Union. Happily for the worker, they form but a small proportion of the
long list of dressmakers who deal fairly. But the life of the ordinary
hand who has not ability enough to rise is, like that of the great
majority who depend on the needle, whether machine or hand, filled with
hardship, uncertainty, overwork, under-pay. The large establishments
have next to no dull season, but we deal in the present chapter only
with private workers; and often, on the east side especially, where
prices and wages are always at the lowest ebb, the girls who have used
all their strength in overwork during the busy season of spring and fall
must seek employment in cigar factories or in anything that offers in
the intermediate time, the wages giving no margin for savings which
might aid in tiding over such periods. The dressmaker herself is often
a sufferer, conscienceless customers abounding, who pay for the work of
one season only when anxious for that of the next. Often it is mere
carelessness,--the recklessness which seems to make up the method of
many women where money obligations are concerned; but often also they
pass deliberately from one dressmaker to another, knowing that New York
holds enough to provide for the lifetime of the most exacting customer.
There is small redress for these cases, and the dressmaker probably
argues the matter for herself and decides that she has every right,
being cheated, to balance the scale by a little of the same order on her
own account.

A final form of rascality referred to in a previous chapter is found
here, as in every phase of the clothing trade, whether on small or large
scale. Girls are advertised for "to learn the trade," and the usual army
of applicants appear, those who are selected being told that the first
week or two will be without wages, and only the best workers will be
kept. Each girl is thus on her mettle, and works beyond her strength and
beyond any fair average, to find herself discharged at the end of the
time and replaced by an equally eager and equally credulous substitute.
There are other methods of fraud that will find place in a consideration
of phases of the same work in the great establishments, some
difficulties of the employer being reserved for the same occasion.

CHAPTER SIXTH.

MORE METHODS OF PROSPEROUS FIRMS.

To do justice to employer as well as employed is the avowed object of
our search, yet as it goes on, and the methods made necessary by
compet