Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-11-30

cases'at full rates. - '-'
Marriages Notices of Funerals, and announcements
of Sermons, so centscacl. ~! YyllId Enov1i-,S1 -
The Labor of Making Hoops fIls
A correspondent of the Hartford Times
gives the following curious facts respecting
the manufacture of steel hoops. for ladies'
skirts, at. the milI;of Henry, S. Washburn,, u
of Worcester, Massachusetts: -e1a -s1i
X, Mr.. Henry S. Washbirn makes some of
the finest wire in the world. He showed
US specimen Of No. G2 iron wire finer
than a hair. It weighed only seven ouh-
ces, and was 68,9OO feet, or thirteen miles,
fifteen rods, twelve feet and six inches in
lengthl 1t was drawn cold from piece of
iron one-fourth ofaninc in diameter.
Alr. Washburn manufactures twenty
thousand yards n day Of steel criholinc, or
Hat wire, which is here tempered and COW
cred, all ready for the ladies' Skirts. The
manufacture of this kind of wire Tor hoops)
is immense. Mr.. Washburn estimates that
at least fvcthousand tons of steel aud iron
are used annually in this way for the ladies
OF the United States, South America and
Mexico" 1t is sold, when covered, Mt whole
sale, at about fifty cents q pound, and about
three-quarters of pound is required for,
~'hSA4 SAAAA 4ANGGAf We suppose luuE HIS
estimate of FIVE thousand tons of hoop a
year is quite too low. There are, undoubt.
.edly, ten millions of females in this coun-
try and the South American States who
wear hoops Many of them wear out half
dozen skirts q year; suppose the average
to be three n year to each, and that the
iron of each weighs only half Il pound-wc
have fifteen millions of pounds Of steel and
iron hoops used up by the ladies of the
United States and South American States
every year, or seven thousand five hundred
and fifty-five tons, costing seven and half
millions of dollars. '.s5'i rH14
Now imaginc the amount of labor, of
money and Of skill brought into active
service by this fashion of spreading the
skirts by hoops. Sec the dnsky miners
cutting their way into the bowels of the
earth To bring up thousands oftOns of iron
ore necessary to make these hoops; the
long train of mules necessary to draw it
to the furnaces where it is melted into
t'pigs;" the men and boys employed to
plant, hoe, NOW, rake andpftc to produce
food for the mules and the miners, the
puddlers and meters, the iron-w orkcrs and q!
the wirc-dr0wers; and the machinery, too,
necessary to bring tile wire into flattcncd
shape and comcly form, to temper il, to fit
and cover it. Think of the wear of brain
and the test.of genius, to produce these
results-of the amount of coal land here
come i'll the miners, and the mules, and the
producers again) to kecptho boilers steam
ing and the machinery running for making
this wire! And then again, think of the
force directly employed in this skirt-hoop
MANUFACTURED!
Mr.. Washburn alone employs .sixty-scvcn
men and boys. and thirty-thrce femals in
Strengthening, fattening, tcmperiug, cover,
ing and packing these hoops. Aud then
we must not lose sight of the fact that
these, too, must he fed and clotbed-keep-
ing the tailOrs, and millincrs, and Shoe
maEers in motion to cover them, and the
butchers and millers as we'll as farmers to
.prodnce, and the; ;Bridgets in nthe7 Kitchen
to cook forsthem. And this is not. the half
of It'll Like the hoop itself, ronnda and
round does this estimate go, never ending;
but always putting and swelling uP,;dr:iw-
ing into its folds miners; s;@-irOnmongers,
merchants, artisans, inventors, q farmers,
Adry-goods men, and the mills that supply
them, doctors, hostlers, cooks, walters and
milliners-all, all in aid of this little thin
iron hoop that runs round and round the
skirts of our wives and daughters, putting
them out of proportion, and making it in=.
convenient for them to ride in stage coach
ies and sit in church pcws. And what is
the proudct of the hoop per SC? Its infu-
Ienceynot upon the hearts, but upon the
.mnscl0l0f mankind, is great, and sets
iastir large number of the industrial
classes, and the men of genius. But
f,w%hataidoes it produce? a,Why, merely!
the grand climacteric, of the puff and bloat5l
OF tashion-thats all But how odd and
dreary it dbe to see the ladies now+a-,,
days without hoops, We should, all of
ire