The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-05-03
SONG OE The SHIRT.
A Finisher Tells How Necessity Compels
Her to Live.

81 don't know what am going to do
about it" said the shirt-finisher. 'My
room-mates VOW they won't consent to
have the alarm clock go off at half-past
five in the morning. You see all three
of EN- are salesladies, and so they can
afford to lie abed till nearly seven, while
l ought to be up as soon as | can see to
work, though, for the life of me, | can
not 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 a candle, as they
say the light keeps them awake, so
am sometimes left in the dark, in the
middle Of button-hole, when the gas
Is turned off at half-past ten. | don't
sew on buttons in my dreams, as that
woman done in the Song of the Shirt
Il heard it read at club meeting), but
1t would be great saving of time if
could only sew 'em on in the dark. By
working early and late l can't finish
more than five shirts day-when they
are custom shirts | do four-and as the
highest pay at the place where | work
is dollar and a half dozen, l consider
myself in luck when l can pay my board,
three dollars, at the end of the week.
For stock shirts l get only dollar a
dozen, and when business amt brisk, of
course get more stocks than any thing
else.
could do an awful lot more if l was
allowed to slight my work, like girls
who finish cheap jerseys. The buttons
drop off my jerseys the first time 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 button-holes 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 tor
ment of my life, they have to be worked
SO awfully round and smooth. | always
dread to get set of shirts with eyelets
in 'em because then l am sure to be
found fault with when hand my work
in-sometimes | get EN- too large, and
some times too small. don't have that
trouble with button-holes, because they
are cut for me.
Supplied with thread and needles ?
| 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 wash
| ing done, l told the superintendent of
the home where l live that | just
couldn't afford it, and so there has been
an exception been made in my favor,
| and am allowed 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 wash
stands where they think they won't be
seen.
why do l work for so little? Well,
| three dollars a week is better than no
dollar week. and as L amt got nobody
to look to for support, | have to catch
on to any work that comes along. Re-
,ations None nearer than cousins,
and they don't amount to much-at
least, mine don't. Why, a cousin of
mine, whose husband earns his three
dollars a day as a painter, invited me
TO do my washing at her house Chat
was before l got permission to do it at
| the homel and afterward fell out with
me, and made me pay for the coal l had
burned in heating my irons.
1.-THE girls in my room tell me that l
/ could never get place in a store be-
cause | am not tall enough; but if l
could once lay up money enough to pay
my board for a week or two, I'd tramp
up and down the city till found place
where they would take me. | was in a
store once around the holidays, when
there was lot of extra hands needed,
and tell you it was satisfaction to
bring home my five dollars every Satur-
| day night! It's an awful misfortune to
| De so short when a girl has her own
living to make. If l was six inches
caller I'd be earning almost half as
| much again as | am now, for | amt one
of the stuck-up sort who think they are
put behind a counter only to show off
their bangs and their bangles. | made
! lots of sales when | worked as an extra,
and could do it again if the store
| keepers could only get over my being so
short. | get out of all patience when l
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 dol
| lars week at shirt-1inishing, I'd be
willing to keep at it till l was too old to
thread needle. It's only work that
doesn't pay enough to keep me that 1
don't like. On five dollars week 1
could live like a lady; three for my
hoard; one to put aside for dress, and
one for my other expenses. Any girl
that's got the knack of fixing things
ran dress decent on fifty dollars a year.
hut it's awful hard to do it on nothing"
| IN. Y. Tribune.
| The Kaiser's Way of Driving.