From newspaper accounts we know National, like other playing card manufacturers of that day, hired mostly women.
I recently came across the 1888 Bureau of Labor report of women in the workforce that sheds some light on their jobs.
In 1888 the two big locations for playing cards were of course Cincinnati and New York City. I assume the Indianapolis wages when they soon opened were probably close to the Cincinnati ones.
The two cities used women for jobs differently. Cincinnati listed their female workers as;
Press Feeder 260 YEARLY OR $5/wk
Paster 255
Cutter 245
Packer 229
Sizer 220
Sorter 196
Examiner/Finisher 144 YEARLY OR $2.75/wk
New Yorker City females workers were;
Sizer 340 YEARLY OR $6.50/wk
Examiner/Finisher 331
Wrapper 350
Enameler 294
Machine Op. 276
Dryer 250 YEARLY OR $4.80/WK
In both cities age 12 was a common starting age. And the average days of lost work was about 6 weeks.
As low as these wages sound comparatively they were fairly decent wages.
The report also gave a rundown of what the cities were like. They were not very good for Cincinnati and New York City. But here is what they said about Indianapolis............
I recently came across the 1888 Bureau of Labor report of women in the workforce that sheds some light on their jobs.
In 1888 the two big locations for playing cards were of course Cincinnati and New York City. I assume the Indianapolis wages when they soon opened were probably close to the Cincinnati ones.
The two cities used women for jobs differently. Cincinnati listed their female workers as;
Press Feeder 260 YEARLY OR $5/wk
Paster 255
Cutter 245
Packer 229
Sizer 220
Sorter 196
Examiner/Finisher 144 YEARLY OR $2.75/wk
New Yorker City females workers were;
Sizer 340 YEARLY OR $6.50/wk
Examiner/Finisher 331
Wrapper 350
Enameler 294
Machine Op. 276
Dryer 250 YEARLY OR $4.80/WK
In both cities age 12 was a common starting age. And the average days of lost work was about 6 weeks.
As low as these wages sound comparatively they were fairly decent wages.
The report also gave a rundown of what the cities were like. They were not very good for Cincinnati and New York City. But here is what they said about Indianapolis............
the card finisher
New York Journal. 1896
She Must Be Quick of Eye and Rapid With Her Fingers
There are only three playing card factories in New York, and they supply almost the entire demand for playing cards in this country. Less than 1,000 Women are engaged in the industry, and yet the highest wages any of them gets is $7 a week. Miss Minnie Rose is one of these. She is an expert “finisher.”
“Finishing,” says Miss Rose, “requires a great deal of experience. You have to have very quick eyes. You must be able to detect the very slightest imperfection in the design on the back of a card. Gamblers only use a deck of cards once, and if there were the slightest difference in the backs of any two cards they might be accused of cheating. A finisher must examine about 10,000 cards every day. If she lets one ever so slightly imperfect slip through, she's likely to lose her job. The other day in our shop a woman who had worked there for ten years was discharged for letting one card go through. No one but a gambler or a card maker could have detected the flaw. The boss said he’d have excused her if she had been a new hand, but “an old hand ought to know better.”
The advantage of card making is that it is not season work. “In most trades,” says the card maker, “you have a lot of work for a few months and then nothing at all until the season begins again. Of course you have your idle time to do something, but I’d rather work at something that is steady. At card making you work right along all the year round. You hardly ever have more than two weeks off.
Of course it is fearfully monotonous and it’s tiresome. But most of the girls seem to like it. It’s clean work and it's steady, and the pay is very good. There are women in our factory who have worked there steadily for 18 years.”
She Must Be Quick of Eye and Rapid With Her Fingers
There are only three playing card factories in New York, and they supply almost the entire demand for playing cards in this country. Less than 1,000 Women are engaged in the industry, and yet the highest wages any of them gets is $7 a week. Miss Minnie Rose is one of these. She is an expert “finisher.”
“Finishing,” says Miss Rose, “requires a great deal of experience. You have to have very quick eyes. You must be able to detect the very slightest imperfection in the design on the back of a card. Gamblers only use a deck of cards once, and if there were the slightest difference in the backs of any two cards they might be accused of cheating. A finisher must examine about 10,000 cards every day. If she lets one ever so slightly imperfect slip through, she's likely to lose her job. The other day in our shop a woman who had worked there for ten years was discharged for letting one card go through. No one but a gambler or a card maker could have detected the flaw. The boss said he’d have excused her if she had been a new hand, but “an old hand ought to know better.”
The advantage of card making is that it is not season work. “In most trades,” says the card maker, “you have a lot of work for a few months and then nothing at all until the season begins again. Of course you have your idle time to do something, but I’d rather work at something that is steady. At card making you work right along all the year round. You hardly ever have more than two weeks off.
Of course it is fearfully monotonous and it’s tiresome. But most of the girls seem to like it. It’s clean work and it's steady, and the pay is very good. There are women in our factory who have worked there steadily for 18 years.”