CHAPTER IV. 



"BUT FOR THE LAND, WE SHOULD HAVE 



STARVED." 



" In one of those corners of our land canopied 

 by the fumes of blmd industry, there was on 

 that day a lull in darkness. ... In the cottage 

 forces there would be but one worker, or two 

 at most ; in the shop forges four, or even five, 

 little glowing heaps ; four or five of the grimy 

 lunir-bellows ; and never a moment without a 

 fiery hook about to take its place on the 

 dowinff chains, never a second when the thin 

 smoke of the forges, and of those lives consum- 

 ing slowly in front of them, did not escape 

 from out of the dingy, whitewashed spaces 

 away to freedom. 



" From these smoke-begrimed forges pale- 

 faced women came out into the sunlight. 

 They formed into a procession of women on 



72 



