The mothers of both these girls urged them to return to week
work. But this was of poor quality--odds and ends--and the girls disliked
it, and persisted in the new system.
In tying ribbons around the bolts of material, the girls sit at work.
Their wages had been $1 a day for tying ribbons around 600 pieces; and
now, on a bonus for 1200 pieces, is at times for quick workers, as high
as $11. But the ribbon tying was not steady work. It is applied to only
some of the material, and the task and bonus here are intermittent. The
girls who knot, or run silk threads through the selvages, paste on tinsel
ribbon, and wrap are younger than the other workers. Their wages before
had been from $5.80 to $6 a week. Now they are in some cases over $8; in
others about $7; in others about $6. The work reaches them in better
condition than before. They said it was more interesting, and the chief
difficulty was in lifting occasionally a greater number of heavy pieces
in piling. Seats were provided for these workers except for those at
tinselling; and if they found they were able to complete the task easily,
they sat at the work. At the heavier work, the girl at yarding, the
folder, knotter, and ticketer, all worked tandem, and if the girl at
yarding loses her bonus, all the girls lose the bonus.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273