she made 7066 match boxes, and earned $2.20??, less
her paste and thread;

Last year, Mr. Thomas Holmes, a police court
missionary of note, after writing about the condi
tion of the women workers, received the following
letter, dated April 18, 1901:

Sir: Pardon the liberty I am taking, but, having read
what you said about poor women working fourteen hours
a day for ten shillings per week, I beg to state my case.
I am a tie-maker, who, after working all the week, cannot
earn more than five shillings, and I have a poor afflicted
husband to keep who hasn t earned a penny for more than
ten years.

Imagine a woman, capable of writing such a clear,
sensible, grammatical letter, supporting her husband
and self on 5 shillings ($1.25) per week! Mr.
Holmes visited her. He had to squeeze to get into
the room. There lay her sick husband; there she
worked all day long; there she cooked, ate, washed,
and slept; and there her husband and she performed
all the functions of living and dying. There was
no space for the missionary to sit down, save on the
bed, which was partially covered with ties and silk.
The sick man s lungs were in the last stages of
decay. He coughed and expectorated constantly,
the woman ceasing from her work to assist him in
his paroxysms. The silken fluff from the ties was
not good for his sickness; nor was his sickness

[[208]]

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v?