American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-02-02
SLAVES OF THE WHEEL.
What the Sewing-Machine Has Done-The
Bondage of Women to Ruffies and


machine to the world, civilization hailed
him as the benefactor of woman. Hood
had just stirred the heart of humanity
with his wonderful ''Song of the Shirt
and the wrongs of the sewing woi1ien
were one of the social questions of the
! day. Men were ready to forswear linen
and adopt paper collars and shirt-bo-
SONS, rather than to sswear out human
creatures lives.' And so a great shout
of thankfulness went up over this iron
seamstress, which had neither bone nor
! muscle; which could neither ache nor
grow weary-this benevolent genie
which was to make sewing a pastime
and stitching but play. Alas for short
| sighted humanity! Who could foresee
| that the little finger of the new dispen-
sation should be thicker than the loins
of the old? That its bands should be
of iron, where the others had been but
| green withes? The burden is shifted
/ from shoulders to back-that is all -
and legs grow stiff and numb in place of
/ fingers. For this marvellous piece of
mechanism, which does in an hour
more than skillful seamstress
can accomplish by hand in
day, has so cheapened labor-so multi
piled ruff1es and tucks-that the bond
age of woman to the wheel is heavier
than it was to the needle alone. Years
ago our mothers and our grandmothers
wore garments simply made; dresses
with single skirts and bodies plainly
trimmed; or when cunning fingers
wrought marvels of needle=work; the
garments thus Ornamented were worn as
long as they lasted-nOt cast aside OF
ripped up and made over with every
season. Now yards upon yards of plait-
ings, shirrings or ruffies trim the plain
est dresses, the mode of trimming
changing every few months, and stamp
ing the work on which so much time has
been spent as out of fashion. Under
clothing is mass of tucks, puffs and
ruffies, and the day has gone by in
which simple hem or tiny scollop was
sufficient finish for an ordinary gar
ment. Many of US remember when
children's everyday troeks were guilt
less of trimming; when ruffies and tucks
were kept for state occasions. To-day
every tiny garment calls for rows upon
rows of stitching, and devoted mothers
sit for hours at the sewingmachine that
their darlings may appear as well as
the children across the street where the
family keep a seamstress.
VICTIMS OF THE sEwING-MACHINE.
Ready-made clothing does not solve
the difficulty. tits comparatively cheap,
it is true; so much so that it is economy
to buy it rather than to purchase mate
rails and hire the sewing done out. But
when large quantities are needed, and
when the work can be done at home,
even the small profits with which steam
enables large manufacturers to be con-
tent aggregate an amount at which pru-
dent housewives hesitate, and which
those who must practice close economy
absolutely can not expend. Here, also,
with the question of ready-made cloth
ing comes in another phase of the OPP
preston of the sewingmachine: How
is the sewingwoman, even if she owns
machine, to compete with these large
ulduuldCbOIl6Ss
the contest with steam? Fashionable
dressmakers, demanding fancy prices
for their work, do well enough; for them
the intricacIes of trimming all tend to
profit; each change brings grist to their
mills. 1t is the poorer dressmaker, who
is neither known nor sought after, and
the needle-woman who does plain sew
ing for living, who groan under its
tyranny. Continued labor at the light
est of treadles for hours at time, es-
pecially when no other exercise is taken,
is necessarily injurious to health, and
our hospitals are filed with victims of
such labor. Yet, above all, it is per-
sons of moderate MEANS, striving to
keep up appearances among richer
neighbors, who suffer most. Across the
way from our own, a year or two ago,
was a window of a fair young girl.
When we first noticed her she was at the
sewing machine, and day after day in
the pleasant spring weather she was
there for most of the time. Naturally
we supposed her seamstress, and felt
sorrow for the young life tied down to
the wheel. Usually the work was white f;
but one day it was blue, and for days
afterward the machine was piled with
narrow strips of some dark blue fabric
Saturday closed upon her busy at her
task; Sunday morning she sailed forth
in suit of dark blue silk and grenadine,
garnished with row upon row of narrow
knife-plaitings. Personal vanity had
been the motive of the patient toll we had
witnessed with so much sympathy; and
the same incentive held her to similar
tasks for many days during the season.
She could not afford to pay dress
maker; she a0oald not dispense with one
inch of trimming on her suits. Very
many other women are in the same pre-
dicament, not only for themselves but
still oftener for others. self it were not
for my sewing!" groans many weary
mother, half crazed by the thought of
the mountain of needlework that must be
done for her little ones. Fewer ruffles
and tucks would make the task easier
but no &! the little AS and the little BIS,
and all the rest of the small alphabet
wear them in abundance; so with stern
heroism she bends to the task, deter
mined that her children shall dress like
other peoples! Health, time and re-
creation are all sacred to this modern