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50
The clothes, after washing, have to be dried in these small yards,
but owing to the lack of sufficient accommodation for all the families
in each house, and to the inconvenience of watching them to prevent
theft, the clothes are usually dried on lines in the living room or
sleeping room or both. For this purpose nails are driven into the
walls of these rooms and lines are stretched across from nail to nail.
The ground floor passage is also used for drying clothes in the same
way. In one room, these lines were also used for hanging up the
usual work-a-day clothes when disrobing at night.
The basements contain the washing copper as a rule. These
basements are very dark and dirty; they contain rubbish, straw,
road dirt, paper, broken china, broken wood, string, tub hoops,
old rope, old iron, old sacking and discarded clothes.
In one basement, the washing copper was said not to be used
and contained a lot of foul water.
The water for use in washing has to be carried down into the
basement from the yard, and this appears to have some deterring
influence in connection with their use for washing.
There is a deficiency of locks and keys for security to the doors
of the houses and to the doors of the water closets. Privacy is
usually maintained in the water closets during use by the aid of a
discreet and retentive bit of string held in the hand of the user to
prevent the door being pulled outwards unexpectedly.
In the houses the stairways are winding and narrow, and
dangerous, and would present great difficulties of rapid egress in
case of fire. The walls are in parts dilapidated. The treads of
the staircases are much worn. Many of the tenants complain that
the rooms are verminous. In some, the ceilings are damp or leaky,
the floor boards broken, or walls dilapidated. Some window-panes
are broken ; the window frames are old and worn out; the brickwork
has in some cases moved away from the frames, uncovering
the reveals. Very many of the tenants complain of the lack of
satisfactory storage accommodation for food. A cupboard is usually
provided divided into two compartments. The lower is used for