The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-22 00:00:00

LABOUR IN NEW YORK.

(From the New York Tribune, August 29.)
Although Mr. Samuel Slick told a very good story,
and was in other respects a worthy and companionable
man, he was not much of a clockmaker. This is a
branch of business about which a groat deal is said stad
a very little generally known. The following facts harts
been furnished us by a Yankee operator from Connecti-
cut, who is considerable of a clock "case" himself, and
is familiar with the bu.Liess in all its details.

The number of clocks manufactured in this eonntry is
very great, and the improvements in the manufacture. of
the article introduced during the last four years • have
materially reduced the price as well as the wages of the
operatives.. Connecticut, we believe, is the only state
in which clock " movements" are made. But there are
many shops all over the north where the cases are ma-
nufactured. There are about 20 of these in this city.
The business thus consists of two distinct branches,
The case-maker sells his cases to the movement-maker
or buys of him the rnov. ments and puts them in himself.
Formerly the wheels for brass clocks were cast, then
turned and s,noothed with great labour. Now the
brass comes rolled in plates of the proper thickness Air
the different wheels and is pressed out—one motion of
the press being sufficient to cut and centre the wheel:
This saves much tinii and money.
There are a number of firms in Connecticut that put
ready for market 200 clocks a day,
and they are sold at
2 dols. to 2 dols. 50e. a piece, according to quality.
The cases (Altich arc extensively manufactured here)
are sold for 60 to 75 cents. each. Good Mahogany and
zebra cases, well made and polished, can be bought now
for 65 cents.—the :arne quality of article as would have
cost two dollars three years ago. The wages of work.;
men in the clock business are poor. An experienced and
skilful hand cannot get more than 1 dollar or 1 dollar
25 cents. per day. A great msny young men and boys
work at the business who receive only from 8 dollars to
9 dollars per month.
The movement or running part of clocks can now be
bought for less than 1 dol. a piece—three years ego they
were worth 2 dols. 50e. We kt:ow a gentleman who made
a e grandsold
hihis speculation
farm
fo r i3notohoe
dollarselte bannsdi naedsds
added
ds follows
toths i ;c175;
3000 dollars in cash, the whole am unt
iof
swoll which
he invested in clotk movements at
Tlis"wsis three
piece to be delivered as lie
until movements
be kept "holding on" for better prices,(ices. Now move.
could be bought for 53 cents,
l'iniore than they were
years ago
ments cost him in cosh 40 cm
This is the way the
nothing of the farm.
worth to say
clockmakers get rich.formerly sold at the South, bring.,
The clocks w, re .
25 to 100 dollars a piece. But of late years the
bring-
inn from • e k sowing or less
Southerners, mt. er inor gflush, purchase
very few, and the universal I ankee
; and e10.:k.; being jiwisitstihenl.rather dull of sale,
nation has been for
some time extensively engaged in supplying Great
Britain with "improved patent brrss clocks. Great
numbers are also sent to the West India colonhsi
and more to China. Nearly all that are made are now
sent out of the country. There were three months ago
probably 3,000 clocks per day sent from the state of
Connecticut ; but since that time many of the menthe-
turera have run eOwn, owing to their selling 00 much oil
tick, and the business has somewhat fallen off.

Tt IE LATE MR. THOMAS DAVIS.—The funeral
obsequies of the late Mr. Thomas Osborne Davis; editor of
the Nation newspap,r, took place at nine o'clock this morning.
His remains were followed to their final destination at th
cemetery of Mount Jerome, Ilarold's-cross, by a processi aft
consisting of nearly eighty carriages ; amongst others were
conspicuous those of Lord Cloncurrv, the Lord Mayor, and
Mr. O'Connell, M.P., besides a great number of private equi7
pages. The members of the 'B2 Club attended in full force,
their gay and glittering uniforms affording a sad contrast to
the mournfid spectacle of which they formed a part. Mr.
• Davis was one of the original projectors of this club, th•
nucleus having been formed during the imprisonment of the
Repeal conspirators in the summer of 1844. He was else the
acknowledged leader of the " Young Ireland" section of the
Repealers ; and while the journal under his control was, by a
new and peculiar style of writing, exercising au influence
perfectly marvellous upon the minds of a population apps•
rently half ripe for any adventure, however desperate, it w
rs
his good fortune, by a happy art, never to give cutrklicY t•
one expression calculated to wound the feelings or hurt t 1.•
self esteem of a political opponent.-.► Dublin
Thursday.