and the masters refuse to
discuss the subject until this point has been abandoned.

The chances of reaching an understanding are more remote than ever.

In the mean while there is trouble in the cotton trade.

The state of the cotton market is such that the manufacturers can no
longer pay the wages they have been paying, and they have had to give
notice to their hands that they must either close their mills or reduce
wages.

At first it was decided that ten per cent. must be taken off the pay of
the workers.

The trades unions discussed the matter with the employers, and refused
to listen to such a reduction of wages.

The masters then declared that they could not continue to pay the
present rate, as they would be losing money. They finally decided to
give their workers a month's notice that they were going to reduce their
wages five per cent.

Every one is anxiously waiting to see what the factory hands will do at
the end of the month.

It is hoped that the time that will intervene before the reduction takes
place will give them an opportunity to think matters over, and so avoid
a strike.

Should the cotton-workers decide to strike, two hundred thousand
operatives may be thrown out of work.

The manufacture of cotton goods in one of the greatest of the English
industries.

Over a million men, women, and children are employed in Great Britain
and Ireland, and nearly five million people are dependent for their
daily bread on the wages earned in the factories.

The centre of this great industry is the city of Manchester. Here the
greatest number of factories are built, and all matters concerning the
cotton market are discussed and settled. Manchester--dirty, smoky
Manchester, with its forest of tall chimneys pouring forth volumes of
black, sulphurous smoke, holds the fate of the cotton trade in its
hands.

It is quite a sight to see the Manchester factory hands rushing out of
the mills, hundreds strong, at the noon hour.

Our own factory hands are, as you well know, neat, tidy, and well
dressed girls. As soon as they turn off from the stream of their
fellow-workers, as they leave the mills, it is hardly possible to tell
whether they are factory girls, shop girls, servants, or young ladies.

The English mill girls are quite different.

They have a distinct dress which points out their occupation wherever
they may be.

To begin with, they never by any chance wear hats. Winter and summer
they go bare