, 1889-01-05
MAKING SHIRTS.
HOW THE WORK IS DONE IN THE
PHILADELPHIA FACTORIES.

Nearly One Hundred Firms Engaged in
the business in That CIty-DiyisIon of
Understanding Concerning the Wages
Paid to Operatives
AT the time the "Song Of the Shirt"
was written, by working hard from
early morn until late at night a woman
could make one shirt That was before
the introduction of machinery and syB-
TENS, INT when the shirtmaker took
home a bundle of linen and muslin
pieces and brought Jack the garments,
made n finished outright. Now, with
the systems and machinery in vogue,
from the time the material is cut until it
leaves he inisher, it passes through the
hands of sixteen persons, zach of whom
does a part toward preparing 1t for the
manly bosom. This system is called
team work, and each one in the team
averages one dozen and "a half of shirts
in ten hours. Another method of making
these garments is the one practiced in
making up custom goods. In these
places the bosoms are bought ready
made, and with the remaining parts are
given TO the hands, who make them out
and out. These women VIII make from
four to eight n day of nine hours, and
the average price for this work is SO a
dozen.
FROM START TO FINISH.
The materials of which shirts are
made are linen, muslin, backing" a
coarse linen used in lining the bosom,
percales, %calicoes, flannels and Pax. 8, q
species of worked bosom. In the large
SHIRT factories, where h team system is
practiced, h beginning of the work is
the cutting. The material is laid out on
long tables at times as many as sixty
ply, the patterns are placed and with q
pencil the marker sizes off each cut. He
Is followed by the cutters, who, with
knives, separate the parts and these are
tied into bundles and carried into an
other department where the operators
are. Here the 'forelady" distributes the
parts to different girls-the bosoms to
one who returns this part complete, the
sleeves to another, the neck or collar
bands to another, and the cuffs or
wristbands to another. In preparing the
bosoms, the pleats are folded by small
girls with steel patterns the size of the
plat required; from these girls ii goes to
the operator and then to the examiner.
after which it is taken to n machine
where the neck receives the proper
slope, and now it is ready for the body
OF the shirt. In the meantime the body
OF the SHIRT has been making the rounds
from the first girl who hens it to an
other who attends to the facings, and it
is now ready for the bosom TO be run on
rough, from here another hand who
stitches 1t down solid. The front and
back are now Joined by the other girl.
and together they move on to the next
place where the collar bands are put on.
By this time the sleeves are ready and
they are put in place.
Now the shirt is hemmed, and then it
is taken hold of by another girl who is n
"feller, and when her work is done the
garment is ready for the finisher. This
means placing h gussets, cutting and
sewing The button holes and putting on
the buttons, by which time It is ready
for the laundry.
In this city n~inety-five firms and indi-
vidual employers are in the business.
Most OF these places are custom stores
and employ but few people, but q num-
Der of them are extensive factories, and
the capacity of q few is as high as 100
dozen shirts a day. So far as the manu-
facturer is concerned the business of
shirt making has, during the past few
years, not only held its own in this city,
but it has received the benefit of the
natural increase that comes to all
branches of business, but fashion, during
the past two years, has decreed that the
white should, in a measure, give way to
other colors and texture, md, as these
are nearly all made outside of the CITY,
the introduction of the flannel shirt has
been q severe blow to the operators.
A b OF WAGES.
The firms mentioned above employ a
total of 1880 hands, nine-tenths of whom
are women. They are divided into the
branches mentioned below, and the
average wages for the year round are as
annexed: