224 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



often to endure a good deal of coarse chaff' as 

 well as petty tyranny. She notices, too, that 

 London turns out its human refuse to pick 

 hops and fruits. Would she therefore not be 

 losing caste if she became one of a gang ? 

 The titled lady may smile when she reads this, 

 but caste is as strong in the cottage girl as in 

 the countess. 



Once a friend of mine asked a young carter 

 to let his wife come strawberry picking. The 

 husband proudly remarked that it was impos- 

 sible, for his wife "was no common labourers 

 daughter but a blacksmitlis " I 



To find employment attractive enough to 

 keep the country lass in the country has been 

 a problem for which it is difficult to find a 

 practical solution, for it is a sex question as 

 much as it is an industrial one. If you find 

 work for girls which has a refining influence 

 there must also be work for young men which 

 has the same effect on character. The setting up 

 of hand-looms and spinning-wheels, the making 

 of baskets, the binding of books, and other 

 handicrafts suitable for feminine fingers are 

 excellent things in their way, but unless there 

 is also the potter's wheel, the carpenter's bench, 

 the blacksmith's anvil, the engineer's vice, 



