chines and do much of the lighter operating. Wages are about the same as at white-goods factories, and all this is piece-work, depending, therefore, on the energy and concentration of the operator. Machinery is now run by electricity.
Box factories give employment to many girls, but the rooms are, as a rule, badly arranged and illy ventilated. Girls may start at this work as pasters, i.e., binding corners and edges of boxes with pasteboard strips. They generally work two weeks for nothing, then earn about three dollars per week, and even an expert cannot make more than nine dollars. The glue workers, who cover boxes with fancy paper, make as high as ten dollars per week, but must work in very hot rooms with hot glue. These are merely sample lines of work and indicate salary paid.
Feather making and curling form an excellent trade for deft-fingered girls. The operator starts at three dollars per week, scraping marabout or French turkey down. Next she sews on the down and earns six dollars per week. From this she advances to ostrich feather-making, at which she earns as high as eighteen dollars per week. An expert curler commands the best salary of all, about twenty dollars per week.
These fragmentary figures from payrolls go
