James Greenwood

“ At least as many girls as boys may be seen, scores of them puny, delicate-looking little creatures, with their lean skirts and woefully ill-shod feet, but nine times out of ten, with their oily locks surmounted by a hat or bonnet gay enough for a May-day queen, in gangs of three or four, chattering like magpies as they scurry along quick march to their "daily work." ”

“ Personally I can vouch for one, where a wretched human waif, too young to know the use of his feet, or indeed to have a single tooth in its head, had the audacity to set at open defiance, and on his own premises, the governor of one of the largest prisons in the kingdom - defied him, cried him down, and mocked his pride and vaunting to the level of the dust. ”

“ Bless you, these slipshod, half-starved factory hands affect the supremest contempt for domestic servitude, and would blush with shame to the crowns of their blowsy bonnets were it revealed that even a most distant female relative had so demeaned herself as to engage as a maid-of-all-work. ”

“ It is all very well, no doubt, when country roads are delightful, and it is worth an hour's journey to saunter beneath green trees. It will hurt no human creature to trudge two miles or so to work under such circumstances, and it will do the young "hand" good rather than harm after an afternoon spent in the crowded workroom, to exercise her limbs and refresh her lungs by a similar walk home in the balmy evening twilight ”

“ Perhaps some of them were the children of fathers who, never endowed with a violent affection for labour, were not so short-sighted as to be oblivious of its value when practised by their progeny. I saw three girls of the bread-and-butter built order, clean and neat-haired, but tattered and painfully poor- looking, and they came out at the factory gate, looking hungrily down the road. ”

“ It is not the poorest and roughest class of girls that find employment at these places. The temptation to earn four or five shillings a week is, in hundreds of cases, more than can be withstood by girls delicately bred and hitherto kept carefully apart from all that is coarse and vicious; and, having once joined the working army, there is nothing for it, if existence is to be rendered at all tolerable, but to conform to "barrack rule" and make, at all events, a passable pretence of doing as other girls do. ”

“ At least, the suburban factory-hand must be better off than her sister-toilers of the stifled and stenchful alley, inasmuch as the air she breathes is purer, and, from her healthful surroundings, she is less likely to be injuriously affected by her sedentary occupation. ”

“ IT is not a little humiliating that such an insignificant creature as a puny squalling baby should occasionally present itself as an obstacle, not to say a downright stumbling-block, in the path of men whose mighty brains have conceived and matured gigantic schemes of reform, social and other. ”

“ Much may be learnt in that brief sixty minutes of the mischievous effects of substituting girl for boy labour. In the majority of cases the children - for many of them are little better - reside too far away from the factory to admit of their going home to the midday meal. They bring their food with them, the supply consisting generally of three or four slices of bread and butter and perhaps a penny or twopence to be expended in "something relishing" for dinner. The something relishing, however, seldom takes the shape of solid food, which perhaps is quite as well. ”

“ And it may, with some show of truth, be urged that, leaving charitable motives out of the question, the employer who uproots his manufacturing "plant" from the noise, and crowd, and dirt of town, and, transplanting it into the country, sets it down in company with hedgerows and daisies, confers a benefit on those who, by the sweat of their small brows, earn their bread of him. ”

“ Venerable trees surround the place, there is a big old-fashioned garden at the rear of it, and here are erected spacious and well-ventilated workrooms for the young folks employed. The work done at this factory is by no means of the "slop" character, such as that in which factory hands are commonly hired to assist. It is a branch of a great City business, the heads of which are persons of immense wealth, and not at all disposed to be ungenerous in their dealings with their employées. ”

“ It may be that at the age of thirteen a girl should have outgrown childhood, and attained strength of body and mind sufficient to fit her for the labour market, but very much depends on the conditions under which the child has been reared. Here, for instance, were girls, straight-limbed and sturdy as young colts, and yet with faces that bespoke them under rather than over the stipulated age, but these were decidedly the exception. ”

“ At such a time of the year, and under most favourable conditions, young girls whose poverty compels them to turn out to work at a tender age must suffer severely. And when I speak of "most favourable" conditions, I have in my memory a factory of the suburban sort, a few words concerning which will illustrate my meaning.
The establishment in question is to be found in the neighbourhood of Highgate. In its aspect there is nothing the least grim or repulsive, or suggestive of "Fee, faw, fum," or the grinding of small human bones for the manufacture of dainty bread for the ogre proprietor. ”

“ Her speed was such that it was no easy matter, without exciting public curiosity, to keep up with her. "She is aware of another cookshop," I thought; "she is wiser than her factory mates, and will, doubtless, get more Pease-pudding for her penny." ”

“ The "hands" at the Highgate establishment include about two hundred girls from thirteen to sixteen years old. The Factory Act enjoins that no child whose age is below thirteen shall be taken from school and set to work. But contemplation of the petticoated flock that, when the dinner-bell rang, came pouring out at the gates, reveals how difficult it is to legislate in such a matter. ”

“ Nothing bearing resemblance to animal sustenance, excepting such abominations as sausages and saveloys, is to be bought in these hard times for a penny or two- pence, and when the choice lies between semi-starvation and downright poisoning, it is commendable in the victim to adopt the latter. ”

“ One reason, perhaps, why this growing grievance has not attracted more attention on the part of the general public, is to be found in the fact that these small female factory hands are employed in large numbers in manufactories situated not in the pent-up courts and alleys of the City, but almost "out in the country" - at Bow, Stratford, Victoria Park, Highgate, &c., &c. These suburban workshops are rapidly increasing. One of the heaviest drawbacks on a manufacturers' profits is the enormous rent he is compelled to pay for his City premises. ”

“ In this instance, however, our thanks are due to the tiny human encumbrance, since it has been the means of directing attention to a rapidly-increasing evil - the employment of girls of tender years at workshops and factories, and at such work as used to and would still be done by boys, only that the value of labour has of late years vastly increased, and it is found cheaper to engage female "hands" than male. ”

“ Whether it is due entirely to the miserable and sometimes inhuman laws which regulate supply and demand, or whether it is in any degree owing to the endeavours of those strong-minded leading female spirits who are ready to wrestle with mankind for a share of the downright hard labour of life, need not here be discussed. This much is certain, however, that the tender regard for young folks of the female kind, of which in old-fashioned times no man felt ashamed, is fast vanishing from amongst us. ”

“ They had not appeared at the factory gate at the exact minute when their dinner-hour expired, and, as a punishment for the offence, were shut out for half an hour and fined a penny as well. We grew quite confidential under the shelter of my umbrella. They were really not to blame for being late. Another girl - for a "lark," as my bonnetless friends now ruefully assumed - had told them of a certain cookshop in Camden Town where might be bought enormous penn'orths of pudding, left cold from yesterday. ”

“ The hands will follow the work; they can by no means afford to do otherwise. He has but to beckon with his finger, or, in other words, to insert an advertisement in a newspaper, and in a few hours his gates will be besieged by eager applicants. ”