Connecticut western news., 1884-04-09
From the New York World l

J you will excuse me if keep on with my work. I must have these done by o'clock or I cannot get my pay this week, and can hardly afford to wait week for that" said pale, wan woman ill the top room of one of the largest tenement houses in the city, and it might be said, too, one of the poorest ones. While resolving mentally the most pertinent questions to ask, the re- porter glanced about the room which served as a home to this woman, who evidently was superior to such surround ings. It was about ten feet square and had one window opening on court, and though in the top of the house the light was scarcely sufficient to permit her to see to sew on the buttons she was placing with mechanical swiftness on 0 pile of shirts at her feet. A cot bed stood in one corner, which looked clean, but scanty as to clothes and devoid of pillow. Two chairs, a board nailed against the wall for shelf, small old table and tiny, broken stove con- pleted the furniture. There was no car pet and the cold wind penetrated the room.
 "Oh, I am finishing these shirts. I don't make them entirely. There are many women who take shirts this way to finish, perhaps in all somewhere near two hundred. For these I get seven cents a dozen; for some I receive nine and for others 10 cents dozen. On these put four stays each, or gussets as some call them, three buttons and one ticket. On the innocent ones I put the same number of stays and five buttons and ticket; on the 10-cent ones I must sew eight buttons, and sew them stronger. and the same number of stays and ticket"
 ''So for seven cents you sew in forty eight stays, thirty-six buttons and twelve cards; for nine cents you put forty-eight stays, sixty buttons and twelve cards, and for 10 cents you sew forty-eight stays, ninety-six buttons and twelve cards. Is that all you do?"
 "Oh, no; sometimes I make women's calico sacques, for which I get 60 cents dozen. Those make on machine. have one, which I hire out for 25 cents week when have no machine work. I prefer machine work, for somehow it does not seem as if were working so hard then, and, besides, 1t isn't so in- jurious to my eyes, which are growing quite feeble. I shall have to get glasses, and it will take mo some time to spare enough money to get pair.
 About the sacques? Each garment I have to cut and make. I receive an amount of calico and must cut certain number of sacques out of it. It takes close calculation and there are very few scraps left. There are nine seams in a sacque and hem all round, besides the collar and sleeves. Eight buttons and button-h holes go on each. For these, as I said, I receive five cents apiece, or 60 cents dozen.
 "Oh, yes, indeed, there are branches of female labor quite as extravagantly remunerative. For instance, the woman who rooms with me gets 45 cents a dozen for mems drawers. She sews three seams in each pair, puts on a waistband double stitched, hem at the bottom and sews on tapes, puts in eye lets at the band and ties a tape in or puts on a buckle and straps. works two l o1a fxryC IYTff They find the material and thread. She could hardly afford that, you see. She can make about three dozen in two days by working nights. Men, when their buttons fall of, would perhaps not feel so impatient if they knew that one stitch more on each would cost the worker a loaf of bread per week.
 "One of the women on this floor works at finishing mems trousers. She gets twelve cents a pair. To finish them she puts in buckram, hems them, fells waistband on each pair and fn- ishes off four pockets and sews twelve buttons. This must be done by hand, and an experienced person can finish from twelve to sixteen pairs week.
 "Another one makes linen dusters, for which she gets eight cents piece. The smartest worker with a machine cannot finish more than three day. Her roommate gets 30 cents dozen for making woolen overshirts with collars, bands and bosoms. With all her strength and industry she cannot finish more than one dozen per day. A widow who hires bed-space from them earns 30 to 35 cents @ day making button-h holes. Button. hole machines are very high and it will 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.
 "I know a woman who makes them and nicely, too-who only gets $2.50 for eighteen, finished and ready for sale. You would like to know how we all live on such sums. It is problem, but we do, after 8 fashion, as you see. have friend who rooms with me, and to- gether we pay $6 month for this room. Nearly all of us have to room with one or more other women to make ends meet. Many women who work at these peculiar industries have families, and generally one or more of them earns something, which of course helps along. Those who work like I do must devote their entire energy to it and cannot spare time to clean and scrub or scarce ly cook their food. We have to buy our food in the very smallest quantities and our coal by the bucket, and we pay for it at the rate of about S14a ton.
 "As to the groceries-well, think if NLn,,Io-l,slI I.,l 4r f--. l