Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-03-03
IS LIFE WORTH LIVING.
| How tho Song of the Shirt" Is Sung
To-Day In New York.
fN.v N,rl, HERALD

How tho "Song of the Shirt" Is Sung
To-Day In New York.
New York Herald
When Thomas Hoods poetic soul, angered
at the iphuman manner in which INDECENT
English seamstresses were treated by their
employers, inspired him to produce his i'm
mortal Song of the Shirt" England re-
sponded to his cry for justice. and vowed
that the evils which he deplore1 should be at
least mitigated. if not abolished. A similar
appeal to humanity seems to be desirable in
this city just at e,ent, at least if ono is to
judge from the heatrending story which a
prominent merchant told reporter lately.
six dollars and So cents is a nice payment
for making POI shirts, is it notf' was his in
dignant question, as he pulled a pay-book
from his pocket and showed the figures in
black and white. NO, l am wrong. The
estimable employers paid &. rs, but you must
deduct from that 81 81 for car-fares. and then
you have &c for making 2yl shirts.
Who was fool enough to accept the jobi I'll
tell you man came here from Silesia
about fifteen months ago with his wife and
two children. He is bright, intelligent fel
low about 10 years old, and has worked for
some years on a railroad in Germany. He
brought with him two sewing machines, and
he and his wife managed to support them
selves for some months by making shields
for caps. Wien the demand for these arti-
piles ceasel, he sought other employment
but wa, unable to find any. At last .
friend told him that a certain firm would be
willing to employ him at making shirts He
jumped at tine idea went to tine firm. got
the material for the shirts, and set to work
at once, after he had provided himself with
cotton thread and other necessaries That
was Nov. 70 From that day until Dec. o.
he AMI his wife and another woman, who
provided third sewing machine. WORKED
from 6 o'clock in the morning to II at night.
and at the en- Of the time they had finished
29l shirts, and had received 81 75.
He lived in Brooklyn, at q considerable
distance from the ferry, and had to pay Il
considerable sum in car fares. The agree
ment was that he should receive 81 cents for
every dozen shirts, AMI ON Nov u he TOOK
three shirts to his employers, expecting to
be paid at the rate Of pa cents a shirt But
how could he lie paid the odd half cent,
Would his employers b. magnnhimou,
enough to give him cents instead of ~
Quite tue contrary. They paid him cent.
instead Of \ cent, his lawful due On Dec.
he took eight dozen shirts to his employers,
and received a. 40; on the 5th be took
other eight dozen, and received &. "a. the in
creased wages being accounted for by the
fact that these shirts required to be finished
better than the others and on the Och he
took a third eight dozen and received the
same a. for the preceding lot
After | saw him be tai taken his last
eight dozen, and he told me his story. l got
his pay-book from him and showed it TO sew
eral influential men of this city. Knowing
the price they have to pay for shirts, they
could hardly believe that any employer
would be 30 mean as 10 ask msn and women
to make them for ~ cents EACH