The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-06-27
IRISH" LACE MADE IN AMERICA
Product of the New York Tenement
District.

The real Irish lace that we get
here isn't made in Ireland. 1t 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 committees has
spent a 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 any
where else.
''The centre for the manufacture
Of Irish lace seems almost to be COM
ing, 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 pretenses. 1t is advertised and
sold as real Irish lace" and "real
Irish lace is exactly what it is. 1t
is handmade every inch of it. 1t is
made in the original Irish patterns,
with the roses and the shamrock of
Dublin lacemakers. And some of it,
at least, is made with the real Irish
thread. Only it isn't made by Irish
people!
"When the Irish thread is used the
| Irish lace from America is quite as
good as the Irish lace from Ireland, y
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 1 have
been able to discover, made in tene-
ments by women and children. There
are no Irish lace factories.
"The centre of the Irish lacemak-
ing industry is the uptown little It.
ally, around 10th street on the East
Side. In the past few months the
Iacemaking has spread to the Italian
tenements in the Bronx, up 1880
street way. Irish lace is nearly al
made by Italian women here!
| "Of course, the making of Irish
lace in the New York tenement dis
tricts has increased immeasurably in
the past year, since Irish lace collars
cuffs, jabots, and frills became SO
popular. 1t is the fashionable thing
now, you see. And it is possible tc
buy real Irish in the shops at very
low price. There is no way of estl'
mating the number of women anc
children making Irish lace in New
York city, but it runs away up into
the hundreds, and, of course, there
are thousands of yards being made
Some contractors have as many as
so women working at one time.
"The workers are paid about tivs
cents an hour for making the lace
I have at my Office an Irish lace col
lar for which the woman who MADE
it was paid so cents; it took her ter
hours to do it. For the inch-wide in
sertion with the shamrock patterr
the lace-makers are paid Is cents
yard. l know one little girl who
works at lace-making every night
and makes just about a dollar
week. Sometimes the lace-makins
earnings of whole family will be
about 81 a week-oftener about
$3.50"
Although most of the Iatli2n Wo'
men make lacework of the popular
Irish patterns, some few lace-makers
from Italy make and sell to shops
and contractor" the intricate de-
sign of Italian lacework. The rea
Italian pillow lace, made just as II
is made in the villages of Italy, is
made in the tenements here.
"I know of one woman who makes
the Italian pillow lace, charging
s1.25 for a collar" said the child La
Dor committee investigator. "Ant
into every collar that she sells sne
puts seventy hours of hard work!'-
New York Times.