The Indianapolis journal., 1883-07-09
MR.. BRIGHT'S MANCHESTER
The Brightest Jewel in the Crown of
Free-Trade England,
a Look at the Working People, Their Homes
and Their WaSes-Some Facts and
Figures Worth Consideration.
nobert p. Porter in New York Tribune.

sui Shaw, and Inspector P. H Giiespee, es-
pecally detailed by Chief Constable Wood to
show me the industrial quarter of Manches-
ter that l might be enabled to fairly judge
of the social condition of the working classes
of the cotton metropolis.
There were miles of narrow streets and
thousands of houses. Some had bare wooden
floors, some had red-brick floors, some had
bare flag-stone floors. Hardly one had a
vestige of carpet. The rents for these houses,
containing two or three little rooms, varied
from as low as 2s I'd go cents) to as high as
6s ($1.44) per week. The landlords never do
anything for their tenements, but they are
allowed to crumble gradually to pieces until
they become uninhabitable. The rent-col-
lectc.s were like the ever steaming Pancks,
and have no doubt that the owners of this
property are benevolent-looking old Casbys
who keep in the background and send their
emissaries into these Bleeding Heart yards
OF Manchester to squeeze and grind, and
many pale-faced woman told us that one
week rent in arrears brought down upon
them the bailltf, and the few chairs, the deal
table and the cheap bedstead were sold to pay
the rent Both Col. Shaw and myself were
industrial classes in Manchester 50 poor In
our walks we met with, besides mill hands,
many other classes of artisans farmers engi-
neers, tailors, blind-makers chairmakers,
polishers, butchers grinders, printers dyers,
and here and there a laborer. The average
amount that these people actually received
per week during the year hardly ever ex-
ceeded a pound, or S.. They live from hand
to mouth, genarally in one ROOM in which a
few chairs, a deal table, bedstead, four or
five cups and saucers few dishes and plates,
wash-tub, a saucepan and kettle com prised
the brief articles of furniture. Everything.
jim many cases including the sleeping and
family washing, is done in the general room.
cannot recall a single instance in which l
lfound that the wife had made much effort to
make the home comfortable or cosey hardly
to say clean. The outlook was so cherries
that perhaps they had not the heart to make
an effort. In one home where the husband
was fne-yarn spinner, the following con-
versation took place.
"What does your husband do?'
HE is tine-yarn spinner"
"How much does he earn?n
well, he can earn sometimes as much as
sos ($750.), that is when work is brisk, but
he never brings that much home"
"Why not?'
As rule IS goes for the club and union.
Last week the assessment was Is, and never
get pound for house expenses"
What is your husband?" said Colonel
Shaw to a bright little woman of twenty-one,
rather neater than the average woman OF the
neighborhood.
"A laborer in an ivory factory" she re-
slied.
How much does he earn?' asked the
Colonel.
"Only 16s (s4) a week, sir"
why, how do you live?" inquired tine sur
prised Consul.
ITS pretty hard, sir" replied the little
woman; I'VE never eat meat, of course, and
you see what our home is"
Ano the kind-hearted Colonel put some
thing into the little woman's hand and re-
marked to me: This is awful" as he
walked away.
In no case did we find a female spinner
who earned more than 14s (S3 36) week
piecer who earned more than los Cd ($2. .52),
a weaver who earned over 16s 1888 if a
woman, and not over DDS ($528) if a man.
l do not say that in such mills as l have de-
scribed at Bolton, Oldham, Blackburn or
Burnley, under more favorable circumstances
the operators cannot earn more, but the
above were the highest wages we were able
to discover in the industrial quarters of
Manchester-that is from an operatives
standpoint. | might add that Mr. Robert
Giffen, OF the Board of Trade, has kindly
provided me with proof of his forthcoming
wage tables to be published in the Nliscel-
the statement as given to me by the operat-
ives agrees with the official returns sent to
the Board of Trade by the manufacturers
AT one house we met an old man vino had
for thirty years been a stripper. He fur
nished his own frame, and earned from 12s
to 16s a week. 'Meat?' said the old man,
in reply to question put to him by Colonel
Shaw. 'Why, | have never seen it, except
in the butchers shops. He accompanied us
to place where number of strippels were
at work stripping various kinds of corduroy
The women told us that by working all the
week at this monotonous work they could
net IS ($1.92l.
In the course of this dismal Journey
through the habitatons of these industrious
people, the profit from whose hard, inces-
SAINT toll has built the great city of Manches-
ter. Colonel Shaw met one of the great mill
owners of the district. He was fine speci-
men of an Englishman, and he stood on the
front steps of his mill surveying the scene
with complacency. thinking, no doubt, how
he could still further reduce the cost of cot
ton and cloth a tenth of farthing yard
The following dialogue took place:
Il feel" said Colonel Shaw almost sick at
heart at wnat have seen to-day. Did YOU
ever put your nose in the houses of the work
ing neOple Of this district?"
'tNever."
why, theiS homes are very wretched
You ought to Gee the homes of the operatives
in the United States; they live in a paradise
compared to this"
"Ah, we'll, you don t say so? You surprise
me-"
II could not have believed they were so
bad here if had not gone around and seen
for myself They are so comfortable in
some Of the smaller towns of the cotton dis
trict that | had no idea there was so much
difference. 1t is enough to make any one Ill
to see so much poverty and misery among
the industrial classes"
1t will be seen by this that some mill-own-
ers themselves know nothing of the real con-
dition of their operatives
AS we returned from one of these excur-
sions we met latge number OF girls and
women streaming out of the mills Their
pointed wooden shoes cattered on the
pavement. | wonder what the Lowell fac
tory girls, with their neat hats, and sun