=328. Muslin Sets.= Many girls are employed in large cities in making up lace goods, as collars, undersleeves, &c. S. employs two women to make up undersleeves, caps, &c., and pays from $3 to $5 per week to each. They stay from 8 to 6 o'clock. There are too many in that business who are not well qualified. Very few are Americans. Miss A. used to make up sets, and earned $10 a week often (piecework), before the Southern trade became so poor. Girls earn from $3 to $5 a week for this kind of work. It is cut and prepared by a forewoman. Some women sell lace goods on the streets of London. I called on a man who employs a number of girls to make crape collars. He says experienced hands can earn from $20 to $26 a month. They work by the piece. It does not require long to learn. Mrs. H. called on a Frenchman who advertised for hands for that purpose. He offered her $1.50 a dozen for making ornamented ones.
=329. Parasols and Umbrellas.= The parasol was used by the ancients more in religious ceremonies than as a protection from the sun. In some of the warmest countries, they are as much used by men as women. The manufacture of parasols and umbrellas is quite extensively carried on in this country, and is one that pays pretty well. At S.'s umbrella manufactory, Philadelphia, great numbers of women are employed--one hundred and seventy-five in his principal establishment, and nearly as many in its branches, and some at their homes. They make and sew on the covers, and are paid by the piece, according to the material and workmanship. It requires about six weeks to learn umbrella making. The girls we saw leaving the premises looked tidy and cheerful. S. remarked that those who live at a distance from the workshop, generally arrive earlier than those who live near. He thinks, if they would abstain from excessive use of tea and coffee, they would enjoy better health. They used to employ Americans principally, but now have foreigners, mostly Irish. They can come and go during work hours as they please. Last summer there were twelve hundred females, in Philadelphia, engaged in making umbrellas and parasols. In most umbrella factories in New York, girls are paid eight, nine, and ten cents an umbrella. For silk umbrellas, they receive only two cents more than for cotton ones. Parasols range in price from four to twenty-four cents, according to size, style, and quality of material. Old hands, in some houses, take apprentices for two or three weeks, and receive the proceeds of their work for the time given in instructing them. March, April, and May are the busiest months for making city parasols; and August, September, and October for umbrellas. Where I purchased an umbrella in New York, the man said he employed two women in spring and one in winter to work. The parasol work pays best. His girls earn, when making parasols, from $5 to $6 per week; but umbrellas seldom pay more than half that. The wholesale parasol work commences about the middle of December, but his, being retail for the city, does not begin until May. A girl in the trade told me that umbrella sewers can earn from $2 to $6 per week. Of course they have not work all the year steadily. She is paid to stay in the store, and is expected to spend any unoccupied moments in sewing for the shop. An umbrella maker told me his girls earn from $2 to $6, according to the kind and quantity of work they do. He thinks the occupation well filled. In New York city, in 1853, there was one parasol and umbrella firm that employed two hundred and fifty girls, and their average wages were $4 a week. In the umbrella business the work is invariably paid for by the piece. A gentleman told me that girls in that branch of work become very immoral from association with men while at work; but in large establishments the females have a separate workroom, and there is no need of their ever seeing any man while at work, except the foreman. (Why might they not have a forewoman?) S. Brothers say their girls earn from $2 to $8 a week. They keep them employed most of the year--their best hands all the year. Most of the work is done at the factories, but some girls run up the covers at home, and come to the factory to put them on the frames. I was told that in Philadelphia, work can be done as well for lower prices, because living is cheaper. My experience as to the price of living was to the contrary. I talked with one girl who had been making umbrellas seven years, but thinks she will die of consumption in less than two years, from the long and close confinement; but I think the detriment to health arises more from the dust and coloring matter that rubs off the umbrella muslin, particularly in summer, when the coloring matter is absorbed freely by the openness of the pores.