How tie Poor Exist

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3013, 26 September 1888, Page 3

How tie Poor Exist

The Lancet has been giving reports of the special. Sanitary Commission on the Sweating System in Glasgow, and in concluding the Inst article eayß—We would describe the house of one or two poor Scotch home workers, and ih>-n we shall huv« given some idea of tho tailoring trade in the central districts of Glasgow, Tailoring, of course, is not restricted to the centro of the town; but -here sanitary difficulties are greatest inconsequence of the overcrowding ami want of space* The -first Scotch home worker on whom we called wns

yy. sewing in,her kitchen. In one corner tt-ofthe kitchen tbere was a bed, in tho other a machine. Some sort, of dinner was on'the lire. Tho place was hot and close, but nevertheless , rVoty dean. In the bedroom a suw-'®ig-machine stood next to the bed ; v and, though the bed wis not nnulu and. the slops not emptied, tailoring work had begun. In another tenement we found great misery. Some old women were Bitting round a dirty kitchen table, There wus a powerful odour of fish, and the furniture whs so scanty thut one person was woiking on the,.box used to collect ash and domestic refuse, The women, who were unwashed and unkempt, explained that fomeHy they earned enough to live with fair comfort, but now the. Jews had beaten down the prices, and they were obliged to make waistcoats for fid each, They were themselves dressed in squalid rags, and looked utterly wretjbed, A coiner of the little bedroom was taken a year ago to construct a clojiet, which has au absurdly small opening on to the stairs, and is therefore very dark and insufficiently

f ventilated, In the hedroom thus re'educed in size was placed a bed, a large jMbest of drawers, and a sewing■'■flftchine, The standing space remaining m barely four feet square, and yot here work is done, for the other and (font rooms of thia to uement are to dark