Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-24
SONG OF The SHIRT.

One of the Thousands of New YOrk's Poor
Girls Talks of Herself and Her Work.
~ don't know what am going to do about
II, said the shirt finisher My room mates
vow they won't consent to have the alarm
clock go off at half past in the morning.
You see all three of 'em are salesladies, and
SO they can afford to lie abed till nearly z,
while ought to be IN as soon as can see to
work, though for 10 life of me, l cannot
wake without the alarm. I'd rather sew late
at night, so as to sleep the next morning, but
my room mates won't agree to my having
candle, as they say the light keeps them
awake; so | am sometimes left in the dark,
in the middle of a button hole, when the gas
is turned off at half past TO- ! don't sew on
buttons in my dreams, as that woman done
in the Song of the Shirt q heard it read at
a club meeting) but it would be great saw
ing of time if | could only sew 'em on in the
dark. By working early and late | can't
finish more than five shirts day-when they
are custom shirts do four-and as the high
est pay at the place where l work is a dollar
and a half a dozen, consider myself in luck
when can pay my board, three dollars, at
the end of the week. For stock shirts get
only dollar dozen, and when business
amt brisk, of course get more stocks than
anything else.
II could do an awful lot more if was al
lowed to slight my work, like girls who finish
cheap jerseys. The buttons drop off my
jerseys the first time l fasten 'em, but no
such work as that is put on shirts. 1t amt
poor work, poor pay with me, but good
work, poor pay. The overlooker at our
place, though she wears glasses, has got the
eyes of hawk, and in the buttonholes the
stitches has to be just SO close together, and
the hemming in the gussets has to be almost
as nice as what would be put on pocket
handkerchief; the buttons must be sewed on
hard and tight; and as for the eyelets, they
are just the torment of my life they have to
be worked so awfully round and smooth.
always dread to get set of shirts with eye
let's in em because then am sure to be found
fault with when hand my work in-some-
times get em too large, and sometimes too
small don't have that trouble with button
holes, because they are cut for me.
Supplied with thread and needles2 That
we amt! We buy our own thread and
needles, and it counts up in the end, can tell
you. That's all do buy nowadays, and it
often comes out of my board money. As for
having my washing done, told the superin-
|
couldn't afford it, and so there has been an
exception made in my favor, and l am al
| lowed to go down into the laundry and wash
my own buds. It's against the rules for the
other boarders to do it, though they'd all
like to, no matter how much they may earn.
The girls in my room are always washing
their handkerchiefs and such things, and
hanging them behind their washstands where
they think they won't be seen.
"Why do l work for so littlea Well, three
dollars week is better than no dollars a
week, and as l amt got nobody to look to
for support, have to catch on to any work
that comes along. Relationss None nearer
than cousins, and they don't amount to much
at least mine don't.
1.-THE girls in my room tell me that could
never get place in a store because | am not
tall enough; but if could once lay up money
enough to pay my board for week or two,
I'd tramp up and down the city till found a
place where they would take me. l was in a
store once around the holidays, when there
was a lot of extra hands needed, and tell
YOU it was satisfaction to bring home my
five dollars on Saturday night get out
of all patience when / hear girl whining
and saying she don't see why she has to work.
Why, work is what | want and the only
thing that | do want If l could earn five
dollars week at shirt finishing, I'd be will
ing to keep at it till | was too old to thread q
needle. It's only work that doesn't pay
enough to keep me that don't like. On five
dollars week / could live like a lady--thret
for my board one to put aside for dress, and
one for my other expenses. Any girl thati
got the knack of fixing things can dress
decent on fifty dollars year, but it's awful
hard to do it on nothing, New York Trib