lunch to be sent or carried to him. If
he is not at home, the lunch is rather a makeshift. The midday meal is
scarcely over before supper must be thought of. This has to be eaten
hurriedly before the family are ready, for the mother must be in the
mill at work, by 6, 6:30 or 7 P.M.... Many women in their inadequate
English, summed up their daily routine by, 'Oh, me all time tired. TOO
MUCH WORK, TOO MUCH BABY, TOO LITTLE SLEEP!'"

"Only sixteen of the 166 married women were without children; thirty-two
had three or more; twenty had children one year old or under. There were
160 children under school-age, below six years, and 246 of school age."

"A woman in ordinary circumstances," adds this impartial investigator,
"with a husband and three children, if she does her own work, feels that
her hands are full. How these mill-workers, many of them frail-looking,
and many with confessedly poor health, can ever do two jobs is a
mystery, when they are seen in their homes dragging about, pale,
hollow-eyed and listless, often needlessly sharp and impatient with the
children. These children are not only not mothered, never cherished,
they are nagged and buffeted. The mothers are not superwomen, and like
all human beings, they have a certain amount of strength and when that
breaks, their nerves suffer."

We are presented with a vivid picture of one of these slave-mothers: a
woman of thirty-eight who looks at least fifty with her worn, furrowed
face. Asked why she had been working at night for the past two years,
she pointed to a six-months old baby she was carrying, to the five
small children swarming about her, and answered laconically, "Too much
children!" She volunteered the information that there had been two more
who had died. When asked why they had died, the poor mother shrugged her
shoulders listlessly, and replied, "Don't know." In addition to bearing
and rearing these children, her work would sap the vitality of any
ordinary person. "She got home soon after four in the morning, cooked
breakfast for the family and ate hastily herself. At 4.30 she was in
bed, staying there until eight. But part of that time was disturbed for
the children were noisy and the apartment was a tiny, dingy place in
a basement. At eight she started the three oldest boys to school, and
cleaned up the debris of breakfast and of supper the night before. At
twelve she carried a hot lunch to her husband and had dinner ready for
the three school child