s well, for any violation of
regulations tacit or written.

In another establishment piece-work alone was done, a popular almanac
being folded at fourpence a thousand sheets. Railway tickets brought in
from eight to ten shillings a week, and prize packages of stationery,
fourpence a score, the folding and packing of prize doubling the length
of time required and thus lessening wages in the same ratio.

I have given phases of this one trade in detail, because the same
general rules govern all. The confectionery workers' wages are at about
the same rate, although a pound a week is almost unknown, the girls
making from three shillings and sixpence (84c.) to fourteen and sixteen
shillings weekly. A large "butter-scotch" factory pays these rates and
allows the weekly good-conduct sixpence which, however, few succeed in
earning. This factory is managed by two brothers who take alternate
weeks, and the younger one exacts from the girls an hour more a day than
the older one. Here the factory act applies, and inspectors appear
periodically; but this does not hinder the carrying out of individual
theories as to what constitutes a day. If five minutes late, sevenpence
is deducted from the week's wages, which begin at three and sixpence and
ascend to nine, the latter price being the utmost to be earned in this
branch of the trade.

In the cocoa rooms which are to be found everywhere in London where
business of any sort is carried on, the pay ranges from ten to twelve
shillings a week. The work is hard and incessant, although hours are
often shorter. In both confectionery factories and the majority of
factory trades, an hour is allowed for dinner, but the tea half hour
refused or deducted from time. London in this respect, and indeed in
most points affecting the comfort and well-being of operatives of every
class, is far behind countries, the great manufacturing cities of which
are doing much to lighten oppressive conditions and give some
possibility of relaxation and improvement. Some of the best reforms in a
factory life have begun in England, and it is thus all the more puzzling
to find that indifference, often to a brutal degree, characterizes the
attitude of many London employers, who have reduced wages to the lowest,
and brought profits to the highest, attainable point. It is true that he
is driven by a force often quite beyond his control, foreign
competition, French and German, being no less sharp than that on his own
soi