WHAT SHALL WE DO? 349 



" c Oh, no/ with a sickly smile, c the lass here has 

 worked steady with me/ 



" < How far do you have to bring those nails ? ' 



" ' About six miles/ 



" i And walk it? ' 



"'Yes.' 



" < What does your fire and the carriage and the 

 wear of tools cost you a week ? ' 



" ' At least a shilling/ 



" i Then you and your daughter, working all day, 

 six days in the week, at the anvil and the ' Oliver/ 

 make about nine shillings ? ' ($2 16 a week). 



" ' That is all we can make, sir/ 



" c How do you manage to live ? ' 



" ' We don't live : we hardly exist. We rarely taste 

 meat. I don't know what the poor folks in England 

 are coming to. If they as work at other trades be 

 like us God help them, sir, I don't know what will 

 become of us. A many of us have to go to the work- 

 house. So far I have not taken anything from them, 

 but I may have to do it. Work is very slow here 

 sometimes, and it's hard even to get what we do/ 



" The most cruel part of this business is that young 

 women should be allowed to work at what is called 1 

 the ' Olivers/ a heavy iron machine worked by means 

 of two wooden treadles. At Halesowen I saw 'num- 

 bers of girls making large eight inch bolts on these 

 machines, and indeed they seem to work with mascu- 

 line firmness and with far more vigor than the men. 

 Mr. Ball, one of the largest nail makers of the dis- 

 trict, told me that hundreds of women were employed 

 in the little ' smithys ' at the back of the houses in 



