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8. The baby was one month old. There were 2 children, both
living. The family occupied one top back room. The only bedclothes
were one sheet and a threadbare blanket patched with coatlining
and some "oilcloth." The mother was badly clad and
insufficiently fed. There was very little furniture. The mother
had not bought any equipment for herself or child before her
confinement. She was relying upon obtaining a "maternity bag"
from the hospital. When this request was not granted she was
in great difficulties, because she had nothing ready for the baby
when it was born. The family had been sleeping on an empty
mattress on the floor. When she. began her labour, her husband
went out to buy shavings to pad the mattress. She had
borrowed the amount of the Maternity Benefit beforehand from
a slum moneylender and was paying 2s. 6d. a week interest, that
is at the rate of one penny per week for every shilling lent.
The Fathers.—In the slums the fathers are chiefly employed
as labourers, carmen, porters, packers, warehousemen, and street
hawkers. Many are engaged in casual employment; many are
"odd men taken on now and again," or doing "odd jobs." Some
are "labourers out of work"; some are work-shy, "do not believe
in work," earn an occasional shilling and give their wives a "sixpence
now and then." Some fathers give their wives with 4 or 5
children the same wretched pittance as they did when they were
first married and had no children to support.
Many of the mothers did not know where their husbands worked
or what their earnings were. Other mothers wished to conceal
the occupations of their husbands. One such had stated that her
husband was a carman. Later, they and their baby, 13 months
old, were seen in a London square. The mother was soliciting
money from passers-by. The father was playing a combination
slum orchestra—which included a violin, Pan's pipes, drum, a
triangle, and cymbals. Another woman said her husband was a
jeweller's traveller. The neighbours said he was a notorious
burglar, well known to the police, and had often been in
prison.