the garments receives thirty cents a dozen, and the
"maker"--this being the technical term for the more experienced worker
who puts on band and sleeves--receives from ninety cents to one dollar
a dozen, though at present the rates run from seventy-five to ninety
cents. Our table, then, stands as follows:--

Cloth for one dozen chemises $1.40
Edging " " 1.35
Thread " " .08
Seamer " " .30
Maker " " .90
-----
Total cost of dozen $4.03
Wholesale price per dozen 5.25
Profit per dozen 1.22

The chemise which sells at seven dollars per dozen has the additional
value in quality of cloth and edging, the same price being paid the
work-women, this price varying only in very slight degree till the
excessively elaborate work demanded by special orders. One class of
women in New York, whose trade has been a prosperous one since ever time
began, pay often one hundred dollars a dozen for the garments, which are
simply a mass of lace and cobweb cambric, tucked and puffed, and
demanding the highest skill of the machine operator, who even in such
case counts herself happy if she can make eight or nine dollars a week.
And if any youth and comeliness remain to her, why need there be wonder
if the question frame itself: "Why am I the maker of this thing, earning
barest living, when, if I choose, I, too, can be buyer and wearer and
live at ease?"

Wonder rather that one remains honest when the only thing that pays is
vice.

For the garments of lowest grade to be found in the cheapest quarters of
the city the price ranges from twenty-five to thirty cents, the maker
receiving only thirty cents a dozen, and cloth, trimming, and thread
being of the lowest quality. The profit in such case is wellnigh
imperceptible; but for the class of employer who secures it, content to
grovel in foul streets, and know no joy of living save the one delight
of seeing the sordid gains roll up into hundreds of thousands, it is
still profit, and he is content. As I write, an evening paper containing
the advertisement of a leading dry-goods firm is placed before me, and I
read: "Chemises, from 12-1/2 cents up." Here imagination stops. No list
of cost prices within my reach tells me how this is practicable. But one
thing is certain. Even here it is not the employer w