The Arizona sentinel., 1886-09-04

ing on Three Dollars a Week.
 AS rule seamstresses on mems wear
 receive the least pay, according to the
 fineness of the work and the extreme
 care bestowed upon it, though work or
 some women's garments is i'll enough
 paid. The large tailor and manufactur.
 ing establishments give all their work
 outside and it is curiously divided up.
 Some women receive those parts that
 require special basting. The cutter cuts
 out so many coats and with them all
 Innings, buckram and velvet which are
 necessary, and these are graded in a
 methodical manner and each size placed
 by itself. In some cases men do the
 stitching of the seams, but generally
 women do that Then they are all
 given to the pressers and then to the
 basters. From them they go to the
 liners, after which they are sent to the
 finishers and buttonhole makers. They
 are afterward given to those who sew
 on the buttons, and then others take out
 the bastings, after which the pressers
 again have them, and finally the in-
 spector orders the tickets and little silk
 patch with the firms name sewn on.
 Thus ten persons work on each coat.
 Each part of work is done on dozen
 coats and each dozen as soon as finished
 IS fastened together and returned.
 When the work is returned it is in- spected, and if the least imperfection is dlscerned the mistake must be rectifed.
 The cutter and inspector are we'll paid.
 but those who do the work piecemeal only earn about thirty-five or forty cents a day, working constantly and giving half day to take the work and
 get more. In one tenement house lives a woman who supports herself and three small children by finishing gen. tlemen's fine overcoatS. She hems the satin Things and sews in the sleeve lin- lngs and the velvet collar and puts in several stays, in all setting from eight to ten thousand stitches on each. and earns at most thirty-five cents a day. Out of this she pays S5 a month for rent She works Sundays too, She sends her babies to a Kindergarten, where they are fed, but in the summer the school is closed. and how she lives and keeps them in clothes and fire none but those who live in the same way know. Just now another woman with | one child is sharing her room and her rent, which relieves her a little. The | man she obtains work from has fac | tory. also fine tailoring establishment, and the class of work these women do | is for oyercoats which cost forty and fifty dollars. Allowing each of the ten workers on each coat ten cents for what she does, and the cutter and inspector each fifty cents, the cost of making a mans fine overcoat is about two dollars. Many manufact- urers give all their work to contractors after 1t is cut out, and they in turn give it putin small parcels to the poor wom- en who do it, and to make money them- selves grind them down to the very low est figure. Other contractors take in
 large quantities of work, and then hire hands in their own work-room and set them to work there. When the work requires machine stitching they allow ihe girls the use of machines, charpinp hem so much day for the use of them, md they pay by the piece always. Some 'f the work is of the cheapest quality md some of it again of the richest and inest, but however it is the girls pay
 the same, just enough to 'eep body and soul together, while liv- ng in the most squalid manner. There
 Ire immense quantities of this work lone in the poorer houses in the city by he mothers of families who can not I cave their little children. In cases of | ontaglous diseases the work goes on { ust the same, and the germs of sick 7 ess can be carried in the fine coat of s he society man. Where the girls or . 7omen can leave and go into stores or : actorles they have a chance to earn f lore money, but on tailoring the pay is T ruelly small There are several places where shrewd z len have bought up numbers of old q ewing machines, and these they either z ent or sell to those who have none. and ' ake their pay in work. For an old c lachine not worth S10 they will make . lese unfortunate poor pay from $50 to z 0O Tn work at starvation prices The 'ork they give is usually mems com n lon drawers and overalls and jumpers. r s well as the commonest calico shirts. = nd they earn the gratitude ot these un- n 'rtunate women by only retaining half r le price of the work toward the pay- = lent of these machines each week. 2 ometimes it takes two years to pay for :, :, old machine that these = en have bought up for a few dollars, ;%t % Id by the time they get it paid for it is 4 4 pod for nothing at all. Mems shirts - 'e.sometimes made by giving out lots Q Q
 dozen or so to those who can make =. em complete, but generally they are cI ven out piecemeal. For instance, a fl 'zen pairs oi wristbands and those lit c, 3 flaps which go at the bottom of the H 'soms, the yokes, and then the sleeves fC Id bands together, and finally the h, 'som, then the body and at fc st the finishing of. The swift Q, and neatest sewer on bands and 2 IDS, with the aid of a first-class ma = inc, can make at home about 50 cents
 day from early noornino, +o +o,. - .