The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-10-03
READT-MADE CLOTHING TRADE.
Good Cloth, We'll Made Up, Characterizes
 the Industry.

the Industry.
 From the New York Sun.]
 It does not follow that the cheap, ready-made clothing that has astonish- ed this town for the last two or three years is necessarily poor stuff. The best of it is, in fact, very good, and the manufacturers of established repute have sold it, cheap as it seems, at a very handsome profit. One concern Il last year is reported to have cleared we'll in to $4OOOOO Much of the ma terial is so cheap, when bought in the quantities that the large clothiers take, as to make the cost of the material in a suit of ready-made clothing often on- | ly a little more than $S, and sometimes less than $1.50. The labor cost is con- siderably greater, for the best of the cheap clothing is thoroughly we'll sew ed, and besides, cutters are highly paid, and designers even more highly. One designer for large clothing house is said to receive about three times the
 
 besides, well-paid salesmen and a small army of other employees. The houses of best repute subject their cloth to the most thorough test as to tensile strength and stability of color.
 The goods of which these clothes are made largely of American manufac- ture, though the reduction in tariff has let in an immense quantity of Eng fish woolens. These have also gone in to ready-made clothing. There was a general Tightening of weights to meet the demand for cheap garments, but some excellent stuff has gone into | ready-made clothing.
 The American stuffs owe much of the recognition that they have gradually obtained to the wholesale orders of the great clothing houses. Men have found that ready-made clothing at moderate prices have served them well, and they returned for more of the same This was in many cases equivalent to order ing American stuffs.
 The superstition as to imported goods remains, however, with the well-to-do public. persons that have clothes made to order. They demand imported ma terial, and when they buy of reputa- ble tailors they get it. There is, how ever, plenty of American cloth sold as imported. It will perhaps take years to eradicate the superstition as to inn l ported goods, though the widening clientele of the ready-made clothiers means an increasing demand for Amer | ican cloths.
 | The quantity of a given material bought by the great clothiers is often 1 immense. Enough of single kind of cloth for more than 10000 suits IS laiG
 in, and such material is often made | to order for single house. Consider
 ing the great quantity of such material
 made up and sold, it is amazing that
 men seem to be clad in such variety | of colors and materials. Some houses purposely buy small quantities of many
 materials so as to make sure that the!l
 customers shall not meeE theIr owr
 clothes at every turn The prccaution
 is nc: important to men of quie- tastes
 for their fncirspicuous clothes, and arg
 not disturbed to discover other men .in
 the same material.
 It took this country a long time t.
 approach the excellence of European
 Toolen goods. It used to be that cur
 worsteds faded quickly, became shiny
 when still whole, and suffered in ether
 ways so that they were soon shabby l There was a time when th= processes of manufacture were hurried to the de triment of the goods in order to save