The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-01-16
MAKING SHIRTS.
HOW THE WORK is DONE IN THE
PHILADELPHIA FACTORIES.

FFIlHDELHE1lH TSNt OInES.
Nearly One Hundred Firms Engaged in
the Business in That City-Division of
I.abor-somethins 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 woman
could make one shirt. That gas before
the introduction of machinery and sys-
TENS. and when the shirtm;iker took
home a bundle of linen and muslin
pieces and brought back the garments,
made and finished outright. Now, with
the systems and machinery III vogue,
from the time the material is cut until 1t
leaves the finisher, it passes through the
hands of sixteen persons, each OF whom
does part toward preparing / for the
manly bosom. This svs; :. 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 practlced LII
making up custom goods. IN these
places the bosonls are bought ready
made, and with the remaining parts are
given to the hands, who make them out
and out. These women will make from
four to eight a day of nine hours, and
the average price fer this work Is So
dozen.
FROM START TO FINISH.
The materials of which shirts aIe
made are linen, muslin, backing. a
coarse linen used in lining the bosom,
parca!es, calicoes, hannels ard p M. 5. a
species of worked bosom. In the large
shirt factories. where the team system is
p.acticed, the beginning Of Tie work is
the cutting. The material is laid cut on
long tables at times as many as sixty
ply, the patterns are placed and with
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 grls-the bosons to
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
plait required; from these girls it goes to
tie operator and then to the examiner,
after which it is taken to a machine
where the neck receives The proper
slope. and now it is ready for the body
of tie shirt. In the meantime the body
of the shirt has been making the rounds
from the first girl VINO 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 it 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.
Bv this tine the sleeves are ready and
they are put in place.
Now the shirt is hemmed, and then it
is ta!:en hold Of by another girl who is q
.sfeiler." end when her work is done the
garment is ready for the tinisher. This
means placing the guSsets, cutting and
sew ing the button holes and putting on
the buttons, by which time it is ready
for the laundry.
L. this city ninety-fve firms and indi-
7idual employers are in the business.
Most of these places are custom stores
and employ bat few people, but a mum
bcr Of them are extensive factories, and
the capacity OF few is as high as $50
dozen shirts a day. So far as the manu-
facturer is concerned the business Of
SHIRT making has, during the past few
wears. TO, only held its own in this city,
but it has received the benefit Of the
ns.tural Increase that comes to all
branches of business, but fashion, during
the past two years, has decreed that the
white should, in measure, give way to
other colors and texture, and, as these
are nearly all made outside of the city,
the introduction of the flannel shirt has
been a severe blow to the operators.
A TABLE OF WAGES.
The firms mentioned above employ a
total of 2. $50 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:
Weekly.
larkerS W GO