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    336 FEMALE INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS

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    . ^P Withik The Last Ten Years A Vast Ch...

    production . A firm in Cork , who possess a large drapers' establishmenthave opened a school and factory for crochet work alone , in

    , which hundreds of girls are employed , some working daily in the schooland others receiving materials to do the work in their own

    homes , . "We have heard that they find a ready market for crochet of all descriptions , in every part of the world , but more particularly

    in America , where work of all kinds being very expensive , they are able to realise large profits ; and ready sales are easily effected ,

    which , for this kind of work , is essential , owing to the many chang * es of fashion in the shape of the collars and sleeves : although indeed ,

    at present , this fabric in every form is so much in vogue , that the market for its sale is seldom overstocked . How long it may

    continue to be in demand is , of course , very uncertain ; and for this reason many persons object to its being taught and practised by the

    poorer classes , to the exclusion of plain work , which seems to them far more solid and useful , as an acquirement , than crochet and such

    fluctuating fancy works . But the argument against this theory is , that at present there is no remunerative field for plain workers . It

    is true that of late years into Ireland have penetrated those grinders of the poor—shirt-making manufactories , from which the needy

    workwomen , whom absolute want drives to their doors , receive the miserable wages which barely keep them from starvation , and which

    has called forth Hood's celebrated " Song of the Shirt . " But only those who can obtain no other livelihood would ever seek for this

    style of work ; . and many who have tried it , have declared that sooner than continue it , they would seek admittance to the parish

    workhouse , —two-pence being the amount they received for making a shirt in the class known as " slop-work" and which occupied them

    , the best part of a day , —and sixpence being the sum paid for a white shirthighly finishedwith several rows of the finest stitching on the

    fronts days , in , collars the making , and , sleeve ! Therefore s , and , which at present occup , ied they them eagerl nearl y flock y two to

    the crochet schools , which enable them to earn as much as six and seven shillings a week , if they are clever workers , and which is a

    style of work the girls seem infinitely to prefer to any other . It is , indeeda pleasant sightto see them sitting at their cottage doors

    in groups , , singing and , smiling , at their employment , comfortably clothedby the fruits of their own industryinstead of being , as

    , , formerly , ragged , squalid , and idle , roaming about the streets and roadsgetting into vice of every kindand adding to the poverty of

    , , their families , instead of ameliorating it . Attached to almost every convent is a work-school , to which the

    nuns devote a certain number of hours daily , for teaching and overseeing the girls in their occupations : and from some of these convent

    schools is sent exquisite specimens of crochet work ; the fine Guipure crochet and imitation of old point lacebeing frequently

    , taught by nuns , who are themselves foreigners , or who , having

    lived on the continent , have learned the art in those countries

    336 Female Industrial Employments

    336 FEMALE INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/48/