Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-11-23
A NEEDLEW0MAN
TELLS OF THE HARD TIMES AMONG
THOSE OF HER GLASS.

Poor Prices Paid and Great Competition
for a Little Money "a Few Rather
Startling Facts-Fancy Work and the
Profits-"L Lady" Competition.
GThere is a great deal of suffering among
workingwomen this season, said one of them
TO a reporter "Women are looking for work
now who never did anything before but at
tend to their house and children. The men
are idle, or only working half time and the
women have to try and scrape together some
thing. Theo the ladies come in and take a
lot of work away from us"
GThe ladiesY"
GYes They need pin money, as they call it,
and they find that as good way to get it as
another Fine feathers tell in the workshops or
elsewhere. They get the best work and are
paid the highest prices. You watch as you
walk along Broadway or Fifth avenue, and
you'll see young ladies carrying small, neatly
done up parcels in their hands, which they
hold as delicately as they would bunch of
flowers. Well, those parcels are beads, net,
wire and silk-materials for fancy things that
they etaking home to work on
HWhat young gentleman suspects as he sits
in drawing room watching the taper fingers
of young lady daintily twisting in and out
about the delicate materials of some fancy
Job that she is hard at work for store down
town and in the act of earning a few cents!
It's fact. nevertheless. l know lady who
goes to a store on Broadway in a carriage
with her four daughters and who makes
business of it. In many cases the landlords
wives and daughters are taking from us the
means of paying the rent.
HOW THEY MANAGE IT.
II asked young lady who works some
times at the same table with me how it was
that her family turned out SO much work,
while they entertained so much company.
We'll. you see,' she said, there are three of
ms. Lucy, ma and me- l entertain while ma
and Lucy work upstairs. If any one asks for
either of them 1 say Lucy has a headache and
ma is attending to the house. When some
one comes that Lucy wishes to see have the
headache and she comes into the parlor.'
aThere is another young lady who says she
il a granddaughter of Lord Byron and con-
nected with half a dozen noble families in
England. She only works for pastime, but l
hope l shall never have to take my fun as
hard as she does. She came in one day, and
she was so blue in the face from the cold that
one of the hands remarked it. 'Oh, yes re-
piled the descendant of the poet, that's the
color of my blood"
"What do you comprise under the title of
fancy work9'
Beading on netting or wire, embroidery
on velvet, satin and flannel; crochet work,
knitting, lace work of all kinds, gentlemen's
cravats, painting of plaques, slippers on vel
vet, leather and satin; cuffs, collars, pincush-
ions, pocket handkerchiefs, hats, birds,
feathers, wings, and such like"
o1-aa o4 hot
sort of work?"
"From SS to S., working twelee hours
day. Many do not exceed 50 a week. In
deed, may say the majority do not A very
good hand can make 81 day by sticking to
it from daylight until midnight and never
rising To do this, you see requires a second
person to cook the meals and feed the work
woman, so that really, dividing the earnings
with the labor, one can only make in the
neighborhood of s.. This is at beadwork
Bonnets and hats, for instance"
"How much do you get for making hat
of that kindg'
HForty and fifty cents"
"How much do they sell for retailg"
@Twelve dollars, trimmed"
"How much is the trimming worth?'
"The trimming consists of bird, for which
we get SO cents for the making, or two wings,
for which we are paid 25 cents for each wing.
The bonnet or hat complete would cost to the
wholesale dealer $780, including the mate
rial"
"How long does it take to make one of those
beaded hatsl"
"A day. Some say they have been able to
make two, but never could make more than
one, and have been at it for years and am
considered good hand"
MANY IN THE BUSINESS.
as there much of this sort of work done?"
GAn immensity.n
allow many persons do you suppose are en-
gagged in it in the city!"
@Oh, couldn't say-thousands upon thou
sands. You see, it only lasts a few months
and many crowd into it on that account, and
besides, small as is the remuneration, it pays
better than anything else. The only work
that lasts all the year round is the knitting,
and woman can't make more than $3.50 a
week at that, work as hard as she may. This
work is confined almost exclusive to the Ger
mans. There are places, and plenty of them,
where they will tell you when you go in that
you can make IS and SO week, but once in
you will find out the difference. There are
places, too, that will take you in for a week
on trial and work you hard and give you
nothing"
aAh! poor women get poor show. Every
one is against them. Men have their socie-
ties and unions, but we have only patience
and heavy burdens. 1 hope to see the day
when women shall combine like the men and
demand their rights. 1 assure you it is heart
rending to hear the tales we listen to from
time to time. Women with children driven
to toll by sickness, death, and worse-drink;
women whose fingers never knew anything
harder than the keys of piano, and whose
lives were passed in ignorance of the hard
ships of the world-poverty comes hard on
them, but neglect and insolence and i'll usage
comes worse still"
as it difficult for such women to find en-
ployment?"
every difficult Nobody wants them.
Where have you workedF 2 is the first question
they ask you in a store, and if you say you
are only a beginner they will tell you they
don't want you No, sir; nobody wants a
beginner. New York Herald Interview.
A Rebuke to the Train Row