44 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



282 Madison street. There she found the usual price for 

 making a cloak was 50 cents, and but few could make a 

 cloak in a day; but for cloaks above a certain grade, the 

 company paid 65 cents, which was divided, the stitcher get- 

 ing 20 cents, the binder 15 cents, and the maker 30 cents; 

 providing the workmanship withstood the closest inspec- 

 tion; if not it was condemned and no credit given for the 

 work, or the girls compelled to make it over. The 

 reporter undertook the job of making one at 65 . cents, or 

 rather at 30 cents; after paying the stitcher and binder. It 

 was a lady's long cloak, trimmed down the back goar, 

 around the collar and cuffs and pockets with mohair plush, 

 and all the seams faced with black muslin. She could not 

 make a cloak in one day and another woman helped, and 

 it was finished a few minutes before quitting time. The 

 plucky little woman took her time and demanded her 30 

 cents, which was refused until pay day. She seized the 

 cloak and refused to surrender it until paid for. A struggle 

 ensued which ended in paying her 30 cents, and she threw 

 the cloak in the proprietor's face and went to the work 

 room and gave the 30 cents to the woman who had 

 instructed her how to make the cloak. The price of the 

 cloak at the sales-room of the company was $35. At 7:30 

 the next morning she went to the work-room of Wetleer's 

 factory on Wabash Avenue, where corsets, bustles, skirts, 

 jerseys, cloaks, etc. , are made. Here she found the average 

 wages paid to be $1.50 per week. She applied for work 

 on bustles, but was told she could not live on the wages 

 paid, but if she would call Monday she might get work 

 where she could earn 20 cents per day. 



"Her next visit was to one of the dark and most 

 degraded holes of American serfdom, Julius Stein & Co., 

 132 Market street. There she found a girl who had worked 

 three days for 65 cents. Another, two and a half days on 

 a cloak for 45 cents; another earned $4.20 in two weeks, 



