her cousin and co-worker, Miss Beatrice Potter, whose report on the
sweating-system makes part of Mr. Booth's first volume:[30]--

"I have, for the last six months, been attempting to find out
something about the hours and wages of girls who work at various
trades in the city. Had I known how difficult the task would be, I
should probably never have attempted it. Last time I heard of Mr.
Besant he was sitting in his office, overwhelmed with figures and
facts. He said then that he did not expect to publish anything
about the work of girls and women in the United Kingdom under a
year or eighteen months. I do not wonder at it. Apart from the
method of his inquiry, I know how exceedingly difficult it is to
arrive at the truth; the tact and patience it needs to make such
investigations. Employees and employers take very different views
of the same circumstances; one must listen to both, and then split
the difference.

"There are at the present time absolutely no figures to go upon if
one wishes to learn something about the hours and wages of girls
who follow certain occupations in the city. The factory inspectors
(admirable men, but very much overworked) come, with the most naive
delight, to visit any person who has information to give about the
people over whose interests they are supposed to watch with
fatherly interest. Clergymen shake their heads, or refer one to
homes and charities. One has to find out the truth for one's self.
Both employers and employees must be visited. Even then one must
wait days and weeks to inspire them with confidence, for thus alone
can one obtain a thorough knowledge of things as they really are,
and arrive at facts unbiassed by prejudice.

"So far I have found that there are, at least, two hundred trades
at which girls work in the city. Some employ hundreds of hands, and
some only fifty or sixty. Printers give the greatest amount of
work, perhaps; but there are at least two hundred other occupations
in which girls earn a living; namely, brush-makers, button-makers,
cigarette-makers, electric-light fitters, fur-workers,
India-rubber-stamp machinist, magic-lantern-slide makers,
perfumers, portmanteau-makers, spectacle-makers,
surgical-instrument makers, tie-makers, etc. These girls can be
roughly divided into two classe