Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-09
TAILOR-SHOf GIRLS.

The Hard Lot Of Young VOMen Who Ma &c
The = LS"iny by Working on "Feady-
-U"dc Cfothing-The Places They York
in aud T9.eir Pay-The Butfos-j.oie Ped
der.
II have in my peregrinations about the
city. noticed a number of shops, some
large, but generally small, filed with sew
ing machines, at which are seated girls of
different ages said q gentleman to AVIS
cousin reporter this forenoon. $50 often
have Hooked through little, narrow win
dows. with glass blurred with dust. and
seen on the interior this same sight, that l
made up my mind 10 determine just what
they and their objects are" continued he.
"And l have just succeeded after long
tramp and a great volume of questioning.''
You are not the only one who has
walked over the city and wondered at these
shops" broached the reporter, coupled with
a request for the speaker to give the result
of his mission of knowledge. He acqui
esced in the following interesting manner:
''They are tailoring shops, and tell you
they furnish livelihood for hundreds right
here in Milwaukee. The shops are kept
mostly by Germans and Bohemians. and
employ both sexes, but girls do by far the
larger share of the work. These shops
find their work at the
many large wholesale ready-made
clothing houses in the city, and the gar
ments turned out are of the coarser kind
for lumbermen's and farmers every day
wear. Goats, pants, vests and over-alls are
the principal pieces, ami any morning that
hoard 0or inc
any part of the city, at any time, you can
find one, two or three, men, women or half
grown children, as the case may be, taking
the garments finished the day previous,
down to the stores, SO that pay may be
all over the city and employ
down to two or three. When the
room for the shop and lives in the rear,
but if he makes money and he generally
does, he gradually enlarges. until it is
necessary to have shop separate and
alone. But they are always poorly lighted,
heated and ventilated; what with the
position and manner of work the girls
must undergo, soon tell on their health.
They are generally attrasted to the shop
by the fair wages, and a deft girl can
enter at twelve or thirteen years of age.
Before they are twenty they are broken
down and are much nearer the grave
than the possibility of living the
allotted time. The position of stopping
over the machine cramps their lungs and
makes them round shouldered; the contin-
uous treading of the machine soon brings
about abdominal pains and hard tumors,
while the close confinement in an lily pre-
pared room, tells worse than either of the
former. But in spite of all this their
cheeks do not become blanched or their eyes
sunken. Instead their eyes wear feverish
dush. which is always mistaken by their
parents for a healthful comp lexion and
when they complain of feeling badly,
they are laughed at and in some instances
Deaten. The girls also love amusement,
of course, and spend not few of their
evenings late at balls of low character.
In the morning they are at their post, with
only a half rest and half dead feeling.
know two Bohemian girls who earned SIS
a week in one of these shops, besides milk
ing three COWS and doing most of the
homework until lately. They would wash
at night, milk early in the morning and
late in the evening, and after each time
they would prepare the tactical for their |
smaller brothers to deliver. With this
they would manage to attend at least the
and Sunday night dances. One
Of the girls, aged only seventeen years, |
Tho has been doing this for five years, is |
It tine point of death. while the other is /
barely able to work.
While in one of these shops was amused |
% hear question of Want to pny some |
puttonholes to-day! put by queer look