Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1900-04-06
Our Shirt Factory.

n n
\ woman sai. ia uuN"nauly rag
PLYING Arr u.--ilr aud ihrrad go
Stitch, Stitch. stitch.
Ia POVERTY, haug.r and dirt.
Aud still. with i voic- 81 dolurous pitch
She sang the sung al the shirt
Ii the immortal Tom Ilood could have
lived ia these DAYS what a different
swing aud rythm there must needs have
been Ia his famous Song of the shirt "
Ii hr could now see the hundred or NOR
girls who daily troop to aud from our
local industry and make more shirts in
a month than the pensiye Tom ever
dreamed of. how different his ideas
would have been Could he hut see
Island Ponds shirt factory girls how lac
would hustle to ohliIrrate his words
about "uuwomanly rags" aud voices of
''dolorous pitch" and substitute therefor
some ditty dedicated to the good looking
aud industrious young ladies OF the
town,
Without regard to the added import
aucc that will accrue to this town ia the
future, it is tact that lew towns of
twice her size can boast of a more mp to
date and thriving concern than Island
Pond has at the present time in the G..
\. Cane Shirt Co. Few outsiders, to
say nothing Of large majority of our
own citizens, ppreciate the thorough
ness OF the equipment, the facility for
turning ont work and the general elah-
Grafton of detail which characterizes the
daily work of the above mentioned con-
Germ. Strange rs such Il thing NAV now
seem, in view Of the result, many people
Were opposed to the establishment OF the
shirt factory in this place. but it would
be hard - find person today who has
anything hat words of commentator and
approval for the shirt factory and its
methods of doing business. All the
good that was anticipated hy its estab-
lishment has been and i being realized,
while none of the bad results predicted
have shown up. Island Pond made no
mistake when it subscribed to and So
cured this addition Ia its business life.
and whatever may he in store for the
place in business enterprise it will easily
maintain its place among the first of the
town in commercial Importance.
Under the management OF the genial
+. +. Gonya the factory now employs
ITO girls and women, and l. or l. men,
and with the machinery used this force
turns ont more completed garments than
could have been manufactured Il decade
ago 10y 5000 employees. To the one who
has never seen the operations OF this
factory and knows nothing of its enor-
nous output, these figures may seem Il
little eXtravagant. but it is true that one
hundred dozen shirts. completed in every
particular. can now be turned out in the
same time that one woman could form
erlv make one 10y hand. Moreover. the
reduction in the price OF the garments as
they are offered for sab. at retail by the
merchants OF the country fully CORE
spends to the enormous strides the in.
dustry has made in the line of manufac-
ture. The shirts that this company now
makes at IA price that allows the retailer
to realize a profit by selling them for one
dollar would have been luxury that
few could have afforded quarter of
century ago.
4 statement of the figures of the out
put of finished garments in this factory
during the 20 working days of last
month will give the skeptical some idea
of the work that is being done here and
OF the commercial Importance, not only
III Island Pond bat throughout the coun-
try, of this concern. During the month
of March there were completed and sold
from this factory alone 1850 dozens, or
%, 400 shirts. Beside this output the
| factory made for the other Cane factory,
located at Leominster, Mass, $3.50 doz-
ems ncck-bands and $500 dozens cuffs, IA
| total for the month of the astonishing
number OF l23 600 completed pieces.
| The process of manufacture is most
interesting one. The cloth is first I'M
rolled from the web and cut into strips
| I'll feet long. These are stretched upon
table of the same length, one above
the other until there are 81 thicknesses
of cloth. Then, to many, comes the
most wonderful part of the work. The
cutter, armed with pointed knife of
savage appearance and razor edge, sails
into this mass of wilderness, jabs his
knife through the cloth to the table be-
meath and with few delft movements,
and the outlay, necessarily, of consider
able muscle, carves ont the form of a
shirt in less time. almost, than it takes
to tell it; and so on the entire length Of
the table so much of an art has this
become that the small amount of waste
made by the cutting is a marvel. Most
of the neck and wristbands, guSsets,
etc, are made from the cuttings from
between the main bodies of the shirts
and consequently there is but little loss
These 81 thicknesses of cloth, 81 feet