The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-18

but I went to sew and learn to do
! laundry work. When ] learned to sew
| we made the shirts all by hand, and
had to pull the threads and then back
stitch the seams. l was three months
1 in the laundry: it was a regular laun-
dry, and l was very glad to get a
| chance to 60 I had to pay what
would be equivalent to IS here for
| three months instruction, and it was
not easy to get in then, for the wo-
man where l went always had FIVE
or six names ahead.
! That was the very incest time in my
life. I worked three months, some
times from Z o'clock in the morning I'M
! til 10 at night when we were busy, go
/ Ing home in the middle Of the day for
/ luncheon; when the work came in it
had to be done. The first four weeks
we did only the lightest part of the
/ work, the handkerchiefs, and never
! thought of touching a bosom shirt
4 Everything about the laundry in Ger
! many is different from the way the
! work is done here, and they do not
| think OF laundrywoman there as peo-
| pie here do. She would be thought as
much of as a dressmaker.
1.-THE washing is only done every
! three months, and it is a great occas-
ion. Small pieces are washed every
week, but everything else is left and
the washing and ironing take two or
| three days. The people who do not send
out their washing have big set boilers
for their clothes, and the rich people
VIII have two or three people in to help,
! and after the washing and ironing are
done, then a seamstress comes in to
do the mending. The German woman
| pr1des herself upon her linen closet. and
all good housekeepers have clothes
enough to last more than three months
| The poor people have to wash every
| week, just as some of the poor women
| here have to wash their children's
clothes that they change often because
they have not enough to last over. 1t is
hard work when the three months
washing comes, but then there is a
| long rest after it.
II don't like that way as we'll as the
American custom of washing every
week. 1t does not seem nice to have
| the soiled clothes stand in the house
| so long, and then they are not as easv
| to wash, for the dirt is hardened in. I
don't believe in having so many things
on hand. I had an old aunt who had a
great linen closet full of linen that she
| had cherished all her life, and when sine
| died and the things were taken out thew
| dropped to pieces.
The first thing to do in beginning
laundry work is to sort the clothes
! l.
Goes, the bed linen and table linen. and
Keeping the body linen by itself. In the
winter began with the flannels or thew
will not dry. Yes 1 always put them
out doors when it is possible. They are
worn next the skin, and it seems bet
ter to have them go out in the fresh air
where they can freeze dry. l should
not dry them in the house, anyway
when l could help it unless there was
a special drying place. The water runs
down into the ends while they the dry
! ing around the stove, and it is not so
good for them.
! In the summer / should begin with
the fine pieces-the baby dresses, men s
shirts and delicate handkerchiefs. After
! those have been washed l put them in
| the boiler and while the water is com
ing to boil-it never wants to boil
only come to a BOIL wash my table
linen. have put some fine pieces of
soap in the boiler; If they are very
small pieces l tie them up in a small
cloth and put them in. The clothes should
be always perfectly clean before thew
are put into the boiler Some people
say they put them in to boil the dirt
out but that is not the way.
When / have taken the first clothes
out of the boiler, | pour the water in
the boiler over the table linen-the lat
! ter only need to be sealded. II it was