Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1845-10-01

Dress making business is divided into several
very distinct branches. First there are the large
expensive establishments patronized by no body
but wealthy and aris;ocralc ladies, and in which
the principal does nothing but the smiling and
bo wing. the putting off of impatient customers,
the patching up of broken promises. &c. while
a foreman is employed at salary of S. to 81 per
week to cut, fit and measure. This process is
not done as with the tailors-by single mearure-
ment and subsequent calculation but each Gus
toner has to be fitted and measured IN process
not much less faguing, we should think, than sit
ting for ones prOtraii. And yet we have heard
of ladies who seemed actually to fled pleasure in
1t!
Ia the spring, early Summer, Autumn and VIM
ter seasons these fashionable establishments are
crowded with work, 10 almost incOnceivable
extent. Every few days the windows of some
Leading shop in Broadway display some new fig
ure style of dress. (perhaps adroitly kept back
from the left over stock of former season,) which
creates of course positive necessity for every la
dy IN the city having the slightest elaine to being
considered one Of the "Upper Ten Thousand" TO
have dress from the new article of $50 desira.
Bile Style" Of course. too, nobody but Mrs.
or 'Madame-' could make dress fit 10 be seen,
although neither of them put stitch or
pair of scissors into her customers material. But
every fashionable lady must have it in her power
to say that her dress was made at such or
such well known establishment. This occa-
sions a grand rush to the popular Dress-making
concerns, and work is frequently engaged three
or four weeks ahead by them. They charge
slashug prices, which are paid without grumbng,
(sometimes people who beat down little barefoot
girls in the price of matches Cor the sake of econ
nd IL,
bands money! Almost all of these establish
menls realize immense profits, and their proprie-
tors frequently acquire fortunes in The course of
few years.
But the industrious Journey women whose busy
fingers piled necessarily from morning to night, land
often late into the night, account of the hurry
ing season. do the work for which her mistress
gets so exiraviganly paid-how is it with her p
She is employed Oy the week, aud very often
works fifteen or sixteen hours out of the twenty
four, with scarcely an in'ermission long enough
to swallow her food. Her toll, too, is oflhe most
unhealthy and destructive character, bending con-
slany with her chest doubled up in one position
and she does not dare 20 seek for relaxation lest
she should lose her place. Well-for this she
gets So so per week. sometimes; ofiner but 50, and
we have evidence that many of them receive but
81 25. Just before New Years, or for some
great party soiree somtimes these tie tashiona-
bic establishments piled lip-deep with the gor.
geous silks and sans and costly embroidered
evening. dresses of their arstocratIc customers,
which must be done by a certain time and 10
order to effect it the workmen are coaxed, driv-
en- and stimulated by every imaginsble ar.fce |
to push their work ahead. They sometimes eat
IN the CHAIR in which they sew, and then fall 10
work again, continuing all night long, on extra
ordinary occasions, to work without sleep rest.
They few of them healthy looking,no can we
see how they manage to proloDg life at all. Dys- !
pepsip, Consumption, Liver-complaiut, would seem
TO be The inevitable reward o. their mode of labor
anc life.
The making of dress. in the present era of
fashionable ref nement, requires talent and arti6
cal skill of rather high order; and few girls
of more than ordinary intelligence, by their dex- |
ity and the "style" they are enabled to impart TO
their work, (Which IS simply genius employing it. |
self unworhy) command much better prices.
They generally, however, either become en-
poyers themselves or take in work on their own
account and the exceptions to the state of things
we have described are rare.
Another class of Dress. makers are those who
60 out by the day. They are far more independ-
ent and better paid than the Journey women n the
large est Adjustments, and are frequently employ
ed by wealthy people. They are also often en-.
gagged by the better aud more pretentions among
wives of Mechanics and the great Middle Glass,
who ape arstocracy so far as they by utmost and
constant struggle and agony are able. Many, al.
so, of course need help IN their sewing; and alto.
,e.her, there is room IN New York for one nun
ired one hundred and fifty good Dress. makers
o be constantly employed in this way. They re- {
;eve from five shiIliDgs to seventy five cents and
wen 81, per day, besides their board and we do
lot see why more women who can well and
understand cutting and fitting dresses do not 60 in
o this branch of The business. To succeed in it,
however, requires real skill and knowledge of
heir profession, aud some little time to become ;
,nown. Families dislike to change their dress
maker much as their physician and good dress.
makers have often to be engaged three or four {
weeks beforehand.
Beside the Journeywnmen and Apprentices en- t
loyed in the larger establishments, there are hum
reds of females in all parts of the City who take Z
q work at their own house. and support them {
elves (and very often their families) by making
resses for all prices, from 81 to So and $3.-l {
'evant girls seldom make their own dresses, and {