Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-06-18
Occupation for Women in New
York.

Occupation for Women in New
York.
In the city or suburbs We find women
employed in staining aud enameling
glass; IN making glass signs; in cutting
ivory, pearl, and tortoise.shell; working
in gutta- percha. gum elastic, aud hair;
making willOw.ware and cane chairs;
feeding printers presses and setting
type; making aud packing candles;
moulding tablets of wster-colors; assist
ing in the manufacture of chemicals
and fireworks; making clocks, enamel
ing dials, and painting the cases:
finishing backgammon boards; making
and dressing dolls aud toys; stitching
the clothes and making the pockets OF
billiard tables; painting the handles OF
brooms, and weaving twine into net
ting; making paper collars and twiue;
Furnishing jewelry and making but
tons. There are about five hundred
millinery houses in the city, employing
over two thousand milliners, and the
manufacture of straw hats engages
several thousand women in weaving
the braid, sewing, and bleaching. The
artificial-hower trade employs about
four thousand women, many of them
French, and it is as lucrative to adept
hands rs any other. The manufacture
of hoop-skirts is said to engage over
ten thousand women, who spool the
cotton, weave the tape, and cover the
steel; and the caio trade gives employ
ment to .lauy more thousands, whose
earnings vary from three to five dollars
a week. The weaving of hair cloth il
also done by women, the packing OF
confectionery, and the making of shoe
"uppers."
Some of these occupations, and others
to which VIC have not referred, are
dangerous to the operatives, not merely
for the long hours of toll, the INSULT
| cient food, and the lack of proper VENT
lation in the workshops, bat from the
nature of the materials and the manner
of the fabrication. The artificial. flo wer
makers, the goldleaf workers, the but
ton-gilders, the cigar makers, and the
lucifer-match makers also suffer from
the nature Of their occupation.
In large manufactures of artificial
flowers tue ventilation is usually suffi-
cient, and precautions are taken to pre-
vent tho inhalation of poisonous colors
! But nearly all the brilliant leaves are
made i'll the artisans own home, a back
room or an attic devoted to all the pur-
| poses of existence, and the arsenic thai
produces the spring like vividness OF
colors is ditfused in the atmosphere aud
absorbed 10y the system. The fabric
| from which the leaves are cut is coloreu
i ,,,N I,a ID 4 4
and starch or gum-arabic being used
for the purpJ $50. This liquid is spread
by lhe fingers over length. of fine calico
or muslin, which are aftrrward beate.
or kneaded by hand until they have Ill
even tint. They are then spread out il
francs to dry, and are next cut ana
shaded, the final process being their i'm
| mersiOn i'll warm wax, and tho removal
Of any loose color upon them. TIL,
detached particles float in the air, anu
are inevitably inhaled by the workers
whose handkerchiefs are speckled with
dots of green blown out through th,
nose. Another operation, technically
known ~ grass work, consists in thu
fastening of small glass beads or "dew
drops" to the artificial blades, which
dislodges portions of the color, ana
leads to its Inhalation. The conssQue
COS are variable. When the persons
employed are cleanly in their habits,
and keep their windows open, an &C
| casional headache or an attack of dys
pepsia is the most they suffer; but III
other Cases all the symptoms of ARISEN
zeal poisoning are revealed in eruptiOne
OF tle skin, nausea, colic, and general
debility.
In gliding metal buttons, mercur,
and nitric acid are used, producing
their characteristic diseases; and il
making lucifer- matches the work
women sometimes contract the terrible
disease which is technically described a.
necrosis of the maxiliary bones, man,
cases of which have been treated q,
Bellevue Hospital. In tho preparation,
of g0ld-leaf the substance is so fragil,
and buoyant that the doors and win.
dows are necessarily kept closed, anu
the air of the work. rooms become very
impure. Bat the women who suffer
most from the character of their occu-
patton are tho cigar makers, who
mingling with men, boys, and children
toll many hours day for five or six
dollars week, living in an atmosphere
surcharged with dust and fumes thai
would make the most inveterate smoker
! sick. Part of the work is done in fac.
tories, but most of it is done in tn.
dwellings of operatives, and in neither
Is any attention paid to ventilation or
cleanliness. Growing girls at the verge
of womanhood suffer in many ways, aud
are as much under the influence OF
tobacco as constant smoker. Their
faces are pale, and their eyes are dead |;
| u stupor overcOmes them; their nerves,
are unsettled, and their lungs are dis
eased in nearly every ase.-WILLIAM
H. RIDE1NG, in Hlrper's Nagazine.
HoRsEsHoEs.-There has always been
u peculiar Significance attaching to the
horseshoe. In olden days it was held
to he of special service against the at
Ill