St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-02-01
THE WORKING GIRLS LIFE IN A
SWEAT SHOP.

a
A special writer in a Montreal pa
per has the following account of her
work in a sweat shop:
When engaging with the foreman
asked the price / would be paid for
nv work, but his only reply was,
There are all sorts of prices, and it
depends on your own %quickness and
ability how much you make" in
4 CURED of the iorewoman the prices
a d the ties per dozen and she quoted
the following: Dinner ties, band
without bow, &c. per doz.; Dinner
ties, finished, 12c. per doz.; four-in-
hand, finished, zoe. per doz., and
prices in proportion for various 9th
er styles.
Fancy what even an expert could
make at these magnificent prices,
then consider what a green hand
could earn. made four dinner ties,
without the bows, in the first halt
day, which means that earned 12s
81 cents.
After weeks of practice | might
have been able to make, by hard
a work, one and a half, or, at the out
& side, two dozen dinner ties per day,
n finished.
OF course | am o particularly
Il clever with the needle. Still one
need not be much of a mathemati-
4 clan to figure out the princely weekly
income of most of these girls.
Ii they have no homes and are
obliged to wholly support Intensely
6, as is no doubt the case with
many, imagine how they manage to
exc out an existence.
Their clothes must be of the plain
est and most inexpensive material.
Most of them think themselves we'll
off if able to get the necessities Of life.
There are no luxuries, none of those
pretty trifes and dainty knick
knacks which are so dear to a wo.
mans heart.
One girl who sat next me at the
work table said that almost every
day ncig faces were to be seen in the
work room.
Dozens of girls come here and try
the work for a day, but they never
come back again." she told me.
And do they always pay the girls
Tor what they do ?" l asked.
"Ifit is done well they pay them,
but many have to do their work
over and over again before they get
anything for it."
The forewoman had given me a
lreSh supply of work on Friday, and
was informed that l would have to
complete it all before getting paid
ior any OF it.
I'VE send in checks for our work
On Friday and get paid Monday"
said the little lady beside me. "If
YOU have not that supply finished
tonight you will have to wait
another week for your money"
1t was not long after this that one
more new face disappeared-that
was mine. had had enough of tie
making.
Look now for a moment at the
state of affairs prevailing in our
large department stores. 1t is we'll
Nnown fact that many of the girls
Engaged therein receive weekly sal
ares as paltry as those earned by
me girls who work in factories. But
then, you know, their work is count
cd more "genteel."
Many of these girls rent barely
furnished looms at low prices and
BUY their W food, as by doing this
they can live more cheaply than by
boarding.
They start off to work at an early
nour in the morning, are hurried at
me noon hour, and it is the usual
'hlng for them to lunch it."
This is one reason why we see so
many white faces among the work
ing girls Of our cities.
Small wages, lack of proper nour-
'Snment overwork-and those pale,
INN faces tell the story. All! look
ing at it all and CHANGING into those
teeming hives which should be the
bright, CHEEKY workrooms Of legiti'
mate industry and fairly paid labor
out which are instead gloomy dens
ol slavery, oppression and misery.
"here grim want, and lean, hollow
eyed hunger place their finger marks
On sutfering-marked features. One
Snudders involuntarily, and Their
mere swells up in the honest heart q
waive of Indignation which, if sup
plemented by the rising anger o,
thousands of sympathizers and al
united at n moment. would rist