St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-25
Girls Who Work at the Manu-
factupe of Overalls,
Jumpers, ETC.,
In lily Ventilated Rooms for
Wages Little Less Than
Starvation.
Eva Gays Trip Through
Upper Stories Where Girls
Are Employed.
Working girls and their lives.

How little the outside world knows or
them.
And yet there are thousands in the
city of Minneapolis.
On her ecture to the socialists atTurner
hall last year, Mrs. Marx-Aveling took
occasion to refer to the working girls of
Minneapolis and to denounce in the
roundest terms the hard work and small
wages they received. 1t is an interest
ing and vital subject, but it is diff
cult one to handle. The commissioner
of labor, John Lamb, can tell at what
pains and trouble he obtained the sta
tistics required by the duties of his
Office. Many of the shops and factories
are guarded for the one purpose of pre-
venting the outflow OF information,
while the fOremen are made spies as
we'll as taskmasters. Fear of discharge
prevents the girls themselves from CIV
ing any information, which, alas for it,
there have been cases where very shame
for it has prevented these girls from de-
Scribing the meager pittance they earn.
This know by actual word of mouth,
and propose to carry GLOBE readers
with me through series of articles and
show the life, home life and shop life,
of the working girls and women of
Minneapolis.
Every morning the street cars and
thoroughfares of the city are thrOnged
with busy crowds of bread-winners.
Even careless observer will note that
a large proportion of the crowd are
women. Some of them comfortably
dressed, showing in their faces no signs
of hardship; others hurrying along,
their scanty dress, STOPPING shoulders
and pale faces showing that for them
the struggle for living is hard
fight.
Going up town in car the other
morning, and hearing several girls who
sewed in factories, talking about their
work, / concluded to visit these factO-
tories, and find out by observation the
condition of this class of wage workers.
There are:three factories in Mime
apoliS where pants, OverallS, Jumpers,
shirts, and other articles Of working
mems cheap clothing are made. These
factories, making goods for the whole
sale dryn goods houses. with which
they are connected, do an immense
business, and In them many women are
employed.
Sewing machines, run by electricity
or steam. are used. They are fastened
in double row on either side Of tables
running the length of the room. Before
each machine sits girl, who receives
her work from the cutters hands, and
it goes from her machine ready for
sale at remarkably low price. A row
of lamps, directly over the machines,
furnishes good light when daylight is
insufficient.
Mounting single flight Of stairs, on
nv first visit, l found myself in large
and crowded workshop. The brick
walls and bare rafters overhead giving
a decidedly picturesque, but very dirty
aspect. 1t was just noon, in that room
and in a similar one on the floor above
were gathered about 200 girls, some
groups busy with their MONDAY lunch,
others discussing in merry tones various
plans for evening amusement, a few
reading story papers and novels. Bertha
M. CLAWS works seeming to find special
favor among the reading portion. Others
resting their aching heads on the tables,
irving to catch short nap in the midst
of the confusion. All were so busy that
did not venture many questions. L
found they worked an average OF ten
hours day, work being performed. by
the piece. Sometimes they only worked
for few hours of the day, as the work
was not ready for the machines. Wages
did not seem a pleasant topic, questions
in that direction being met by Shrug OF
the shoulders and remark to the effect
that wages had been cut so much during
the past year that only experienced
hands could make living wages. In a
shop which l visited later | obtained the
exact rate of wages, and there seemed
to be but little difference in the scale OF
prices for the three factories.
NV next visit was to small factory,
located in an old store building 20X40.
There seemed to be absolutely no ven
tilatiOn. About twenty girls were en-
ployed, whose situation did not differ
materially from those just mentioned.
Taking. not the passenger elevator, but
a rough. irOn-railed one, such as is used
in handling merchandise, l was next
landed at the top story of large block.
This workshop was neatly finished and
painted. Here found about 225 women
of all ages working so buSily that they
hardly lift their eyes to notice visitor.
Standing near the elevator door listen
ing to and watching the busy scene be-
fore me, found myself breathing an
atmosphere whose distinguishing char
acteristics were smell of new cloth,
dust, heat and sewer gas. TWAS sitting.
There was row of large windows along
two sides of the room. Noticing several
girls with bandaged heads and com
planning of headache, l asked why they
didn't open the windows and get some
fresh air? One said: eve can't stand
it to have open the windows in this
weather, we get such colds and rheuma-
tiz from the draught."
sWhere does the sewer gas come
from?'' asked, as an extra strong Whit
made me feel faint. The girl pointed to
row of closets little farther down on
one side of the ROOM walked down
and saw that they were ventilated by
transOms over the doors opening into
the work room.
.sHow do you work in such bad air?'
asked of a stout German girl near by.
..Oh, we get used to it after a while;
'tisn't very bad now" she said, "but
most every day the water isn't running
in the closets for an hour or so at time,
but of course they are used just the
same. The smell is awful then; some
of the girls get sick almost every day.
and have to get pass from the foreman
and go out Of the shop"
Cant you go out without pass?'
s'No, we can't"
".Why?"
"Don't know. What do you want to
know for anyhow" she added with
Quick glancefrom under her brOws.
Walking on little farther l saw a
pleasant looking girl working for dear
life at pile of calico shirts.
.sHow many shirts can you make in
-day?" asked.
tsAbout twelve"
eYou do all the scwing?'
A In. n