THE LONDON FACTORY GIRL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1382, 22 August 1885, Page 3

THE LONDON FACTORY GIRL.

The London factory lass differs widely from the Lancashire mill girl, although she is only a lower variety of the same grade. There is the difference, to begin with, between living in a crowded slum in East London and the full and healthy life of the North country village that has sprung up around the tall chimneys of the factory. Then again the work is rougher and by no means so well organised. A girl in a jam factory or a ropery has to stand much greater physical strain thantha girl who looks after a loom. Possibly if there were more factories in London things would be better for the women that work in them, for the “ profession,” as so many others, is greatly overstocked, and the supply, even at the best of times, far greater than the demand. The chief reason for this is easily to be found. It is the same which actuates the “dustwomen,” the flower-girl, the canal-boater, the shop-girl, and many others, and which makes thousands of young women shrink from domestic service the complete liberty they have as soon as the working hours are over. Their evenings, their Saturday afternoons, and their Sundays are their own ; no employer asks any questions as to their whereabouts after the girls leave hie premises, as long as they reappear in due time on the next working day. Another reason is that for factory work no previous preparation of any kind is wanted. As soon as a girl loaves school she may begin work, and whether it be ns a match-maker, in a rope, cigar, or any other factory, she begins, at once to earn some money. Very little at first; not much, indeed, at the best. A girl of fifteen, working in a factory from eight o’clock in the morning till seven at night, with the intermission of an hour for dinner and half an hour lor tea, can earn the weekly sum of three shillings. Matchmaking is considered the least remunerative, and it is evident that a few pence more or less make a considerable difference in the budget of factory girls; but even where wages are highest the difference is very slight. As she gets more accus- ’’ tomed to her work the wage* are raised, the average pay for a tolerably quick worker being from 5s to 8s per week, while the deftest hands earn 10s, or even the maximum of 11s. Those who live at home are naturally less badly off than others who have to pay for lodgings and look entirely after their own wants. Were it not for their homos which fortunately are increasing year by pear, the story of the London factory girl would be even sadder than it is in so many cases. In many factories the girls are robust as young athletes. An R.A. once declared that he never found such splendid physical development as among the factory girls in the slums of Stepney. They work hard all day, and spend all their leisure in the open air. They get along with very little sleep, six hours being rather longer than usual. Independent, wilful, lawless if you like, they are very well able to take care of themselves, although it is to be feared that, tested by any conventional standard of propriety or morality, they would hardly pass muster. In some factories women are excluded from employment in departments where their strength would be overtasked, otherwise they take their part in the work from beginning to end side by side with the men, except that in some departments on the other band the work is only done by women. The workrooms are for the most part large and airy, complaints are hardly ever heard about them, and as a community the factory girls are as strong and healthy as any women who work. No sign of weariness, a characteristic of needle-women and others employad in sedentary work, is apparent among them ; laughing, rough and ready, they go through their day’s work, and the evening sees them more brisk, sharp-tongued and energetic than the morning. The age of women employed in factories averages from sixteen to twenty-two years. There are, however, a good number of older hands, who are kept on if they have been employed for several years. Most of the women marry ; often after marriage they continue their work, but are generally employed in departments where they earn less than the young and nimble girls. Arid what becomes of those who do not marry 1 They keep on as long as they can, till work is slack and new hands plenty, when they drift off in two directions—the workhouse or the streets. For domestic servants or emigration they are seldom fit.—Horae paper.