When she goes to the Paragon
someone stands treat, you know.
Her splendid salary of four shillings
is subject to deduction in the shape
of fines—a fine of three pence
if her feet are dirty, or the ground
under the bench is left untidy.
A fine is inflicted for talking,
if a girl is late she is shut out
for half the day, that is for the six
morning hours, and fourpence
is deducted from her day’s eightpence.
One girl was fined a shilling
for letting the web twist round
a machine to save her fingers being cut.
To contribute to the statue the foreman
stopped one shilling each out of their wages,
and further deprived them of half a day’s work
by closing the factory, giving them a ‘holiday’.
The husband can hear of no work
but evidently owing to bad temper
cannot keep a situation long.
The room has practically no furniture
except the bed, and when he has a fit on
he would not think twice of lifting it
and throwing it out of the window.
The baby is small, there is an old box
which does duty for a table. At the first visit
I got the husband to get a pennyworth
of coal, make up the fire, and wash the basin
they washed in for mixing the pudding in.
They were astonished that a suet pudding
could be so light, had never heard
of baking powder being used.
The mother stores milk in a jamjar
on the outside window ledge with a piece
of glass on top. The drinking water
is fetched up from the yard in a kettle.
The contents of the cupboard
have been noted down, as follows:
Lowest compartment—coals, splintered wood,
old newspapers, boots, potatoes, onions,
a stray carrot, and one or two cabbage leaves.
First shelf from the bottom—a frying pan,
back to the wall, cold pickles or jamjars,
empty tins, a paper of tin-tacks,
a penny bottle of ink (no cork),
a penny tin of vaseline (no lid),
a piece of soap, an old hairbrush and comb,
a few bent hairpins, bits of string,
a screwdriver and other tools,
a book or two, a magazine.
Second shelf from the bottom—a plate
with meatbones, cold potatoes and bacon rinds,
a bottle of vinegar, a biscuit tin
with the King in scarlet uniform,
a paper of tea inside, a brown teapot,
white and gold cups and saucers (incomplete),
a blue glass sugar bowl with brown sugar,
condensed milk in an opened tin,
a yellow jug, several spoons, forks
and knives in various stages of use,
round tin trays, some loose jam
in a pie dish, some pickled red cabbage,
a reel of thread with a needle stuck in it,
a battered thimble, a box of baby powder
with a puff in it, some safety pins,
a paper of flower seeds and a little blue bag.
Top shelf—a bundle of old papers,
more tins, bottles, jars and pots,
an old black shawl rolled up,
an old black sailor hat standing
on its side, with hatpins in it,
a broken birdcage, a saucepan with a hole
in it, stuffed out of the way.