=355. Canes.= Walking canes could be painted and varnished by women. I have been told that, in France, women are employed in making ivory, gold, whalebone, and wire heads for canes. Mrs. F. makes whalebone heads for canes. She offered to teach me how for $20. P. says he pays from $6 to $100 a dozen for the heads of canes--ivory, silver, and gold. The work is mostly done by Germans. The business will not pay except in large cities. There are only six in the business in New York, which is the main depot. He sells most to Southerners and Canadians. The business requires a regular apprenticeship. Making and putting on the heads could be done by women, if they were instructed, but there would not be enough of it to justify more than a few in learning. The South offers the best opening.
=356. Caps.= Cap makers receive very different prices for their work, depending on the quality of the material and work, and the house for which the work is done. There are between eight hundred and one thousand cap makers in Philadelphia. They are said to average $3 a week. Freedley says: "In Philadelphia, there are a large number of concerns occupied exclusively in making caps; those of cloth constituting the chief part of the business, though plush, silk, glazed, and other caps are also made. The cap manufacture employs a large number of females, whose wages in the business will average about $4 per week. Sewing machines are largely employed; being, in fact, indispensable in consequence of the expansion of the trade. The annual production is about $400,000." A few years ago there were five thousand cap makers in New York city. Many of the cheap caps in New York are furnished by Jews, who get them done very cheaply. They not only do much to supply the home demand for caps, but export large quantities. They sell some caps for from $1 to $1.50 a dozen. B. pays his cap makers, some $5, some $6 a week. When business is dull the work is divided, so that all hands are retained, and have something to do. Caps are mostly made by German men on sewing machines. Some Germans take fifty or sixty dozen a week from a store, and employ girls to make them up. They are middlemen, and cut out the goods. In New York, almost every branch of business seems to have its own locality--that of the hat and cap manufacturers is on the lower part of Broadway. A good hand can earn about $3.50 a week of 10 hours a day, or by working fifteen or sixteen hours, which many of them do, can earn $8 or $9. Working girls generally receive about $3 a week. They pay $2 for board. The remaining $1 is almost consumed in shoes. Nearly all are at times out of employment. In New York, by constant labor, fifteen or sixteen hours a day, some cap makers can earn only from fourteen to twenty-five cents. "We were told by an old lady who has lived by this kind of work a long time, that when she begins at sunrise, and works till midnight, she can earn fourteen cents a day. A large majority of these women are American born, from the great middle class of life, many of whom have once been in comfortable, and even affluent circumstances, and have been reduced by the death or bankruptcy of husbands and relatives, and other causes, to such straits. Many of them are the wives of shipmasters, and other officers of vessels. Others are the widows of mechanics and poor men, and have children, and mothers and fathers, &c., to support by their needle. Many have drunken husbands to add to their burdens and afflictions, and to darken every faint gleam of sunshine that domestic affection throws even into the humblest abode. Others have sick and bedridden husbands or children, or perhaps have to endure the agony of receiving home a fallen daughter, or an outlawed son, suddenly checked in his career of vice." S., of S. & Co., told me they take learners when they can make good use of them. The business, some time back, in New York, was over done, but for the last three or four years the supply has not more than met the demand. It is piecework. A first-class hand can, in busy seasons, make $10, but many are not swift with the needle, and cannot earn more than $3 a week. They give out some of their work. All that can be, he has done by machines. R. & H. have their caps made by machines. It is piecework, and a good hand can earn from $6 to $9 a week. In a cloth and fancy cap store, I was told the girls earn $4, $5, and $6 a week. Few people are willing to take learners, as the season, six weeks, is nearly consumed by the time the trade is learned, and the instructor gets nothing for his time and trouble. Children's fancy caps cannot be made by machine. They are usually piecework. To make them requires taste. Six weeks is the length of time usually given to learning the trade.