STARVING NEEDLEWOMEN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2034, 6 July 1885, Page 2

STARVING NEEDLEWOMEN.

The starving' needlewomen of New York are eoing to strike, never to work any more for bread-and-bone wages. Tha song of the shirt in New York has been heard by the Central Labor Union, representatives of the federated tribes of fcho

city, the most powerful workmen's body in tho United states. They are going to fight the battle of the 50,000 needlewomen in New York,'whose liveß are a period of suffering and travail—a contest' with hunger. The first steps toward organising this great body of helpless and hopeless toilers were made recently, when 400 sewing girls were enrolled in a trade union. Before long the roll will contain the names of thousands, It is understood

that in the event of a strike, an appeal will be made for money to carry it on, not only to the Trades Unioiis, but to . the whole public. It is estimated that of the 100,000 workmen in New York, only 5,000 are decently fed and clothed. A sewing gril in Third Avenue occupies a room 10ft by Hi.-. She has been three years without a fire. Her food costs Idol 150 c a week, In three years she has l\i\d sdol worth of clothes and pairs of shoes. She pays Idol 50?. a week for her room. She earps from 3dol 50c to 4dol 50c a vflok, As there aro many weoks in the year when she is not able, with all her trying, to get work, she saves from her meagre wage 3 from Idol to Idol 50c a week, that she may live when work is'not to be hrd. Her food is for the most part dry bread. When a reporter saw hoi' she had been out of employment : for some time, and had been crying for work. " How long have you sewed ?" she wag,, asked.—" Fourteen years," ssho saitj, •' Yo\i bejpn early."—" My sister and I began sewing for bread when wo were almost children, We were orphans. We made vests, and by working till one and two o'clock in the morning made si)c a day a-piece. She was five years older than I, and like sister ani mother. We worked 1 together till three years ago." "And then did she stop?"—"My 1 sister died.. She killed herself by working. > A year before her death the doctor told '> her that if she did not give up her sewing > machine she would die. Sho said that I death was preferable to misery,, And so ' she kept running the machine till she

died. Oil her death-bed she thought only of how I would get along. I cried so much when my siator died that the doctor told me if I didn't atop crying 1 would go. blind, Then , the atriipglea to koep body and so^'together. I npved here (leriied myself the necessaries of life to pay the rent of my room. Sometimes I could not get work, and then I would sit in tlio' cold room, all. day. Miserable ? It's tho day, after day, and year after.year. No changeand iio excitement. I think every day • I am idle how I am ,going to get work; and ovcry day Iwork how I am going to earn enough to get something to eat. Life to to me is nothing more, nothing less," "Your life is bo sadj-and there fa i\ theatre ncxtdoor?"—' 'I sometimes if there is such .a as a theatre!' I '' Miss Ellen Kennedy., an 0$ latfy, {{wells 'in a tenement at Kq', 402, East Sixteenth street,' a part of the'street beyondSecoijd Avenue, is akilledinneedlowovk, does all kinds of cutting, and luta pawed for eighteeen years, She said that she was barely able to earn her broad. She once "finished" trousers for 6 cents a pair. By sewing from seven o'clock iiy the morning till seven o'clook at nigkt, alio "finished" fchroo pairs a-day, cming 18c, This was not sufficient to pay her rent, Sho rented'a roomatWola nnnth, which would bo 23J0 a-daj# The 18c was s|o short of paying the daily rent. After working three days on trousers sho gave them up. She works at present at dressmaking, and makes'soc a day-about 13 dol. A-month. After paying licr rout she has ,6dol. A month to board and clothe herself. 1 , "How do yon got along helps me along," pswpred 1 tl|e ojd V'| ta?e sejjh the time thaj; out, to sew jii a family I could ged two a-day. Now they offer mo BO'ceriWr gr '<Do you evotfailto get your pavfJfl onco worked for anapevasingoi' who came from Europo to sing for Strakoa.6h, She owed me 25 dollars, She' isaiig aiidfailed, and had no money. I bought her ,a cup lof tea, for all alio owed me dollars, poor thing.- She sailed away and never,paid me, though she would, I doubt not, if she could have done so." The old lady said that half a loaf was better than no bread, and wonderedif the change of Presidents would benefit the working women. In a miserable tenement house in the East Eighteenth gtf eqlj, First Avpe, ji • yqjjng slss from tyre fif the ttiOrmng till' 'cloven $ night,' makes a'dozeii and a-lialf sliirts'for 33c.—'New York J ourniiV •"' '