Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-06-13
Gales aud Sketthes.
PROSE VERSION OF THE Song OF THE
SHIRT.-SLAvING AND LIVING ON 2.4O
WEEK.

SHIRT.-SLAvNG AND LIVING ON $2.4O
WEEK.
ssPlease sit down and I will answer any
questions you wish to ask me. but you will
excuse me if keep on with my work. l
mast have this done by O'Clock or can
not get my pay this week. and cannot af-
ford to wait week for that said pale
wan woman in a top room OF one Of the
largest tenement houses in the city, and
it might be said, too, one of the poorest
ones.
While revolving mentally the most per-
tinent questions to ask the reporter glanc-
ed about the room which served as home
for this woman, who evidently was super
ior to such surroundings. 1t was about
ten feet square and had one window open
ing on a court. and though in the top of
the house the light was barely sufficient
for her to sew on the buttons she was
placing with mechanical swiftness on a
pile of shirts at her feet. A cot bed stood
in one corner, which looked clean but scanty
as to clothes and devoid of a pillow. Two
chairs. a board nailed against the wall for
a shelf, and a small, old table and tiny
broken stove completed the furniture.
There was no carpet, and cold penetrated
the room.
"Oh, am finishing these shirts; don't
make them entirely. There are many
women who take shirts this way to finish,
perhaps in all somewhere near POO. For
these / get z cents dozen; tor some |
receive 9 and for other 10 cents dozen.
On these put four stays each. or gussets
as some call them. three buttons and one
ticket. On the innocent ones | put the
same number of stays and five buttons
and a ticket; on the ten-cent ones | must
sew eight buttons. and sew them stronger,
the same number of stays and ticket
Sometimes | make women's calico
sacques for which get 60 cents dozen
Those make on a machine. have one
which hire out for % cents a week when
have no machine work. prefer machine
work, for somehow it does not seem as if
l were working so hard then, and besides.
it isn't so injurious to my eyes, which are
growing quite feeble. shall have to get
glasses, and it will take me some time to
spare money to get pair.
Zone of the women on the floor works
at finishing mems trousers. She gets -
cents pair. To finish them she'puts in
buckram hens them, fells waistband on
each pair, finishes off four pockets and
sews on II buttons. This must be done
by hand and an experienced hand can
finish from II to 16 pairs week.
Another one makes linen busters, for
which she gets cents apiece. The
smartest worker with machine cannot
finish more than three day. Her ROOM
mate gets 80 cents dozen for making
wooden over-shirts with collars, bands and
1 ,11 Ia, CT, Nd IN,
dustry she cannot finish more than three
dav. A widow who hires bed space with
them earns 80 to 80 cents a day making
very high and it will not be long before
Machine made button-holes will supersede
the work of hands. You think these are
starvation prices. but worse than this is
the price paid for making women's cloaks-
Il know a women who makes them
and nicely too-whO only gets 81 80 for
IS. finished and ready tor sac. You
would like to know how we live on such
sums. 1t is problem, but we do after a
fashion, as you see. have friend who
rooms with me. and together we pay Sc
a month for this room. Nearly all of us
have to room with one or more other
women to be able to make both ends meet.
Many women who work at these peculiar
industries have families and generally
one or more of them earn something
which of course helps along. Those who
work as do must devote their entire en-
ergy to it and cannot find time to clean
and scrub or scarcely cook their food, We
have to buy our food in the smallest guam
titles and our coal in bucket, and we
paw for it at the rate of S14 ton.
.sAs to groceries-well, | think if Van
derbilt had to paw for all the food he used
in his house at the same ruinous rates he
would be bankrupted in year. for the
smaller you subdvide the articles the
more thev seem to cost. For instance, a
pound of oatmeal is six cents, half a pound
costs you four; pint of beans is eight
cents while quart is only II.
What do we eat? Oh, dear, not very
much, not enough to give one the gout.
assure you. | earn $40 a week and the
rent of my machine brings it up to S2.65.
Out of this pay - cents for rent and 40
cents for food, clothes. medicine, car fare,
theatre tickets and a box at the opera.
Seriously. though. buy a quarter of
pound of tea half a. pound of sugar. one
pint of beans. two ten-cent loaves of
bread, one soup-bone. and perhaps it costs
a couple of cents week for salt. pepper
and herbs for my soup. buy quarter
of a pound of butter week and some
times | get little milk for my tea. The
things | have enumerated generally form
nv biz of fare for week. l take lea
and bread for breakfast, and have beef
soup two days FROM one bone and soup.
two days from the beans. | have tea and
bread fer supper. | forgot to say that |
buy half pound of liver for Sunday. and
half a pound of bacon some other day.
Once in while buy quart of potatoes,
whick bake in the place of the liver.
The oatmeal, forgot to mention, cook
and eat cold for break fast, for | cannot
work hard all day without something more
nourishing than tea and bread. | spend
about 81 % for food and it costs me 4 cents
week tor kerosene. 1 must save and
pinch very closely to be able to buy shoes
and clothes. Only that l had some l don't
know what | should do. | don't know
how the other women get along. Some
time four and even six club together and
pay room-rent, and they say they find it
costs less for food but am not sure about
! IN 10 ~ food nd