Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-07-02
Irish LACE" MADE IN AMERICA
Product of the New York Tenement
niak.iek

Product of the New York Tenement
District.
'The real Irish lace that we get
here isn't made in Ireland. It is
made in New York. What is more, It
Is made In New York tenements."
One Of the investigators of the ma
tional child labor committee has spent
large part Of the past few months
in tracing" the Irish lace sold in this
city. And she has found, she says,
that almost all the Irish lace sold here
has never been anywhere else.
"The centre for the manufacture Of
Irish lace seems almost to be coming,
for Americans, from Ireland to New
York." she said.
The Irish lace that is made In the
tenements here Is not sold under any
false pretences. 1t Is advertised and
sold as real Irish lace" and real
Irish lace" Is exactly what II Is 1t Is
nd-made-every inch of It. 1t Is
made In the original Irish patterns,
with the roses and the shamrock Of
Dublin lacemakers. And some Of II, at
thread. Only 1t isn't made by Irish
people!
when the Irish thread is used the
Irish lace from America Is quite as
good as Irish lace from Ireland" the
investigator explained. "The American
thread with which some contractors
supply their workers is not so fine for
lacemaking.
with the exception of very small
quantity Of actually imported Irish
lace, every bit of Irish lace and en-
broidery sold in New York Is made in
the tenements here. All that Is made in
the city Is, so far as I have ever been
able to discover, made In tenements
by women and children. There are
no Irish lace factories.
1.-The centre of the Irish lace-mak-
ing industry is the uptown little Italy,
around 10th street on the East side.
In the past few months the lacemak-
Ing has spread to the italian tene-
ments In the Bronx, up 1880 street
way. Irish lace is nearly all made by
Italian women here!
"Of course, the making Of Irish lace
in the New York tenement districts
has increased immeasurably in the
past year. since Irish lace collars,
cuffs, jabots and frills became so pop
ular. 1t is the fashionable thing
now, you see. And II Is possible to
buy real Irish in the shops at very
low price. There is no way Of estimat-
Ing the number Of women and chill
dren making Irish lace In New York
city, but 1t runs away up into the hun
dreds, and, Of course, there are thou
sands Of yards being made. Some
contractors have as many as fifty wo-
men working at one time.
1.-The workers are paid about five
cents an hour for making the lace.
I have at my office an Irish lace col
lar for which the woman who made II
was paid fifty cents; 1t took her ten
hours to do II. For the inch-wide In
sertion with the shamrock pattern
the lace-makers are paid Is cents a
yard. 1 know one little girl who
works at lace-making every night,
and makes just about a dollar week.
Sometimes the lace-making earn
ings Of the whole family will be about
81 q week-oftener about $3.50"
Although most of the italian wo-
men make lacework Of the popular
Irish patterns, some few lace-makers
from Italy make and sell to shops and
contractors" the intricate design OF
Italian lacework. The real italian pill
low lace made just as 1t Is made In the
villages Of Italy, is made in the tene-
ments here.
II know Of one woman who makes
the italian pillow lace. charging $l.25
for a collar" said the child labor
committee Investigator. And into
every collar that she sells she puts
seventy hours of hard work!"-New