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mangling and got up on the eighth day to resume her work.
The rooms and bedding were very dirty. The baby was wasting,
The family was ejected from the tenement. The same night they
broke into the basement, took in the damp bedding from the back
yard and slept there. The neighbours complained that the baby
screamed continuously through the night. The case was referred
to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
8. The baby was 3 months, clean and breast fed. The mother
was an industrious woman, and when first visited had a black
eye. Her husband drank and "hit her about—he paid her
shocking." A week later he had given her a second black eye.
9. The father was a porter earning 21s. per week. The baby
was 3 weeks old and the eighth child. All of them were living.
The eldest child, 14 years, was a servant. The mother earned
5s. per week making fancy leather bags and taking in washing
for neighbours. The mother made all the clothes for her children.
The family of 9 occupied 3 rooms in one of the worst streets in
the borough, and paid 8s. 6d. weekly rent. The home was
extremely clean. The children were well dressed.
10. The baby was 2 months old. The father was a labourer.
The mother was consumptive and wondered how she could
possibly " manage on the small money that father brought her."
She resumed her work as an office cleaner for 3 hours daily.
The Fathers.—In the poorer parts of the borough, the
commonest occupations of the fathers were as follows:—
labourers, carmen, porters, and street hawkers. Lowest
in che scale were cart-minders, and messengers attached to
an outside public-house " Pitch," and organ grinders. Many
were out of work — many were only in casual employment.
Some were blind, ill, consumptive, youthful, or
under-sized. Some were epileptics, some were in the poor
law infirmary or workhouse. A few were in prison. In the
slums it is not uncommon to find that the fathers contribute little
or nothing towards the support of their wives or families.
Occasionally a father is found who has not given his wife a