San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-02-09
SLAVES OF THE WHEEL.
What the Sewing Machine Has Done-The
bondage of Women to Ruflles and


bondage of Women to Rufiles and
Tucks.
From the Philadelphia Weekly Times.l
When more than quarter. of CEN
tury ago Elias Howe gave the sewing
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-women
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 swear out human
creatures lives.". And so 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 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 a
day, has so cheapened labor-so multi
piled ruflles 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 or
ripped up and made over with every
season. Now yards upon yards of plait-
1ngs, shirrings or ruffles 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
ruflles, 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 frocks were guilt
less oftrimming; when rutfles 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 sewing-machine that
their darlings may appear as we'll as
the children across the street where the
family keep 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 sewing-machine: How
is the sewing-woman, even if she owns
a machine, to compete with these large
manufactures? Must she not starve in
the contest with steamP 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. tits the poorer dressmaker, who
is neither known nor sought after, and
the needle-woman who does plain sew
ing for a 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 filled 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, 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