ill want their washing back. Hard as this is for
the employer, it is still harder for the workers. The small hand laundry
can seldom keep customers waiting longer than from Monday till Saturday.
On this account, the steam laundry will be obliged to rush all of its
work for the 'hand' laundry through in one or two days. I found some
steam laundries in which no work at all is done on Monday or Saturday,
but in the busy season the place keeps running regularly on the other
four days from seven in the morning till half past eleven and twelve at
night. Very seldom is there any compensation for these long hours. Few of
the laundries pay overtime. Of these, some dock the girls proportionately
for every hour less than sixty a week they work. No laundries in which I
worked, except one, give supper money. A piece-worker at least gets some
advantage to counterbalance long hours. But the week worker not only
lacks recompense for actual labor, but is often put to greater expense.

"She does not know when her long day is coming, so she must buy her
supper, when supper is waiting for her at home. She is often so tired
that she must spend 5 cents for carfare, instead of walking. Seven cents
is a fair average spent upon supper--2 cents for bread and 5 cents for
sausage, cheese, or meat. If overtime is worked three nights a week, the
girl is out of pocket 36 cents--not a small item in wages of $4.50 and $5
a week, where every penny counts. Often, also, she either has not extra
money or she forgets to bring it. Then she has to share some one else's
lunch. The girls are always willing to divide, however slight their own
provisions. I once saw a 1-cent piece of cake shared by four girls.

"There are two kinds of long hours: those due to bad systematizing of
laundry work, creating long waits between lots; and those due to very
heavy work. In regard to the first kind, it must be said that the shirt
starchers, who are the main sufferers from waiting for work, are the best
paid, and hence are not as indignant at frequent overtime as the week
workers are. Besides, though obliged to stay in the work-room, they are
frequently seated throughout their waiting time, which sometimes lasts
for four or five hours. I saw one woman about to be confined, who
sometimes starched shirts until two in the morning, after arriving at the
laundry at half past seven on the morning before.

"The other kind of long hours involves constant standing, and is most apt
t