THE LONDON FACTORY GIRLS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2096, 16 September 1885, Page 2

THE LONDON FACTORY GIRLS.

Tho 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, botween living in a crowded slum in East London and the full and healthy life of the North Country village that has sprung up round 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 than the 'girl who looks after a loom. Possibly if there were more factories in London, things would be better for the women who 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 "dustwoman," the flower-girl, the canal-beater, 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 the premises, as long as they re-appear in due time on the nest working day. Another reason ia that for factory work no previous preparation of any kind is wanted. As soon as a girl leaves school she must begin work, and whether it be as a watch-maker, in a rope, cigar, or any other factory, she begins to at once 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 sevon at night, with tho intermission of an hour for dinner and half an hour for tea, can earn the weekly sum of three shillings. Matchmaking is considered the least remunerative, and it ia evident that a few pence more or less make a considerable difference in the budget of factory girls; but even where wages are highest tho difference is biit very slight. As she gets more accustomed to her work the wages are raised, the average pay for a tolerably quick worker being from 6s to 8s per week, while the deftost hands earn 10s, or even the maximum of lis. Thoso who live at home are naturally less badly off than others who have to pay for lodgings, qndlook entirely after their own wants'. 'Were it not for the homes which fortunately are increasing year by year, the story of the London factory girl would be evei( sadder than it- is in so many cases. In many factories the girls are robust as young athletes. An R, A, onco declared that he had 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 well able to take care of themselves, although it is to bo feared that, teated by any conventional standard of pro-' •priety 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 tho men, except that in some departments the work is done only by women. The work rooms 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 character- ' istio of needlewomen and others employed 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 than the morning. The age of the women employed in the factories averages from sixteen to twanty-two years; there are, however, a good number of older hands, who are kept on as if they have been employe!} 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 niitible girls. They keep on as long as they can, till work is slack and now hands plenty, when they drift off in two directions—the workhouse or the streets. For domestic service or emigration they are seldom fit-Homo Paper,