GENERAL.—The whole place was dirty, and there was hardly a vacant inch to squeeze past in. Mr. ——, however, did not seem a bad sort of man; the girls did not seem in the least in awe of him. All the girls looked of the regular factory girl type, sloppy and dirty, and with their hair in curlers or curl papers.
Mrs. ——, the paper stainer, who came down to talk to me, seemed a friendly, rough-and-ready, low-class woman. Her mother worked in the trade, and when she herself was a baby her cradle was rocked on the colouring board, and "many is the night" that she sat up all night as a child helping her mother at home. She seemed to have thriven on it, and to be immensely proud of her industrial career.
11. Bookbinding Firm, West End, London. Employée's Evidence.
WORK.—Trade in the West End is quite different to that in City firms. This employée picked to pieces and sewed.
REGULARITY.—Hers was not a seasonal trade. She was busy all the year round, but in January and July there was a special press, owing to the number of magazine volumes then being bound.
HOURS.—She worked 48 per week, the length of the ordinary day being from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
PROSPECTS.—She had never known anyone who rose to be a forewoman, but supposed some did rise. Girls from West End shops could not be City forewomen because they knew nothing about machines, and in all advertisements for forewomen knowledge of sewing machines was put as a necessary qualification.
GENERAL.—I asked why their hours were so much shorter than dressmakers, and have come to the conclusion that it was because the men had got an eight-hours' day. She said this class of workers in City shops is lower than in these West End places, and yet in the City workplaces the best industrial training is given.