This little thing had got the mother's card
in its hand, and this mere baby presented
it to the relieving officer, waited while it was
examined, and took it back again, all in correct
form, laughing and jumping in its mother's
arms with delight. This seemed quite a standing
joke, and the women and those about her
enjoyed it almost as much as the child itself. It
was at that same relieving-house, by-the-by, that
a poor little mad-woman turned up, almost
immediately after the jovial infant had disappeared
from the scene—a poor wretched woman who
had got it into her head that somebody had
left her two hundred pounds, and who thought
the time and place well suited to urge her
claim to it. Poor thing! how bright her eyes
were, and how emaciated she was with the
fever of her mind. "I tell ye, I will have
it," she said, with inconceivable fierceness and
energy. "I will have it—it's no use putting
me off—I will have it." The people were
very kind to the poor tiresome creature, and
I dare say she is going on at this moment
making the same monotonous appeal for her
rights. What a time to want two hundred
pounds!

The system organised for the distributing of
these different sorts of food was more satisfactorily
at work when I was in Lancashire, than
that for providing the people with clothing.
I have no doubt that by this time a plan of
prompter distribution has been hit upon; but
the precautions taken to prevent any
misappropriation of the different articles ready to be
given away, involved too much delay. It may
have been better to run certain risks, than that
there should be blankets and warm clothing
lying idle, while poor people were cowering at
nights for warmth, under the rags which had
failed to warm them in the day. I know that
it would be sad for the precious articles
to get into wrong hands. It would be
disheartening to discover that the blanket which
you had given away, intending it to cover the
shivering limbs of a child, had been taken
by its father to the pawnbroker's. To avoid
such possibilities, it was necessary to inquire
rigidly into the conduct of the person making
application for clothing, and it was necessary,
further, to mark and stamp the articles given
away in some indelible manner, and by other
means to guard against their being turned into
money. Still, after giving due weight to these
arguments, it was extremely painful to see the
blankets laid up in the store-room, even for a
single day, while the half-naked people were
shivering for want of them.

One of these store-rooms full of cast-off clothing
is well worth visiting. It is really remarkable
to see what very good things people have
consented to part with, and also what queer and
unlikely objects have found their way into the
packages. I saw coats and trousers in most
excellent order, with just a button-hole a little
worn, perhaps, or some small matter of that sort
wrong. Some of the garments had very likely
got out of fashion, though with plenty of wear
left in them. Some, perhaps, had been from the
first hateful to the wearer, who had chosen them
in an evil hour, and who was now heartily glad
of the opportunity of getting rid of them. There
were in one collection a couple of bonnets
of the shape worn before the present French
pattern came in. They were trimmed exactly
alike, and no doubt had belonged to sisters.
One lady had sent a muslin jacket to keep some
factory-girl warm, while another jacket of silk,
richly trimmed with lace, had been contributed
by some other benevolent person. Some ladies
had sent silk dresses; one gentleman a gorgeous
dress waistcoat of moiré antique; another, or
perhaps the same, a pair of dress-boots with
morocco tops. But the most ingenious
contributions of all were a swallow-tailed naval
officer's coat, a cap to match it, and three scarlet
hunting-coats.

The response on the part of the public to the
appeal made to them for cast-off clothing has
been on so great a scale, and has been so very
promptly made, that the Central Committee is
kept continually busy in sorting the contents of
the numerous packages which are incessantly
arriving, and in despatching the assorted bundles
to the different towns which stand in need of
them. Nor are these cast-off clothes all that are
provided. Not only are purchases made for the
benefit of the poor, of blankets and other warm
gear, but large sums are also being constantly
set aside for the redeeming of such articles of
clothing from the shops of the local pawnbrokers.
There is no way in which the funds placed at
the disposal of the Relief Committee could be
more usefully spent.

From this subject of clothing we pass on
naturally to that of employment. The two are
in some sort connected; the very best kind of
employment that can be furnished for the
numberless women thrown out of work by the
cotton failure, being the construction of wearing
apparel.

There are no more important considerations
connected with the misfortune, than those which
are connected with this employment question.
The compulsory inactivity, which lays "its heavy
mace" on these once busy men and women, is
not the saddest element in the whole of this
sad affair. We hardly know what want of
employment is, to uneducated persons. It is bad
enough for the educated, and many are the
expedients which those who need not work are driven
to in order to get through their time; what
must it be to those who have no money to spend
in seeking distractions outside themselves, and
no resources within themselves to fall back upon?
In such cases the mind preys upon itself, and
two or three ideas are dwelt upon incessantly.
Of all the sad sights which meet one at every
turn in these cotton towns, there is scarcely
anything much more distressing than to see an
able-bodied man hanging about his ruined home,
listless, dispirited, and with nothing to do.
Then there is the danger of this inaction in some
cases becoming habitual. When it is of no use
to get up in the dark, and when no object is