Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-11-14
EFFECTS OF NEW FASHIONS.
Trouble Among the SGraE-Hat Makers
In England.

The straw. braiders in England are
alarmed and distressed at the disappears
ance of bonnets from the heads Of women,
and the people of Dunstable interested
in the straw trade have met together
and resolved to enlist the sympathies of
Queen Victoria and the Princess of Wales
in an effort to restore the fashions.
According to long account given by
the London NetCS, the braiders are in &C.
tual distress The English strawaplait
manufacturing district is described as
extending over part of Hertfordshire,
spreading on the east across the northern
part of Essex nearly to the coast round
by the edge Of Cambridgeshire, over the
larger portion of Bedfordshire, and into
the eastern part of Buckinghamshire.
Elsewhere in England and Wales the
manufacture is scarcely known. The total
number of persons employed in the man.
ufacture, and the different trades cons
nected Herewith, is estimated, taking
the recent census as the basis, at 10000,
of whom upwards of 1900 are women
and girls. OF these latter 1879 are oco
cupied in straw-plaiting, the district
above mentioned furnishing q $50 Of the
whole number, the rest of England and
Wales furnishing only 453. Bedfordshire
and HertfOrdshire alone contain 10000
plaiters Next to the plaiters come the
''makers up, or those who make the
plated straw into hats and bonnets. OF
these, ,4S9 are females of all ages;
BedfordShire possessing 1868 and
Hertfordshire 1874, Buckingham 34S,
Essex l2l, Suffolk l86, the rest being
scattered over the rest of the country.
The utonSdistrict alone, which includes
Dunstable, contains Also female straw
hat and bonnet makers of twenty years
and upwards, or more than n fourth part
| of all the straw hat and bonnet makers in
England and Wales The number of
males employed is very limited, being
less than ten per cent of the whole NUNS
Der engaged in the trade OF the 39Ij
male workers, 1888 are under TWEEN Y
years of age; the number of those UNI
der ten being GIL under Is, 737; and
twenty, 430 The male children are en-
ployed principally in plai;-making in the
villages
During the last thirty years the French
straw plat trade has Increased to a very
considerable extent In 1851 the annual
returns of the trade were estimated at
100000; twelve years later the amount
had become nearly doubled The effect
of this increase on the industrial fortunes
of Luton has been displayed in the in
crease Of population resident in the town.
In 1901 the parish contained Gl2 houses
and 309j Inhabitants In 184l the pop
ulation was 1876 in 1851 it had risen to
1878; and in 1861 it was 1900; the
number at the present time being esti-
mated at twenty thousand, of which
number the females are in the proportion
of at least five to three males. Nearly
the whole of the inhabitants are engaged
either as dealers or workers in the plat
trade, the chief amount of business be-
ing transacted in the weekly Monday
market which, until the regent depres-
sion of trade, generally presented busy
and animated spectacle.
The traffic is confined principally to three
classes of individuals-the preparers of
straw for plating, the straw plaitsrs, and
the purchasers of Llait The straw-pre-
parers, like the plaiters, come chiefly
from the neighboring villages and ham
let's, where they are employed in selecting
the straw from the farmers barns, sOrt>
ing the same according to the various
degrees of fneness, afterwards cutting,
bleaching, and tying it into little bundles
about the size Of rolls of butter. Most
of the straw-plaiterS sell their plat to
the agents of the large houses, and dur
ing brisk season the whole Of the plat,
many thousands Of yards in length,
brought to market, has sometimes been
sold within a couple of hours. At the
present time the unfortunate straw>plait-
ers have considerable difficulty in getting
rid of their wares.