The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-12-15

trimmers, extension pressers and bot
tom, cloth pressers
The girls employed to do this work
are paid according to their skill. Those
learning the trade earn from three to
five dollars week, while experts COM
mand from eight to twelve dollars and
often as much as fifteen dollars a week.
The putting in the brass clasps requires
more practice than any other portion
of skirt-making, for if girl forgets her
business for moment, and allows her
finger to rest on the button or clasp as
the weight descends, her nail and
portion of the finger is instantly chopped
off. Such accidents rarely if ever hap
pen now, so expert have the girls be-
come i'll their work. In 1865, in New
York city alone, upward of 5000 girls
were employed in the manufacture of
hoop-skirts, and the value of the goods
was estimated at S20,000,000 Then
the demand decreased and thousands
of men and women We're thrown out of
employment. Since last summer to
the present time the use of skirts has
gradually increased, until at the present
moment one firm employs more women
workers than did all the combined man
ufactories in 1875. One year ago about
1000 dozen skirts were made monthly
in the United States; the present de-
mand is not satisfied with 10000 dozen
per month. The girls employed in these
factories are generally healthy, for in
almost every portion of skirtmaking a
certain amount of action is necessary.
THE CORSET-MAKERS.
o wha will shoe my fair foot,
And who will glove my ham!
And wha will lace my middle limp
WI newmade London BAN!
Sang fair Annie of Lochroyan, but long
before that period, far back into an
tiquity, we read of a sharpened bone, or
fire-hardened stick, used to make holes
in a leather girdle, while strip of ten
don or thongs of hide formed lace to
draw the eXtremities together-that was
the corset of the savage. Among the
ruins of Polenque figure in bas-relief
was discovered, wearing complicated
and elaborate waist bandage which, by
a system of circular and transverse fold
ing and loopings, confined the waist
from just below the ribs to the hips as
firmly and compactly as the most I'M
yielding corset of the present day. The
corset is not popular for day and then
discarded-it is an established institu-
ton, for which the demand is constant
ly increasing, which makes it of i'm
mense commercial Importance Ten
years ago single corset manufacturer
near Stuttgart employed 1900 persons,
and turned out annually about 800, 900
finished corsets. To-day we may visit
an American factory where 400 dozen
corsets are completed every day. The
work is done in five buildings, occupy
ing three acres of ground, having boiler
and engine OF seventy-tiye horsepower
and ten furnaces. The cutting of the
corsets is done by men, all the rest is
completed by women. They are stitched,
examined, boned, trimmed, bound, fin
ished, eyeletted, ironed, embroidered
and finally laced, in the factory; they
are then put together in packages and
shipped from the factory to the store,
where they again pass through three
pair of female hands, then each corset is
put up in a box for sale, about 5000
boxes being used daily, which gives en-
ployment to women who are largely en-
gagged in that business, as the making
of paper boxes is light and rather pleas
ant work. Fifteen hundred hands find
occupation in this one mandatory, and
their hours are from seven to twelve
O'Clock, and from one to five O. clock.
Your hours are not very long" we
remarked.
"No. We do not use gas in the es-
Enlistment, and we think from one to
five o'clock in the afternoon quite long
enough for girls to work, although
there is no portion of corset-making but
that can be done sitting, and all our
girls have seats provided for them
The wages run from five to twelve
dollars week, the most skillful experts
sometimes earning fifteen dollars, but
rarely over twelve dollars q week.
PkiLddelphi0 Times.