Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1845-10-09
Life ina our Cities.

Inc lOiOwlng appalling statements, IN regard 10
the condition of a certain class of lahorers in
that city
"There are in this city, according to the
closest estimates Iha. can be made. ten thousand
women who exist on what they can earn by the
needle. The following the prices for which
a majority of these females are compelled TO
work-,hey being such as are paid by the large
depors, for shirts and clothing, in Chatham street
and elsewhere:
For making common white and checked cot
ton shirts, six cents each; common flannel un-
dershrls, the same. These are cut in such
manner as TO make ten seams IN two pairs of
sleeves. 4 common fast seamslress can make
two of these shirts per day. Sometimes very
swift hands, by working from sunrise to mid.
night, can make three. This is equal 10 seven.
,y-ive cents per week, (allowing nothing for
holidays, sickness, accidents, being out of work,
&c.) for the first class, and ST. ID ID for the
others
Good cotton shirts, with linen bosoms, neat
ly stitched, ale made for twenty-five cents A
good seamsress will make one in day, thus
earning S. so per week, by constant labor.
Fine linen shirts, with plated bosoms, which
canno, be made by The very best hand, in less
than fifteen TO eighteen hours, steady work, are
paid fifty cents each. Ordinary hands make
one shirt of this kind in two days.
Duck Trowsers, Overalls, &c, eight and
ten cents each. Drawers and Undershirts, both
Flannel and Cotton, from six to eight cents,
at the ordinary shops, and II ID at The best
One garment is days work for some-others
can make two.
Satinef, Cashmere and Broad CIolh Pants,
sometimes with gaiier bottoms and lined, from
Is TO 80 cents per pair. One pair is good
days work.
Vests, 25 to so cents-Ihe latter price paid
only for work of the very bes, quality. Good
hands make one day.
Thin Goats are made for 25 10 81 ID cents
piece.
Heavy Pilot cloth Goats, with three pockets.
ST. each. Goa, Of This kind canno, be made
under three days.
CIolh Roundabouls and Pea jackets, 25 TO so
cents. Three can be made in two days
A great number Of females are employed in
making mems and boys Caps. BY constant
labor, fifteen or eighteen hours day, they can
make from ii TO rs cents. We are told by an
old lady who has lived by this kind of work a
long time, tina, when she begins at sunrise and
works ill midnight, she can earn IA cents a
day.
A large majority of these women are Ameri-
can born, from the great Middle Class of life,
many of whom have once been. 10 comfortable
and even affluen, circumstances, and have been
reduced by the death or bankruptcy Of husbands
Many of them are the wives of ship-masters
and other officers of vessels. Others are the
widows of mechanics and poor men, and have
children, aged mothers and fathers, &C., TO sup
port by their needle. Many have drunken
husbands to add to their burdens and affections,
and TO darken every faint gleam of sunshine
that domestic affection throws even in The hum
blest abode. Others have sick or bed-rdden
husbands or children, or perhaps, have to en-
dure the agony Of receiving home fallen daugh
ter or all oullawed son, suddenly checked in
their career of vice.
The manner in which these women live
the squaldness and unhealthy location and ma
ture Of their charlottesville inadequa,eness of
their food and clolhlng-lhe lmposslbilily Of
providing for any, the slightest recreation, or
moral or intellectual culture, or of educating
their children-can be easily imagined; but we
assure the public that 1t would require an ex
tremely aclve Imagination 10 conceive the re-
alny."
The Caledonia Mercury narTates at length
The case of youth, named John Sweeny,