Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-02-01
MEDICINE LODGE. KANSAS WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 1888

Nv nat is the first step in learning the
trader" 1 pushed the inquiry.
II like to get for an apprentice we'll
educated, quick, alert girl of fifteen or
SIXTEEN" was the reply. "For three
months / pay her moth ng, and she does
very little in return. She learns more
with her eyes than with her fingers in that
time. She is expected to observe what is
going on and how it is going on, and
give her what small jobs she can be trust
ed with. Julie, come here"
Julie was the youngest apprentice
round little creature with short, curly,
black hair, fresh cheeks and swapping
eyes.
II am putting belt in to this bodice"
and she held up her work, "and some
times l put in tapes to hang a dress up
by, and sometimes 1 make a pocket for
some one else to put in."
"Tbat is step number one" my inform.
ant continued. 'Step number two is
taken when a girl becomes sufficiently
skilled to be trusted to make the plain
underdress, which is the basis of all
dressmaking nowadays She sews up
the long straight seams. She puts on the
facing and the braid.
'Step number three advances the girl
u
cut the material, you will understand. All
that is planned and arranged for her; she
only puts together what some one else
has blocked out.
''When she takes step number four she
is allowed to put the draperies on the
skirt. The draper has previously de-
signed the fall of every fold and cut the
material, indicating just how il is to go.
The younger hand does the needlework
necessary to adjust it in place."
"And how about the bodice all this
timer" l inquired.
"Bodice-making and skirt-making are
two different trades. We decide quite
early in an apprenticeship whether a girl
is to learn waists or skirts, and then after
wards she works on one or the other ex-
clusively. / have skirt makers who have
been with me fifteen years who have
never touched bodice. The ambition of
the skrt-maker is to become a draper.
The ambition of the bodice hand is to be-
come filter"
''In making a bodice the cutter first
cuts out the lining. This goes to the filter
who has session with the woman who is
to wear it. Next the cutter cuts the out
side material of the bodice and the filter
has second session with its prospective
owner. Now comes the turn of the bodice
makers, who, according to. their pro-
| iciency, sew and finish the seams,
put in the sleeves, finish at the neck and
waist line, etc Making button holes is
another distinct trade"
"And what does all this pay the women
who do it?"
"That depends on intelligence, as in
every other business. My women are paid
by the piece, and fairly good seamstress
on bodice or skirts earns from IS to SIS per
week. Take this basque, for instance" and
she held up something in black more with
green silk vest. "When the cutter and
filter have both done their work, the
woman who finish hes it, button holes not
included, is paid $3.50. 1t doesn't take a
long days work to make living at that
rate.
"Cutters, filters and drapers make bet
ter wages, of course. A cutter earns from
Sl2 up. Filters and diapers are the aris-
tocrats of the profession. Men do most of
the cutting for the tailor gowns, but
women cut and fit all others. No man can
| drape a gown as women does. Drapers
| and filters earn in modest establishments
| from Sl5 to $50 a week. When they have
| genius they earn more. A woman who
has originality, who can put a new idea
| into silk or velvet, who can design a sue
cessful gown is worth almost any figure
! There are drapers and designers who are
paid S25. $35, $50, $50 and 81 0 per week.
"Women who have brains to put into
dressmakng, they put them into
medicine or other professions that they
are taking up, set up for themselves when
they know the business and make fortunes
| at it,"
All this in spite of the starvation wages
of the tenement.house sewng-woman.
There is no other business where the
range of prices is so great. Nine. -, on
the avenue, will not put her scissors into
cloth for plain wool goTn short of
| $35 for the making. For a silk she
shakes her head at $40. She gets her
rates because they do not seem high to a
woman who is used to putting some hun
| dreds into an imported gown. Precisely
the same material is put into a gown with
just as much work in it by the wholesaler
who must place it so that the retailer NAV
sell it for $12. II the material is worth
s., when two profits come out there is less
than dollar usually for the needle
| woman.
And yet dress making is good bus
mess as there is for the woman who sews
! for a retail or order market, or who es-
tablishes a trade for herself. There's
nothing like intelligence and common
| sense anywhere.