Show I AX ENGLISH CHAIN SHOP Through a doorway and we were In a I chain factory a square apartment of good size lofty with plenty of windows win-dows and ten or twelve forges To each forge were appointed a blower a and a worker Hammer thud and clatter ruled the roost and the heat I I from the forge was considerable of I course though I stood In the middle of the factory among the piles of made chains The workers looked up but did not pause for a moment The iron rods molten were fast being thrashed into ovals and welded one within another and sweat ran from the bodies of the J men and lads J V Mr Smith for my instruction put one of the men through a series of questions He cheerfully answered but as it seemed to me by rotp He was a skilled worker and by toiling with hands and feet for nine hours a day could earn something over a sovereign sov-ereign a week But I was more struck by the look of the girls in the factory Bright eyed rosycheeked and smiling these three or four maidensaged from 12 to 15were a surprise to me Yet for nine or ten hours daily they work a bellows apiece in close proximity to afire a-fire One of them was knitting while she treadled They were grimy of course but they were nevertheless an agreeable surprise to me i Mr Smith however declined to leave mC thus contended They wont be like that long he said theyll be turned into the fiat chested womenmen they all are that work at these cursed forges Theyll marry one of these days go from church to the chain or nail work and grind on and on like that for the rest of their lives and if they bring children chil-dren into the world theyll set the poor little wretches at work themselves and so itll go on to the end of the chapter chap-ter Ignorance doesnt express their state They are just made to be imposed im-posed uponAl1 the Year Round |