The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-08-25
1bs White slave. Of Chicago.

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descriptive, with now and then denuncia-
ton, and consisted mainly Of quotations
from the article written by Nels Nelson
the Tones special reporter. The FREE
TRADER gives digest Of the lecture:
Miss Nelson, bright, young lady, was
sent out on this special mission TO apply
for work at each of the various corset, lace,
coat, vest, pantaloon, overcoat, snoe manu-
facturers and other shops with which the
lofts and high floors of the big buildings
are crowded, and her letters appeared
daily In Tie Times, shows state Of sffais
in regard to the payment and accommoda'
tion to labor, which has no parallel In the
history of America; even the pauper labor
of Europe musl stand aside In horror,
One Of the first shops visited by Miss
Nelson was mat factory She met girl
on the stairs who had just finished dozen
mats, They were the size of tea plate
crOcheted with fine thread and II had take
her an entire week 10 do the work. For
this she received 90 cents, while the mats
sold In the store for fifteen cents each, or
one dollar and eighty cents per dozen. This
girl had been working faithfully for six
months and had earned just fifteen dollars
From this factory she went to a cloak fac
tory and WAS given cloak TO make, which
she was told was sixty five cent cloak
She asked II she was 10 receive this amount
for her labor ON the cloak and was told
that her share Of the amount would be
thirty cents, the stitcher and the binder
receiving the remaining thirty FIVE. For
this pittance she was expected TO sew on
all the buttons, make the button holes,
sew In the sleeves put on plush pockets,
plush collar and plush cuffs, and sew the
the cloak until five o'clock and quit and
says that she would have been unable to
finish II In ten hours. This cloak was sold
for thirty five dollars! One girl In the
shop had purchased cloak and was paying
for 1t at the rate of one dollar per week.
They made her pay fourteen dollars for 1t,
while 1t would have sold In the store for
nine.
She had heard, in the winter, one of the
divines speak of certain manufacturer
who gave his employees good dinner for
one cent. She wrote MIN and received the
address. He was pants manufacture.
She applied for work at his shop and was
given pair of pants to make, for which
she was TO receive twenty five cents At
the noon hour the words of the divine
proved to be false. He did furnish lunch,
cup of rank, black coffee for two cents, and
some disgusting bread at three cents. Very
few of the girls were able to make more
than two pair of pants per day. This was
three dollars per week, and out of this the
girls and women paid Car fair and starved
In garrets. She then applied at chin
chilla Overc0at shop and was given a heavy
chinchilla coat to make, for which she was
to receive sixty cents. She worked neatly
all Gay on the coat and then threw 1t on the
floor and demanded her pay. The boss
told her that pay day was every two weeks,
but after some words, in the course Of
which he abused her shsmefully, he paid
her for what she had done. From this she
went to jersey factory, where she WIS
paid five cents for makingl jersey. This
shop was over stable and horrible stencil
prevailed. The girls made Ave jerseys per
day, earning twenty five cents. An Ice
water barrel stood In the middle of the
floor, labelled: two cents per week will
be collected for Ice water!' The jerseys
sold for two dollars each.
In all these shops the worst possible san.
itary condition existed. The floors we're
covered with filth and dirt; the air was
foul and the water bad. The girls, for the
employees were mainly girls of from Is to
20, were mainly attired In rags and were In
a half starved condition, many CT them
having their parents TO support. The maj.
GRITTY Of them had never seen the inside of
a church or place of amusement, and
never ate at noon. Their logings are in the
top stories of great tenement houses, and
as many as fifteen persons slept In three or
four rooms. Their eyes were staring and
their fingers bony, and hearly every face
WAS the picture of dispair and misery and
want.
Mr. Holmes thought that this terrible
system of women starving should be dealt
with by the state Legislature, and laid It to
immigration of foreign labor. He said
that the laboring classes were fast becom-
Ing machines instead OF beings of skill. In
the great watch factory at Elgin were 5000
men and girls, yet but few of them knew
how 10 make watch. One made screws
and another wheels, and none knew any
but their own branch of the work
The cause Of the overcrowding of the
trades by girls was their horror of doing
housework and the odium cast upon the
servant girl by society. To work in store
or a shop seemed to be, In their estimation,
much lighter GRADE of emplOymep, tha