average american beauty

This Sunday, Caroline and Isabella took a taxi to the factory area on the east bank of the river.

Isabella usually likes to travel alone by tram or rented carriage. This time her uncle Andrew wanted to send a carriage to pick her up, but she also refused.

Andrew's new shoe factory in Chicago sits on the northern edge of the factory district.

The factory is a four-story new building with a two-story warehouse behind it.Andrew firmly believes that his shoe factory will continue to expand like this factory area and the whole city in the future, so even though his factory currently only needs two floors, he resolutely chose to build a four-story building as a backup last year.

"You never know how big your business can be, so you have to prepare in advance. We may also rent out this floor after a while." Andrew laughed to Caroline who looked at the empty building on the first floor Said.

He looked about 40 years old, with thick chestnut hair, and Isabella and Francis could be seen faintly on his face.

"The current two factory operation rooms are on the second floor, and the office and sample display are on the third floor. When you come here for the first time, why don't you go to the sample room first? Isa and Franz both liked to go to the factory when they were young. room."

Caroline didn't know how Isabella and the others introduced themselves to Andrew. From the first meeting, he had the kindness of an elder, not the kind of manufacturer that Caroline met before on weekdays. The shrewdness who wanted to see through people's hearts allowed himself to call him Andrew just like Isabella.

"There are a lot of sample shoes and shoe models in the sample room", Isabella and Caroline explained, "You are invited to visit today, just follow me, we will go to the sample room first, and then go to the warehouse to see the new If you are interested in the leather material, you can go to the workshop to have a look.”

In fact, what Caroline is most interested in is the workshop of the shoe factory. She is very curious about what the production line of the shoe factory looks like today, and how much it will cost to make a set of production equipment.But since Isabella, the "guide", has spoken, Caroline naturally has no objection to the order of visits.

"I won't bother you young people anymore. If you are tired, go to the third floor to rest for a while." Andrew patted Isabella's shoulder lightly, and smiled kindly at Caroline, "Today is Sunday, Only the No. [-] operation room is rushing to work. Be careful when you go, and don’t accidentally hurt yourself.”

"By the way, Uncle Andrew, where is Franz? Why didn't you see him coming?" Isabella was a little surprised that she didn't see her younger brother. It stands to reason that he should have been impatient when he heard that he and Caroline had arrived. It's normal to come down together.

"He, he's always out of the factory all day long. I pressed him in the morning that he had to settle this week's accounts before he could come out. I haven't told him you're here yet. He's probably sulking in the office. I'll ask him to find you guys later. .”

Isabella smiled helplessly. Francis, like her, did not like business matters very much, and it really made things difficult for him.

Probably because the factory has enough space, this sample room is very open, except for a few glass cabinets in the middle, there are only display shelves on the left and right sides, on which there are many shoes.

"Caroline, look at this," Isabella led her to a shelf on the right, where a pair of low-heeled patent leather women's ankle boots with buckles were on display.

This style was designed by Isabella after she failed to improve the long riding boots. After drawing it at the beginning, she felt that there was nothing new, and adding tassels felt cumbersome. Caroline looked at the drawings together for a while and suggested that she replace the tassels with The same elastic-controlled buckle closure and one-inch wide single-layer fringe, the style will look more simple.

"Uncle Andrew made this sample, and some buyers are interested. It is said that the list is under discussion," Isabella said in a cheerful tone. If the negotiation is successful, I must thank you very much.”

"You're welcome, you have taught me how to draw for so long." Caroline felt that she was just making a suggestion, and she was already very happy if it was useful.

Isabella raised her chin and shook her head, "It's not that simple. I have been painting for 20 years, and I don't have as many good ideas as you."

"Maybe I've seen a lot of shoes," Caroline pursed her lips and smiled.

Isabella took Caroline to look around at the shoes on the shelf.The main business of this shoe factory is the production of leather shoes. Small orders may be hundreds of pairs, and occasionally large orders may be tens of thousands of pairs.So the samples here are mainly leather shoes.

But in the glass cabinet in the middle of the house, there are seven or eight pairs of exquisite satin ball shoes, which look a little old, and the light-colored uppers have turned yellow, but the pearls and crystal stones on them are still shining under the sunlight Brighten.

"Our grandfather made these in the past. He used to be a handmade shoemaker, specializing in making women's shoes, but the shoe store developed a bit difficult later. In the generation of my uncle and mother, it turned into a leather shoe factory." Isabella sighed Said, "This backward production method will probably be eliminated sooner or later."

"They will survive, just like now, there are still many ladies who only accept handmade clothes, shoes and hats, but they are gradually becoming something that ordinary people can't afford." Caroline comforted.Although with the development of industrialization, handmade products can no longer become the mainstream, but at least 100 years later, there are still many designers and craftsmen who focus on handicrafts. At that time, handmade products all have the taste of art.

"Maybe, but if they don't give up the old shoe store, there probably won't be this shoe factory." Isabella blinked and said.

As for the leather materials in the warehouse, Caroline really doesn't know much about it, and Isabella is not very good at it. She mainly wants to see a new batch of lambskins. After staying for less than a quarter of an hour, he returned to the building.

Walking to the second floor, the two just ran into Francis who ran down to find them.He was wearing a thick woolen suit today, and he looked more capable than usual, and his eyes immediately rolled up when he saw two people.

"Hi, Caroline, hi, Isa." His smile was still childish and contagious, which made Caroline feel a little warm.

"It's just right, Franz, take Caroline to the factory workshop, I'm going to the bathroom." Isabella talked to the two of them, and went up to the third floor first.

When only the two of them were left in the atrium on the second floor, Francis realized that this was the first time he was alone with Caroline, and he couldn't help feeling a little nervous.He clenched his hands behind his back, trying to be as natural as possible.

"Do you want to go to the workshop? There are only people working in No. [-] workshop today. In fact, there is nothing to see in the workshop. I mean, it's all machines and workers working." Francis closed his mouth a little annoyed. If it wasn't what I had prepared, I couldn't help but feel a little frustrated.Fortunately, it took only a few steps to reach the door of the workshop.

The second floor of this new building was presumably booked as a production workshop during the design process. The huge workshop not only has windows on the exterior walls, but also installed a lot of glass windows on the interior walls near the corridor, making it easier to see what the workshop looks like. .

Caroline looked at the busy workers inside, not wanting to disturb them, so she just stood in the corridor and looked in.

Although I knew that the work of the assembly line was very hard, and I had seen scenes in movies depicting British textile workers working in the harsh environment of cotton wool in the early [-]th century, but whether it was in the previous life or after coming to this world, such a close distance This is the first time I have come into contact with the production line.

The male and female workers in the workshop work separately on the left and right, with a simple partition in the middle.

The dryers and cutters are all men, and many of them have rolled up their sleeves, perhaps because the machines are laborious to operate.

There are more female workers on the other side. The young ones may only be sixteen or seventeen years old, and the older ones are only in their 30s.More than a dozen female workers lined up in two rows, and each of them repeated the work of nailing, pressing, or punching holes like a machine. The clothes on their bodies were different, but because most of them were gray, brown, and blue, And virtually like a uniform uniform.

The occasional voice of conversation mixed with the humming of the machine, Caroline felt as if she was watching Chaplin's "Modern Times", which gave her both a little joy of witnessing history and a little sobriety of empathy.

She has always known that the decades at the end of the [-]th century and the beginning of the [-]th century were the golden age of industrial development in the British and American countries. Steel, oil, transportation, and various manufacturing industries all grew rapidly.

These developments have provided opportunities for countless ordinary people and made them the most humble screws in industrialization.And because the wages of female workers are much lower than that of male workers, many garment factories and the like hire more women to save costs.

This is just a stage, a historical necessity, Caroline can only think so.

Francis couldn't understand the emotion in Caroline's eyes at the moment. There seemed to be a little different light in her eyes, but he didn't understand the source of this emotion.

"Are you okay?" he asked with some concern.

"I'm fine," Caroline smiled at him, "I just think the girls here are working hard."

"Really? Uncle Andrew's salary for them is already higher than that of many factories," Francis said puzzled.

Caroline was silent for a moment, she knew that from the current point of view, Francis was right.

And no matter what job you do, everyone is just working hard all day long for life, and I am no exception.

At least, I want to better grasp my own destiny, Caroline said to herself as she glanced at the production workshop for the last time before leaving.

The author has something to say:

Caroline and Xiaofu can't get together for the time being not only because of the current economic gap, but also because some ideas are not synchronized.