Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-29
QUICK SHIRT MAKING
One of the Garments Turned Out in Six and One Half Minutes.
whe Process of Manufacture as Car- ried On in These Days Illustrates Wonders of Modern
 Enterprise.

Tn these days when shirt can be turned out buttonholes and all, at the rate of one in every 61z minutes, Hhere is no excuse for not having second one to your name, and pos sfbly could the heroine of Hoods Song of the Shirt look in upon g modern shirt factory she would be Even more disconsolate than the poet painted her, says the New York Sun.
 To satisfy his own cuBosity, the reporter visited a factory and told the superintendent that, he would like to start at the beginning and follow single shirt from the cutter to the dnisher. The foreman turned him over to the forewoman, who pi1oted him safely among 300 machines and as many girls, and eventually let him out into the open air unhurt.
 We will begin here," she said, walking over to a 6O-foot table. "on this we lay the goods, layer upon lay CT, after which the marker comes along and marks out the shirts. The second step is to cut these 6o-foot ntrips into squares, each one of which contains a whole shirt, and then they are taken to the cutters table"
 And passing to another part of the room she pointed to young man who was pulling a slab of cloth around knife, run by electricity, with all the nonchaIance he would have exhibited had it been pine board.
 How many shirts can you cut at time2" asked the visitor, seeing the young man saving away at pile If goods several inches thick.
 ssDsualay 300. You see that all the different parts of the garmemt such as collars, cuffs, etc., are marked out on that square be is at work on, and when he runs the knife along ev- cry line he has cut each part re- quired, 50 that 1t can go direct to khe machines.' $
 The cutting was one of the most Interesting sights in the factory. In Hhe center of the table was long, sharp knife, run at great speed by kIectricity, and the cutter was saw Ing through 300 thicknesses of cloth rapidly, but with mathematical pre- rision. In ten hours he can cut 25O dozen, or 5000 shirts.
 Selecting half Q dozen pieces of black silk, which, she said. were an embryonic shirt, the forewoman de- scended to the next floor where the machines were situated.
 The first girls into whose hands 4hey pass must be expert seamstress- ess No. I took them and rapidly fashioned the bosom, after which ahey were passed to No. ?, who fast ened on the collar and sewed in the back.
 Before the visitor knew what had become of it, third had made the sleeves and a fourth was sewing them in the proper places. No. grabbed 4he shirt and quickly scanned up the 1Ieeves and the two sides of the shiTt which, up to this time, had been fly ing open. No. 6 hemmed the bottom and put in the gussets and then No finished the cuffs.
 At this stage, the garment usually goes to the Inspector, who looks 1t over carefully to see that the work is we'll done, but this being a, special case. it was given directly to the but ton and buttonhoIe girls. The latter turns a machine that automatically works the buttonhole first and cuts at afterward.
 She makes 16,e0o bu1ttonholes day, or 2s a minute All the operator has ko do at this machine is to place the garment in proper position and the machine works around, and when the ciruuit is complete an automatic knife drops down and cuts the hole.
 EouaIly interesting is the next and last machine, which ssws on the but