The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-13

and towels going directly TO the mangIe
or Ironing machine. and the other articles
passing up stairs for starching OF hand
The mangle is an immense machin,
I which somewhat resembles a modern
printing press. II consists OF one huge
[ steel roller and small one, each heated
10 a high temperature by means Of steam
/ and i've other rolls padded with cloth q
/ absorb the moisture. From a little shell
T on one side of this great machine girls
feed in the napkins towels. sheets and
I other articles, and they pass between the
rolls until they are all dried and ironed
When they come out they are ready for
/ folding. The rolls are large enough %
I iron a tablecioth of any size.
Now follow the other washed articles
/ Of clothing-the collars. cuffs, and shirts,
( the underwear and the lady clothes" as
I the laundryman calls them-to the second
! floor, where the starching and ironing are
done. IL Is big, bright room, busting
I with girls and whirring with machinery.
/ 1t has comfortable ironing day Odor and
/ everything from floor 10 ceiling IS polished
as clean and white as soap and water can
! The room is hot all the time, for other
! wise il would be impossible to do the
I ironing. and sometimes during the summer
I almost unbearable In the building. For
/ the windows cannot be left open because
/ scot Is sure TO blow In and spot the
/ clothes. But cheese cloth screens are
/ ntteu into the windows, and they help a
I little.
] The collars and cuffs go first to a real
/ churn, just such as buttermakers use in
/ creameries. Here the proper proportion
/ of starch is put in, and the churn revoIves
I until the collars and cuffs are thoroughly
1 soaked The starch is mixed in tank not
/ far away, and great deal more is used
/ than ordinary household washerwomen
/ think of using, and for this reason laun-
/ dered collars and cuffs are much sitter
| at home.
When churned the collars and
CUTS are taken to zinc
starch is deftly wiped off by number OF
girls, and then other girls carefully smooth
| out every wrinkle with a little celluloid
| instrument resembling a paper knife This
| Is one or the most important parts of the
! whole work, and if IL is thoroughly done
| there Is no excuse for wrinkles. Each col
iar shu cuIn rs hung by itself on hook, a
4 Qouble row OF which are fastened to a
/ long, slim stick As fast as the sticks are
Iull girl carries them carefully into the
drying room. This is a hot. close room,
| win an avenue down the center.
/ On each side there Is what resembles a
/ great bureau tipped on one side so that
the drawers run in perpendicularly. on
| drawing one of these drawers out large
| number OF racks are disclosed and on two
OF these the stick Is suspended. Then the
/ drawer is pushed back in place, and the
/ neat from steam pipes below dries it out
I IN ABOUT three quarters OF an hour Lace
| curtains are dried here by pinnng them
| on qul!uhg frames, great care being taken
| 10 get them perfectly straigt. This tedious
/ process Is what makes il cost so much
| to have lace curans laundried.
Shirts are starched and dried in other
| drawers of the dryroom.
| When one sees the numt err of processes
through which shirt must go from the
| time 1t enters the laundry until 1t goes
/ out clean the price for the work seems
small enough. BY actual count ii passes
/ through sixteen different machines and is
| handled by more than forty girls. After il
| comes from the dryroom il is dampened
| by passing between two rollers, one OF
/ which is padded and the other is of plain
! iron, marked with fine Corrugations, which
/ carry up the water from a little basin
below. Then it is placed with dozens OF
other shirts in a screw press. not unlike
| an office letter-presS, only much larger
| and the dampness is distributed during the
/ half hour in which IL is left between the
jaws of the machine. II now goes to a
| of brass frame. over which the bosom
| Is slid. Then motion OF the girl opera
tors foot brings the frame up under ar
| iron cylinder, heated inside by natural
| gas mixed with air, The girl rolls the
| frame back and forth under the iron
great pressure being given by an auto
| matic device set in motion by her foot.
When the shirt comes out it is as
smooth and shiny as the most fastidious
young man could desire. Then it goes
| TO another girl, who irons the neck band
| on a little machine made solely for that
| purpose. Next the yokes, the sleeves
| and the bodies are ironed separately, each
! on a machine peculiarly adapted to the
/ purpose. Then each shirt is inspected and
/ if there is a particle of dirt anywhere
| il is rubbed off and the shirt is repolished
| The fine gloss is given to starched goods
! by reason of the great amount of starch
used and the immense pressure of the iron
| ing machines. No wax or anything of that
/ sort is used. as country people often i'm.
/ agine. Any washerwoman could pro
! duce the same results If she used enough
of what the laundryman calls elbow
/ rease." Collars and GUNS are run through
a machine much like the mangle, only
smaller, and every one of them is in
spected, then given a curved shape in
| a curious little machine.
Some shirts, underclothing, plain arti-
| cles, lady clothes and walters jack
cts are ironed by hand in the old-fashioned
| way.
When the clothes come from the iron
ing table they are heaped before the girls
| at the sorting boxes, which are arranged
along each side of the room like pigeon
holes. Each box is given letter of the
| alphabet, and all the wash lists from
/ persons whose names begin with A are
fastened In a clip above the A box, and
so on through When the wash has all
been distributed by letters the bundle in
| the A box is taken down, and Mr.. Aaron s
clothing is separated and checked up by
| his bill then Mr.. Ames clothing, and Sc
| on down the list. Each bundle is then
| wrapped and placed in the basket which
goes to the point of the city where the
owner of the clothing lives.
/ There are some waits and strays, usual
/ ~ collars, cuffs and handkerchiefs, which
do not find a place; perhaps because the
| These go to curiosity-shOp, where they
/ wait claimants. Here many a lonesome
looking cuff pines for its mate, and here
many a worn shirt lies neglected, its
/ owner having probably received a better
/ one in his bundle. All good laundries
/ make it rule either 10 replace or pay
/ for lost articles.
Most of the large hotels public institu-
! tons and railroads have their own laun-
dries. Probably the establishment which
/ has more laundry work to do than any
I other in the world is Pullman's Palace
Car Company. A downtown laundry
Il axr - (.
! strike last summer. washed 100000 pieces
every week for it.
Girls and women are almost the only per
sons employed in steam laundries. They
/ work ten hours a day.
He Drops the Title of american