THE "SWEATING DENS"IN THE TAILORING TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2239, 13 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE "SWEATING DENS" IN THE TAILORING TRADE.

A Glasgow tailor has boon impelled by Mr. Laketnan's recant speech at the E t^t End of London to describe in the North British Mail the " sweating dens" existing in Glasgow. The correspondent of the Mail writes: — " I have sat in workshops while the thermometer registered 190 ; and I have wrought in other* where it fell to 40 within freezing point. The Litter workshops were old and unhealthy stables and lnylofbs. The question is— What can lx» d me for tho tailor? Nothing, practically nothing. He works by the piece, and the more he works the more are his wages It is impossible to shorten his hours of labour, as the following clearly shows:— Tailoring is at a standstill from January to the l*t of April, and from that time sa\e a week or two in August, it is fairly busy till the middle of October. Out of twelve months there ia work during only eight, and in the other four the men are forced into the meanest situations to obtain the common necessaries of life. The tiuds has also another grievance—that of female ability being preferred. With perhaps one or two exception-* in London and Glasgow, there is not a shop but has itb full complement of women and girl*. These get the lion's share of the trade m the busy season and all in the sla3k, for the very un-Ruskm reason that they receive for their work about one- fourth the trade statement. The next grievance ia the sweating system, which, after all the glaring exposures it underwent in the Mail, has cropped up again, and, what is more humiliating, the system finds its best patrons in our leading citizens. I have wrought in a room on the top flat of an old Glasgow tenement, about 12ft by Bft high, in which three machines and girls, with ten women, were kept hammer and tongs at work for fourteen hours a day, with only 20 minutes' intermission- They ate as they wrought, and all this under the very eyes of a Glasgow town councillor. I have wrought in another room where 'sweating' was carried on. This apartment was in sue about 10 feet by 5. A full sized bed occupied the half of the room, and around it on tho floor sat three women and four men for more than 10 hours a day. I have registered JBO deg. Y.xhi. in that apartment. I havo wrought in a shop in Glasgow where the odour was so abominable and the vermin so repulsive and multitudinous that out of twenty men and six females four suffered from asthma, one from skin disease, three from bronchitus, si* from flatulence, while the remainder were more or less imbecile. It was a common practice for the idle tailors to hunt the rats in tho ."hop With a fellow workman I have counted 120, and have known over 40 to be killed in a few hours by a 'larky ' snip; and I have had my dinner stolen by these foetid pests, though it lay no more than half a yard from my hand. I enclose yon the name of this horrible den. We have a society that, speaking financially, is equal, if not vastly superior, to any other in existence, yet it is powerless to redress the poor tailors' grievances.

A Frencfi gentleman has made the passage from Dover to Calais huccessfully in 11 small boat, and returned oven more wiCPSsfiilly in a steam or. The boat is about fifteen feet in length, is made entirely of brown water proof canvas, and has four compartments, two at the sidos, one at the bow and anothpr at the stern. It is blown out by means of bellows, and takes about twenty minutes to fill. Inside the bottom some deal boards are placed, nnd to these are ft*ed the seat?. Along the sides two cones are placed, and near these are fixed the rowlock". There is also a small mast and sail. Tha boat, tg her with the seats, sail, mast, etc., c iv be packed in a small ha-nper and carried by one man.

A. Jcjdoe on "Frightful Lying" in Walks. — Afc Bangor Omuty Court recently the judge, during tho heiringof an action, paid, 11 1 must observe that there is hardly a single case heard iti this court hi which there is not deliberate perjury committed. Look at tbo laifc case. Look fit this frightful lying. Ido not moot with such a stato of things out of Wale. Other people have said this thing before, but hitherto have kept quiet. Duiing my whole life I have heard nothing: to approach what it i« in this p\rt of the world. There is not a case heard in which people do not think it necesstry to lie. Now, in this ense there aro frightful lies, and bo iv the U&t. It is ino-t demoralising 1 . Ido not think it is iv hu r nau nature to htand many yens of it. I have ha-1 tnv turn of il\ T appeal to overy disiritei'f'strd ppr^on to givo Jn's opinion as to what the furore of tlia country i,-*. I country in Cho-hire ten cises while I try nni> here, becvuse iv Cheshire they do not lie."