Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-10-08

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factories of New York. Working
women in this trade, says the New
York Star, are not as well paid al
those engaged in the more delicat,
work of making artificial flowers
embroidery and the like, nor as those
in the more laborious trades. The
box. makers work calls for less skill
than the former, and less of both
strength and skill than some of the
latter. Most branches of box making
can be learned in a few weeks. The
materials are light and the tool,
simple. The result is that wages are
sometimes as low as $4 week, and
seldom above 81 or 80. The women
are employed at piece work. Tn,
men, whose wages are better, work by
the week. Men and boys run the
machine and prepare the material
for the finishing touches given by the
girls.
On entering box factory one il
bewildered by a multitude of shape,
and colors. There are boxes, big anC
little, in cylinders, in fat tray.likt
forms, in long, narrow blocks, and il
a dozen other shapes to be only in
didated by learned geometrical terms
Gay colored papers in reams, in strips
in ribbons and in confused clippings
lie about everywhere. Grea
machines at one end of the room ar,
cutting the ugly cheap straw-boarc
into suitable shapes. The prepared
pasteboard, with notched edges ant
long, straight cuts, where it is to b.
turned up for fitting is laid in grea
heap on table before boy or MAJ
who stands on guard before a grea
glue pot.
The heap is quickly arranged 81
that one edge of each piece of paste.
board is slightly exposed, and with a
broad thick brush the workman lib
orally beglues all the edges at few
strokes. Other pieces are deity fixed
to the glued edges, the pile is brough,
to an even edge, turned over anc
pounded with the mallet at the newly
glued joints. The opposite edges are
then glued, and finally, piece by piece
the pasteboard is stood on edge and
brought round so as to form the sides
of box. A pinch where the glued
edges meet makes all fast, and the
box, without bottom or lid, is passed
to one of the girls.
The girl stands by her table and
rapidly smears cardboard with glue.
Upon this glued space she lays half a
dozen long narrow ribbons of paper.
Selling the box she claps on the paste
board bottom and secures 1t 10y def
and sure application of the paper rib
bon. She makes no pause for merri-
ment, but tears off her ribbon when it
is too long and pieces it out when it
is too short. AS each box is bottom
ed it is laid aside to dry, and it is in
teresting to see how rapidly the pile
grows under the girls flying fingers.
Her pay, however, is only small
fraction of cent for each box.
Lids are fashioned much in the
same way. The lid reaches the work
er with edges turned up, and her
work is to apply the ribbons of paper
that adds strength and ornament.
The lid is rested upon round wood
en- post twelve or fifteen inches in di-
ameter. This stands OH the table.
1t is a simple matter to turn the lid
as it rests on the post and apply the
ribbon of paper to the four sides.
of lids can be completed
in a day. When lid and bottom are
completed the box must be labeled,
so as to indicate the article it is to con-
tain. This work is rapidly done by
some of the younger girls.
Boxes of this kind are turned out
by the million and are sold at from
one to. five dollars per hundred. Cost
lier boxes are edged with gilt paper
and covered with figured material.
1t is an instructive lesson in the strik-
ing results Of simple devices to see one
Of these bare, ugly pasteboard trays
grow under girls nimble fingers in
10 the dainty receptacle that shall
make sweet meats doubly valuable.
Wages for this work are somewhat
higher than in other branches of the
trade.
One accustomed to the sight of the
girls of New York at their
laily toll will note the absence of gay
apparel among the workers of the
factories. Glue is an enemy of pretty
gowns, and the girls either come to
he factories in their oldest garments,
II exchange their sweet dresses for
'oiled working clothes on reaching
he scene of their labor. Glue does
not injure face or figure, and in the
box factories, most of the girls are
-uddy and clear eyed, while fair
proportion can lay good claim to
beauty.
Marriage Licenses.
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