If I had known something of geometry, it would have saved me years of labor on this book, but somehow we all must dig for our living, and sometimes our digging is very uncertain, and we may find things which we never dug for. Such is the ways of an Allwise Providence, and it is a blessing, maybe in disguise, that we must grope in the dark; but when everything around us is dark and uncertain, we should put “Our trust in God,” and we will be brought from “Darkness to Light,” in due time.
A short lecture to young cutters: “The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is their gray head.” Young cutters, do not spend your strength on fast women, nor do you exchange your money or your beauty for strong drink; you need all of it when you are old, and all of it you should have while young. As a general rule old cutters are useless. You may kick against such a fate to your heart’s content, but it will do you no good. The old must decline. As it is not natural for young women to court the attention of old men, so it is not natural for young men to patronize old cutters or tailors. Merchant tailoring, without young men’s patronage, will, and must always be a failure. Forget it not! Forget it not!
How to treat an apprentice: I commenced in March, 1848, to learn tailoring. I worked three years for nothing; my parents furnished me with clothing and boarding. There were only two houses between my parents and that of my master, and some of my folks always called me when ready to eat, and I had to come back when eating was done; there was no such a thing as an hour of rest at any meal. The first two years of my apprenticeship were, I believe, worse than the lot of any slave. In summer time I had to come to work at least at five in the morning, and after about one and one-half hours work, I had to get breakfast, and thus I kept on until dark, which was near nine in that latitude and in the longest days. In fall and winter I had to be there at six in the morning and keep up till nine in the evening, and three or four weeks before any holiday I had to work till midnight and all day Sunday. For all this I do not remember to have received more than “zwei groshen” as spending money, during the first two years. But the master worked at the same rate, and in the spring of 1850 he died of consumption. After that the widow carried on the business, and a new foreman, Mr. Geo. Hase, treated me more human. As a general thing, he would not let me work over twelve hours a day, and every now and then he gave me a few “groshen” for spending money, and the Lord has blessed him with a long life, and so far as I know he is still living in Crawford Co., O., and well and hearty, and as an ex-soldier, draws a good pension from “Uncle Sam.” But I must return to my first two years serfdom. I had to sew all the seams; I was nothing but a sewing machine, and after one year’s slavery I could sew like lightning and that was all that I had learned during that time. I was constantly driven to sew faster, in order that others might go ahead with their work, and in my misery to escape from such a “hell-hole,” I conceived this wish: If I could contrive something by which means I could make stitches as fast as I could count, I should not care if I had to give “Old Harry” a deed for myself, for all time to come. Boys may have ideas, too, and this was one of them. At that time I had no idea that that same thing was just then completed in America, and that, too, without the help of the devil. Well, after I came to America in 1852 and found that just then sewing machines were completed, and that they sewed even faster than I could count, I was very glad that I was fortunate enough not to be the inventor of one, though there were millions in it. I would always consider that Old Harry would appear and prove a just claim against me. I started this point to tell how to treat a boy, but I should have said: “How not to treat him.” But I must start in again. During the last fifteen years I have instructed seven boys, and I have found that boys of sixteen to seventeen years of age are the best to instruct. Such boys are able to work, while younger ones are too tender to be kept constantly at work, and older ones soon think themselves too smart, or too big to obey, but even if they are obedient, they are naturally harder to instruct, especially when they commence running after the girls. There are exceptions, however, and I would sooner instruct an intelligent boy of twenty years, if I were satisfied that his mind was made up to learn. Take only healthy, intelligent boys, who went to school, and are willing to work. I have rejected several boys whose parents came to me saying: “He is not fit for much, but he is good enough for a tailor,” or, “he is lying around on the street, and we want him to go to the tailor shop, so he learns to do something,” etc. Well, as long as a boy is fit to be a tailor, well and good, he needs no other qualification, but the qualifications to become a good tailor are just as various as that of a lawyer, or a doctor, or a preacher. If a boy is not brought up to work, but has been loafing most of the time, I would not risk him as an apprentice. After all other things are considered, and the apprentice is to be taken, make as good a bargain with him or his parents, as you can. Get him as cheap as you can; tell him that tailoring is all work, with not much fun in it, and make him work regular hours, and any boy can stand ten hours work. Give him to understand that he is not to be a slave, though he must work, and if he pays attention to the work and learns fast, and does what can reasonably be expected, give him a word of praise and a quarter or half a dollar weekly for his special use, and when a show comes around, or something special goes on, give him a ticket and a holiday and you will have the good will of the boy, and that will repay you for any liberality you may bestow upon him. My way of instructing boys was this: To learn to sew a back-stitch by hand, to fell on patches, to get acquainted with the sewing machine, to clean, oil and operate it, on straight seams first. Next teach him to baste up the sleeves and to make the sleeves on common coats if any such are made. Teach him to make inside coat pockets, hip pockets in pants if it can be done, then gradually show him how to make a pocket for the outside of a coat, teach him to baste and to pad the canvass and padding over the breast. Show him how it is to be done, and why it is to be done so, and not otherwise. If he makes anything wrong, explain it again, and again. Never scold and call hard names, and if you say some harsh words to him, speak that much more pleasant to him a few minutes later. Make him understand that you can smile over one of his mistakes and that he must not hide them, and that he will make mistakes as long as he works at tailoring, and that all tailors are in the same condition and therefore must watch themselves. A boy with a sensible instructor can learn the above in six months, and then he is worth something, and within one year from the start a boy can learn to make a fair sack coat, and in another year he ought to be able to make a tolerable good coat, pants and vest. Boys should be taught to make pants and vests besides making coats, in order that they may be able to instruct others, should occasion require. As soon as a boy is able to handle a needle, he should be set to work, to spend any time he may have to spare, in making button holes, which may be just as well done, in the beginning as in the end. Let boys work button holes in patches, and in a few weeks they may be able to make button holes in the flys of pants, and by the end of two years they are able to make a good button hole.
It is also a good idea for boys to become acquainted with cutting garments as soon as possible. They will learn faster, because they have more interest in tailoring, and are stimulated by the hope of becoming cutters in due time; and even if they never become cutters, they will be so much better tailors if they know how to cut. It is true not all good tailors will make good cutters, and vice versa, but “cutting” is considered a higher degree of tailoring, and every tailor ought to know something about the cutting and the fitting of the garments he makes.
From the “Boston Transcript”:—
THE TAILOR.
The tailor is a very worthy person, notwithstanding his occupation, like that of the enemy of mankind, is to sew tears.
You can hardly call him a person, as it takes nine of him to make a man. Therefore when anybody asks you if a tailor is a man, you must answer, Nein. A tailor, in fact, is but one-ninth of a man, a vulgar fraction. This makes him a little man, or a manikin, and therefore to man akin. Hence, for convenience sake, I will call him a man.
Most men reap what they sow, but the tailor reverses the process and sews what he rips. He is generally kept hard at work, as his business is most of the time pressing. Sometimes he is quite poor, but need never go hungry, as he always has a goose, and finds no difficulty in getting all the cabbage he wants.
Some people complain of the tailor because he is generally behind time with their garments; but the tailor doesn’t care to sell clothes on time, and in fact he suits most of his customers.