cuts by
machine, and employs six girls to assort. He pays 50 cents a day, of ten
hours. At another cork store, I was told they employ boys and girls to
assort, who receive from $2 to $3 a week. The coverings of cork soles
are put on by women with sewing machines. A good hand, we were told, can
make eight dozen pairs a day, and is paid eighteen cents a dozen. I
suppose it requires at least a day to cut out and baste on the covering
of that number; so the compensation is not as great as one might at
first suppose. Some can baste five dozen a day, and could stitch from
twelve to twenty dozen a day. Girls are paid 10 cents a dozen for
basting, and 6 cents per dozen for stitching them on machines. A
cork-sole manufacturer in the upper part of the city, pays for basting
covers on, 10 cents a dozen. Some women baste five or six dozen a day.
It requires care and a little skill. If not properly done, it is almost
impossible to stitch them correctly. He pays 6 cents a dozen for
stitching, and an operator can stitch from twelve to twenty dozen a day.
He has often sold two hundred dozen in a year.
=479. Daguerreotype Apparatus.= In most large cities, daguerreotype
apparatus is manufactured. A maker of daguerreotype cases and materials
told me that his girls earn from 50 to 75 cents a day, the latter being
the highest price ever paid. S., whose factory is in New Haven, employs
about one hundred and fifty girls. It is piecework. The business is
increasing, but still is so limited that it cannot furnish employment
for a great many. No difficulty is found in getting hands, as there are
a great many girls in New Haven. No factory in the South or West. New
York is the depot for everything made in a limited quantity, and for
everything new in style. G. Brothers have given work all the year until
lately. It is piecework. Girls earn from $4 to $6 a week. It does not
take a smart girl more than eight days to learn. The busy time commences
in April. It is an increasing business. The foreman at A.'s factory said
a nice, steady, cleanly girl, that has sufficient dignity to command
respect, can always get work. One that is not very sensitive to
ridicule, and independent in the performance of duty, will be sure to
succeed in that establishment; for so many learners are taken in and
need supervision, that such a one is sure to be prized. He has
seventy-five girls. It requires but a week to learn, and the girl that
instructs gets the profit of that week's labor. In some branches they
stand, in some they sit. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to
$6 a week. Some of their girls learn bookbinding; so, when there is much
to do in that line, they find it difficult to get hands. The manufacture
of daguerreotype apparatus is increasing; so the prospect for learners
is good. Most of his hands have work all the year. He has found many
work girls very trifling. (No wonder, with such training, and so little
encouragement to do right.) They have all their photograph pictures
colored by ladies in New York, except the glass ones. It pays well, and
is done at home. I think some lady would do well to learn to color the
glass ones. No manufactories West or South. A firm in Waterbury write:
"We employ twelve women making daguerreotype mattings, &c. We prefer
them, because men work better with a few women to work with them. We pay
by the piece. They earn $3 per week, ten hours a day. They are paid the
same as male labor in the same business. It requires one month to learn.
Activity and common sense are all that is necessary for a learner. The
majority are Americans, and pay for board $1.75 per week."
=480. Feather Dressers.= Those that purify the feathers of beds, also
renovate the hair and moss of mattresses. A gentleman told me he thought
the business of a feather dresser too hard for a woman. Carrying bags of
feathers, weighing them, assorting and filling other bags, he considered
too heavy. Feathers are cleaned by steam. Some people, to renovate
feathers, place them in the sun for a few days in summer, and then bake
them. There is never any need of renovating feathers, if they are
properly cured at first.
=481. Flag Makers.= At A.'s, New York, the young man said it requires
about a year to learn the business thoroughly. The hands employed in the
house are paid by the week, and receive $4. They work from half-past
seven to six o'clock, having an hour at noon. Those working out of the
house are paid by the piece. They do not always have enough of good
hands. They do not require the girls to invent designs, but like to have
them quick to understand and execute any particular device or new
pattern. To sew well and rapidly are the principal qualifications. He
thinks about two hundred women are employed in this way in summer, but
not more than fifty in winter. The sewing and embroidering are confined
exclusively to females. The cutting is mostly done by those who carry on
the business, whether men or women. Learners receive a compensation of
$2 per week while learning, after which they receive from $4 to $6 per
week. Some employers require their hands to spend six months at it as
learners; but any one that can sew neatly, and has taste, could as well
make a flag, after it is cut out and basted, as a bedquilt. The most
busy seasons are spring, summer, and fall. When employed by the week,
the hours are ten. The business is pretty well filled. Probably the most
flags are made for vessels, and the next most for military and other
processions. A flag maker told me he employs some girls and women,
paying from thirty-seven to fifty cents a day, of ten hours, to those
working in his rooms. Those that work at home, often earn seventy-five
cents, as they sew in the evening also, and are paid by the piece. He
does all his cutting. He has most work to do in summer and in political
campaigns. In winter, vessels are laid up, and consequently no flags are
wanted for them. Most work is done in seaports. More is probably done in
Boston than any other city. In Philadelphia, flag stitching is done by
machines. He will not have it done so, because it will throw women out
of employment, and their pay is small enough at best. He takes those
that can sew, and pays from the first. He complains that most women are
mere machines, and display no intelligence in their work. (Query: Whose
fault is it?) Mrs. McF. pays her girls $3 a week, of nine and a half
hours. She employs eight now (January, 1861), but sixteen in summer. In
summer she makes flags for vessels, but in winter she has made national
flags. When she wants any intricate pattern prepared, she employs a
regular designer, but cuts the goods herself. Ability to draw well is a
great assistance to a flag maker. She does all her own cutting, even to
the letters that are placed on her flags. Her forewoman sometimes
assists in cutting the figures. She works some for a house in Mobile
that sells flags. It requires taste and ingenuity to succeed, but a good
sewer can soon do the mechanical part. She has been in the business
nineteen years. We suppose there are some openings in the South for this
business.
=482. Furniture Painters.= F., who confines his business to the
ornamenting of furniture, says it requires taste and a knowledge of
colors. He thinks the Americans excel the Europeans in applying ornament
to works of utility. He has a man of twenty-five that he employed when a
boy in his store. He observed that he had such talents as would make him
a good ornamental painter, so he gave him instruction. The first year he
paid him $4 a week; the next, $6; and now he earns from $12 to $20. The
young man invents when F. has given him an idea of the style he wishes.
A manufacturer of enamelled furniture said no women are employed in
enamelling, to his knowledge; that lifting and turning the furniture
about would be too heavy for women. So it would; but they might have a
man to do that. Another one told us he did not know of any women
employed in enamelling furniture; but with a knowledge of painting, they
might be. Men often earn $20 a week at it. A manufacturer of chairs told
me that he pays ornamenters (men) from $9 to $18 a week, of ten hours a
day. The men sit while painting them. A girl must have a natural taste
for such work to succeed. The coloring requires experience. The French
and Germans do most of it. It is piecework. A girl, no doubt, could get
work, if she were competent. The Heywood Chair Company write: "We employ
women to some extent in ornamenting chairs. The work is not considered
especially unhealthy. We pay by the piece, and our women earn from $5 to
$6 per week, averaging ten hours a day, the year round. There is no
difference in the prices between the two sexes. Six months'
apprenticeship is required, at $3 per week. Nimbleness, neatness, taste,
and a true eye are needed in a worker. In ordinary times, there is no
difference in the amount of work. We employ women, because they will do
the same work better, faster, and cheaper than men. We would employ
more, if they could perform other parts of the work. Women are inferior
in strength to men, superior in manual dexterity, neatness, and taste.
All are Americans. We can hardly speak with confidence of any
considerable opening for female labor in our business. Most of our work
requires skilled mechanics, or hard, rough bone and muscle. We have for
five or six years employed all the females we could find room or work
for, and can see no chance for any increase." According to the census of
1860, the number of hands employed in the New England, Middle, and
Western States, in _making_ furniture, were 21,953 males and 1,880
females.
=483. Gilders of Mirror Frames.= About the same arrangements are made
with apprentices in this as in other trades. In the old country, women
do as much of the work in all its branches as men; but in this country,
the custom of women working in shops with men is not so common, and
consequently some females that learned it in the old country will not
engage in it, because of having to work with the men. I have been
informed that in Dublin there are at least forty women employed in
gilding--some in business for themselves. A good male worker earns $12 a
week. Gilders calculate to make twenty cents an hour, the most usual
price for good hands in all trades. In some trades men are paid
twenty-five, some twenty, some eighteen, and in some but fifteen cents
an hour. Gilders that manufacture frames for mirrors and artists, are
most likely to have work all the year. In most shops there is a slack
time just after New Year, and after the Fourth of July. It is a very
close, confining business, in summer, while laying the gold leaf on, as
it is so light it is apt to fly, and should be done in a close room. It
is not at all unhealthy. Most of the work is done standing; but, I
think, in gilding, women are permitted to sit. A German that sells
ornamental furniture, thinks women might do the gilding on furniture. G.
employs a number of girls in gilding oval frames. They earn, on an
average, from $4 to $4.50. It requires but a short time to learn the
business. B. used to employ some for the same purpose, paying $4, $5,
and $6 a week. I think this work preferable for women to most mechanical
employments, and, no doubt, in a few years many will be so occupied. I
was told by a gilder that women are employed, because they can be had
cheaper than men, seldom, if ever, receiving over $5 a week, of ten
hours a day; and they have no knowledge of the business, except the one
department in which they work. The frames are sold cheaply for
photographs. There are no extensive gilders in the South or West, except
one in Cincinnati, and one in Chicago. In the mirror and picture frame
departments, there are now a great many stores that cut up the business
of the large establishments, and the times are hard--so the business is
dull. Not more than forty women in New York city are employed in gilding
frames, and twenty of them are at G.'s. A gilder in New Hampshire
writes: "It depends upon how much painted work there is in the same room
whether the occupation is unhealthy. As far as my observation goes,
women are as good workers at this business as men." One in Massachusetts
writes: "My wife sometimes does my gilding, which is no harder than
sewing. The carver's daughter in Essex, near here, did all his gilding
for ten years." Gilders in Boston write: "We employ a girl to burnish,
and pay from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get from $9 to $12.
Fall and spring are the most busy seasons. Most of the cities northeast
of Baltimore are good for this work. Board, $2 to $3."
=484. Globe Makers.= H., manufacturer of school apparatus in
Connecticut, writes: "From four to six women are employed by us, in the
construction of globes and other articles. Some are paid by the piece,
and some by the week, and earn from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day.
Women receive less than one half the wages of men. They do not perform
the same kind of labor. Women are employed at the lighter work,
requiring less strength, but an even amount of skill. The abundance of
the supply of labor prevents the increase of wages. Learners are paid,
and it requires but a few weeks to succeed. A nicety of eye and
readiness of hand are necessary for a worker. The prospect of employment
is good, but limited. The winter is best for the work, but hands are
occupied at all seasons. The employment is pleasant, and as well paid as
any in this vicinity. Women are employed in all parts of the work
suitable for them. The work is best adapted to the Eastern States. All
our employés are Americans, and live at home. Board here, $2 a week."
=485. Hobby Horse Finishers.= In summer time, Mr. ---- has children's
carriages trimmed by women. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $3
to $4 a week. At B.'s they are employed all the year. The horses and
carriages could be painted by women, and the manes, tails, saddles and
bridles could be put on by them. At C.'s, one lady is employed for
trimming children's carriages--$5 a week--ten hours a day. She sews by
machine. C.'s busy season for children's carriages, is from February to
November, and he employs his hands the rest of the time at hobby horses.
He says there is one factory in Columbus, two in Chicago. He thinks
there are good openings (1860) in Richmond and Petersburg, Va., for they
sell many there. He thinks wrong must succumb to right--that there is no
justice in withholding from women their proper compensation for labor,
and the time will come when the prejudice will be done away that now
exists on that subject.
=486. Horse Coverings.= I was told, at a store in Philadelphia, they pay
twenty-five cents a piece for ordinary blankets and linens, and a woman
can make from three to four a day. One, on which was considerable chain
stitching, the storekeeper paid $2 for making, and he thought a woman
could make one in a day. A saddle and harness maker, New York, told me
the prospect of getting such work is good. The wives of his workmen make
his blankets, and can earn from $1 to $1.50 a day, as he pays
thirty-seven cents a blanket. Another one told me his girls earn from $4
to $6 a week at such work; and another rated the payments still higher,
from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. At a large store on Broadway, I was told all
the work is given to one woman, who employs other women to help her. Her
workers can earn $4 a week, if industrious. They make horse linens and
blankets, and rosettes for head ornaments. Netting for horses is made by
hand, in a large establishment near New York. L. L. & Co. pay for the
coarsest blankets twenty cents apiece, and a woman can make two a day.
For some they pay as high as from $4 to $5. A very swift sewer could
make one such in little over two days--consequently her day's wages
would be $2. So the prices vary according to style. The chain stitch, so
much used for ornamenting, is done by hand, because in that way the
edges of the cloth can be more neatly and securely turned under. L. L. &
Co. employ ladies, who in their turn employ others. The coarse heavy
blankets are generally lined, and the work is mostly done by Irish
women. They are most busy on blankets from June to January, and on linen
from February 1st to May 1st. Linen covers are used on horses in
stables, as flies annoy horses much where they are standing quiet. Out
of doors, nets answer, because they are kept in motion by the horse.
When busy, L. & L. employ about one hundred girls. The business is
growing. The blankets are mostly used in the country. The manufacture of
them is confined principally to New York and Boston. Those in the cities
are different in style; indeed, each city has its own style. Many are
made in Chicago. The rosettes pay very well, but it requires a long time
to become expert. One lady they employ earns occasionally $50 a week.
Tassels are paid for by the piece, and girls can earn from $2 to $4.
Tassel making requires some time to learn perfectly. Cloth goods are
confined to seasons, and consequently occupations in which they are
involved are confined to seasons. Styles of trimming are apt to change.
A man who makes blankets for a large wholesale house, employs from one
hundred to two hundred women. They earn from $3 to $7 a week. The
stitching is done by machine, but the ornamental part by hand. Men do
all the cutting. He has paid as high as $100 for one pattern of blankets
and ornaments. There are no blankets made in the South or West, except
here and there a saddler's wife will make a few. In Williamsburg, I saw
a number of women in the basement of the employer's residence. They
looked sad, and the rooms were small, damp, and filthy. The employer
told me most of his stitching is done by machine. Anybody that can sew
tolerably well, and has strength, can do it. Women seldom, if ever, cut
them out; but I think they could. A manufacturer in Brooklyn writes: "We
employ women for making horse clothing, who are paid by the piece, and
earn from seventy-five cents to $1 per day. Spring and fall are the best
seasons for work. We have no difficulty in procuring hands."
=487. House Painters.= The tools of a painter cost but little. Women
might be employed in glazing, and in painting the inside work of houses.
Their ingenuity and taste might be successfully exercised in
embellishing walls and ornamenting doors. The style for doors, called
graining, would be particularly appropriate. The business could be best
carried on by men and women in partnership, as the outdoor work is most
suitable for men. An apprenticeship should be served of two or three
years. The work would pay well. Most of it is done in spring. A woman
would need to make some change in her style of dress. The Bloomer would
probably be best--at any rate, hoops should be laid aside. The vocation
presents a very good opening to women, who could best engage in it, at
first, in towns and villages.
=488. Japanners.= Japanning is one of the few arts that had its origin
in a heathen country. It is now practised in all civilized countries.
Many metal articles are japanned--as tea trays, candlesticks, &c. Wood
is also japanned. In a late report of one of the schools of design in
England, we observed on the list of female students the names of two
japanners. Care, and ability to stand, are all that are required for
success, to those doing the plain painting; but some taste is required
for ornamental japanning. There is a good prospect for employment, as
the tin trade has been increasing rapidly in the last two years, and is
likely to, as our country grows older, and depends less on other
countries for a supply. California has created quite a demand in the
last few years, and it is supplied mostly from New York. M., in New
York, told us he and his partner employ some women to japan. They pay
from $3 to $4 a week. They have one woman to do the ornamental work,
painting flowers and gilding. To ornamental painters they pay from $10
to $15 a week. They had a man to whom they often paid $15 a week. Most
of the men that have been employed in ornamental japanning have gone to
painting clocks, which pays better. They sometimes find it difficult to
get hands--so if some women could take it up, they would be likely to
find employment. The painters design as they paint, not using a pattern.
Japanning of the heavy kind could not be done by women. The pieces are
too heavy to lift. B., an ornamental japanner, used to employ women to
put on the pearl scraps, but now employs boys, because he can get them
cheaper and take them as apprentices. He can send them on errands and
make use of them in that way. He pays an apprentice $1.50 a week for one
year, then increases at the rate of fifty cents a week the next year,
and so on. B. thinks no women are employed at it. Women are employed at
such work in Paris. Japanning, he thinks, is not unhealthy, although the
ovens into which japanners must pass are often heated to 260°. The
spirits of tar used in japanning renders it healthy, and consumptives go
frequently into japanning furnaces, feeling that they are benefited by
it. At a firm of japanners, the boy told me they employ an artist to
come and paint for them. They once had a lady that painted landscapes
and flowers on piano boards in oils. They were not baked in a furnace
afterward, but the oil permitted to dry, as with a painting on canvas.
S. used to employ women in making pearl piecework, but it is not much
used now. For painting clocks, not more than six cents a piece is paid
for many. Men are so rapid that they can make money, but women could not
earn more than $2.50 a week. Some men earn $25 a week, and formerly even
$35, at painting the finer clocks; but there are now so many in the
business that wages have fallen, though the business is increasing. At a
tin manufactory in Williamsburg, I saw two girls employed in tying up
goods, and seven girls employed in putting the first coat of paint on
tin ware--grounding, it is called. They are paid from $1.25 up. One
woman they have earns $6 a week. She is an English woman, and has been
at the business nearly all her life. She is quick and skilful. A boy who
paints flowers on tin ware, after the first coat is put on by the girls,
gets $1 a day for his work. Japanning is done in England by women. Many
women are employed through the country, in the Eastern States, in making
tin canisters, &c., and some in japanning; but japanners carry their
work into ovens, which he thought would be too hard for women. Yet he
thinks doing so is not unhealthy. If the employment is unhealthy, it
arises from the evaporation of the turpentine in the paint. The
unhealthiness of the common painter's business arises from the
turpentine, in evaporating, carrying off with it white lead, but no
white lead is employed on the tin ware. Girls are paid by the week. Men,
for graining, a style resembling the graining of wood, and in fact being
the same except on a different material, received $2.50 per day. Male
labor is twice or three times as high in their establishment. Why women
are not better paid the man could not answer, but, like many other men
with whom I have talked, thought it unjust they were not paid at the
same rate as men. Their girls are employed all the year. They work ten
hours a day. They were mostly Americans, and miserably dressed. The work
soils their clothes greatly. They wore old skirts over their dresses to
work in. I think some men and boys work in the same room with them. The
fine work could be well done by them, if they would take time to learn
it efficiently, for it requires taste, ingenuity, and delicacy of touch.
At an ornamental japanner's, I was told it requires three or four years
to learn the business well. A good workman earns from $12 to $18 a week.
It is piecework.
=489. Knitters.= The knitting done by machinery is not so soft, so warm,
or so durable as that done by hand. It is almost impossible to obtain
ladies' hand-knit hose in cities. Gentlemen's are sometimes made by the
Shakers, and bring a very high price. We have no doubt but some old
ladies might even now find it profitable to knit to order, or supply
some store where their goods would be brought forward and disposed of to
those who can appreciate the difference between machine and hand
knitting. The Germans are famous knitters. "The peasant women of the
Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c., knit a great deal. They are
seldom, if ever, without the materials for this occupation. On the way
to and from market, and at other times, knitting forms their almost
constant employment." A knitting machine has been invented in Seneca, N.
Y., that is said to knit a perfect stocking in less than five minutes.
Aiken's knitting machines are very popular. We have thought ladies would
do well to try them, and devote themselves to making up hosiery. We
doubt not but it would pay very well. The cloth is knit in a straight
piece, and another lady cuts it into shape and sews into the articles
wanted. A machine has been invented by Mr. Aiken, also, for toeing and
heeling socks. A manufacturer of knit goods writes: "We employ about
twenty hands, one half of whom are girls. Their wages are from $3 to $5
per week, except when working by the piece. Those who run the knitting
machines are paid by the piece, and earn from 75 cents to $1 per day.
Males receive from $1 to $1.75 per day. The work done by them is
generally harder, and such as females could not well do. To effectually
superintend the knitting business would require at least five years. The
part performed by females can be learned in six months. They are paid
while learning, from $2.75 to $3 per week. The business is overdone at
present; although there is always a demand in our section of country for
girls. They work regularly throughout the year, twelve hours in summer,
ten in winter. It would be better for all parties to run their mills
only ten hours per day, and thus tend to keep down the production, and
so keep up the prices to a fair profit. Those tending sewing machines
are generally married, or widows with children, and in general support
their families. Their machines are repaired by a foreman, but with a
little practice they can learn to do it themselves. In other branches
generally pursued by girls, they earn sufficient to dress well, but
seldom accumulate. A location is preferred in some thickly settled
place, on account of getting sewing done by hand, as all the goods are
finished off by hand. After working twelve hours a day, they will be
necessarily rather too much fatigued to go through any mental processes
otherwise than reading a novel. If all the mills of all descriptions
would work ten hours only, and establish evening schools, and request
all to attend, it would greatly elevate them in the social scale. But
selfishness rules, and where one manufacturer would agree to this
arrangement, two would not. Board, $1.50 per week, including washing." A
hose manufacturer in Holderness writes: "We employ about sixty females
in the mill. Work is given out to three hundred. Almost all are
American. Their wages are from $3 to $6 per week. The wages in the
knitting department are not much less for women than men. Women learn
the knitting so as to earn good pay in three months. Women are paid $2
per week for the first four weeks; after that, by the piece. A learner
should be steady and quick with her fingers. The employment is healthy,
as the knitters sit only about half the time. We run all the year eleven
hours a day. There is not female help enough. We are trying women where
men have been employed. I think women are in some respects superior
workers to men." Manufacturers of seamless hosiery, in Connecticut,
write they "pay from $3 to $5 per week, eleven hours a day--that it
requires from six to eight weeks to learn--that their hands have access
to libraries; and board is for men $3, for women $2." At Cohoes, N. Y.,
is a manufactory of shirts, drawers, &c. I have a letter from the
company saying: "We employ two hundred and fifty women, and pay from 40
cents to $1 per day. Some are paid by the piece, and some by the week.
Men receive from 75 cents to $2.50 per day, of twelve hours. The reason
why they obtain better wages is that they do work which women cannot do.
(Query: Do not the women perform work that men cannot do?) Men are
continually learning. Women can learn to perform certain work in a few
days. The best qualifications are soundness of mind and body, activity,
steadiness, quick perception, and a desire to make money. The business
is increasing yearly. Occasionally, in the winter, the mills stop for a
month. There is at present (October, 1860) a surplus of labor. Board,
$1.75 to $2." At L.'s knitting factory, in Brooklyn, the foreman told me
there are six machines in operation, each of which cost between $5,000
and $6,000. The articles made by them are softer than any knitting done
by machine I have seen; but it may be owing to the quality of the wool:
I cannot say. Those working at machines stand, the others sit. The
machine operators receive from $1.50 to $3.50: those in the finishing
room are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $5. A foreman
superintends the work and puts the machinery in order. A woman of good
abilities can learn in three months, if the factory is in a position to
put her forward. From May to December is the best time for work. Double
price is paid the hands for night work in busy times. They prefer
American girls, because they are neater. A manufacturer of factory
supplies, in Massachusetts, writes: "We employ thirty women in knitting
loom harnesses. The work is not more unhealthy than any employment that
requires one to sit all the time. They are paid by the piece. The
employment is sure so long as cotton manufacturing is good. The work is
equally good all seasons. Board, $1.62 to $2.25 per week." The secretary
of the Waterbury Knitting Company writes: "We employ one hundred hands,
at from 50 cents to $1 per day, working twelve hours in summer, ten in
winter. Women are paid as well or better than men of the same age;
working by the piece, they are paid the same. The women are not thrown
out of work at any season. Women are inferior in mechanical genius. We
are obliged to keep a man to every fifteen women to overlook them. A
woman will run a knitting machine for seven years, and never be able to
straighten a needle, or knit the cloth slack or tight. A boy or man will
learn to oversee a whole room in half that time. Women cannot be made to
think or act for themselves in the least thing, or in any case to rely
on their own judgment. This is equally true of the stupid Irish, German,
and English, and of the more acute Yankee. Women are superior perhaps in
good looks." S., of Enfield, N. H., has his daughter write: "I use three
of Aikens's knitting machines, and other machinery for making yarn. The
wool is first made into yarn and then knit into webbing, and marked for
heeling and toeing. It is then divided into dozens, and distributed
around the country to be heeled and toed, in which branch we employ
usually five hundred American women. We pay $1 a dozen for heeling and
toeing; for tending the machine, $2 per week, of eleven hours a day.
Women are paid less, because they are not usually as strong as men, and
therefore cannot do the same work, or, if the same kind, not so great an
amount in a limited time. Men can be employed by paying them what they
require, and as they are considered, or rather seem to consider
themselves the 'lords of creation,' they demand higher wages than women.
In four weeks the females can perform their part without trouble.
Learners receive their board. The prospect is good for the same number
employed as at present. The summer season is the best for work. If at
any time there is a want of work, it is in January and February."
=490. Lace Bleachers.= Mrs. L. spent five years learning the business in
Paris. A girl that spent two years learning with her, is now doing well
in the business in St. Louis. She prefers to take learners a week on
trial. She charges from $1 to $1.50 a pair for curtains. The French are
the most successful in that line. She often has thirty or more pair from
a hotel and other large houses. One can make a good living at it. L.
says the work is unhealthy, particularly while the vapor of the
chemicals is warm. The curtains are not wrung out, but the water pressed
out with the hands. The dirt, of course, is first washed out. It
requires strength to handle the goods. Curtains are put on frames to
dry, and women, he says, are not strong enough. It requires strength to
get the extra starch out, as it is done by squeezing. It is surprising
how many objections, as regards health and physical strength required,
can be presented by selfish men, who do not wish women to engage in
their occupations. None but those who have had occasion to test the
matter would believe it possible that the majority of men are so selfish
and unjust in this respect. Another man told me he does all the washing
and drying himself, because he is responsible for the goods, and is not
willing to trust them to strangers. He charges $1 a pair, except for a
very large size. Different kinds of laces require different methods of
washing and ironing.
=491. Lacquerers.= Lacquering is warm work, and in summer is done in
rooms the temperature of which is over 200°. M. thought women could be
employed in burnishing, lacquering, polishing, and bronzing. Girls were
at one time employed in lacquering gas fixtures on William street, New
York; but they were dismissed, because they did not prove steady and
efficient workers. The process previous to lacquering, called dipping,
is dirty work. It requires but a short time to learn to lacquer. F. told
me that in France women do all the fine lacquering, and they do it much
better than men can. They take it home with them to do; and the same
plan could be followed in this country, and probably will be before
long. The finest lacquering, such as ormolu clocks, &c., is done with
gold dust. The varnish must be put on evenly. It requires care and
delicacy of touch. Most of the gas fixtures sold as brass are merely
zinc gilded, and then lacquered--the bronzed part the same metal,
bronzed. Zinc can be bought at six cents a pound--brass is thirty cents
a pound. Mathematical instruments, daguerreotype cases, and gas fixtures
are lacquered. A man earns from $8 to $10 a week, working ten hours a
day. Lacquering, I was told, is not unhealthy, and a person can sit two
or three feet from the fire while at work. A firm in New York,
manufacturing gas fixtures, wrote to us as follows: "Lacquering is a
suitable occupation for women; but we do not employ them, because men
are considered more reliable as to regularity of hours, and are more
easily managed. Women can be made equally good lacquerers with the men;
but when employed by us, some years since, we found, with few
exceptions, that they produced inferior work, owing, as we think, to
want of application. Women are employed in similar establishments to
ours in England and, we learn, in Boston. The employment is not
unhealthy. They are paid by the week in England. It requires from three
to five years to learn the business. Steady application and a good eye
for colors will make a good lacquerer."
=492. Life Preservers.= R. employs two women to stitch his life
preservers with a sewing machine, and pays the usual price of
operatives. None are made South or West. (Would not New Orleans offer an
opening?)
=493. Lucifer Matches.= This is a business that has been largely entered
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."
=504. Rope and Twine Makers.= Ropes are made of the fibres of various
plants, and particular kinds of grasses, and the fibres of the cocoanut
cover. Hair from the manes and tails of horses is also used. Hemp and
flax are most common in the United States. The simplest mode of making
rope is under long sheds. After the material is spun into yarn, it is
doubled or trebled, and twisted. Ropes for the rigging of vessels employ
a large number of men. The great variety and amount of cordage used make
it an extensive trade. Ropes are now manufactured in some places by
steam. A small number of women are employed in rope making. S. & M.,
Philadelphia, employ about fifty female hands. Some are engaged in
spinning, and a dexterous woman will keep from forty to fifty spindles
in constant motion, some at carding, some at balling. The last-named
operation is the only one in which the women can sit while at work. They
work ten hours, and earn from $1.50 (for young girls), to $5 a week (for
the experienced frame spinners). The last mentioned are mostly English,
Scotch, or Irish women, who have followed the trade from childhood. It
requires long practice to command the highest wages. A good steady hand
is much valued, and is not liable to be thrown out of work. Water power
is used with the machinery. W., New York, employs them in his
manufactory for spooling only. A manufacturer on Long Island writes: "I
pay my hands $1 a week, for the first four weeks; then $1.50 a week, for
the next four weeks; and for the four weeks following, $2 per week; and
so increase their wages till I allow them $3.50 per week. I employ
mostly boys and girls. I pay them the same, regardless of sex. They work
from ten to twelve hours, and are employed all the year. Board, $1.25 to
$1.50 per week. At eighteen, my boys learn a trade. I pay my hands well
and use them well. I do not receive children under twelve years of age.
I encourage them in going to school before and after they work in my
factory." There are only two factories of this kind in New York city
that employ women. The proprietor of the largest gave me the following
items: "I employ thirteen girls and women (mostly Irish) in spooling,
twisting, &c. Most are paid by the week. Women receive $3.50; girls,
from $1.15 to $3.50. The time of learning is one, two, or three weeks,
according to the kind of work, and the ability of the girl. The prospect
is poor for more learners. My girls work ten hours a day, and have
employment the year round. There are enough of hands in New York. Some
of the minor parts could be performed by women, that are not, but not
enough to give many employment. Cities are the best for selling the
article, country the best for making. Men do not perform the same kind
of work women do. Women are best suited to their branches. Boys could be
got to do the work of the girls for as low wages. Indeed, most boys work
for less in New York than girls." We think the last assertion a mistake
on the part of H. The agent of the Royal River Yarn and Twine Company
writes: "We consider our employment healthy. It proves so. Take, for
instance, a certain number, at random, of different ages, employed in
cotton mills, and compare with the same number, taken in the same way,
from farm neighborhoods, and you will find more sickness and death among
farmers' daughters." (This is rather a startling statement, but we are
not prepared to disprove it.) He adds: "The regularity in exercise,
taking meals, and resting, accounts, I think, for the steady employment
in cotton mills, and the like, being so conducive to health. I have been
engaged as a machinist, &c., about a cotton mill, for thirty-five years;
and, according to my observation, more girls improve their health,
taking ordinary care of themselves, than otherwise. Part of our hands
are paid by the week, and part by the piece. They have from $2 to $4.50
per week, new hands having only $2. It takes from three months to two
years to learn. Common sense and industrious habits are the only
qualifications needed. Spring and summer are the best seasons, but work
is furnished continuously the year round. Our girls go home now and then
to spend a few weeks, visit, fix their clothing, &c. To shorten their
time would be rather a disadvantage, as capital invested must pay, or no
encouragement would be given to invest more. Demand for hands is steady;
and if a surplus, it is on the neatest and lightest kind of work. Women
are neater, steadier, and more active than men. Our girls make the best
of housewives. Overseers, agents, and business men marry them, and we
may look around and see, in some that have worked in mills, the
brightest and best mothers of the land. The faculties of the mind are
quickened by the busy hum and movement of machinery. Board, $1.50,
respectable and comfortable. Parties not regarding that, would not have
respectable help."
=505. Sail and Awning Makers.= I think it would require considerable
strength and long practice to make sails, but not more than some
occupations in which women are engaged. L. sometimes employs women to
run the binding on awnings, paying 2 and 2½ cents a yard. He thinks no
women are employed in the United States in making sails. They worked at
tents during the Mexican war, but now only men are employed. S. knows
that, in France, women make the lightest kind of sails. In Russia, sails
are made by women. A sail maker in a large maritime city writes: "Some
women are employed in sail making in Massachusetts. It is a healthy
trade, and men spend three years learning it. A sail maker needs a tough
constitution and steady habits. Some parts of the work are suitable for
women. The best locations are on the lakes or in seaport towns." An
awning manufacturer told me he employs girls in summer, and pays from $4
to $5 a week, of ten hours a day. They work by hand, and bind and put on
fringe. T. employs some girls for binding. They can earn from $3 to $4 a
week when constantly employed. He usually pays by the week, and has it
done in his shop. A sail maker in Connecticut writes: "Women are
employed at sail making in France. A knowledge of arithmetic and
draughting are essential. The work is done at all seasons. The
occupation is filled. It is usual to spend four years as an apprentice.
The best locations are in seaports or river towns. I think the
occupation is too laborious for women."
=506. Shoe-Peg Makers.= A shoe-peg manufacturing association, in New
Hampshire, furnish me a report of the work they have done by women, as
follows: "Women are employed only to feed the machine with prepared
blocks, and sorting pegs after they are split. The work is light, and
well adapted to the physical capacity of girls and women. They can do
the work just as well as young men and boys, and perhaps a little
quicker. Wages are perhaps two thirds as much as that of men in the same
branches. Two hundred women would do all the work, in their several
departments, in the business, for the whole of North and South America.
We employ sixteen in our mill, at $3.50 per week, including board, which
is called about $1.75. Men are not employed in the same branches. A part
could be learned in one month--nearly half of it would require from six
to twelve months. Girls are paid $3 a week, while learning. Nothing
needed but ready and quick application. They work eleven hours. Each
hour less would be more than a private loss. All are Americans."
=507. Shroud Makers.= There is something repulsive in death--the
shroud--the cap--the coffin--the sunken eyes--the still hands and
ghastly face. Death is fearful, even in its mildest forms. And yet how
we yearn for rest--how we long for quiet! How we pant for that glorious
freedom from anxiety and care, that awaits the just in heaven! The
change of the chrysalis to the butterfly, of the seed to the plant, of
the earth beneath our feet, and the heavens above--the very
consciousness within us, all proclaim unmistakably the truth that the
spirit will not die--that it is immortal. There are duties connected
with the house of mourning that afflicted friends and relatives have not
the heart to perform. These, therefore, devolve upon persons interested
in the dead, or hired attendants. Closing the eyes, washing the body,
making the shroud and putting it on, are in some cases performed by the
hired nurse, but generally making the shroud is done by the undertaker's
wife. Some undertakers keep shrouds in their shops ready for sale. In
large cities, an undertaker's wife is in many cases sent for by the
nurse, to assist in laying out the dead, and receives, as a
compensation, from $3 to $5. The wife of an undertaker told me that she
lines the coffins for her husband. They buy their caps already made, of
an old lady who brings them around. Mr. ----, an undertaker, is always
willing to dress the remains of any but those who have died of small
pox. He charges $3 to wash and dress a corpse, $5 with shaving. An
undertaker told me he knew women could be employed in plaiting the folds
of silk in coffins, and making coffin pillows. The wholesale trade send
away large quantities of shrouds and caps, and so have many made up. A
man in Newark, who devotes himself exclusively to making shrouds,
employs several women. In England, some undertakers employ women to make
up mourning suits.
=508. Sign Painters.= Sign painting requires a long, steady, and regular
apprenticeship. It requires also a correct eye and a steady hand. In
large cities, sign and ornamental painting can be made a distinct branch
of painting; but in a town or village it is combined with carriage or
house painting, as one individual seldom has enough sign and ornamental
painting to keep him constantly occupied. It is not more necessary for a
painter to know how to mix the paints, and use judgment and taste in the
selection of colors, than to form letters according to geometrical
proportions. A painter must measure, more by the eye than a rule, the
size and arrangement of letters in a given space. Good painters receive
$3, $4, and $5 a day for their work, but generally are paid by the
piece. When paid by the week, and they work regularly, they receive from
$12 to $15 a week. Mrs. K., New York, says in Dublin there are many
families that devote themselves to sign painting, but she knows of none
in this country except her own. She employs a man to grind paints, put
up signs, &c.,--also to paint out-of-door signs, that is, such as must
be painted on the building. Her two daughters paint all the signs that
are to be put up. Some of the large signs above stores in New York have
been painted by them. They are paid as good prices as men. She thinks an
individual should commence early to learn. Her daughters received their
instruction and advice from their father. In that way they acquired
maturity of judgment and nicety of hand. Judgment needs to be exercised
in regard to size and space, and artistic taste in ornamenting. A sign
painter told me that superior workers can earn from $3 to $15 a day, if
they have sufficient employment. Many house and other painters, in
cities, profess to paint signs, but in reality have it done. Germans do
much of it in New York, because they do it cheaply, but many of them do
not execute their work well. It is customary to have an apprentice three
years, and pay the usual terms, $2.50 a week, the first year. A boy,
during the first year, mostly grinds paints, goes errands, &c. Spring is
the most busy season. Painting in oils is not neat work. A sign and
carriage painter writes me: "The work is unhealthy on account of the
poisonous vapors and dust. It requires two or three years to learn, and
one must have a great deal of practice. A common education, natural
taste, and a correct eye are the qualifications needed. Many parts of it
are very easy and pleasant. Some parts might be done by women." The
business pays best in large towns and cities. An ornamental painter
writes me: "Women are employed in sign painting in England, France,
Germany, and Belgium. The time required to learn would depend on the
taste or genius of the individual. The qualifications requisite are
those of an artist in a less degree." B., an emblematic sign painter,
thinks the employment very suitable for females, but supposes there are
better openings in other cities than New York. It requires two or three
years to learn all the different branches well. During the first year a
learner could not support herself, but after that could, if she had a
taste for it, was industrious, and received enough orders to keep her
busy.
=509. Snuff Packers.= At a snuff factory, I saw two women putting up
snuff. The women color the bladders for holding snuff, in tobacco water,
pack, cap, label, varnish, and wrap them. They are weighed after being
packed, and women are paid at the rate of one cent a pound. Women always
stand in packing. They can earn from $5 to $6 a week, and have work all
the year. The woman with whom we conversed was a sensible American, who
told us her health had failed greatly during the nine years she had
worked in snuff. While working in the snuff, women wear caps, but are so
covered with it that they might be mistaken for bags of snuff. Of
course, a great deal is inhaled. Both the women I saw complained of
difficulty in breathing, particularly when they lie down at night. One
said, when suffering great oppression she would vomit, and throw up
snuff as fresh in taste and smell as before it was inhaled. For packing
snuff in jars, they are paid by the week, $4.50, and, for putting it in
bottles still less. Men are mostly employed in packing snuff.
=510. Stencil Makers.= A stencil-plate maker told me that cutting the
plates could be done by women, but it would require a strong, stout
woman to hammer the plates after they are cool. In learning, a boy
receives $2 a week. There are very few stencil cutters in the South and
West. People send North for their plates, or get them cut by travelling
peddlers, who are not allowed now in the South. The price of stencil
plates has fallen very greatly. Such as would have sold for $5 a few
years ago, can now be had for fifty cents. I saw a lady who cut stencil
plates. She wanted an agent to sell her plates and ink.
=511. Street Sweepers.= The girls seen in New York sweeping the
crossings in winter, are not paid by the city, but receive, now and
then, from a passer by, a penny for their labor. If enough of strong men
were employed by the city, and properly paid, it would serve to diminish
the $13,000,000 annually spent in New York for preventable sickness,
where thirty-one die every day more than in Philadelphia, while its
natural advantages are greater. In Paris, women are employed as street
sweepers.
=512. Tip Gilders.= Most hats and caps are made in New York city. There
are six establishments in the city devoted to tip gilding, and morocco
cutting and rolling, and four girls, on an average, in each. The girls
put the sizing and gold leaf on, and, when the impression is made, brush
the loose gold leaf off. A man in the business told me he sometimes
finds it difficult to get a good hand, and always prefers to teach a
girl. He pays from $2 to $6 a week. The men cut the morocco for linings,
and girls roll down the edge by running it through a small machine.
=513. Tobacco Strippers.= In tobacco factories, women are generally
employed to strip the leaves from the stems. Smoking tobacco is cut in
machines, and put in papers of different sizes. But little chewing
tobacco is prepared in the Southern and Western States, though some
factories have commenced it in the West during the last few years. Some
leaf tobacco is put up in the South by slaves. In the West it is
difficult to get hands, but in New York there is a surplus, though they
are the very dregs of society. A. told me the women he employs are
mostly Irish, and of low origin. They are generally old women, not fit
for much else, and they are quite as poorly paid as in any other branch
of labor. The part done by women is not unhealthy, though some of the
parts done by men in close rooms are thought to be unhealthy. H. pays by
the pound for stripping, and the girls earn from $2 to $4 a week. They
sit while at work. In packing they stand, because they can do more. He
employs his hands all the year. For packing tobacco in papers and boxes
the girls are paid by the paper, and earn about the same as the
strippers. The work is dirty, and the hands change their clothes when
they come and go. It requires some time to acquire expertness. H.
considers tobacco very healthy, if not taken inwardly to excess. He says
tobacco workers never have fevers. (?) I went through G.'s factory. I
never saw females engaged in such degrading work, and so uncomfortably
situated, in all my life. It is far worse than rag picking. A tier of
bunks (two on a side), in dark, narrow rooms, the centre filled with
hogsheads of tobacco, a hatchway, and machinery made up the furniture of
the place. The air was so close and strong, that I was almost stifled
during the short time I spent there. The floor was covered with filth
and waste tobacco. In the lower bunks, in one room, it was with
difficulty I could discover the features of the old women and neglected
children, at work. A forewoman had the superintendence, who assisted the
workers in weighing the tobacco, and keeping an account of the amount
given each. They were mostly Irish. It is very filthy, disagreeable
work. Their tobacco strippers are paid fifty cents one hundred pounds.
They strip from twenty to fifty pounds a day, earning from $1 to $3 a
week. The majority have no homes, but hire lodgings at thirty-seven
cents a week, and buy something to eat. They work from seven to half
past five or six, having half an hour at noon. At C.'s, the rooms were
not so dark, cramped, and uncomfortable as at G.'s. They employ
seventy-five women and children. The forewoman told me that a smart
hand, working in good leaf, and having constant employment, can earn
from $3 to $5 a week. They are paid two cents for three pounds. The
packers, if active and skilful, can earn more. At a place on Greenwich
street, they pay thirty-five cents per hundred pounds for stripping, and
a woman may earn from $1 to $4 a week at it. At packing they can earn
from $3 to $6. At L.'s, they employ one hundred and twenty-five girls
and women. At packing their girls can earn from $4.25 to $9 a week,
working only in daylight. Strippers can earn from $1.50 to $3.50, and
are mostly old widow women with children. The foreman thinks it most
healthy for packers to stand, as they are thereby saved from stooping.
He tries to get the best class of girls he can, but he finds it
impossible to secure the services of American girls. I am glad American
girls object to working in the filthy weed. The girls at L.'s have
employment all the year. M. pays forty cents per hundred pounds for
stripping. His strippers earn from thirty to forty cents a day. Some
packers are able to earn $1 a day. They have work all the year.
Tobacconists in Albany write: "We employ women in papering tobacco, and
pay by the dozen, the hands earning from $3 to $5 per week. They work
ten hours a day, the year through." A tobacconist in Hartford "pays his
women by the week, $3.50, for stripping tobacco. They work ten hours a
day. It requires but a few weeks to learn the work done by women."
B----'s, of Boston, write: "We always have employment for women, in
stripping and papering tobacco, and other light work. They are employed,
also, in making cigars. By some physicians the work is considered
healthy. We pay by the week, from $3 to $5, working ten hours a day. The
men who make cigars are mostly foreigners, thoroughly acquainted with
their business, a kind of work which requires a regular apprenticeship
to learn. The women never give their time to learn, and we cannot afford
to teach them, on account of the low price of goods made in Germany,
shipped here by millions. Hence, the men, in their part of the business,
earn from $6 to $15 per week. Learners receive their board. It would be
much better if a tariff, excluding cheap cigars, were passed. The
comfort and remuneration are as good as any branch of female industry.
Board, $2 to $3."
=514. Toy Makers.= The thousand and one inventions for amusing children
have given exercise to a variety of talents. Any particular style of toy
follows the fashion of the world--it passes away, and another takes its
place. Pewter toys are made in New York, tin toys in Philadelphia and
Connecticut. The reason more toys are not made in this country is the
high price of labor and living. Children's drums are made both in the
city and country. N. & Co., manufacturers of military and toy drums in
Massachusetts, write: "We employ one woman only in our factory, who
makes the straps for drums. She works by the piece, and earns $1 a day,
boarding herself." A manufacturer of pewter toys, in New York, employs
ten or twelve boys. He pays $1.75 per week, of ten hours a day. He could
use girls just as well, but prefers boys. I called at a manufactory of
tin ware. The proprietor makes tin toys, and employs some women to paint
them. The work has to be done on the premises, as the articles have to
be subjected to heat after they are painted. The girls work ten hours a
day, and are paid $3 a week. H., New York, makes small boats and
vessels. They range in price from 37 cents to $30. The highest priced
are perfect in all their parts. He pays a woman $80 a year for stitching
by machine the edges of the sails. B., manufacturer of mechanical toys,
employs twenty girls in soldering and painting. The painting is done by
stencils. It requires but a short time to learn. Good hands earn from
$2.50 to $4 per week. There are two departments in the manufacture of
dolls--making and painting. D. employs women out of the house to make
bodies for dolls--muslin stuffed with wadding. G., New York, pays his
girls about $4 per week for dressing dolls. At a large store in New
York, I was told they employ a number of girls for dressing dolls,
paying from $3 to $4 per week. They pay by the piece, according to the
size, and style of dress. In busy seasons, the girls are allowed to take
some dolls home and dress them in the evening. Doll dressing requires
taste, expertness, ingenuity, and economy in cutting the materials.
Their room is superintended by a lady. At a store for the sale of fancy
goods, on inquiring about the canton-flannel rabbits, mice, &c., I was
told they give them to a school girl in Brooklyn to make. She makes them
out of school hours, and earns $1.50 per week. They are sewed by a
machine, because it can be done faster. The treasurer of a firm
manufacturing Yankee notions, in Providence, writes they have six women
employed in labelling and packing light goods, who earn from $3 to $6
per week, of ten hours a day. It requires about four weeks to learn to
do the work. There is no difference in seasons. What work women do at
all they do as well as men. Some places are better than others for this
style of manufacture.
=515. Varnishers and Varnish Makers.= In France, women are employed as
varnishers of furniture. At some varnish factories, women are employed
to separate the good from the imperfect gum, and I think are paid the
usual price of woman's work, 50 cents a day. Women might make spirit
varnish. Copal varnish has to be boiled, and is liable to take fire. As
it requires much strength to stir it, women could not very well make it.
The varnishing of pianos could be done by women. A manufacturer of
musical instruments told me a solution, one constituent of which is
pulverized marble, has been made for varnishing, that is very
substantial. A knife can be broken against it, after it has become
hardened on furniture. It will probably be used very extensively.
=516. Water Carriers.= "Everywhere on the banks of the Nile, the poorer
sort of women may be seen bringing up water from the river, in pitchers,
on their heads or shoulders." There are from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty water carriers in London, but they are mostly or all men.
EMPLOYMENTS FOR THE AFFLICTED.
=517. Blind Women.= Many blind persons are employed as follows:
Attendants in blind institutions, authors, basket makers, bead workers,
broom makers, brush makers, carpet and rug weavers, chair seaters,
flower and fruit venders, governesses, hair and moss pickers, hucksters,
knitters, match sellers, mattress makers, milk sellers, music teachers,
netters, newspaper and book agents, paper-box makers, seamstresses,
stationers, straw braiders, teachers, umbrella sewers, washerwomen,
willow workers. We think they usually engage in their work with pleasure
and profit. Fortunately the tools employed in the occupations of the
blind do not cost much. So if the blind have a thorough knowledge of
some pursuit, and means to keep them until they are established and able
to secure constant work, they may feel sure of a comfortable livelihood.
Their occupations are of a kind to furnish them with most constant
employment in a city. Though the compensation for each article is small,
yet, when one's time is fully occupied, the aggregate is considerable.
=518. Deaf Mutes.= Deaf mutes can engage in most branches of book
making, fancy work, sewing, shoe making, teach drawing, and teach those
afflicted like themselves.
=519. The Lame.= The lame can braid straw, color photographs, copy, cut
labels, edit papers, embroider, engrave, make mats, make pens, model,
paint, sew--indeed, do almost anything. Lameness is no excuse for
idleness. What do lame men do? None of them, that have any self-respect,
beg or sit idle because they are lame.
UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS.
=520. United States.= Last summer, a lady ascended alone in a balloon,
from Palace Garden, N. Y. She went up once in a balloon filled with hot
air. She received part of the profits derived from the admittance fees,
and the keeper of the garden the other portion, neither of which were
very large. Several women have gone up with their husbands. We take the
following items from the summary of the San Francisco _Alta California_,
of December 5th: "At the recent election, two women were elected to fill
office in Placer County--one as justice of the peace, and the other as
constable. Each received one vote in the precinct, and there was no
opposition." It is seldom that a lady's exertions are called forth as
were those of Mrs. Patton, wife of the captain of the ship _Neptune's
Car_. Yet, it goes to confirm what we have stated in some other place,
that any valuable information acquired will always come in use. We will
quote the extract as we saw it in a newspaper, copied from a San
Francisco letter: "Fifty days ago, Captain Patton was attacked with the
brain fever, and for the last twenty-five days has been blind. Previous
to his illness, he had put the first mate off duty on account of his
incompetency. After the captain's illness, the second mate took charge
of the ship, but he did not understand navigation. The first mate wrote
Mrs. Patton a letter, reminding her of the dangers of the coast, and of
the great responsibility she had assumed, and offered to take charge of
the ship; but she stood by the decision of her husband and declined the
offer. She worked up the reckoning every day, and brought the ship
safely into port. During all this time she acted as nurse to the
captain. She studied medicine to learn how to treat his case, and shaved
his head, and by competent care and watchfulness kept him alive. She
said that for fifty nights she had not undressed herself. Few women
could have done so much and done it so well. She was at once navigator,
nurse, and physician, and protector of the property intrusted to her
husband." The Geneva _Courier_ notices the appearance in that village
"of a strong-armed, strong-backed, and, of course, strong-minded woman,
in charge of a canal boat, of which she is owner and captain. She is of
German origin, and manages her craft with great ability." In New York, I
saw a woman driving a bread wagon, one rolling a wheelbarrow, and
another drawing a similar wagon filled with ashes. A few women are
employed in charcoal burning in New Jersey.
=521. England.= In looking over the census of Great Britain, for 1850,
we are surprised to find that in some of those occupations most suitable
for women, as physicians, music composers, teachers of mathematics,
macaroni packers, mask makers, honey dealers, lecturers, reporters, and
spice merchants, not one female is reported; while, in occupations
altogether unsuitable, many women are employed--in some, even hundreds.
No doubt many of these women, perhaps a majority, and in some
occupations it may be all, are the widows of men who have been engaged
in the business, and who employ others to do the work. In some of the
other occupations, the women probably do only the lighter work, under
the direction of the masters or competent foremen. Circumstances, as
regards occupation, certainly do much to influence the fate of every
one. But in no respect is there a greater need of reform, than in the
proper appreciation of employments by the sexes. Men have, in bygone
times, seized upon the lightest and most lucrative occupations, and by
custom still retain them. The most laborious and disagreeable work is
left for women, and what is still worse, they are paid only from one
third to one half as much as men, doing the same kind of work. Of the
occupations that strike us as odd for women, in the census of Great
Britain, are makers of agricultural implements, anchor smiths, barge
women, barge boat builders, bell hangers, bedstead makers, bill
stickers, blacksmiths, brass manufacturers, brick makers, bristle
manufacturers, builders, carpenters, case (packing) makers, chimney
sweepers, coke burners, commercial travellers, engine and machinery
makers, ferriers, goldbeaters, grindstone cutters, gun makers, hawkers,
hemp manufacturers, hinge makers, nail manufacturers, oil refiners,
paper hangers, parasol and umbrella stick manufacturers, peat cutters,
plasterers, potato merchants, railway-station attendants, razor makers,
ring-chain makers, rivet makers, rope makers, saddle-tree makers, sail
makers, scale makers, sawyers, scavengers, sextons, ship agents, ship
builders, small steel-ware manufacturers, snuff and tobacco
manufacturers, spade makers, spar cutters, spirit and wine merchants,
stone breakers, stone quarriers, stove, grate, and range makers, sugar
refiners, surgical-instrument makers, timber merchants, timber choppers
and benders, tin manufacturers, trunk makers, turners, turpentine
manufacturers, undertakers, vermin destroyers, well sinkers,
wheelwrights, white-metal manufacturers, wine manufacturers, wood
dealers, and zinc manufacturers. In the furniture trade of Great
Britain, 5,763 women are employed, while 7,479 are engaged in
conveyance. I would also add, that in Great Britain, women have been,
and still are, to some extent, employed in coal, copper, iron, lead,
manganese, salt, tin, and other mineral mines. Of those for men
extremely inappropriate, are reported three hundred and sixty-six dress
makers, and sixty-one embroiderers. "In the reign of George II. (says
Mrs. Childs), the minister of Clerkenwell was chosen by a majority of
women. The office of champion has frequently been held by a woman, and
was so at the coronation of George I. The office of grand chamberlain,
in 1822, was filled by two women; and that of clerk of the crown, in the
court of king's bench, has been granted to a female. The celebrated
Anne, Countess of Pembroke, held the hereditary office of sheriff of
Westmoreland, and exercised it in person, sitting on the bench of the
judges. In ancient councils, mention is made of deaconesses; and in an
edition of the New Testament printed in 1574, a woman is spoken of as
minister of a church." Miss Betsy Miller has for years commanded the
Scotch brig, Cleotus. Her father commanded a vessel plying between
England and France. After his wife died, the daughter frequently
accompanied him. On his death, being without a home on land, she took
command of the vessel, and remained in the capacity of captain several
years. An English correspondent of an American paper writes: "Walking,
lately, near some white-lead works, about the hour of closing, we
observed the sudden egress of about a hundred women from the
establishment, all Irish, and all decently clad and well conducted. On
inquiry, we found that they are employed continuously in the works,
piling the lead for oxidation, and in various other processes, not by
any means coming under the denomination of light labor." A few years
ago, a singular death occurred in England. It was that of a woman, who,
owing to harsh treatment from her parents when a child, left her home at
the age of eight, dressed in boy's clothes, got work as a boy, learned
the trade of a mason, and worked at it until about middle age, when the
business was changed for that of a beer house, in which occupation the
individual continued until her death, at the age of sixty. She always
dressed as a man. When quite young, she was very industrious and
hard-working. Many of the large houses and tall chimneys in Manchester
and Salford were built by her. "The 7,000 women returned in the census
under the head of miners, are, no doubt, for the most part, the dressers
of the ores in the Cornish and Welsh mines. The work is dirty, but not
too laborious; less laborious than the work which may perhaps be
included under the same head--the supplying porcelain clay from the same
regions of country. Travellers in Devonshire and Cornwall are familiar
with the ugly scenery of hillsides where turf is taken up, and the
series of clay pits is overflowing, and the plastered women are stirring
the mess, or sifting and straining, or drying or moulding the refined
clay. The mineral interest is, however, one of the smallest in the
schedule of female industry; and it is likely to contract, rather than
expand--except the labor of sorting the ores." In Great Britain, some
women work in alabaster, and some in alum mines. In what is called the
Black country, some women are employed on the pit banks, and some about
the furnace yards. A London paper says: "Melton and its neighborhood can
boast of three public characters, which, perhaps, no other can; namely,
two independent ladies, who have taken out game certificates, and who
enter the field, and can bring down the game equal to any sportsman, as
well as those indulging in fishing, hunting over the country with
hounds, &c. The third is a female blacksmith, a daughter of Mr. William
Hinman, who is such an adept at shoeing a horse or working at the anvil,
as to cause universal excitement. It was but the other day that she took
off the old shoes of a horse, pared the feet, and fitted the shoes at
the fire, and affixed them in the most scientific manner possible, and
in considerably less time than her father could, who is called one of
the quickest shoers in Melton." Some women are employed as kelp burners
in Great Britain; and some, as bathers, manage the bathing machines used
on the coast. In the census of Great Britain are reported some women as
hack proprietors.
=522. France.= A Paris correspondent of the New York _Times_ writes: "My
washerwoman is a man. He lives in the Rue Blanc, and any one may see him
up to his elbows in soap suds, or ironing frills on bosoms. His wife is
a wood sawyer." It is not unusual, in the public gardens of Germany, and
on the broad sidewalks of the Boulevards in Paris, for men and women to
hire a chair for a sou to a passer by who wishes to rest. In France,
some women are engaged in cutting and drying seaweeds, and some in
making wooden shoes. "In the department of Somme, France, women alone
have the right to go into the fields and gather stones to repair the
roads. In the cantons where peat is dug, the privilege of loading and
unloading the boats which carry it is given them. At Cistal, in
Provence, women alone have been authorized to sell the water which was
brought from a fountain some distance from the city. No man could be a
carrier of water. In other parts, to women is given the transport of
trunks, valises, clothes bags, and effects for the use of travellers on
packets. These resources are momentary. Accorded by one mayor, they can
be withdrawn by another." "In Paris, women cry the rate of exchange,
after Bourse hours." They also "undertake the moving of furniture, agree
with you as to price, and you find them quite as responsible as men."
The author of "Parisian Sights and French Principles" mentions a number
of female employments rather novel to Americans: "I will say nothing of
their laboring in the field, their driving huge carts through the
streets of Paris, and other rude labors which soon rub out of them all
feminine softness; but confine myself to the more agreeable duties which
they have here usurped from men. Indeed, a man is but a secondary being
in the scale of French civilization. The 'dames à comptoir' are as
essential to the success of a Parisian _café_ as the cook himself. More
hats are donned at their shrines than before the most brilliant belles
of the metropolis. My boot maker, or the head of the establishment, is a
woman; my porter is of the same sex, older in years and worse in looks;
my butcher, milkman, and the old-clothes man, newsboy, and rag gatherer
beneath my window, ditto. They are waiters at the baths, doorkeepers at
the theatres, ticket sellers, fiddlers, chair letters of the churches;
they figure in every revolution, and have a tongue and arms in every
fight; in short, they are at the bottom and top of everything in
France." In the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris, is Lieutenant Madame
Brulow, who entered in 1799, and has been there ever since. Her father,
brothers, and husband were soldiers, and were all killed in battle; at
the age of twenty she was a widow and a mother. She joined the French
army at Corsica, where she behaved very bravely; but was disabled for
service by the bursting of a bomb while in the discharge of her duties
as sergeant. She is a woman of chaste manners and correct principles.
She dresses in the uniform of the Invalides. Louis XVIII. conferred on
her the rank of second lieutenant, and by the present Napoleon she was
made a member of the society of the Legion of Honor. A female soldier,
whose history is similar to Madame Brulow's, died near Paris, a short
time since, at the age of eighty-seven. She was a dragoon, and served in
Italy, Germany, and Spain, in all the campaigns of the French, from 1793
to 1812. When Bonaparte was first consul, he expressed a wish to see
her, and she was kindly received by him at St. Cloud. She received many
wounds in battle, and had four horses killed under her. We find the
following article, taken from Galignani's _Messenger_: "In consequence
of the success obtained by Madame Isabella in breaking horses for the
Russian army, the French Minister of War authorized her to proceed,
officially, before a commission of generals and superior officers of
cavalry, to a practical demonstration of the method, on a certain number
of young cavalry horses. After twenty days' training, the horses were so
perfectly broken in, that the Minister no longer hesitated to enter into
an arrangement with Madame Isabella to introduce her system into all the
imperial schools of cavalry, beginning with that of Saumur."
=523. Other Countries.= Professor Ingraham, in his "Pillar of Fire,"
describing the Hebrews at work in Egypt, says: "The men that carried
brick to the smoothly swept ground where they were to be dried,
delivered them to women, who, many hundreds in number, placed them side
by side on the earth in rows--a lighter task than that of the men. The
borders of this busy plain, where it touched the fields of stubble
wheat, were thronged with women and children gathering straw for the men
who mixed the clay." "The Egyptian ladies," says the same writer,
"employed much of their time with the needle, and either with their own
hands, or by the agency of their maidens, they embroidered, wove, spun,
and did needlework." Herodotus says: "It was expected of the virgins
consecrated to the service of the Egyptian temples to gather flowers for
the altars, to feed the sacred birds, and daily to fill the vases with
pure, fresh water from the Nile." During the middle ages, "women
preached in public, supported controversies, published and defended
theses, filled the chairs of philosophy and law, harangued the popes in
Latin, wrote Greek, and read Hebrew. Nuns wrote poetry, women of rank
became divines, and young girls publicly exhorted Christian princes to
take up arms for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre." "In the Greek
island of Hinnin, the inhabitants gain a livelihood by obtaining sponges
for the Turkish baths; and no girl is allowed to marry till she has
proved her dexterity by bringing up from the sea a certain quantity of
this marketable article." The wife of the Burmese governor was observed,
by some Englishmen, to superintend the building of her husband's ship.
"In many of the South Sea islands, women assist in the construction of
the buildings appropriated to common use. Sometimes a woman of
distinction may be seen carrying a heavy stone for the foundation of a
building, while a stout attendant carries the light feathered staff to
denote her rank." "In Genoa there are marriage brokers, who have
pocketbooks filled with the names of marriageable girls of different
classes, with an account of their fortunes, personal attractions, &c.
When they succeed in arranging connections, they have two or three per
cent. commission on the portion. The contract is often drawn up before
the parties have seen each other. If a man dislikes the appearance or
manners of his future partner, he may break off the match, on condition
of paying the brokerage and other expenses." In the "Art Student in
Munich," we find this passage: "You know, in Germany, your neighbor's
dresses by meeting the laundresses bearing them home through the streets
upon tall poles, like gay pennons." "In Munich, a servant girl will be
sent around with a number of advertisements and a paste pot, and pastes
up the advertisements at the corners of the streets throughout the
city." "At Homburg, Germany, four, six, or eight girls, according to the
season, dip the water from the spring, by taking three tumblers by the
handles in each hand, and filling them without stopping, and supplying
those in waiting, so fast that there is no crowd and no jostling and
impatience." Mrs. Nicolson says: "Many a poor widow have I seen in
Ireland, with some little son or daughter, spreading manure, by
moonlight, over her scanty patch of ground; or, before the rising of the
sun, going out, with her wisp about her forehead and basket to her back,
to gather her turf or potatoes." "In the elevated, cold, dry regions of
Thibet, the goats are furnished with a fine down or hair-like wool under
the coarse, common outer wool. The long hairs are picked out, the
remainder washed out in nice water, and then handspun by women." "In
some African tribes, it is common for the women to unite with the men in
hunting the lion and the leopard." During the reign of Anne of Austria,
the French women often appeared at the head of political factions,
wearing scarfs that designated the party to which they belonged. Swords
and harps, violins and cuirasses, were seen together in the same saloon.
There was a regiment created under the name of mademoiselle. "During the
late war, Polish women assisted the men in erecting fortifications, and
one of the outworks was called the 'lunette of the women,' because it
was built entirely by their hands. The Countess Plater raised and
equipped a regiment of five or six hundred Lithuanians at her own
expense; and she was uniformly at their head, encouraging them by her
brave example in every battle. The women proposed to form three
companies of their own sex, to share the fatigues and perils of the
army; but their countrymen, wishing to employ their energies in a manner
less dangerous, distributed them among the hospitals to attend the
wounded." "In the army of the King of Siam, one corps particularly
attracts the attention of strangers, which is a battalion of the king's
guard, composed of women. This battalion consists of four hundred women,
chosen from among the handsomest and most robust girls in the country.
They receive excellent pay, and their discipline is perfect. They are
admitted to serve at the age of thirteen, and are placed in the army of
reserve at twenty-five. From that period they no longer serve about the
king's person, but are employed to guard the royal palaces and crown
lands."
MINOR EMPLOYMENTS.
=524. United States.= A little boy told me he used to catch butterflies,
and sell them in New York at a penny apiece for canary birds. Sometimes
he would get one hundred a day; and at other times, not as many a week.
Some women are seen on the streets of our large cities, selling baskets,
brushes, sponges, and wash leather--and many with baskets containing
tape, cord, pins, &c. Some women buy waste paper to sell to grocers,
butchers, fishmongers, and such others as would use it for wrapping. A
few resort to levees and warehouses to seek the scraps of waste cotton
that are lost by the removal of bales. Some collect ashes, separate the
cinders, wash and sell them; while some collect wood scattered about
lumber yards, and catch that drifting in rivers.
=525. England.= Some children on the streets of London are employed in
the sale of fly-papers. Some sell paper cuttings to ornament ceilings.
Sand is sold on the streets for scouring and for birds--also gravel for
birds. Some women, in London, go around and buy the skins of rabbits and
hares to sell again, and some keep little shops where they buy kitchen
stuff, grease, and dripping. In England, women are hired to pick
currants and gooseberries, put up fruit, weed gardens, bind grain, pick
hops, and sometimes even to cut hay and dig potatoes. On the streets of
London, some women sell conundrums and playbills, which are pinned to a
large screen, and a number sell stationery. In old countries nothing is
lost. Use is found for every article, even when no longer of value for
its original purpose. For instance, old tin kettles and coal scuttles,
we learn from Mr. Babbage, are cut up for the bottoms and bands of
trunks, and by manufacturing chemists in preparing a black dye used by
calico printers. In some cities of the old countries, every variety of
second-hand miscellaneous articles are sold in shops, from a Jew's harp
to a bedstead. In London, Mayhew says: "Among the mudlarks may be seen
many old women, and it is indeed pitiable to behold them, especially
during the winter, bent nearly double with age and infirmity, paddling
and groping among the wet mud for small pieces of coal, chips of wood,
copper nails that drop out of the sheathing of vessels, or any sort of
refuse washed up by the tide. These women always have with them an old
basket, or an old tin kettle, in which they put whatever they may chance
to find. It usually takes them the whole tide to fill the receptacle,
but, when filled, it is as much as the feeble old creatures are able to
carry home." Little girls, too, eagerly press into the mud as the tide
recedes, to secure what trifles they can, by which to gain bread.
=526. France.= In France, many women are employed in vineyards to pick
grapes, tie up the vines, &c. L. told me he had seen women in France
employed in preparing a kind of fuel made of clay mixed in water, cast
in moulds, and dried. Females are employed by some of the merchants in
Paris to carry goods home for purchasers. One of the most flourishing of
the minor street trades of Paris is that in fried potatoes, invented
some twenty-five years ago by a man that made his fortune at the
business. A few years back might have been seen in the grounds of the
Tuileries an old woman with a long stick, drawing off the surface of the
water the feathers that loosened and fell from the swans that floated on
the ponds. That old woman sold the feathers to buy bread.
=527. Occupations in which no Women are employed.= I have received
information from persons saying women are never engaged in their
branches of business, which are the following: Architectural
Ornamentation, Bonedust, Buckets, Carriage painting, Copperas ("hard and
unsuitable"), Currying, Drug Mills ("only fit for able-bodied men"),
Edge Tools ("not adapted to the sex"), Emery Paper, Flour Mills,
Glazier's Diamonds, Gunpowder ("dangerous"), India Rubber Belting,
Magnesia, Melodeons, Mercantile Agencies, Metallic Furniture, Oil, Oil
Cloth, Organ building, Paint Mills, Pattern making (of wood), Pearlash
("unsuitable"), Philosophical Instruments (except Globes), Pine
Furniture, Pork packing, Reed making, Rivets, Roll covering, Seed
crushing ("requires able bodied men"), Sellers of License, Ship
Crackers, Shot and Lead ("dangerous and unhealthy"), Shovels, Slate,
Spools, Starch ("too hard"), Steel-letter cutting, Stone quarrying,
Street-lamp lighting, Sulphur ("unhealthy"), Superphosphate of Lime
("requires too much muscular strength"), Surveyors' and Engineers'
Instruments, Tanning, Tinfoil, Trowels, Vinegar, Wholesale Fruit
dealing, Wire drawing, Wool combing, and Zinc manufacture.
=528. None in the United States.= There are no women employed in any
capacity in connection with mining and shipping coal in our country.
Neither could any branch of the business be well placed under their
supervision, for very nearly all the labor is performed by foreigners of
the most low and illiterate class. None are employed in Baggage
transportation, Bleaching, Brokers' Offices, Chemical Works, Cutlery,
Furniture moving, Glue drying, Gun making, Iron Works, Landscape
gardening, Lead Pencils, Sail making, Savings Banks, Silvering Mirrors,
Tending Sheep, and Wood carving.
=529. Very few employed.= Attending in offices of ladies' physicians,
Charcoal burning, China painting, Chiropody, Clock Work, Lacquering,
Marble Work, Mirror Frames, Sign painting, Stencil cutting, and Stone
Ware. "As a curious incident of the growing availability of female
labor, Vermont returns four females engaged in ship building, and
Virginia reports two so employed." Mrs. Swisshelm is an inspector of
lumber, receiving a salary of $500 per annum. Mrs. N. Smith was recently
elected mayoress in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the first time that office was ever
filled by a lady. We have been told of a Miss D., who furnishes houses,
receiving a stipulated sum for the exercise of her taste and judgment,
and the time and trouble of making purchases. In the Southern States, a
few colored women are employed about sugar mills, and many in gathering
cotton. I suppose that in some countries women may be, and probably are
employed in the preparation of isinglass and gelatine; also, in
collecting cochineal, and gathering rice and coffee.
=530. The South.= There will be openings in the South for business in
the following branches:
Artificial Eyes, Limbs, and Teeth.
Artificial Flowers.
Bags (Cotton and Paper).
Baskets.
Belts (Ladies').
Bonnets.
Bonnet Ruches.
Bonnet Frames.
Books.
Braces and Trusses.
Brushes.
Buttons.
Candles (from the tallow tree of South Carolina and Georgia).
Candy.
Canes.
Caps.
Card Printing and Stencilling.
Carpets.
Carriage Trimmings.
Car and Carriage Ornamenting.
China.
Cigars.
Cloaks and Mantillas.
Clocks.
Clothing.
Cord.
Cordage and Twine.
Cutlery.
Daguerreotype Apparatus, &c.
Designs.
Drawings (Architectural, &c.).
Dress Caps.
Dress Trimmings.
Embroideries.
Envelopes.
Factory Work.
Fancy Stores.
Feather Dressing.
Fishing Tackle.
Furniture.
Gilding.
Gold Chains.
Gold Pens.
Gold and Silver Leaf.
Grape Growing.
Gum-Elastic Goods.
Hair Dressing and Manufacturing.
Hardware.
Hats.
Hoop Skirts.
Horse Coverings.
Ink.
Jewelry.
Labels.
Lamps.
Lapidaries' Work.
Laundries.
Lead.
Leather.
Life Preservers.
Lithographing.
Maps.
Matches.
Military Goods.
Needle and Thread Stores.
Oils.
Paper Boxes.
Patterns (Ladies' and Children's).
Plated Ware.
Paints.
Painting and Staining of Glass.
Perfumery.
Photography.
Practising Medicine.
Picture Restoring.
Pipes.
Places of Summer Resort.
Porcelain.
Potash.
Pottery.
Printing.
Rag Collecting.
Sealed Provisions.
Sewing-Machine Labor.
Shoes.
Shot.
Soda and Saleratus.
Spectacles.
Stair Rods.
Steel Engraving.
Straw Working.
Surgical Instruments.
Suspenders.
Tailors' Work.
Tape.
Tobacco Stripping and Packing.
Toys.
Types.
Umbrellas and Parasols.
Under Wear.
Wall Paper.
Watches.
Willow Growing.
Window Shades.
Wood Engraving.
There will be openings in St. Louis and Chicago for fur sewers. There
has been a demand for mill girls in Rhode Island. There is a surplus now
of workers in cotton mills, but not of operatives in woollen mills. A
gentleman in Middletown, Conn., wrote me a boarding house for work girls
is wanted there. Makers of ladies' dress caps and ironers of new shirts
have been scarce in New York city.
=531. Prices of Board for Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers.= Aside
from the prices of board for workwomen as mentioned in different parts
of this work, I have intelligence from employers in one hundred and
fifteen towns and cities of the Eastern States, New York, Pennsylvania,
and New Jersey. These places number: Maine 4, New Hampshire 13, Vermont
4, Massachusetts 34, Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 29, New York 19,
Pennsylvania 5, and New Jersey 2. Of the places in Maine, prices of
board for women run from $1.33 ¹/3 to $1.50 a week. In New Hampshire,
they make the same range. In Vermont, the price is given, of all places,
at $1.50. In Rhode Island, from $1.50 to $3. In Connecticut, from $1.42.
to $3. Massachusetts, from $1.25 to $4. New York, $1.50 to $3.50.
Pennsylvania, $1.50 to $5. New Jersey, $1.25 to $1.75. The difference in
board is something between a small town and a city in any State. The
largest number of employers in cities give, as the most common prices,
from $1.50 to $3 per week. Lights and washing are sometimes included in
these prices, but washing very seldom--fuel in the rooms of the
boarders, never. Employers write the boarding houses of their workmen
are comfortable and respectable. We hope they are so, and wish that as
much could be said of all. But we must acknowledge that we feel disposed
to question the comfort of the majority of those for which such prices
are paid in cities as mentioned by the employers. In villages and towns,
board could be had at such rates. But we are confident it would be
impossible to furnish sufficient wholesome food and clean, well
ventilated lodging rooms, at the rates mostly specified in cities, where
rent and provisions are high, with any profit to the keepers of the
houses. Some employers assert that women can live cheaper than men. They
cannot, in most places, to have as good accommodations; and when they
can, the difference is slight. So a just proportion in wages is not
observed, even with such a plea. Most men in industrial avocations
receive $1.50 a day (many $2); women, from 50 cents to $1--most
generally the former price. In France, a workman usually receives 60
cents a day; a woman, over 30 cents. So women do not receive even as
good wages, in proportion to men, in the United States, as in France. In
Lyons, France, women have always been paid for work performed in the
same proportion as men. Most hand seamstresses receive starvation prices
in both countries. In most industrial employments in Dublin, Ireland,
women receive six English shillings a week, for their work of ten hours
a day. Yet on the dusty and disagreeable labor of sorting and picking
rags, some are enabled to earn eight shillings a week, but they are paid
by the piece. School children in Dublin, as well as the working classes,
usually take Monday for a holiday. Nor is it confined to Dublin. In
France and England, Monday is made a day of freedom from work, and of
reckless dissipation, with a large portion of the working people. In
most occupations open to women, the times for work are usually not more
than six months in the year, while men's extend the year round. Some
employers write their women have more time than inclination for mental
improvement--that all their time is at their disposal, except those
hours employed in the factory, workshop, or store, which run from ten to
seventeen hours. A woman's wardrobe requires some hours' attention; and
the more limited her means, the more time is needed to keep it in
repair. We think employers could do much good by learning the condition
of their work people--what their habits and home comforts are; and would
recommend to those disposed to learn something of the results, to read a
work called "The Successful Merchant." I have heard there is a great
laxity of morals in some of the establishments of New York, where men
and women are employed. Proprietors and foremen of correct principles
could do much to prevent this. Much, too, might be avoided by a careful
selection of work people. I learn from one employer that one of his
workwomen reads aloud to the others while at work. It is an admirable
plan, but, where machinery is employed, could not be adopted, because of
the noise. The best policy for any government is a protection of home
produce and manufactures--a policy that it is desirable to see carried
out more fully in our country. It will be observed that the farther we
go south, as a general thing, the better are the prices paid for labor.
Living, however, is somewhat higher. So what is gained in one way is
lost in another. A majority of workwomen in this country are foreigners.
In New York, I have heard the opinion expressed that there are in that
city fifteen foreign workwomen where there is one American. One source
of trouble among workwomen is the indifferent way in which they execute
their work, arising from the want of proper instruction, the want of
application, or a careless habit they acquire. Another failing is
stopping often when at work. A misfortune with many workwomen is that
they have not the physical strength to do much work, to do it
constantly, or to do it fast.
=532. Number of Work Hours.= In France, the number of work hours is 12;
in England, 10; and in most of the United States, 10. In some of the
United States there are no laws regulating the number of work hours; and
in some States, where such laws do exist, they are evaded.
=533. Extracts from the Census Report for 1860.= In advance of
publication, Mr. Kennedy, Superintendent of the United States Census
Report, writes: "The whole number, approximately, of females employed in
the various branches of manufacture, is 285,000. The following are
approximations to the average wages paid in New York and New England.
Monthly wages of females employed in making
"Boots and shoes, $11 25
Clothing, 12 00
Cotton goods, 13 30
Woollen, 16 00
Paper boxes, 14 30
Umbrellas, &c. 13 38
Book folding, 15 38
Printing, 13 65
Millinery, 17 47
Ladies' mantillas, &c. 16 00
Hoop skirts, 14 00"
APPENDIX.
INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS OF PARIS, IN 1848.
-------------------+------------------------------------------------------
OCCUPATIONS. |Number of Men.
| |Number of Women.
| | |Minimum of Men's Wages per Day.
| | | |Maximum of Men's Wages per Day.
| | | | |Minimum of Women's
| | | | | Wages per Day.
| | | | | |Maximum of Women's
| | | | | | Wages per Day.
| | | | | | |Months when Work
| | | | | | | is slack.
-------------------+-------+-------+----+------+----+-----+----------------
| | | ct | $ ct | ct |cents|
-------------------+-------+-------+----+------+----+-----+----------------
Makers of | 217 | 51 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Aug.
Accordions | | | | | | |
Sculptors in | 51 | 14 | 40 | 1 20 | 30 | 45 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Alabaster Night | | | | | | |
Lamps, and Wicks | | | | | | |
Makers of Matches | 184 | 357 | 25 | 1 00 | 12 | 60 |May. Jun. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Manufacturers of | 83 | 4 | 45 | 0 80 | 30 | .. |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Starch and | | | | | | |
Spongers of | | | | | | |
Cloths | | | | | | |
Dressers of | 491 | 325 | 25 | 1 00 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Jan.
Woven Goods, | | | | | | |
Silver and Copper| | | | | | |
Dressers and | 31 | 3 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb.
Drawers of Gold | | | | | | |
Gunsmiths | 492 | 8 | 30 | 1 10 | .. | 35 |Jun. Jul. May.
| | | | | | | Mar.
Makers of Scales | 205 | 2 | 60 | 1 10 | .. | .. |Jan. Feb. Aug.
and Weights | | | | | | |
Whalebone Splitters| 96 | 42 | 20 | 1 00 | ave. 29 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Bandage and Truss | 278 | 404 | 50 | 0 83 | 60 |2 00 |Jan. Feb. and
Makers | | | | | | | part of Dec.
Beaters of Gold | 195 | 377 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb.
and Silver | | | | | | |
Polishers of | 1,091 | 784 | 30 | 2 00 | 15 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Steel Jewelry | | | | | | |
Mourning Jewelry | 170 | 54 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
False Jewelry | 1,507 | 456 | 25 | 1 60 | 16 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Fine Jewelry | 2,942 | 637 | 20 | 2 40 | .. | 48 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Garnishers of | 83 | 4 | 50 | 1 10 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Feb. and
Jewels | | | | | | | part of Jul.
Manufacturers of | 216 | 9 | 40 | 2 00 | 30 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Implements for | | | | | | |
Billiards | | | | | | |
Toy Manufacturers | 641 | 1,345 | 25 | 1 20 | 10 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
| | | | | | | Apr.
Bleachers of Woven | 65 | 275 | 50 | 1 00 | 10 | 55 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Goods | | | | | | | part of Sep.
Washerwomen | 36 | 7,491 | 40 | 0 70 | 20 | 60 |Aug. Jul. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Wood Workers | 43 | 20 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Cap Makers | 1,068 | 1,565 | 18 | 1 00 | 8 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
| | | | | | | part of Aug.
Makers of Hooks | 127 | 75 | 60 | 1 00 | 20 | 35 |Jan. and part
and Eyes, and | | | | | | | of Feb.
Buckles | | | | | | |
Makers of Wax and | 186 | 113 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Tallow Candles | | | | | | |
Bakers | 1,996 | 643 | 25 | 0 60 | 30 and a loaf of bread
| | | | | | | every day.
| | | | | | | Jun. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug. Sep.
Embroiderers of | 7 | 876 | 60 | 0 80 | 15 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Bags and Purses | | | | | | | and Aug.
Button Makers, | 405 | 185 | 40 | 1 20 | 18 | 40 |Dec. to Feb.,
Horn, Pearl, &c. | | | | | | | being most
| | | | | | | of 3 months.
Button Makers, | 716 | 522 | 30 | 1 20 | 10 | 60 |Jan. Feb. and
Cloth and Metal | | | | | | | part of Jul.
| | | | | | | and Aug.
Bricks, Tiles, | 497 | 27 | 40 | 2 80 | 25 | 60 |Commence in Nov.
and Pipes for | | | | | | | and end in Mar.
Chimneys | | | | | | |
Book Stitchers | 183 | 678 | 20 | 1 00 | 20 | 65 |
Tapestry | 14 | 969 | 70 | 1 20 | 15 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Embroiderers | | | | | | |
Embroiderers | 43 | 3,746 | 60 | 3 00 | 10 |1 00 |Jul. Aug., part
| | | | | | | of Jan. Feb.
Manufacturers of | 2,515 | 27 | 45 | 2 00 | 25 | 70 |Most active in
Bronze | | | | | | | Oct. Nov. Dec.
Bronze Carvers | 752 | 6 | 30 | 1 25 | 30 | .. | " " "
Bronze Gilders | 343 | 24 | 50 | 1 20 | 30 | 55 |Oct. Nov. Dec.
Bronze Founders | 1,178 | 1 | 40 | 1 40 | 27 | .. | " " "
Bronze Mounters | 32 | 11 | 40 | 0 70 | 25 | 70 |Sept. Oct. Nov.
Bronze Finishers | 333 | 2 | 30 | 1 20 | 40 | .. |Oct. Nov. Dec.
Bronze Turners | 164 | 4 | 30 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Sept. Oct. Nov.
Bronze Varnishers | 168 | 233 | 40 | 1 40 | 25 |1 00 |Oct. Nov. Dec.
Makers of Common | 365 | 163 | 35 | 1 00 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Brushes | | | | | | | Aug.
Makers of Fine | 371 | 421 | 30 | 1 20 | 15 | 60 | " " "
Brushes | | | | | | |
Coffee Toasters | 37 | 22 | 30 | 1 00 | 30 | 40 |Jun. Jul.
Contractors for | 193 | 45 | 40 | 0 80 | 25 | 55 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Washrooms and | | | | | | | Apr.
Public Washing | | | | | | |
Houses | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 24 | 10 | 55 | 1 00 | 30 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Dials for Watches| | | | | | |
and Clocks | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 989 | 57 | 40 | 2 00 | 25 | 60 |Jan. Feb. part
Mouldings for | | | | | | | of Jul. Aug.
Gilt Frames | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 114 | 30 | 33 | 0 80 | 25 | 40 |Jan. Jul.
Cotton Canvas | | | | | | |
Cane and | 796 | 84 | 35 | 1 40 | 20 | 55 |Jan. Feb. Dec.
Whip Makers | | | | | | | July.
Cane Chair Seaters | 10 | 169 | 35 | 0 80 | 15 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Makers of Gum | 259 | 310 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jun.
Elastic Works | | | | | | |
Coachmakers | 3,685 | 2 | 30 | 1 60 | $2 40 a month each and
| | | | | boarded. Jul. Aug. Sep.
Makers of Playing | 160 | 97 | 45 | 1 00 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Cards | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 210 | 121 | 30 | 1 30 | 20 | 45 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Pasteboard and | | | | | | |
Cards, | | | | | | |
Glazed Paper | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 569 | 1,357 | 40 | 1 20 | 6 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Pasteboard Boxes | | | | | | | Jul.
Makers of Men's and| 81 | 3,929 | 30 | 1 20 | 10 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Boy's Caps | | | | | | | Aug.
Manufacturers of | 786 | 1,133 | 30 | 1 80 | 10 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Shawls | | | | | | |
Mounters and | 173 | 1,974 | 30 | 2 00 | 15 |1 00 |Work slack six
Trimmers of | | | | | | | months, from
Straw Hats | | | | | | | Jun. to Nov.
Weavers of Braid | 12 | 108 | 50 | 0 70 | 20 | 60 | " " "
for Straw Bonnets| | | | | | |
Bleachers and | 117 | 101 | 40 | 1 40 | 20 | 60 |July to Jan.
Pressers of | | | | | | |
Straw Hats | | | | | | |
Hat Makers | 2,829 | 1,158 | 30 | 2 40 | 15 |1 00 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Meat Sellers | 629 | 72 | 10 | 0 80 | $30 to $160 per year for
| | | | | female accountants.
| | | | | | | Jun. Jul. Aug.
Manufacturers of | 162 | 82 | 30 | 1 00 | 20 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Articles for | | | | | | | Dec.
Hunting | | | | | | |
Embroiderers of | 9 | 174 | 60 | 1 00 | 25 | 80 |Jan. Feb. and
Church Ornaments | | | | | | | part of Mar.
Coppersmith | .... | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. |
wife of patron | | | | | | |
Makers of Woven and| 728 | 1,154 | 20 | 0 90 | 10 | 50 |Dec. Jul. Aug.
Knit Shoes | | | | | | | part of Mar.
Hair Preparers, | 678 | 280 | 30 | 1 40 | 15 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Dressers, | | | | | | |
Wig Makers, &c. | | | | | | |
Washers and | 27 | 44 | 50 | 0 70 | 12 | 40 |Dec. and Jan.
Assorters of Rags| | | | | | |
Chocolate Makers | 266 | 122 | 45 | 1 10 | 20 | 55 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Sept.
Manufacturers of | 86 | 45 | 25 | 0 80 | 20 | 40 | " " "
Blacking and | | | | | | |
Varnish | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 57 | 23 | 40 | 0 80 | 30 | 40 |Jul. Aug.
Wafers and | | | | | | |
Sealing Wax | | | | | | |
Chasers and | 330 | 21 | 50 | 1 40 | 30 |1 20 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Engravers | | | | | | | Feb.
Makers of Bells | 40 | 2 | 50 | 1 20 | 30 | .. |Jan. Feb. and
and Clock Bells | | | | | | | part of Mar.
Nailmakers | 347 | 33 | 40 | 1 40 | 20 | 25 |Jan. Jul. Aug.
Print Colorers | 18 | 626 | 45 | 0 70 | 20 | 60 | " " "
Makers of Women's | 1 | 1,301 | .. | 1 00 | 10 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Clothing | | | | | | | Aug.
Confectioners | 367 | 284 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jun. to Sep.
Makers of | 75 | 45 | 30 | 0 80 | 20 | 40 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Nutritious | | | | | | | Sep.
Conserves | | | | | | |
Rope Makers | 392 | 5 | 15 | 0 80 | 25 | 40 |From Dec.
| | | | | | | to Feb.
Boot and Shoe |13,553 | 6,713 | 15 | 1 80 | 8 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Makers | | | | | | | Aug.
Makers of Shoes | 7,511 | 1,555 | 20 | 1 82 | 12 | 70 | " " "
to Order | | | | | | |
Curriers | 2,170 | 189 | 30 | 2 00 | 10 | 30 | " " "
Corset Makers | 38 | 2,810 | 40 | 1 00 | 10 | 80 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
| | | | | | | and part
| | | | | | | of Jan.
Costumers | 37 | 47 | 60 | 1 00 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Sep.
Makers of Colors | 510 | 12 | 40 | 1 10 | 30 | 50 |Nov. Dec, Jan.
and Varnish | | | | | | | Feb.
Knife Makers | 503 | 39 | 25 | 1 60 | 25 | 50 |Jul. Aug.
Mantua Makers | .. | 5,287 | .. | .. | 10 | 80 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Makers of Flannels | 404 | 215 | 30 | 0 70 |1 00|1 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
and Blankets | | | | | | |
Makers of Crayons | 65 | 21 | 35 | 0 90 | 20 | 40 | " " "
Curd and Cheese | 53 | 30 | 40 | 0 60 | 20 | 40 |Nov. Dec. Jan.
Makers | | | | | | | Feb.
Makers of | 43 | 68 | 45 | 0 90 | 15 | 90 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Horse-hair Goods | | | | | | |
Dressers and | 145 | 72 | 40 | 0 SO | 25 | 50 |Dec. Jan.
Liners of Horse | | | | | | |
Hair | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 38 | 8 | 60 | 0 70 | 30 | .. |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Razor Leather | | | | | | |
Varnished Leather | 175 | 9 | 60 | 1 00 | 30 | 40 |Jun. Jul.
Daguerreotypists | 34 | 8 | 60 | 1 00 | 40 | .. |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Pinkers of Shawls | 12 | 32 | 45 | 0 70 | 20 | 45 |Jun. Jul.
and Woven Goods | | | | | | |
Makers, Hookers, | 1 | 817 | .. | 0 70 | 12 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
and Washers | | | | | | | Sep.
of Laces | | | | | | |
Makers of | 63 | 20 | 50 | 2 00 | 35 | 40 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
Artificial Teeth | | | | | | |
Designers for | 579 | 43 | 50 | 4 00 | .. | 40 |Jul. Aug. Feb.
Manufacturers | | | | | | | Mar.
Designers for | 173 | 46 | 50 | 2 40 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Embroidery | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 294 | 13 | 30 | 0 90 | 30 | 45 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
Distilled Liquors| | | | | | |
and Sirups | | | | | | |
Gilders and | 442 | 163 | 40 | 2 00 | 20 | 50 |Jul. Jan. Feb.
Silverers of Ware| | | | | | |
and Jewelry | | | | | | |
Wood Gilders | 773 | 257 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Gilders of Edges | 95 | 72 | 50 | 1 20 | 39 | .. | " " " "
of Paper and | | | | | | |
Parchment | | | | | | |
Mineral and other | 177 | 12 | 40 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Nov. to Feb.
Gaseous Waters | | | | | | | Women make
| | | | | | | powders for
| | | | | | | gaseous waters.
Furniture Makers | 8,459 | 90 | 25 | 2 00 | 25 | 80 |Jan. Feb.
Writers and | 54 | 11 | 70 | 1 60 | 20 | 80 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Designers for | | | | | | |
Lithographs | | | | | | |
Publishers of | 356 | 464 | 50 | 2 40 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Images and | | | | | | | Aug.
Engravings | | | | | | |
Manufacturers and | 240 | 113 | 40 | 2 00 | 30 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Painters of | | | | | | |
Enamelled Ware | | | | | | |
Makers of False | 19 | 14 | 50 | 1 00 | 30 | 50 | " " "
Stones and | | | | | | |
Enamels | | | | | | |
Makers of | 93 | 408 | 55 | 2 50 | 20 | 40 | " " "
Artificial Eyes, | | | | | | |
Porcelain | | | | | | |
Buttons, & Glass | | | | | | |
Links | | | | | | |
Makers of Writing | 85 | 11 | 40 | 0 55 | 15 | 40 |Jan. Aug.
and Printing Ink | | | | | | |
Fancy Inkstands | 150 | 12 | 50 | 1 00 | 12 | 40 |
and Toilet | | | | | | |
Articles | | | | | | |
Grocers, | 851 | 24 | 40 | 0 90 | 30 | 45 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Manufacturing | | | | | | | Sep.
Makers of Military | 1,649 | 2,254 | 25 | 1 40 | 10 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Equipments | | | | | | |
Embossers | 337 | 74 | 40 | 1 60 | 30 | 60 |Jan. Feb.
Stampers and | 220 | 9 | 40 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Engravers of | | | | | | | and part of
Moulds for | | | | | | | Mar.
Goldware | | | | | | |
& Jewelry | | | | | | |
Pewterers | 102 | 17 | 50 | 1 00 | 30 | .. |Jan. Feb. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Fan Makers. There | 252 | 264 | 40 | 1 20 | 12 |1 00 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
are several | | | | | | |
branches | | | | | | |
Makers of Chairs | 1,673 | 53 | 45 | 1 60 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
and Arm Chairs | | | | | | |
Makers of Sheet | 84 | 14 | 40 | 1 00 | 25 | 35 |Apr. May. Jun.
Pewter | | | | | | | Jul.
Makers of Wax | 21 | 13 | 70 | 1 20 | 25 | 40 |Mar. Jun. Jul.
Figures | | | | | | | Aug.
Spinners, Dressers,| 47 | 113 | 30 | 1 00 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Jun. Jul.
and Twisters of | | | | | | |
Silk | | | | | | |
Spinners and | 578 | 1,334 | 35 | 1 00 | 18 | 45 |Jan. Jul. Aug.
Twisters of | | | | | | |
Cotton | | | | | | |
Spinners and | 445 | 452 | 50 | 1 20 | 14 | 60 |Apr. May. Jun.
Twisters of Wool | | | | | | |
Makers of | 414 | 5,063 | 40 | 1 20 | 12 | 80 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Artificial | | | | | | | Jan.
Flowers | | | | | | |
Metal Melters | 1,785 | 4 | 60 | 2 30 | 40 | .. |Jan. Feb.
Suet and Tallow | 80 | 3 | 50 | 1 40 | 25 | 30 |From a month
Melters | | | | | | | to
| | | | | | | six weeks in
| | | | | | | summer.
Melters and | 624 | 133 | 50 | 2 00 | 25 | 50 |Aug. Sep.
Engravers of | | | | | | |
Stamps and Metal | | | | | | |
Plates | | | | | | |
Block Makers | 130 | 21 | 50 | 0 90 | 25 | 50 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
Fur Dealers and | 232 | 399 | 50 | 1 80 | 12 | 60 |Mar. Apr. May.
Dressers | | | | | | | Jun. Jul. &
| | | | | | | part of Aug.
Old Clothes Women | .. | 50 | .. | .. | 12 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Sheath Makers | 341 | 70 | 30 | 1 20 | 20 | 50 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Makers of Kid | 1,045 | 873 | 40 | 1 20 | 15 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Gloves | | | | | | | Sep.
Makers of Cloth | 19 | 203 | 40 | 1 00 | 8 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Gloves | | | | | | |
Stampers and | 136 | 39 | 40 | 2 40 | 20 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Printers of | | | | | | |
Stuffs and | | | | | | |
Garments | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Jan. Feb.
Gelatine and Glue | 78 | 35 | .. | 0 60 | 20 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Nov.
Makers | | | | | | | Dec.
Makers of Cloth | 751 | 369 | 20 | 1 20 | 20 | 40 |Apr. Aug. Sep.
for Under Vests | | | | | | | Jan.
Carvers and Gem | 165 | 17 | 60 | 1 60 | 35 | 60 |Jan. Feb. and
Engravers | | | | | | | parts of Jul.
| | | | | | | and Aug.
Mould Engravers | 68 | 10 | 60 | 1 40 | .. | 30 |Jan. Feb.
Copper Plate | 226 | 62 | 60 | 2 00 | 25 | 70 |Jul. Aug.
Engravers | | | | | | |
Engravers on Wood | 160 | 6 | 60 | 2 00 | 60 |1 00 |Jan. Feb.
and on Metal | | | | | | |
for Printing | | | | | | |
Engravers on Wood | 154 | 11 | 40 | 1 10 | .. | 30 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
for Impressions | | | | | | |
on Stuff and | | | | | | |
Printed Papers | | | | | | |
Engravers on Metals| 205 | 7 | 30 | 1 60 | 40 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
for Seals and | | | | | | |
Clocks | | | | | | |
Legging Makers | 73 | 206 | 40 | 1 00 | 20 | 60 |Aug. Sep.
Makers of Clocks | 1,826 | 155 | 35 | 2 50 | 12 |1 00 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
and Clock | | | | | | |
Trimmings | | | | | | |
Lithographic and | 1,909 | 186 | 30 | 7 00 | 20 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Copperplate | | | | | | | Sep.
Printers | | | | | | |
Cloth Printers | 316 | 45 | 40 | 2 00 | 25 | 55 | " " " "
Type Printers | 4,053 | 304 | 60 | 3 00 | 10 | 80 | " " " "
Makers of Surgical | 247 | 14 | 40 | 1 40 | 40 | .. |Jan. Feb. Sep.
Instruments | | | | | | |
Makers of Musical | 71 | 4 | 50 | 1 10 | 30 | 70 |Business most
Wind Instruments | | | | | | | active in Oct.
| | | | | | | Nov.
Copper Musical | 461 | 1 | 45 | 1 60 | 55 | .. |Slack in Jun.
Instruments | | | | | | | Jul. Aug. Sep.
Makers of False | 192 | 26 | 50 | 2 00 | 30 | 80 |Jul. Jan. Feb.
Jewels | | | | | | |
Makers of Fine | 416 | 65 | 20 | 2 50 | 35 |1 00 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Jewels | | | | | | |
Makers of Lamps | 1,856 | 24 | 40 | 1 60 | 25 | 60 |May. Jun. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Makers of Coach | 142 | 6 | 50 | 1 40 | 30 | 50 |Jul. Aug.
Lamps | | | | | | |
Lapidaries | 112 | 10 | 60 | 1 40 | 25 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
| | | | | | | Jul.
Box Makers and | 1,089 | 2 | 20 | 1 20 | 30 | .. | " " " "
Packers | | | | | | |
Makers of Letters | 95 | 7 | 55 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Dec. Jan.
in Relief | | | | | | |
Cork Makers | 159 | 53 | 50 | 1 00 | 20 | 40 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
File Makers | 418 | 10 | 60 | 2 40 | 25 | 60 |Jan.
Contractors for | 80 | 8,974 | 45 | 1 10 | 3 | 80 |Jul. Aug, Jan.
Linen Drapery | | | | | | | Feb.
Manufacturers of | 80 | 2,312 | .. | .. | 12 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Linen Drapery | | | | | | | Aug.
Design Readers | 121 | 99 | 50 | 1 00 | 30 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Jan.
Makers of Bed | 257 | 410 | 40 | 1 20 | 16 | 80 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Clothing | | | | | | | Mar.
Makers of | 336 | 44 | 40 | 1 20 | 12 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Spectacle Frames | | | | | | |
Trunk Makers | 210 | 73 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
| | | | | | | Mar.
Cutters of Marble | 574 | 45 | 80 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
for Furniture | | | | | | |
Cutters of Marble | 933 | 23 | 50 | 1 60 | 30 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Dec.
for Buildings | | | | | | |
Horse Farriers | 346 | 2 | 30 | 1 30 | 30 | .. |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Sep.
Veneerers and | 306 | 34 | 40 | 1 40 | 30 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Carvers | | | | | | | Aug.
Alum Leather | 164 | 1 | 40 | 0 80 | .. | .. |
Dressers | | | | | | |
Looms for Weaving | 176 | 21 | 50 | 1 20 | 25 | 30 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Trellis Makers | 50 | 3 | 40 | 1 00 | | |
Wives of patrons | | | | | | |
Looking-Glass | 515 | 96 | 40 | 1 40 | 20 | 55 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Makers | | | | | | |
Milliners | 24 | 2,354 | 50 | 0 90 | 20 |1 00 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Makers of Watch | 57 | 20 | 20 | 1 00 | 25 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Cases | | | | | | |
Makers of Mosaic | 51 | 2 | 50 | 1 30 | .. |1 00 |Jun. Jul. and
Work | | | | | | | part of Aug.
Plaster and | 155 | 4 | 30 | 1 20 | .. | 30 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Composition | | | | | | | Aug.
Moulders | | | | | | |
Makers of | 266 | 3 | 60 | 1 70 | .. | 30 |Jan. Feb.
Mouldings, | | | | | | |
Copper Pipes, | | | | | | |
and Show Cases | | | | | | |
Makers of Eyelet | 223 | 85 | 35 | 1 20 | 15 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Holes, | | | | | | |
Percussion Caps, | | | | | | |
Pen Holders, &c. | | | | | | |
Makers of | 1,634 | 101 | 40 | 3 20 | 30 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Instruments of | | | | | | | Aug.
Precision and | | | | | | |
Spectacles | | | | | | |
Makers of | 544 | 59 | 40 | 2 00 | 25 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Sept.
Silver-Plated | | | | | | |
Ware | | | | | | |
Makers of Silver | 328 | 81 | 40 | 1 30 | 30 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Trinkets and | | | | | | | Aug.
Jewelry | | | | | | |
Manufacturers of | 541 | 188 | 40 | 1 60 | 28 | 60 |Jul. Aug. and
Gold Plate | | | | | | | part of Jan.
| | | | | | | and Feb.
Organ Manufacturers| 401 | 2 | 40 | 2 00 | .. | .. |
Wives of patrons | | | | | | |
Wadding Makers | 104 | 122 | 25 | 0 90 | 20 | 40 |Commences in
| | | | | | | Feb. ends
| | | | | | | in Jul.
Mat Makers | 57 | 91 | 30 | 0 90 | 8 | 35 |Commences in
| | | | | | | May, ends in
| | | | | | | Sep.
Makers of Paper | 40 | 120 | 30 | 0 90 | 10 | 45 |Jan. Jul. Aug.
Bags, &c. | | | | | | |
Makers of Fancy | 114 | 129 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 30 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Papers | | | | | | |
Makers of Wall | 1,855 | 93 | 30 | 2 00 | 20 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Paper | | | | | | | and part of
| | | | | | | Sep.
Makers of Parasols | 601 | 742 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jul. Sep. Jan.
and Umbrellas | | | | | | | Feb.
Perfumers | 349 | 366 | 30 | 2 00 | 15 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Sep.
Makers of Lace | 2,545 | 6,046 | 20 | 1 20 | 5 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Embroidery | | | | | | | Aug.
Novelty | 1,142 | 2,331 | 20 | 1 20 | 8 | 80 | " " " "
Embroiderers | | | | | | |
Embroiderers for | 473 | 941 | 30 | 1 00 | 12 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Furniture | | | | | | | Feb.
Chenille | 37 | 69 | 40 | 0 90 | 30 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Embroiderers | | | | | | |
Military | 160 | 589 | 25 | 0 80 | 10 | 40 |Jul. Aug. and
Embroiderers | | | | | | | part of Jan.
| | | | | | | and Feb.
Furniture and Coach| 198 | 114 | 30 | 1 00 | 12 | 50 |Jul. Aug. and
Embroiderers | | | | | | | Jan.
False and Fine | 108 | 387 | 35 | 0 90 | 25 | 70 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Embroiderers | | | | | | | Feb.
Embroiderers of | 367 | 1,615 | 25 | 1 00 | 5 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Braces and | | | | | | |
Garters | | | | | | |
Makers of | 92 | 59 | 45 | 1 40 | 25 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Nutritious Pastry| | | | | | | Sep.
Pastry Cooks | 973 | 60 | 20 | 1 10 | 30 | 45 | " " " "
Skinners and | 644 | 15 | 40 | 1 20 | 25 | 30 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Morocco Dressers | | | | | | |
Makers of Articles | 0 | 25 | 30 | 1 00 | 20 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Oct.
for Fishing | | | | | | | Nov. Dec.
Comb Manufacturers | 585 | 210 | 40 | 1 20 | 15 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Wool Combers | 694 | 194 | 30 | 1 00 | 25 | 35 |Apr. May.
House Painters | 5,213 | 15 | 30 | 2 00 | 25 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Nov.
| | | | | | | Dec.
Manufacturers of | 202 | 63 | 25 | 0 80 | 15 | 40 |Jan. Feb.
Plush | | | | | | |
Makers of False | 56 | 154 | 60 | 2 00 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Feb. and
Pearls and Pearl | | | | | | | part of Dec.
Flowers | | | | | | |
Stringers and | .... | 52 | .. | .. | 15 | 40 |Jan. Feb. and
Mounters of | | | | | | | part of Mar.
Pearls | | | | | | |
Makers of Painters'| 114 | 129 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 30 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Pencils and | | | | | | |
Brushes | | | | | | |
Polishers of Gold | 52 | 4 | 30 | 1 40 | 30 | .. |Jan. Feb. part
& Daguerreotypes | | | | | | | of July and
| | | | | | | Aug.
Plaiters and | 170 | 492 | 30 | 0 60 | 10 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Winders of | | | | | | |
Cotton, Wool, | | | | | | |
and Cashmere | | | | | | |
Plaiters and | 44 | 277 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 50 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Winders of silk | | | | | | |
Plumbers, Pump, & | 1,014 | 2 | 40 | 1 40 | .. | .. |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Fountain Makers | | | | | | |
Wives of patrons | | | | | | |
Feather Dressers | 78 | 533 | 40 | 1 00 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Jul.
Makers of Feather | 120 | 28 | 50 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Jul. Jan. Feb.
Brooms | | | | | | |
Makers of Quill | 55 | 44 | 50 | 1 40 | 15 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Pens | | | | | | |
Cutters and | 91 | 505 | 40 | 1 20 | 15 | 50 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Preparers of Hair| | | | | | |
for Hatters | | | | | | |
Polishers and | 23 | 284 | 50 | 0 90 | 15 | 65 |Jan, Feb. Jul.
Burnishers of | | | | | | | Aug.
Gold and Jewelry | | | | | | |
Decorators of | 1,641 | 1,010 | 40 | 2 40 | 20 |4 00 |Jan. Feb. part
Porcelain | | | | | | | of Mar.
Makers, Moulders, | 155 | 9 | 50 | 3 00 | 30 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Polishers, and | | | | | | |
Menders of | | | | | | |
Porcelain | | | | | | |
Portfolios and | 506 | 307 | 25 | 1 30 | 20 | 55 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Articles of | | | | | | |
Morocco | | | | | | |
Makers of Articles | 330 | 20 | 25 | 1 60 | 25 | 40 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
of Earthenware, | | | | | | | Feb.
Stoneware, and | | | | | | |
China | | | | | | |
Pewterers | 337 | 84 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Feb.
Preparers of | 15 | 20 | 60 | 1 20 | 12 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Animals | | | | | | |
Makers of Chemical | 138 | 20 | 60 | 1 10 | 25 | 30 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Products | | | | | | |
Makers of | 108 | 75 | 85 | 1 00 | 20 | 55 |Jul. Aug.
Pharmaceutical | | | | | | |
Products | | | | | | |
Makers of Ironware | 226 | 5 | 30 | 1 00 | 25 | .. |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Articles | | | | | | | Aug.
Refiners of Sugar | 425 | 5 | 30 | 1 20 | 30 | .. |About six weeks
| | | | | | | work is slack.
Makers of Registers| 43 | 123 | 60 | 1 20 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Makers of Rulers, | 39 | 12 | 60 | 1 00 | 35 | 60 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Easels, &c. | | | | | | |
Paper Rulers | 35 | 143 | 30 | 0 70 | 30 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Bookbinders | 939 | 807 | 25 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Sep.
Borers of Jewelry | .. | 30 | .. | .. | 20 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
| | | | | | | Jul.
Ribbon Makers | 19 | 30 | 60 | 0 70 | 35 | 45 |Jan. Feb, and
| | | | | | | part of Jul.
Makers of Wooden | 60 | 34 | 50 | 1 00 | 15 | 40 |Mar. May. Jun.
Shoes | | | | | | | Jul. Aug, Sep.
Ebony Sculptors | 471 | 3 | 40 | 1 60 | 25 | 60 |Jan. Feb, Mar.
(for Furniture) | | | | | | |
Modern Sculptors | 448 | 15 | 40 | 2 00 | 30 | 40 |Jan. Feb. some
in Bronze | | | | | | | report. Others
| | | | | | | say, Jul. Aug.
Wood Carvers | 424 | 39 | 30 | 1 40 | 30 | 45 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
Saddle and Harness | 1,347 | 142 | 30 | 1 20 | 12 | 40 |Dec. Jan. Jul.
Makers and | | | | | | | Aug.
Furnishers | | | | | | |
Saddle Belts and | 124 | 80 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Dec.
Girdles | | | | | | |
Saddle Spurs, | 447 | 28 | 40 | 1 60 | 20 | 50 |Three months,
Plates, and | | | | | | | part in winter
Ironware for | | | | | | | and part in
Harnesses, &c. | | | | | | | summer.
Mechanical | 959 | 16 | 30 | 1 40 | 30 | 40 |Jan. Feb.
Locksmiths | | | | | | |
Locks for Furniture| 760 | 7 | 60 | 1 40 | 20 | 50 | " "
Settings for Jewels| 46 | 2 | 50 | 1 20 | .. | .. |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Wives of patrons | | | | | | | Feb.
Makers of Spar | 10 | 63 | 50 | 0 60 | 8 | 40 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Ornaments | | | | | | |
Makers of Coach | 118 | 11 | 40 | 3 00 | 20 | 40 | " " "
Blinds | | | | | | |
Makers of Tinctures| 184 | 11 | 40 | 1 20 | 25 | 30 |Dec. Jan.
Toy Manufacturers | 1,404 | 174 | 30 | 1 40 | 15 | 70 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
Makers of Toy | 264 | 6 | 40 | 1 20 | 15 | 25 |Jun. Jul. Aug,
Umbrellas | | | | | | | Jan.
Edge Tool Makers | 854 | 2 | 30 | 1 40 | .. | 40 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Tailors |11,066 |10,769 | 15 | 1 60 | 10 | 90 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
| | | | | | | Feb.
Tailors who work | 6,660 | 2,947 | 30 | 1 60 | 10 | 90 |1st July to
by Measure | | | | | | | middle of Sep.
| | | | | | | and 1st Jan.
| | | | | | | to middle of
| | | | | | | March.
Carpet Clippers | 20 | 15 | 50 | 80 | 30 | 35 |Feb. March
and Drawers | | | | | | |
Upholsterers | 1,832 | 1,797 | 40 | 3 00 | 15 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug.
| | | | | | | Sep.
Dyers of Thread | 149 | 20 | 40 | 1 10 | 30 | 60 |Jul. Aug.
and Woven Goods | | | | | | |
Dyers, Scourers | 523 | 510 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 |1 00 |Jan. Feb. Jul.
| | | | | | | Aug.
Dyers of Skins for | 149 | 20 | 40 | 1 10 | 30 | 60 |Jul. Aug.
Gloves | | | | | | |
Makers of Cloths | 462 | 431 | 30 | 1 20 | 7 | 40 |Jul. Jan.
for Robes, | | | | | | |
Buttons, | | | | | | |
Furniture | | | | | | |
Makers of Oil Paper| 144 | 30 | 30 | 1 40 | 25 | 40 |Feb. and part
and Cloth | | | | | | | of Jan.
Metal Varnishers, | 300 | 111 | 40 | 1 40 | 20 | 40 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
Painters, | | | | | | | Mar.
Gilders, and | | | | | | |
Silverers | | | | | | |
Constructors and | 357 | 86 | 35 | 2 00 | 15 | 30 |Jan. Feb. Dec.
Decorators of | | | | | | |
Tombs | | | | | | |
Metal Turners | 646 | 12 | 40 | 1 20 | 36 | .. |Jan. Feb. Mar,
| | | | | | | and part of
| | | | | | | July.
Wood Turners | 361 | 7 | 25 | 1 10 | 30 | | " " " " "
Turners of Wood | 316 | 11 | 30 | 1 00 | 30 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Furniture | | | | | | |
Chair Turners | 665 | 234 | 30 | 1 20 | 15 | 50 | " " "
Makers of Metal | 411 | 43 | 60 | 1 80 | 25 | 60 |Jan. Feb.
Traps | | | | | | |
Seamless Bags of | 20 | 29 | 30 | 0 70 | 20 | 35 |Jan. Aug. Sep.
Hemp and Flax | | | | | | |
Basket Makers | 231 | 27 | 18 | 1 20 | 30 | 40 |Dec. Jan. Feb.
| | | | | | | and part of
| | | | | | | Aug.
Glass Blowers | 76 | 6 | 30 | 1 00 | .. | 40 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Painters and | 103 | 35 | 30 |2 00[A]|20 | 50 | " " "
Gilders of Glass | | | | | | |
Glass and Crystal | 327 | 8 | 60 | 2 00 | 25 | 40 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
Cutters, | | | | | | |
Engravers and | | | | | | |
Polishers | | | | | | |
Makers of Glass | 13 | 90 | 60 | 1 00 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Feb. Mar.
Beads | | | | | | |
Vinegar Makers | 60 | 3 | 40 | 0 90 | 30 | .. |One has $80 per
| | | | | | | annum, board
| | | | | | | and lodging.
| | | | | | | Jun. Jul. Aug.
Makers of Morocco | 296 | 356 | 40 | 1 40 | 10 | 50 |Jul. Aug. Jan.
for Hats, &c. | | | | | | | Feb.
-------------------+-------+-------+----+------+----+-----+---------------
[A] Some, employed in painting church windows, get $2.
REMARKS ON PRECEDING TABLES.
Employed in the thirteen groups of _industrials_, 112,891 women; 7,851
girls, of whom 869 were under 12--rest from 12 to 16. To every two men
employed, one woman. Women more numerous than men in the manufacture of
garments and materials for them. None employed in the laborious
occupations. Equal in fancy wares. Highest wages of women per day, 20
francs, least 15 centimes--average, 1 franc 63 centimes.
950 women's salaries less than 60 centimes.
626 " higher than 3 francs.
The bulk, or 100,050 " range between the two extremes.
Extremely low salaries are exceptional. Thus only two were so low as 15
centimes, and one of these workers was aged sixty-eight, and the other
seventy-one. Women's wages are rather over half what the wages of men
are.[A]
[A] 5 centimes are equal to about one cent of our money, and a franc is
equal to about 20 cents.
THE END.
Transcriber's notes:
In "By giving a suitable notice to the overseer, it is so arranged that
the help can be absent from their work one day or a month." or was
changed into of.
In "Another lady told me that in pattern making she gives instruction
two months, paying nothing, but then they can earn $2.50, and, as they
become more expert, can earn $3, $3.50, and $4.", $ was added before
the figure of 3.50.
The name of the inventor of the knitting machine mentioned several times
in this book (Mr. Aiken) was spelled "Aikens" on occasion; this was
corrected except in the one instance which was a quotation from another
document.
In "In the department of Sonne, France, women alone have the right to go
into the fields", Sonne was changed into Somme.
In "Many of the young Swabian girls of thirteen or fourteen years old
are sent to Stuttgard", Stuttgard was changed into Stuttgart.
There are many opening or closing quotation marks missing in the text.
As in most instances, it is impossible to say where the quotation was
meant to begin or end, those errors have not been corrected. Only in
the following two instances were quotation marks removed:
--In >"Mrs. B., who has been twenty-three years carrying on the
business on Broadway, says "she has applications constantly, but
finds it difficult to obtain competent workmen."<, opening quotation
mark before Mrs. B. (lacking a closing quotation mark, and since text
indicates only indirect quotation) was removed.
--In >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."<, closing quotation mark was removed as erroneous.
"Employee/s" is found in various different spellings throughout the
book; this inconsistency has been retained.
In the table in the Appendix, formatting was removed from the
headers, headers were abbreviated (cents to ct), names of months were
abbreviated, and conjunctions and commas etc. removed from the lists of
months to keep the information readable.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Employments of Women - A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work" ***
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