287. Brush Manufacturers.

Women have from the earliest period been employed in making brushes. In France, women are employed in preparing bristles for brushes, bleaching, washing, straightening, and assorting them. If they are so employed in this country it is at Lansingburg, N.Y. Indeed the finer bristles are all imported. The process of preparing bristles is simple, merely washing them and placing them in a preparation of sulphur to bleach them. "The great art in making brushes for artists is so to arrange the hairs that their ends may be made to converge to a fine point when moistened and drawn between the lips; and it is said that females are more successful than men in preparing the small and delicate pencils." In shaving brushes the bristles must be so arranged as to form a cone. This requires skill, and commands handsome wages. A large number of bristles are imported from Germany, Russia, and a considerable quantity from France; yet the United States furnish some. We think the owners of pork houses, and farmers in the Southern and Western States, would find the saving of bristles to justify the trouble of doing so, as they bring a good price. In this country, the process in making finer brushes, called drawing, is mostly done by women. The heavier kind of brushes is seldom made by women. Persons working in horn, wood, whalebone, ivory, gutta percha, pearl, &c., prepare the handles. Few if any brush makers have them prepared in their own establishments. I called on a brush maker whose manufactory is in Boston. The clerk says they never have any difficulty in getting plenty of good hands. They work by the piece. He says, if you advertise there, you are sure to have hundreds of applicants, many of whom are already in business, but hope to get better wages for the same amount of work, or less work for the same wages. A manufacturer told me that he employs boys, who do piecework and earn from $5 to $10 a week, but thinks he will employ girls, as he could get drawers for from $3 to $4 per week. The girls sit while at this work. H., a maker of tooth, nail, and hair brushes, told me his is the only tooth brush manufactory in the United States. His girls looked clean and orderly, and had intelligent faces. Those working in the house were of Irish extraction—those who worked at home, Americans. Most of them attend night school. H. finds his girls more careless about their work Monday morning than at any other time. He attributes it to their talking and thinking of what they saw and heard the day before. Those that sew well he finds work best for him. (I expect that principle generally holds good—those that work well in one business are likely to in another, because they are industrious and give their attention to it.) If the work is not well done, he takes it out and makes them do it over. As it is done by the piece, it of course is their own loss. They engage in trepanning, wiring, and trimming brushes. The trepanning and wiring are done altogether by women in England. They are paid by the piece, those wiring and trepanning earn from $3 to $4. The lady that trims earns $6 a week. The work is very neat and well adapted to women. It requires about three months to learn. Women are paid something while learning. Care and nicety must be used to fill the little cavities in the brush with bristles closely and firmly. The business is not good, on account of competition in the manufacture with European countries, where labor is cheaper. Women cannot polish the ivory well, as it is done by hand and is very hard work. Women are superior in the branches pursued by them. $2.50 is the usually price paid by workwomen for board in New York. A brush maker in Philadelphia writes: "I pay from eighteen to twenty cents per thousand holes. No men employed by us in this branch. Boys spend four or five years at this trade. Girls spend six months learning one branch. The prospect for more work of this kind is poor. Our women are all Americans, and work the year round. Women are superior in their branch." P. & M. employ girls to make ostrich feather dusters, and they earn from $4 to $6 per week. They have had employment all the year. While at work the girls can sit or stand, as they please. Their girls also paint the handles. A manufacturer of ostrich feather dusters told me, he pays girls from $2 to $3 a week for coloring and putting the feathers in handles. They can always get enough of hands. The girls work in daylight only.