400 _ TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



not be worked too close in, as their color is uot always pure white. The 

 braid, as formed, is wound up, or reeled, until a score yards, or a piece of 

 sixty yards is completed. The ends are then clipped off and the braid is 

 washed, dried and bleached. The bleaching is generally effected with 

 chloride of soda, followed by a fumigation with sulphur vapor for ten or 

 twelve hours. This bleached braid must be kept perfectly dry until it is 

 to be worked up. It is in this state when it is imported into this country. 



The New York merchant generally contracts with the manufacturer for 

 a certain number of hats of a given pattern and finish, and supplies him 

 with the requisite braid in boxes and thread in packages, the manufacturer 

 finding his own bh>cks, &c. The manufacturer genqrally employs from 200 

 to 300 straw sewers, who are usually set to work in poorlj' ventilated and 

 lighted roooras. He pays them by the piece of braid, or by the hat for 

 sewing. He knows how many hats of a given style he can get out of a 

 piece of braid, and how much thread it will take; he accordingly gives to 

 each girl braid and thread in proportion to the work she can perform. The 

 thread used is either wire cotton, soft cotton, spool, or unbleached linen 

 according to the style of work to be done. The sewing girls earn from 

 three to five dollars a week when work is good. Occasionally one will 

 earn seven or eight dollars a week. The needles emploj'ed are long and 

 slender so that the puncture may be as small as possible. Each girl is pro- 

 vided with a tape measure to measure the round of the hat at every stage. 



Tlie first operation of the sewer is to mill the braid, that is to pass it be- 

 tween two wooden rollers, pressed tightly together b}^ screws. She then 

 begins at the crown of the hat, which she forms by making a button of the 

 braid as a nucleus, around which she stitches row after row until she gets 

 the crown large enough. She then bends down the outer row by moisten- 

 ing and pressing on it, until it forms an angle, when she proceeds with the 

 side, crown, and so on to the rim. She must constantly apply the hat to 

 the pattern block, to be sure that it fits aTid is correct in shape. There are 

 two ways of getting the shape, but they must be employed together. One 

 is to wet the braid and strain it into shape. This admits of only little 

 modification of form. The other way is by inserting slopes or gores ; that 

 is, pieces of braid in lieu of whole rows. These two ways of modifying the 

 shape are leanied only b}' practice, but they enable the sewer to get all 

 desired shapes for hats. 



The straw-sewing season in New York begins in the latter part of No- 

 vember and lasts till the end of April, During the summer months nothing 

 is done at this work. There is sometimes a little business in September. 



The next process after sewing, in New York, is the bleaching of the 

 finished hat, for washing is dispensed with, as the work must be done with 

 scrupulously clean hands, and a hat will be ripped up if a single thread be 

 dirty. The bleaching process is simply a steeping of the hat for a short 

 time in a solution of chloride of soda, a drying and then a fumigating with 

 sulphur for about ten hours in the smoke house or steam box as the apart- 

 ment is called, where the hats are arranged on wooden pegs, no iron 

 being used as it would stain the hats with iron-mould if allowed to touch 

 them. 



After bleaching, the hats arc next stiffened by being dipped into a thin 



