firm at sixty cents a dozen pairs. They are the large variety of
overalls, such as expressmen and such workers use, with straps going
over the shoulders. I took a tape-line and carefully measured the
sewing on one pair of these overalls. When they come to the seamstress,
there has not been a stitch taken in them--they are simply cut out.
There are thirty separate and distinct seams to be sewed, making in the
aggregate thirty-two and a half feet of sewing, for which she receives
the gross amount of five cents, out of which she has to pay the
carrying to and fro. If she goes after them herself, she can bring only
two dozen at a time, which will cost her ten cents car-fare, going and
coming. When sent by express in a package of five or six dozen--the
number she is able to make in a week--she is charged fifteen cents
expressage each way, so that the expressage eats up the making of six
pairs. In addition to this, the stiff cloth is very hard on machine
needles, and she will break about ten cents worth per week. This
woman's story is a sad one. Her husband, who was a strong, hard-working
man, fell ill through an over-strain, and died after fifteen months'
sickness, two months ago. She has three little children, the oldest
four years and the youngest a little over a year. Work as hard as she
can, driving her machine until late into the night, she is able to make
only five dozen pairs of overalls a week, which, when expressage and
breakage of needles are taken out, leaves her two dollars and
sixty-five cents. The rent is a dollar and a half, which leaves one
dollar and fifteen cents for the food and clothing of a mother and
three children. Of course she cannot live on that, and would starve to
death if she were not assisted by charity. And yet there is a firm
doing business in South Boston mean enough to take advantage of the
fact that people living in this part of the city are compelled to pay
car-fare or expressage on work secured in the city proper, and so has
reduced the price for work given out in South Boston to _fifty cents a