The herald., 1898-02-06

it is not good form to display ones
soiled linen before the public gaze''-or
words to that effect.
OF course we all understand that the
above dictum is purely figurative, and
really means that we are not to air our
personal matters abroad. 1t may be said
in passing that too many of US, in obey
ing the letter of this mandate, ignore
the spirit of it by centering our attention
upon the private affairs of others.
Now all this makes it embarrassing,
not to say painful, for me to approach my
subject-the work of women in laundries
since it is imperative that "soiled
linen," and not my linen, but other peo-
pies, be literally and logically intro
duced.
But it is done with deep humility of
spirit, and may happily be passed with
brefest mention, because the women
have nothing to DO until the clothes are
washed and dried. The earlier processes
in all the laundries are in charge OF men.
Men collect the bundles of clothes from
the various patrons and dump them un-
tremendously in a department kept for
that purpose, where other men sort and
mark them and make up the separate
list for each package.
CYLINDERS OF SOAP SUDS
After they have them sorted into huge
heaps of sheets and shirts, fiannels ana
silks, fine lingerie, etc etc, each OF the
several heaps is put, by other men, into
huge cylinders of hot soap suds and some
harmless disnfectant.
These cylinders, by the aid of machin-
cry, revolve and reverse, up and down,
over and back, again and again with
slow dignity and evident sincerity of
purpose until the clothes are, with rea-
son, supposed to be ready for rinsing,
when they are put into other cylinders
of clean water, and later are transferred
| to the wringeIS
Now there is popular superstition that
clothes wringers We're invented by the
evil one for the sole purpose of remov-
ing buttons from places where they can
least be spared, and working other
wholly unnecessary and unjust con-
fusion upon defenseless mankind.
That may have been the intention Of
| the invention; the hundreds of thou
sands of buttons that mark the trail of
the clothes wringer certainly justify
such a conclusion. But as modern science
has reduced human suffering to min
imum in other directions, so has its ben
eficence been manifested in the evolu-
ton of the wringer of clothes.
THE MODERN WRINGER
The wringer of today, if you please
is no wringer at all-it's revolver
That sounds incendiary but it is. not
1t is like nothing so much as huge
deep, round pudding dish the sides
| from top to bottom, perforated with
| good-size holes. This mammoth dish
or tub fits into a solid iron stand the
same shape, only larger, with vent al
the bottom.
Into this the dripping-but clean
clothes are put. connection with the ma
chinery is made, and presto! at the rat'
of from 1900 to 1900 revolutions a min
ute the clothes are driven by centrifugal
force to the perforated sides, the waite
flies out through the holes, and pres
emily the articles are taken out, effect
ually squeezed dry, with buttons, trim
ming, etc, intact. They are then huns
on long wooden bars carefully wrapped
with cloth and pushed into steam
heated closets for the drying process
which takes from Is to 20 minutes.
men. They run the cylinders and wiring
ers, do the heavy work of lifting the we
clothes from one cylinder to another
hang them on the dryers and take them
in huge baskets, from the ground floor
where all the washing Is done, to tina
above, where the ironing machinery il
stationed and worked, all, that is, ex
cept the 'mangles," which iron tabl
and bed linen and such large and cum
bersome articles, and are near the ma
chinery for washing.
"MANGLES"
Why these latter great machines ar
called mangles in the first place is no
apparent to the mind of the layman
their office being to smooth instead o
to mutilate. However that may be,
mangle in laundry is, in appearance
like a printing press in newspape
office and about the same size. Betweel
|, it's long, carefully adjusted cylinders
wrinkled sheets and table cloths are fet
!; in at one side and come out at the other
ready for the table or the bed.
1t is here that the work of the girl
and women commences. Two do tn
| IeeQlnS anu lWO HlOTe Tile TeCelNlllS
at night, these girls feed and fold, 81.
piles on large table near at hand, an
from Z am. to IL noon, from pm. to
at night, these grid fold and fold, 81:
days in the week. Sometimes they ca
sit, but generally they are on their feet
and they are not expected to talk, eXcep
about their work.
AS far as table, house and bed line
is concerned then Cfor pillow slips, nap
kins and towels, too are all mangled t
smoothness), the time-honored fiat iro
: has been relegated to use only for nu
| cracking purposes, or as an implemen
, of war in those home circles where n
argument less convincing is effectual l.
, restoring sweet peace.
There is one other department on tn
, ground floor that is too important to b
overlooked and that is where the fin
work of the elaborate lingerie, infant
, clothes, silks and other like parapher
MALTA is handled. This is usually don
by a woman, and literally by hand. Z
man assists with the heavy work O
lifting the wet clothes from one recep
tacle to another, and the starching O
these clothes is also carefully done i
this department
"IRONING"
On the second floor is the machiner
for ironing, and it is multifarious i
number and design. 1t is composed @
cylinders of larger or smaller dimensions