Undoubtedly, but not for the firm, as the following figures will show,--figures given by a competent forewoman in a large establishment where she had had eleven years' experience: twenty-seven yards and three-quarters are required for one dozen chemises, the price paid for such cotton as is used in one selling at fifty cents being five cents per yard, or $1.40 for the whole amount; thirty yards of edging at 4-1/2 cents a yard furnishes trimming for the dozen, at $1.35; and four two-hundred-yard spools of cotton are required, at twenty-five cents per dozen, or eight cents per dozen garments. The seamer who sews up and hems the bodies of 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.