The Dickinson press., 1888-01-28
CHEAP CLOTHING.

CHEAP CLOTHING,
LIVES OF WOMEN WORN OUT ON
READY MADE SUITS.
What 1t Costs to Put "Bargain" Price
Marks on Wearing Apparel-Dangcrs
of tho ">lop Shop" Tradc-A Business
Needing Ventilation.
The slop shop is the biggest thing in the
cheap clothing trade, and the slop SHOP keep
crs are the hardest tasknlaStcrs of the poor
slaves of the metropolis Competition in the
retail clothing business has brought this con-
dition of things about Besides, the whole
system on which the manufacture of cheap
clothing is carried on is as bad rs it can be,
and its continuance is Il menace to public
health and u danger 10 the general welfare of
The community beside which the much
talked of tenement house manufacture of
cigars is nothing.
There are comparatively few clothing fac
tories in New York. Most of what arc called
such are simply shops where the cloth is cut.
1t then goes, each sort of garment separately.
to the "tailors," SO called, who have their
shops ull over tho city, but chiefly in the most
dcnsely populated tenement house districts
and i'll the very slums. One tailor will take
out hundreds or thousands of pairs of lnnta-
looms i'll Il week, another carries Off the coats,
and tho vests so somewhere else. If thcs.
men or women have any shops at all they are
simply their living rooms in the tcncmcnts,
where they hire girls to come for from moth
ing to few dollars a week and work II, sew
ing machines making up the garments In
many instances men instead of girls arc hired,
especially on heavy work, but in either case
tho people are crowded rs closely rs the ilr.-
chimes can be put together, often four or five
III one small room where all the household
lives and all the domestic work is carried on.
In these places, reeling with all tho vile
odors of tho tenenlents, with dirty chill
drcn crawling over tho filthy floors, play
ing among them by day and sleeping upon
dirt, disease and death, the garments arc
finally made up. They may he finished
that is, have the buttons put Oh and the other
hand sewing done-in the same place, cr this
Work may be farmed ont to stll inorc al jccl
slaves than those who to.l over t., t.,"c.liilcs
to women who are prevented ly invalid
husbands youn;, children, "r other PERSONS
from leaving their homes. and who are there
fore obliged to take up for their WORK what
ever pittance the slop shop barnns will dole
out to them, and trust TO charity for enough
moro to stavc off starvation. In tho bar
ren rooms of these lowest of slaves
tho garments have chance to g,t
now variety of odors and disease
germs. Then they go, most likely, to TIL.
buttonhole factory, where they touch slloui
dcrs with similar lots from dozens of other
tenement house shops, and when their own
! odors and germs have thus been amulga-
mated with tho odors and germs Of all the
tcncments for half Il milo around, they go
back to the original slop shop, and thence in
the course of time to the alleged manuac-
tllrer. who sells them to II Wholesaler maybe.
from whom they go to the retailer, and after
all these different hands Eavc taken their
toll the general public is invited TO come in
and look Mt tho wonderful bargains III cloth
ing.
Often they are wonderful bargains indeed,
i'll spite of the numerous profits that lav,
been made oil of them; but if they are rhea,,
it is because women have turned their siiirx>;
into thread and their blood into sewing ma
chino oil in tho making of them. They arc
aired and fumigated, and clc;,llsc,l maybe,
before they arc sold, but u man in tl, bust
Dess says: of people knew where those
clothes hnve been they would never buy
them"
Philip Leidesdorif has been in business foi
eighteen years. His brother is with him now
and they havo a buttonlole factory. They
tako the work after those who get it from Tia
manufacturers have made it up and put in
ahc buttonholes for SO much II hundred.
This tenement house work" lie says, sis
tho ruin of the clothing business, and worse
yet, it's the ruin of thos. that work at il.
Some day people will wake up tn what this
cheap clothing business means Go into
some of these tcnementS and you'll find in
some of tho little rooms u whole family Ii.
ing, and three or four girls working ut ,il;i-
chimes all day. They tako the goods from
the talors and make them up in the rooms
where they cook and sleep. WIZ, they use
tho clothes for bedding, even. If people
could see once the VII" holes in which til,
clothing is made up they'd never buy any
any of it. | wish they could some Of il
Wien it comes hero to have the buttonholcs
put in. Ii ;,.t, aired and cleaned bclur. it l.
put W, for sale,
'l'hc way these people do is to get young
girls to come and learn the business They
maybe, 81 u week for their work, and they
pack just as many of them as they can lct
into one room, ulong with the children and
the cooking un,l all tho rest That way they
make little money for themselves at thu
expense Of the girls, but it don't do them
much good, for pretty quick the mamlfac-
turcr srnds down the price another peg
and the more they grind the girls the moro
tho manufacturer grin,ls them, until nobody
is making more than u bare living. TE.
people that take the work out in the country
to do are pretty near as bad rs the tenement
house people for prices, but, Of course, they II
cleaner. Iii it wasn't for them price; would
bc good deal higher in the city. New
York is the worst city in the country fol
sewing women. In Philadelphia, even, tlcy
pay them Il good deal better. ll', all on ac
count of this tenement llous,' wnrls, and it'll
never he any better till they pass laws max
ing it Illegal for more than one machine II
be put In an ordinary living room.
~ here ; ;iilot Icr thing, said David lnid"s
durii, Il brother, and if cholera or any s,lcE
disea,2 ever gets Il start in this city In'o!,le
will find it out mighty quick These tcmc
lncnt house factories would spread the dis
oa.': through tho whole country. Ivculway:
sail t.!at if cholera ever got Il start i'll No,
York I'D drop this business and sc: oi.t .s!t
u"ny, and I'd do it, too. They h,.ye !. bo..rc
Of health and laws enough here, l,,.t ~,
never been i'll Il city yet, and I've been al
over the world, where they allowed s,icI
thiis;s as they 30 here. Only last "iMtcr, al
a place III "a street right near here, tho chill
tircn in u fanlil; we're sick Of SMALLPOX il. th,
same room where the clothing was bcn.
made up and sent out every day. These leo
pie don't have any more regard for the la':.
or for other peoples health than they do fo
their own health and if you have ever bccl
III any Of the holes where they live and wori
you k;oT: how little that is. This who!'
business of the manufacture of chcapclothint
needs showing up."-Ncw York Sun
Ih,w Speech Was Nippcd.
was, at ono time in my life, made Er.si
dent Of a womon's club. hulnEly trust tlln
Ipres;'lc'l with grace and 'lisnity over tu
club, until such time as circumstances mad,
it cxpcCiiciit for lie to retire from the ma,
career Of public service. In maisins IL,