San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-08
MRS. JERNC
SONG OF THE SHIRT.
LIFE OF THE AVERAGE SEAMSTRESS
IN A LARGE CITY.
Working Day and Night and Able to Earn
Only Two Dollars a Week-A Message
from the Carrot to the Other and Hap
pier Half of the World.

only Two feeh ''Noo"SS
from the Carrot to the Other and Hap
pier Half of the World.
YOU'D think, to hear him talk, that sew
ing woman's life was a pleasant one, OF else
his hearts as small as his excuses for putting
us off. Come, I'm going to hunt another
shop"
The speaker was shabbily dressed woman,
under middle age, evidently widow or a
careworn matron. There was in her face the
familiar traces of care prematurely and alb
normally developed by hand to mouth e1-
istenCe.
The words of the woman were overheard
by a reporter and he Swallowed her to her
miserable home, description of which it
would be impossible to give and do the sub
iect justice A rickety bed, two crippled
chairs, table as unhealthy as its owner, but
unlike its owner in that it had something to
lean on-the window sill-a cook stove with
the oven door off and two legs gone yet fully
capable of performing all the meager offices
to which it was ever subjected. Here lived,
or, to borrow famous authors satire, here
had not yet died, family of five in single
room
The woman was not in any sense a hero
inc in rags" of the typical sort. She was
neither educated nor refined, but she was q
woman with soul, and-more's the pity-a
stomach also.
STITCH, STITCH, STITCH"
The writer does not pretend to give her
language for, like her gown, it was sadly out
of repair Clothing her statement in his own
words, he offers it to One-half of the world
who don't know how their fellow mortals
live, as a message from the other half:
YES" said she, forty cents for a Go2cn
shirts without and fifty cents for Il dozen
with collars is all Solomon pays. aid cant
live at it. | just told Fanny SO, and we are
going to look around. Some managers fur
nish the thread; he does, and he doesn't re-
quire deposit, either All in all. he's one Of
the best men in the business"
These shirts must be very easy to make
aren't they"
"Not so easy as you would imagine " re-
piled she. Those at forty cents must have a
yoke put on, the fronts both faced, wrist
bands on the sleeves, and on the neck band.
They must be hemmed and three Cornered
gussets put on both sides and on the joining
of the sleeves, and there are five buttons and
button holes. Those at fifty cents are the
same, except they have collars instead of
neckbands"
How many do you manufacture in
day"
THAT depends on how early commence
and how late | sew at nights. By beginning
at in the morning and sewing until in the
evening can make one dozen in day, but
this is good days work and is seldom &C
romplished, as it is only by constant stitch,
stitch, stitching can do it at all Then l
must lose the time of carrying home the shirts
and bringing back the bundles, so | find the
work very, very slow indeed, and am satisfied
il | make five dozen forties or four dozen
Cities a week.
That is 81 a week; can you live on it?n
YES; we manage, when Johnny (nodding
70 the boy earns enough to pay the machine
:ent, which is IS cents; if he does not, we
nave hard time"
Here was another revelation. How would
it do for some of the st. Louis Jellibys to
make an effort at the soul Gf they can find it,
of the monster who charges this woman one
tenth of the value of a sewing machine weekly
for the privilege of wearing out her life in
front of it.
''Is there plenty of this kind of work."
mo, indeed. Why, when first started
out to find it l walked myself down every
day for more than week. I watched the
daily papers and answered every advertise
ment l saw in them. found some of the
proprietors gentlemanly and some rough and
mean. One fellow on South Twelfth street
wanted me to make deposit and furnish my
own thread and make drawers at forty cents
a dozen found a few gentlemen. a verv