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16
It got ill and eventually died at the age of ons month from
tuberculosis meningitis.
The disposition of the family for sleeping purposes was as
follows:—
The mother, the six younger children, and the adopted child all
slept in one bed at night. The father, who worked at night, slept
in the same bed by day. The son 26 years, a widower, occupied
a room in another borough, worked at night and slept by day.
When he got up for night work, the three eldest girls got into his
bed and slept there for the night. The second son lived in
"lodgings,'' the third son was a private in the army.
It will be observed that this mother, despite the dire and acute
difficulties of accommodation necessitating two Box and Cox
arrangements, in spite of the fact that she was suckling her own
child 10 months old, still had the colossal effrontery to accept for
reward the care of a delicate and undersized infant less than
a fortnight old.
The family disappeared soon after the death of the adopted
child.
2. Creche mother paralysed and crippled.—A married
woman, crippled, and paralysed in both legs, occupied a oneroomed
tenement, and received babies and older children for
payment to care for them while their mothers were at work.
Her husband was in casual employment as an odd man. She
herself took in sewing as an outworker. She was personally
dirty and sat on the floor, being only able to move with the use of
her hands.
The mothers prepared the children's food in the morning before
taking the children to this most unsuitable creche. The food so
prepared was then supposed to last each child during the whole
day—it was sometimes found to be sour in a few hours.
Here we have a woman, well meaning no doubt, dirty, crippled,
unable to move save by crawling along the floor, struggling to