Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1848-09-07
miscellaneous.
FROM THE NEW YORK TRrBuNE.
N EW YORK In SLICES,
THE NEEDLE-WoMEN.

The Tribune has already contained series of Stats
ca articles the subject OF female labor which gave
many curious and surprising facts Our object pre-
sent TO review things in the general, for the purpose
OF giving the reader comprehensive view Of ihe vas
rIous classes into which Society in the metropolis is
divided. Twill be sufficient, therefore, for our pur1
poses TO present in lew the average prices paid for
various kinds needle work. the principal and pros
porous establishments, y, AK ta5 g:4 tss Is
Common cotton shirts, and flannel under shirts, six
fcens each. A good seamsiress can run up two OF
these shirts per day; and even very swift hand, by
working from sunrise TO midnight, can make three
being rs cents per week for The common workers and
and .l2s CTS for he swiftes; O! course allowing
thing for holidays sickness, being OF work, &c.
sc. Good cotton SHIRTS, with linen bosoms. neatly
stitched, made for twenty five cents apiece.
good seamstress will make one IN a day. thus earning
81 so per week. by constant labor. Fine linen shirts
with plated bosoms, WI eh cannot be made by the
very best hands short OF fifteen eighteen hours stea-
dy work. are paid fifty cents each An ordinary hand
can make garment of this kind in two DAYS. Trow-
sers, overas drawers, undershirs, &C. SIC. pay shil
ling apiece 10 the seamtress, who can make per.
haps two day. Cloth pantaloons, vests, &C. pay
Is to so cen,s-very seldom the latter prce,-and
woman makes, on the average, about day
Thus, not TO prolong these Details II may be stated
word that the seamstress who is fortunate enough
to get steady work earns from rs cents 81 week.
Besides these, il is necessary TO state that the dress
makers, any rate the great majority of them, get
absolutely nothing for the work. The way it is man
aged is this The proprieors Of the large dress making
establishments receive great number of apprentices,
who remain six months for nothing, boarding them
selves in the mean ume for the privilege of learning
the trade They can already sew swiftly and well,
they ara not accepted. To them are given out the
dresses and they are kept constantly at work sewing
(not learning anything new until the very day before
their apprenticeship expires. Then lew hours are
spent In giving them some general directions about
cutting dress, and they are dlscharged-lhere being
no room for jouIpelpoomen on ,cages in establish
me w hpre
AS fast as their ''educaon" is completed they are
placed by other apprenlices-and so IL goes on-the
dashing proprleress OF The establishment growing rich
and as,ocratic and the poor girls turning out upon
the world to die oil staryaton and despair, sell them
selves TO iniamy.
Here then .he facts respecting large and in
creasing class Of our female populations and sad e.
nough picture they present 1t is this picture which
gave rise few days since 10 The following eloquent
ou,bursi Of feeling from lady ofour acquaintance OF
whom was soliciting information lis il not the
ssrau sesi thing that can well be conceived, that Wo-
man, who by the present constitution OF Society IS
made politically and socially q slave-who has no
voice in the government which she submits, ~ ma
king the laws she is forced to obey-who is in short
gnzed by any human institution of these days
as an independent individual, anything apart
from the necessity Man has for using abusing her
that she is mol, ike other slaves whose existence is
merged in their masters even secured food, clothing
and shelter for the teeng ''gleam between two eter-
sIiesn on which ghdes by her pale and suffering APP
partition The workwoman has indeed no rights Of
her own. She can be oppressed, cheated tramped
upon, until the joyous life within her becomes dead
and poisonous impulse that drives her through the
world eager for the grave slings her into despera
ton and revenge. But how revenge her wrongs p
She has redress, neither in those laws she did not
sanction in that public opinion she cannot inhu
ence, and which regards her not Seeing this, bergen
tie and tender nature at length undeIgoes change
Then the feeble becomes the terrible, the weak and
suffering Woman is transformed into an ayengng de-
mon. And who may wonder al her Z"
In this great republican metropols-this foregone
result OF The highest and best thing that civilization can
do, with all our boosted free institutions in full bloom
and llle-there are thirty thousand viruous who
have 10 live, die and be buried what they earn
with their hands In the ranks oil this class Of our
population we find woman in almost every aspect of
misery, ever struggling and FAINT with the burden Of
life. Wives and daughters OF broken down merchants
and specializing politicians form large item in this
catalogue. Reduced from affluence 10 poverty and
keen want, they all unearnsd in the great secret
fyiedIng gracefully TO the inevitable, and maintain
day by day fierce unequal but not doubtful contest
with "cruel Fortune" until they sink beneath temp
talon or despar--to the brolhe or the gravel ma
lloiy are borne up by pride alone from beggary, and
the few who still calendar them among their acquain-
ances do not suspect to what strait they have been
driven, until the crisis arrives and is over. afe
Next come the widows OF tradesmen and mechanics,
the wives and daughters Of those who cannot get EN-
ploymeni, and the wives of sick and ntemperaie hus
bands and the children OF invalid drunken parents.
Here 10 be found some OF the most patient and long
suffering, starving, oiling broken yecouragoues
women that ever glorhed their Creator. Here. in mis-
erabse open garrets, utterly deprived OF human hope
and sympathy, and often languid and faint from the
mere want Of food, these creatures show what angels
women are. Somemes--ohl too oen--he selfish
ness Of pain and suffering or the brutal appetite Of
hunger and incompetence makes the sick father or the
drunken mother, command the pale and tender daugh-
ter TO 90 out into the streets and sell herself Tor gold
Must il not be life resembling hell itself that beges
such crimes as This And how dare we wonder and
shrug our shoulders with pious sheer at those among
these unioriunaies who do not resisi2