I'm loving this! The drawings are beautiful. The text is interesting. Such a bourgeois magazine. "That family is poor in deed that cannot afford one of these most effective of labor-saving machines..." Wasn't the cost of a sewing machine equivalent to several months wages of the average family? Or maybe they're saying that even a person who earns a good living is poor if he doesn't have a sewing machine.
Also this: "...consider the tens or scores who now earn a comfortable livelihood with this admirable instrument..." I guess they're referring to bespoke tailors, not the vastly more numerous sweat shop workers. They're trying to counter the notion that cottage-industry tailors and dressmakers were put out of business by the sewing machine, but it comes off almost as propaganda or advertising. To me, anyway.
Thanks for sharing this, Steve.
--Sheila