The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-04-13
FEMALE BLACKslGITHs.

The pedestrian explorer Of odd places in
and about Stafordshire would, in the event
Of his approaching either Netherton, Row
ley, Lye Waste, or Bromsgrove on Sat
urday afternoon, encounter q spectacle that
might rather puzzle him-a struggling pro
cession Of men and women and children,
the majority of the former sober, but a
few Of them drunk, and one and all %
scantily and shabbily dressed that their
poverty-stricken state of existence Is at
once made known. The puzzled explorer
would naturally be curious to ascertain Of
what kind of mothers such children could
be born. There they are-the women who
come toiling down the road, sometimes
with load OF rods on one arm, and ON the
other q hehE-~nmen well able IN carry
such double load, however. The size Of
their arms is prodigious. Here comes along
one laden with baby and iron, a wien faced
woman, lank as plank and about as sym
metrical, but whose bare right arm and the
fist terminating it might belong to prize
I fghter-a brown fist with broad thumb,
and an arm with sinews standing out like
/ tanned cord; and muscle e-for the woman
like the majority, wears her gown sleeves
tucked up" as a male mechanic wears his
shirt sleeve-that bulges to the size Of a
penny roll. Let the puzzled explorer bot
tie up his curiosity, and come this way again
say, to Lye Waste, on Monday, for an
explanation.
Here in the village are rows and whole
streets Of smithy novels, and the fronts are
wide open, and there you may observe
them. If you like to :" stand" a can of beer
you may enter the smithy and have a chat
with them-but idle only on your part.
Time is too precious when a woman, strip
ped like a man from wrist to shoulder, must
face the forge for fourteen hours day be
fore shilling may be earned.
The streets Of Lye Waste are Ia rbw and
not unclean and, as before stated, by the
side Of every house Is a smithy, and each
one contains from two to five i stalls" OF
hearths, as each fire is called, and at
nighttime the light is 50 great that SIR e:
lamps are rendered superhuity. BY the
ruddy glow that streams out from the nu-
merous hearths it would be quite easy to
find a pin dropped in the middle Of the
street Whole families work in these
smithies. 1t is nothing uncommon to find
a mother and her three lusty daughters,
fully Of manageable age, stripped to their
stays, and, with kerchief over their shoul-
ders, welding the hammers and tugging at
the bellows, and working away with a will
amongst the banging and roaring and spark
flying, and singing as merrily a. larks, II
not as melodiously Children, too-the
youngsters that the puzzled explorer met
last Saturday The rods they and their
parents carried were nail-rOds and here
they are, the small Nulcans, sweating over
an anvil, set up according 10 their stature,
making brads. Pale little Wretches. mnst
of them, the freight bctraying with cruel
fidelity their haggard, unchildish faces,
each one wistful and anxious with the c.,n-
sciOusness that bread t. eat must first be
earned. II appeared odd enough 70 see the
women standing in the smithy ashes with a
big hammer in their INST but 1t was mn
nitely more painful 10 watch these tiny
\ brad-makers, with a wisp Of rag round their
heads 10 keep the baby growth Of hair out
Of their eyes, Strengthening their small backs
and splitting on their palms before they
grasped the hammer to make the most Of
the heat. For making twelve hundred
nails leach one to be nipped off the bar and
! fashioned from the fire and finished, he it
remembered, she would receive, If all went
D WE'LL Tic nhluSOiAlc VI tNciNt ktuCG ,
but they have yet 10 be weighed to count
/ The nail merchant takes a promiscuous
handful from the bulk and places them in
the scale, and, noting the weight, proceeds
to count them, and, unless they tally
exactly fifty TO the half pound, a penny is
deducted from the shilling earned. And
this happens once ont Of every three times
about, said the elderly lady who informed
me, pausing for a moment to put her hair
back with her hammer hand This petty
robbery is called failing" The women,
when on good work, and sticking to it from
eight in the morning until ten at night, can
earn six or seven shlllings a week. Children
employed at brad-making average two shil-
lings a week, working the same number Of
4 hours. The fuel used is coal slack or
4 'breese, and costs tenpence a sack.
got quite friendly with the old lady ;
and on my asking her whether, on the
whole, Lye Waste might be regarded as a
place where content reigned she replied,
"that it would be all ri hit if it wasn't for
the foggers."
The logger" Of the Matchmaking village
is sometimes chandler's-shop keeper, or,
oftener still, a beer-shop keeper, who like
wise does little in the nail trade He
keeps little stock Of rods by him, with the
virtuous intention Of discouraging habits
Of idleness amongst his customers. Say
there are half q dozen idle fellows boozing
in his tap-room, and by and by they find
themselves not more than half-drunk, and
with no more money to help them towards
the contamination Of that blissful condition
Trust us a quart, master, says dissi
pated mailer Earn it fust, and you shal
have as much as you like, says the honest
host. Here's iron 60 home and make
fire, and slip into the work like brisk lad
and in couple Of hours you may put your
self three, four quarts to the good.
That's how they catch EN-" exclaimed
my old woman, who, l think, from he
manner, must have suffered from =" fog" a
some period of her existence I; p" they neve
pays EN- penny ; it must be all took on
in beer, and there is scores Of EN- do i
who, l believe, would be sober chap
enough if it wasn't for the temptation.
And is there such q system prevailing
amongst the provision shops r. asked
Any number Of EN-, said she I" and 8
you find it all hereabouts" But there i
q recent Act of Parliament which forbid
that sort Of traffic, said 81 assure yo
ma am, that it's against the Law" "Ah .
she replied, there's lots of things agi
law and agin natur', too, down in thes
parts, that want looking after y and a. sh
said 90 she shrugged her bony shoulders j
resignation, and once more took her han
mer In her shrivelled old hands, that weH