White Slaves | Page 4

it
bears the name of one of the largest firms in the city of Boston, a firm
known, perhaps, as widely as any. Three pairs of these pants are
_custom-made_; they are fashionable summer trousers, with the names
and addresses of the men for whom they are made tacked on them. The
other three pairs are stamped with "New York" as customer, from
which we infer that they are made for a New York house, the Boston
firm acting as sweater. This woman and her little children must finish
these pants by the same hour to-morrow, when the messenger from the
store will bring a new lot and take these away. She receives _ten cents a
pair_--three pairs being _custom-made_ pants! In order to finish the six
pairs in the twenty-four hours, she must get to work at six in the
morning, and improve every available moment until eleven or twelve in
the evening, and sometimes, if the sick child is fretful, until one o'clock
in the morning. Her wages for this tremendous strain that is wearing
her very life away, until she looks almost as frail as her dying child, is
_sixty cents!_ Her rent for these two small attic pockets is one dollar
and fifty cents per week. She has one bed for herself and five children.
Only through the aid of the Boston Baptist Bethel is she able to keep up
the struggle. And yet, O my brothers! this is in sight of the old North
Church, and the tower where they hung the lanterns for a signal to Paul
Revere, when he rode through the darkness to arouse the Fathers to
fight against oppression. God help us to hang another light for liberty in
the midst of this cruel slavery!
Perhaps you are tired now, and want to rest, but I am insatiable, and
will go on. Let me give you the record of six families found in the same
tenement.
Family No. 1. They are Italians. The wife and mother is finishing cheap
overcoats at four cents apiece. She can finish from eight to ten in a day.
She has two finer coats, lined with handsome satin; of these she can
complete only five a day, and receives eight cents apiece. There are

three in the family, and they pay a dollar and a half per week for their
one room. I asked about the husband, and a neighbor woman from the
next room remarked contemptuously, "He is no good."
No. 2. These are Poles. The woman makes knee pants of
grammar-schoolboy size; she receives sixteen cents a dozen pairs. Two
dozen are as many as she ever gets done in a day.
No. 3. They are Italians here, and are at work on knee pants. This
woman receives sixteen cents a dozen pairs for most of them, but for
some extra nice ones she gets eighteen cents a dozen. She has two
dozen brought to her from the sweater's shop every day about two
o'clock. She works from two in the afternoon until ten at night, and
from six in the morning until noon the next day, to complete her
allowance, for which she receives from thirty-two to thirty-six cents.
The rent is a dollar and seventy-five cents per week; she has two
children.
No. 4. This woman makes men's pants at twelve cents a pair. Formerly,
when she was stronger, she could drive herself through six pairs a day;
but now, with a little babe to look after, she can get only four pairs
done. The room is intolerably dirty; but how can you have the heart to
blame her?
No. 5. Polish Jews. The woman makes knee pants, working from seven
in the morning till ten o'clock at night, and nets from twenty-seven to
forty-four cents a day.
No. 6. Italians. This woman is an expert seamstress. She is finishing
men's coats at six cents apiece; and with nothing to bother her, working
sixteen hours a day, she makes fifty-four cents. The rent for the narrow
little back room is one dollar and thirty-five cents per week.
If you want variety, we will climb four flights of stairs, with half the
plastering knocked off the walls, and talk with an English woman. She
is working on fine cloth pants; she gets thirteen cents a pair; by
working till very late in the evening, she can complete four pairs a day,
and thinks it would be almost a paradise if she could make her fifty-two
cents every day; but it is one of the characteristics of a sweater to
systematically keep all his people hungry for work, and she seldom is
able to get more than twelve pairs a week. She lives alone in a little
sweat-box under the roof, for which she pays