New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-05-27
NETWORK DAILY TRIBUNE FRIDAY, MAY 81. 1855

rents and So forth they that they are paid
than any other body Of skilled mechanics and We are
inclined TO think that such is the case At the present
rates sc believe IS week would be above the aver
sge made by workman, entirely uuaded, enpOyeid dur
ing ten hours day, but they csiIn Justification
of the present movement that even by working from IF
teen TO eighteen hours day. including the loss of time in
going backward and forward to receive sn order and
deliver the work when executed. and subtracting the
cost Of findings" and light, which are at their own
expense they cannot earn more than 81 week, while
81 stated to be above the average made throughout
the year by the whole Of the trade in the City number
ing il is supposed, nearly 1000 wOrkmen, very large
proportion Of whom are German.
But Notwithstanding the surplus Of vorkmen in this
trade, the rate of pay piece-work" is, at the
present day higher than it ever known to be before
the increase given making difference Of about one
dollar week in mans earnings over the prices paid
ten years ago Yet in consequence of the much en-
HANGED price Of provisions and rent, and above ALL OF
the excess of labor to meet the demand causing the
work to be divided among many more hands, 1t is
certain that the condition of the boot and hOenakers
in this City has refrigerated. In speaking of actual
rise in the scale Of prices are aware that there are
certain establishments dealing only in inferior articles
where wages far beneath the recognized standard are
paid; but our remarks are not intended TO include
exceptional cases. which these certainly are.
Female labor has for some time been in active de-
msnd in one branch Of the shoemaking trade namely,
the binding" and the opening of this new field to the
skill Of the other has certainly been attended With
no advantage to any one concerned except the en-
plOyers who pay for the services rendered such pit
tance would be very inappropratey described as
remuneration. The binding Of chdrens shoes is paid
for at the rate Of two pairs for cents Is cents
dozen pair while for the full size cents pair. or
4JlO a dozen is given. Nov first rate hand may
succeed by the closest application, sa' from fourteen
to seventeen hours day, if uninterrupted by do
mestic cares in making during the week, four dozen
pairs for which, after delivery and approval, she will
be pad 81 40tbat being the maximum paid, aud rep
resenting the value of not less than eighty hours labor
and from this miserable dole the cost light aud fire ia
to be deducted We not prepared TO say this sum
is never exceeded, houses may pay slight adj
vance these prices, but it is more than sufficient TOR
us to know that this is ADORE the average that hundreds
of women and girls in this City earning from that
source alone. As one instance, married woman who
was in the habit of adding to the weekly store by
"bindDe" for New.York house, suddenly found her
SELF owing to the prolonged illness Of her husband,
which consumed all their little resources called upon
at once TO administer to the wants OF her sick partner
and to earn sufficient to prevent both from starving
With true womanly devotion she labored almost inces
sanity snatcbng only enough repOse to enable her to
drag on from weary day to another and with all
these exertions she found at the cad OF the week she
bad earned 81 co IL may be said that much of the
time was devoted to attention to the suffering patient,
which is undoubtedly true; but the hours she applied
TO her labor alone would still leave long days work.
II must be understood that this is not brought
forward as being either solitary possessing unusual
claims ON sympathy-On the contrary, t gives but
FAINT picture of the bdeOus poverty that exists among
some classes of working population aud though We
are so apt to point complacenuy America as being
land where the poor may become rich and all who have
10 live by labor may get fair reward, yet inquiry
into the CONDITION Of certain classes in large cities
would reveal an amount of crime begetDg poverty aud
restitution which would surprise and alarm creating
if not compassion at least fear Othe imminent dangers
which attend society with such poverty growing up in
the midst Of it,
The admitance of women 20 work in certain branches
of industry for which they naturally better adapted
than men, but from which they have been hitherto ex
cuded by the tyranny of CUSTOM is certainly desirable
as teDQlDg, unueT proper W W
independence ana dignity, for that there dignity ia
labor is beginning be better undertOod but if the
introduction of female labor to be followed by re-
duction of the scale of wages to starvation prices
abundant evidence proves that so far from her social
position being ameOrated the reverse must inevitably
follow. Human nature is substantially the same all
the world over and if fair equivalent is denied to
honest industry vicious will be aud are daily re-
sorted to- finally terminating in hopeless and IRENE
diable degradation. OF course, the exceptions are
numerous forming the heroes and heroines of domestic
hfe not less bright and ennobling to human nature
than similar examples in more fortunate spheres bu
the annals of the poor have never been written, aud
never will be- for lack of historian 10 lay before US
the instances of sefdevotion, of accomplishing
wretchedness through many weary year. of adherence
to the principles of virtue and resistance to great and
sudden temptations when surrounded by souldeaden-
ing poverty which frequently to be encountered
And yet such instances have been met with during our
inquiry into the uninvitDg subject Of the state of the
Boot and Shoe Trade in New-YOrk.
FLORIDA
nisooverx PxnIara1iou and Settlement.