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4. The baby was three months old. The mother was found to
be personally dirty. She explained that her mother had told her
on no account to put her feet in water or to take a bath until
the baby was 6 or 7 months of age.
5. The family occupied one room. The baby was the first child,
four weeks old and breast fed. The father had been out of work
for six months. The mother was twenty years of age, and had
been living on one meal a day, brought in by her own mother.
The room was very clean. The table and bed were clean and free
from vermin. The bed had only one small borrowed blanket.
There was no fire. The only food in the tenement was ¼-lb. of
sugar.
6. The parents occupied one room. There had been 4 children,
but only two were now living. The mother and the baby were
ill in bed, and were cared for by neighbours who brought in occasional
cups of tea. The father was a blind man, who was taken
out with a piano-organ at week-ends.
7. The mother was a widow. The baby was illegitimate, and
16 days old. The mother kept herself and her children by selling
beetroot, celery and lemons in a market street. She made 1s. a
day. She declined to marry the baby's father because she found
out that " he was terrible in drink."
The Fathers.— In the poorer parts of the borough, the
fathers are chiefly employed as labourers, carmen, porters and
street hawkers. Lowest in the scale are cart minders, odd men
messengers attached to "pitches" outside public-houses, organ
grinders, and bird catchers. Many were out of work, many were
only in casual employment. Many of these odd men had been in
regular work, but had never learnt a trade scientifically or technically.
They were rule of thumb men, and when the firms changed
hands, or competition became keen, they were the first to be
discarded and discharged. They then took to street selling or to
selling in public-houses on Friday and Saturday evenings. Some
were consumptive, epileptic, paralysed, or otherwise ailing, blind,