produced this effect. The young lady who lay with
me said, on the particular morning referred to,
' What shall we do till eight o'clock, as we cannot
get to sleep?' We walked about the room
till six o'clock, when I went out and called upon
my sister at—— . The other young persons
(with the exception of one who managed to sleep
an hour or so) endeavoured to employ
themselves, some by writing, others by looking over
their boxes, and such-like, till breakfast; after
which we continued working till twelve o'clock.
This was Saturday night. Five of us occupied
one bedroom. The apartment was very small
and close— very close— and not clean. The
ceiling was so low, that when I stood upright,
tiptoe, I could, by a slight additional movement
of the body upwards, touch it with my
hand. We were so crowded, moreover, that we
could not all move about and dress at one time;
and what made it still worse, it adjoined another
room in which two others slept. These young
persons were so cramped for space, that they
literally could scarcely move. They were obliged
to have the door kept open that led into our
room, or they must have been stifled, as there
was no other way of their getting air. We
were thus, as it were, seven persons sleeping in
one apartment. In their little room there was
no fireplace; in ours there was, but there was a
chest of drawers against it, for which there was
no space in any other part of the room.

"As I have before said, on the Saturday of
my fourth week's residence in this establishment,
we left off work at twelve o'clock at night.
I made up my mind that I would not work later
that night, come what would. Indeed, I felt
that I could not do another stitch. During the
afternoon and evening, as it was, I had to leave
the workroom several times, to try to get relief
by drinking, and by washing my face and
forehead with, cold water. We also had a smelling-
bottle on the table, or we never could have kept
awake. After retiring to my bedroom, I was in
such a feverish state as to be obliged to apply
wet linen to my head. On the Sunday morning,
when I awoke, my tongue was so swollen that
I could not speak. My eyes, also, were so bad
that I could not see; and I was obliged to be
helped out of bed. I afterwards managed, with
great difficulty, to get to my uncle's, the distance
not being far, or I could not have walked. He
desired me to leave my situation at once, and
would not allow me to go back to stay. I
returned, however, in the afternoon, and told
Madame—— of my determination to leave her.
She said it was disgraceful on my part to do so,
as I had engaged for the season. Oh, I should
have told you that we had, had I remained, the
pleasant, or rather unpleasant, prospect of working
all the following Monday night, as the sister
of the principal had said on the Saturday evening,
'I hope, young ladies, you will come in
early on Sunday night; for we shall have little
or no rest till Wednesday morning, ' meaning
that we should have to work, the fifth week of
my stay there, the whole of Monday and Tuesday
nights. But fearing, as I have reason to
suppose, after what had transpired the previous
night, that the state of things in their establishment
would be exposed, the principal, her sister
and niece, themselves worked the whole of
Sunday, by which means the necessity for working
all Monday and Tuesday nights being
removed, the young ladies, as I afterwards learnt,
left off each of those nights at twelve o'clock.
. . . . I went on the following Wednesday for
my boxes, when I was treated very rudely by
Monsieur—— , who said that I had run away
on the Sunday, being afraid of the day's work on
the Monday. I replied that, as long as I had
remained there, I had done my duty; and as
during that period I had worked at night, I had
proved that I was not afraid of day work, and
that I had left his establishment as honourably
as I had entered it. He refused to pay me, and
otherwise acted most unkindly. Indeed, he
went on in a most scandalous manner. I was
so hurt in my feelings, that, but for my sister, I
should not have applied again for the money due
to me. I have, however, since been paid. . . .
I am very sorry I ever entered the dressmaking
business. . . . . I feel very unwell. My doctor
told me that I am naturally of a strong constitution,
and have only been made ill through my
suffering in business. Another young lady from
—— , aged eighteen, entered the same establishment
about three years ago in good health, and
after being there six months she became seriously
ill from over- work; and not being allowed to
remain in the house, she was taken to the
hospital, where she died within three weeks, having
only one friend in London, who was not made
acquainted with the poor girl's illness till too
late to remove her. Numbers of others from
—— (the place where the principals of the house
came from) have also been obliged, through
illness, to return home, where, after lingering a
short time, they have died the victims of
overwork in the same establishment. . . . . The
young people are always complaining among
themselves in the workroom, but have not
courage to do so to Madame. The same people have
another establishment at—— , the arrangements
of which are, I hear, much worse than even those
of the London one. They employ them there
constantly, during the season, till four o'clock in the
morning, and often on Sunday as well.

"I believe the case that I have narrated
respecting myself is by no means an exceptional
one; there are numerous other London
establishments quite as bad, and even worse."

There has been no substantial change for the
better in the condition of milliners' hands for
the last quarter of a century. The narrative
we have here quoted in full, is still a true
picture of many houses, but not of all; not of the
best; not of that against which the death of a
workwoman produced recent clamour. In all
good milliners' houses, a really good table is
kept, there is a kindly fellow-teeling between
employers and employed, who eat together, work
together, think together. As a general rule,
fortunes are not made in the millinery business,
and employers are not fattening upon the