The girls are always willing to divide, however slight their own
provisions. I once saw a 1-cent piece of cake shared by four girls.
"There are two kinds of long hours: those due to bad systematizing of
laundry work, creating long waits between lots; and those due to very
heavy work. In regard to the first kind, it must be said that the shirt
starchers, who are the main sufferers from waiting for work, are the best
paid, and hence are not as indignant at frequent overtime as the week
workers are. Besides, though obliged to stay in the work-room, they are
frequently seated throughout their waiting time, which sometimes lasts
for four or five hours. I saw one woman about to be confined, who
sometimes starched shirts until two in the morning, after arriving at the
laundry at half past seven on the morning before.
"The other kind of long hours involves constant standing, and is most apt
to occur in laundries where only mangle work is done. These laundries do
not tend to work late at night, but they more frequently violate the
sixty-hour law than the others do. Work is almost absolutely steady. The
women stand on their feet ten and twelve hours, with just half an hour or
an hour for lunch, and work with extreme speed.
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