The very

has proved one of the greatest sources of our success. marked superiority of some of the girls lies really in themselves alone, not necessarily in their homes or their daily occupations. Many of them work side by side with the rougher hands, although sometimes they get into a quiet room, and earn better wages. In any case they come in constant contact with the noisy life of the factory, and yet they pass through it, holding to their own better ways, ' in it, but not of it.' It takes us a long time to realise the position of these 'superior ' members, but when we see what a girl can do by herself we are filled with hope.

To return to our first aim, which we will discuss more fully.

Recreation. Our first duty is to try and understand the lives of those with whom we have to deal. To do this, we must place ourselves in the position of a working girl, endeavouring, if possible, to view life from her standpoint. Let me therefore describe the ordinary day of a factory girl's life, a girl, that is, who has gone to work at the age of thirteen or fourteen, as soon as she could obtain her labour certificate from school.

The girl whose day we will now describe is one of a large family, and shares a bedroom with two sisters. They are all at work, but are quite independent, and they do not even affect interest in each other's affairs. After a hurried breakfast prepared by their mother they rush off to the factory, a walk of five or ten minutes; the roads lined with hands hurrying along. The girls shout out merrily to their mates, and sauce the men, who answer in no very refined language. Once at the factory, they are boxed up in one room all day long with the same workers, doing the same monotonous work from 8 to 1 and from 2 to 7 o'clock. It is easy to imagine the terrible power for evil which a few bad men or women can have in such a roorn. The forewoman is sometimes kind and sometimes hard and 'teasing;' the girls on piece-work can wire into it' (their expression for very hard work) with all their might. One of our girls literally killed herself in this way, through her eagerness to keep a home for a blind father and sick mother. At one o'clock all hands turn out of the hot factory, stopped, it may be, at the gate by some girl whose mate is in trouble and who is collecting money to help with the expenses of funeral or sickness, and then-chaffing the men right and left-out go the girls, and swing down the streets in bevies of five or six. Woe to the mother who has not got the dinner ready by the time they reach home; for they must all be back in their places by two o'clock. The afternoon's work is the same as that of the morning, and lasts till seven o'clock, except in busy times, when girls over eighteen may be kept back for two hours over time. Those leaving at seven turn homewards, thankful that the day's work is done, and overflowing with animal spirits. They hurry in to tea, and as soon as this is finished. they go out again, calling for their mates as they pass along. Now 3 C

VOL. XLIII-No. 255

is our golden opportunity, the precious hours of leisure when we must step in and attract them to our club. If we fail to do this, where do they go? They cannot stay at home; the small rooms are full, the father having his tea, the little ones waiting to go to bed; and anyway the girls must have some vent for their energies after being pent up all day in a hot room. So if the club does not attract they go off in shoals to a crowded thoroughfare near, and walk up and down by the glaring shops, always on the look-out for a lark, and often, I fear, entering the public-houses. Some are even content to spend from 8 till 11 at night hanging round the corners of the streets. Before judging them hardly let us, however, consider the position these girls are placed in. Their weekly earnings vary from 3s. 6d. to 10s. or even 12s., but the average is about 6s. They give their mothers 58. a week for board and lodging, and out of the rest they clothe themselves--no easy task, when cheap boots with paper soles are the fashion! But factory work is very fluctuating, and bad times encroach on the good, and then again there is often trouble in the home; so that as a rule a girl's pocket is perfectly empty three days after she is paid! She cannot therefore go to places of amusement except on rare occasions, and so if she does not belong to a club she must generally end her day by dawdling about the streets with the acquaintances of the factory: not necessarily doing harm, but learning no good, nothing to counteract the downward tendencies of life.

In face of these facts it is easy to believe that clubs are really needed, and should have bright recreation rooms. The girls who come there are sheltered from evil influences, and we have a thousand opportunities of guiding them to better ways of thought and life. They are so quick to receive the impress of that greater refinement which belongs especially to the leisured classes that the improvement to be seen in them even after a few weeks is quite astonishing. This room is our happy hunting-ground; here we get to know the new girls, and pick out one or another and draft them on into the quieter rooms, where they can take up some steady interest. After the clatter and noise of the factory they are surprised that we wish for quiet, gentle manners, but they soon fall into our ways—ways which are not new to them, having been taught them in the day school not so very long ago!

Dancing is a great attraction, and if it is kept to one evening a week, and not allowed to spread over and disturb other evenings, I believe it is a thoroughly good and healthy amusement. The recreation room is the most difficult one to manage satisfactorily. Here personal influence is the golden key by which all difficulties are overcome; the girls are soon persuaded by any one they love, and settle down into quiet groups round the piano or to play games. I must now hasten on to the second aim.

I have spoken at length of recreation-good in itself as far as it goes, but no club lives its highest life which is content to stop at recreation. The girls must be encouraged to do something and finish it; in learning and in conquering their difficulties their characters will be developed and strengthened. They will find, too, the happiness of putting out their greatest strength, and of being deeply interested in any undertaking. The most grievous feature in a factory girl's character (and is it only in a factory girl's ?) is its utter weakness and lack of purpose or perseverance. An interest which is taken up suddenly is dropped as suddenly, and from no apparent reason. In factory work nothing is expected of the 'hands' which calls out any individuality, and so their characters grow weaker and weaker, and they float along with the stream, losing, it almost seems, their very identity, and becoming as featureless and colourless as the very streets they live in. We can see at once how easily they fall a prey to every kind of bad influence, with no better guide than a weak emotional nature, and no higher interest than the pleasure of the moment. We try to teach them the responsibility of their lives and actions, that they must keep their word, stick to what they have undertaken and finish it, respect the rules of the club, and pay their weekly penny regularly. We try to show them that everything worth doing is only achieved through taking trouble. We have now got a large and successful dressmaking class, which, though many more wished to join, we have been obliged to limit in number to twelve, as the teacher could not manage more. Yet the girls in this class know when they begin their dresses in Novembe that they will have to work steadily until Whitsuntide before they can finish them, and that they must pay every penny before they can take them home. Surely we have here a proof that the girls have strength of purpose; it only wants drawing out, educating in fact. I attribute the success of this class greatly to the teacher. She expects much of her pupils, and gets it, and with it the devotion of the whole class. After several years we find our moral teaching is beginning to tell, not only in the dressmaking, but in the singing, the gymnasium, the basket work, and, indeed, in every class we may start. A certain strength of purpose comes to all those girls who have shown a steady interest in any one thing, and we in our turn choose them to be the leaders in our new enterprises, putting them in responsible positions.

So far we have not been able to attempt much in the way of lectures, or more intellectual interests, but we are always pushing on in this direction, and we hope soon the girls will be ready for some simple literature classes.

I now come to my last point: the third aim-to give the girls higher ideals of life. I placed this last because in classing the work under three heads I pictured them in an ascending scale,

and this is quite the most important one, stretching far above the others, yes, reaching even unto the heavens.

It is very difficult for us to realise the sordid surroundings of these girls' lives, the hurry and noise in which they spend their days, the crowded homes and the absence of refinement in which they are brought up. It is only now and then, by some passing incident, that the veil is lifted for us, and we see for a moment their life in all its bald reality. Who does not remember such an experience or the hearing of some story, painfully true, which has sent them home pondering over the great gulf which still separates class from class-a gulf which makes it hard at first for us to understand the language from the other side, or to judge their actions fairly. Sometimes, when we contrast our easy sheltered lives with theirs, our hearts fail before the work we have undertaken, and we are tempted to say: How can a girl pass through unscathed, how can we blame her if she fails?'

But when we come to giving living principles and noble aims which each one of us must apply to our own lives, we come to a part of the work where we are no longer hindered by any fear of misunderstanding; where we are not afraid that our clumsy fingers will mar what we wish to make. We remember that beautiful thoughts are the seeds from which beautiful lives spring up, and that St. Paul's injunction to the Philippians has lost none of its power in our present day: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, of good report-think on these things.'

We have already sketched the way a factory girl spends her day; we have seen how she is surrounded by debasing influences and bad talk, or if not actually bad, by careless foolish chatterings; we have seen how seldom her thoughts are raised to what is 'lovely, pure, or of good report.' Must we not try to help her in this direction? We have had leisure and opportunities of culture and of entering into the elevating thoughts of our times; have we not something we can give to our less favoured sisters? Cannot we seek to show them the deeper meanings of life, and raise their thoughts above their surroundings? In our clubs we have the opportunity of doing this. Here we can talk to the girls and join in their games, &c. A wise and holy lady once said to me, 'It is an education to the girls even to be with a refined woman, to watch her, talk to her. Her whole standard of life is so different from theirs, that unconsciously they are learning by being with her.' It is a great thing to have a short address at prayers once a week, given by one of the ladies who are regularly in the club. This is a priceless opportunity. After the quieting influence of a hymn, the girls are all prepared to listen ; and how they listen! with hungry eyes fixed on the speaker drinking in every word. Only let the address be short and to the point, illustrated if possible by some story which will stay with them, or will perhaps come back to them as they sit at their monotonous work,

and leave a trail of light behind as it passes through their minds. The eternal truths have illuminated the heart of every variety of human being, and we believe that they are as much fitted to raise and reform the wild factory girl as one of the most sheltered in our own circles. In this faith we cast our bread upon the waters.' Who would dare to call these girls to come out and live pure and holy lives in their own strength? The task would seem hopeless-useless; and yet, by the grace of God, we have seen this hopeless work accomplished. At the present time we have girls in our club who came in wild and careless, but are now living splendid lives in the worst of factories, to the amazement of all their former mates. They have grasped the idea of the higher life, and are working it out for themselves in ways which we might never dream of.

I

In conclusion I should like to say a few words on a subject which is the perplexity of all workers. Why is it that we cannot get more ladies to come and help to make our clubs a success? When we speak of the young working girls and their unsheltered, busy lives, we are almost certain of having the sympathy of our hearers, from whatever circle they may be drawn. There is something picturesque, even pathetic, in these lives which appeals to all of us. And yet this sympathy, this responsive interest in the work, generally melts away into thin air directly any practical proof of it is required. attribute this principally to the fact that recreation is apt to be looked upon as an unimportant thing. People think it cannot matter so very much if they do not go regularly to a club, if it is only to play games or dance music. So, tempting invitations are accepted on club nights, and the oftener they are accepted, the less useful does the work appear afterwards. The ladies lose touch with the girls and interest in the club schemes, and when things begin to go wrong they say they have no vocation for club work and are glad to find an excuse for giving it up. And yet we all know quite well that nothing can prosper which is done irregularly!

I attribute this half-heartedness on the part of our would-be helpers to two causes :—

(1) That they have not a high aim in view behind the recreation, that they have not seriously thought out the position of those they are trying to influence, or realised their crying need of friends to help and guide them. Above all, they may not have grasped the idea of self-sacrifice as the essential condition of all work that is worth doing.

(2) That they have not understood the initial difficulty of getting hold of the girls. How are they to be caught or brought under better influences? how, indeed, are we even to see their faces? After living amongst them for several winters, the difficulty of reaching these young factory workers seems to me even greater than it did at