and six dozen collars a day. The stitch on men's collars is extremely
small, almost invisible. It strained her eyes so painfully that she was
obliged to change her occupation again.

As an operative on neckwear, and afterward on belts, she was thrown out
of work by the trade seasons. These still leave her idle, in her present
occupation as a white-goods worker, for more than three months in every
year.

In the remaining nine months, working with a one-needle machine on
petticoats and wash dresses, in a small factory on the lower East Side,
she has had employment for about four days in the week for three months,
employment for all the working days in the week for another three months,
and employment with overtime three nights in a week and an occasional
half day on Sunday, for between two and three months. Legal holidays and
a few days of illness made up the year.

In full weeks her wage is $8. Her income for the year had been $366, and
she had been able to save nothing. She had paid $208 for her board and
lodging, at the rate of $4 a week; a little more than $100 for clothing;
$38 for carfare, necessitated by living in the Bronx; $3 for a doctor;
$2.60 to a benefit association, which assures her $3 a week in case of
illness; $5 for the theatre; and $6 for Union dues.

Her work was very exhausting. Evenly spaced machine ruffling on
petticoats is difficult, and she had a great deal of this work to do. She
sewed with a one-needle machine, which carried, however, five cottons and
was hard to thread. It may be said here that the number of needles does
not necessarily determine the difficulty of working on sewing-machines;
two-needle machines are sometimes harder to run than five or even