I looked. The teeth were worn down by the
constant friction of the metallic brads, while they
were coal-black and rotten.

"I clean my teeth," he added, " else they d be
worse."

After he had told me that the workers had to
furnish their own tools, brads, " grindery," card
board, rent, light, and what not, it was plain that
his thirty bob was a diminishing quantity.

"But how long does the rush season last, in
which you receive this high wage of thirty bob?"
I asked.

"Four months," was the answer; and for the
rest of the year, he informed me, they average
from half a quid to a quid a week, which is
equivalent to from two dollars and a half to five
dollars. The present week was half gone, and
he had earned four bob, or one dollar. And yet
I was given to understand that this was one of
the better grades of sweating.

I looked out of the window, which should have
commanded the back yards of the neighboring
buildings. But there were no back yards, or, rather,
they were covered with one-story hovels, cowsheds,
in which people lived. The roofs of these hovels
were covered with deposits of filth, in some places
a couple of feet deep the contributions from the
back windows of the second and third stories. I

[[59]]

p058 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p059w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p060

v?