The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-26
TEACHING SEWING.
YOUNG WOMEN SHOW BUYERS OF
MACHINES HOW TO USE THEM.

fOOiN1 WOmCN OTlO" " @''O ~
MACHINES HOW TO USE THEM.
An Occupation which Has Grown Up
within Few Years-Every Sewing
Machine Headquarters Now Employs
Girls Who Do Nothing but Teach.
The sewing machine teacher is an indis.
pensable adjunct of the sewing machine
Office. She is invariably young woman.
You seldom hear of her, it is true, unless
YOU have bought a new machine and want
to learn how to use some of its new and in
tricate attachments. Yet there are several
thousand of her in Gotham. From fifteen
to a hundred teachers are employed in each
office, according TO the business done.
Her work consists in following up every
machine sent out either on trial or sold on
the installment plan. Her work is partly
to teach its uses, partly to see that it is
properly cared for and that it has not been
taken on trial with no intention of buying,
and simply because the family had some
sewing to do and saw chance to do it
without paying for the use of the machine.
As yet no statistics have been gathered
about the sewing machine teacher She
has not even attracted the attention of any
of the numerous societies which devote
themselves to investigating the working
girl The sewing machine teacher is one
of the newer of the four hundred or more
occupations into which women have en-
tered in the past three decades.
1t is also one in which women have a
monopoly. Except in the case of heavy
factory machines, all the teachers are of
the gentler sex. She has some interesting
experiences too.
HER DUTIES.
At s in the morning she is expected to
be at the companys Office. There she re-
ports the number of places where she
called the day previous, how long she spent
in each place, what sort Of care is being
given the machines, if it be a machine
placed on trial, whether the party is likely
TO buy or not, or whether they have just
got it because they want the use of it for
nothing Then she is given a list of new
machines sent out in her district. 1t is
nearly O'Clock when she starts out. She
is expected to call in twenty or thirty
places before quitting work at o'clock.
As matter of fact, she manages to give
each day.
Her salary is not an exorbitant one,
though she seldom complains of it. She
certainly is better off than the factory or
salesgirl. She must be able to speak two
languages at least. In the up town districts
English and German are Indispensable
Down town, English and German and abil.
ity to make herself understood to the Ital.
tons nd Rr1sSiauS of tha Syreat ShprS ara
requisite.
i As rule a girl takes up the role of sew
Ming machine teacher when she is between
Seventeen and twenty years old. Usually
she sticks TO it too In large up town of
flee is one young woman who has been
thirteen years in the business. She re-
ceives a salary Tor her work and in adj
dition is given an agents commission for
all the machines sent out on trial which
she succeeds in selling. She likes the work,
and considers herself pretty well fixed.
Her estimate of her earnings gives an
average of twelve dollars a week.
The beginner is given six dollars week.
This is increased gradually if she seems
likely to be successful teacher, for there's
a knack about teaching the intricacies Of
gusset and seam as well as in every other
trade, unit! the maximum salary of nine
dollars is reached. Some of the teachers
become very expert in their knowledge of
the machines, and arr as capable of taking
them apart and repairing them as the ma-
chinist who constructed them.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOOD.
The sewing machine teacher has some
interesting experiences in the rounds of her
work. she gets a knowledge Of life miSer-
able and poor life usually, and an insight
into the home life of the poor. strange Gus
toms and general human nature that she
could acquire no other way. 1t requires a
certain amount of philosophy, too, to make
her successful teacher. As likely as not
her first assignment will be to a dark and
dreary back room in IA tenement house,
where poor mother is trying TO support
her little Ones making clothing for the
stores. She has bought a sewing machine
with newer improvements, with which she
hopes to accomplish more.
The sewing machine teacher must in all
probability listen to the whole story. And
if she be at all sympathetic, and the woman
is unable to keep up her installment and
loses both new and old machines, the &C.
currence is apt TO have a depressing effect.
Or she may have to so TO a sweat shop
where everything Is overcrowded and gen
orally disagreeable. Or, again. it is quiet,
pleasant little home nest where a little
woman Is anxious TO help the strong right
arm by doing her own sewing at home
Yet the many contrasts. the heartrend.
ing tales and the contact with hard. IN
lovely poverty seldom makes the sewing
machine teacher unwomanly or bitter.
She is jolly, happy, sympathetic WON.
an with a great well OF rhankfulness in
her heart because her own Let is so much
easier than some others
Sometimes she makes good use OF heI
powers of observation, and the results
make startling little stories. For a news
paper woman there is nothing like the oc-
cupation Of the sewing machine teacher a.
= means Of gaining useful knowledge