s,--those who earn from 8s. to 14s.,
and those who earn from 4s. to 8s. per week. Taking slack time into
consideration, it is, I think, safe to say that 10s. is the average
weekly wage of the first class, and 4s. 6d. that of the second
class. Their weekly wage often falls below this, and sometimes
rises above it. The hours are almost invariably from 8 A.M. to 7
P.M., with one hour for dinner and a half-holiday on Saturday. I
know few cases in which such girls work less; a good many in which
over-time reaches to ten or eleven at night; a few in which
over-time means all night. There is little to choose between the
two classes. The second are allowed by their employers to wear old
clothes and boots; the first must make 'a genteel appearance.'

"I often hear rich women say, 'Oh, working-girls cannot be very
poor; they wear such smart feathers.' If these women knew how the
girls have to stint in underclothing and food in order to make what
their employers call 'a genteel appearance,' I think they would
pass quite another verdict. I will give two typical cases: A girl
living just over Blackfriars Bridge, in one small room, for which
she pays 5s., earns 10s. a week in a printer's business. She works
from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., then returns home to do all the washing,
cleaning, cooking, etc., that is necessary in a one-room
establishment. She has an invalid mother dependent on her efforts,
and is out-patient herself at one of the London hospitals. She was
sixteen last Christmas. Another girl, who lives in two cellars near
Lisson Grove, with father, mother, and six brothers and sisters,
earns 3s. 6d. a week in a well-known factory. She is seventeen
years old, but does not look more than ten or eleven. Every morning
she walks a mile to her work, arriving at eight o'clock; every
evening she walks a mile back, reaching home about seven o'clock.
If she arrives at the factory five minutes late, she is fined 7d.
If she stays away a whole day, she is 'drilled,'--that is, kept
without work a whole week. Her father has been out of employment
for six months; so her weekly 3s. 6d. goes into the family purse.
Her food consists of three slices of bread and butter, which she
takes to the factory for dinner; one slice of bread and butter and
some weak tea for supper and breakf