I sez, "but ..." (_Here another disturbance takes place; a little man,
with red whiskers, has mildly objected to being leant upon by a burly
stranger, who bawls_--"What are you afraid on? You ain't bin fresh
painted, 'ave yer? Are yer 'oller inside--or what? Ga arn--I never
knoo a carrotty-'aired man good for anything yet," &c., &c.) Then
there's Mr. MATTHEWS, the 'OME SECKERTARY, _'e's_ against us, which
I think 'e must be a woman-'ater hisself! (_Feeling suggestion from
crowd that the_ HOME SECRETARY _has suffered a disillusion in his
younger days._) But I was goin' to tell yer what we poor women 'ave
got to put up with. Now there's a Mrs. HIRONMOULD, of Starch Row,
Hacton Green, as I've worked for. (_A Lady in crowd, who knows_ Mrs.
H. "Ah, _she's_ a beauty!" _Cheers for_ Mrs. HIRONMOULD.) Well, I'll
tell yer something about _'er_--it'll jest show you what _she_ is!
Why, that woman, as I know myself, she acshally ... (_She relates
a personal and Rabelaisian reminiscence of_ Mrs. H., _to the huge
delight of the audience._) I'll tell yer another thing--I've worked
for a man down at South End, Healing, and this'll show yer the amount
o' hinsult and hill-treatment we 'ave to stand, and never say nothing
to. I've seed 'im, hover and hover agen, walkin' about among us in his
shirtsleeves, with 'is braces 'angin' about is 'eels! (_Cheers from
the crowd; demonstration with scrubbing-brush by the old Lady in the
drag._) I 'ave indeed, and I don't tell yer no lies. (_Here a Lady in
the crowd suddenly exhibits a tendency to harangue the public on her
own wrongs, and has to be suppressed._) And that man 'e'd come up to
me and say, "Ain't them shirts finished yet?" he sez. "No," I'd say to
'im, "they ain't, and I don't deceive yer." "It's time they was," he'd
say. "Beggin' your pardon," I'd tell 'im, "it's nothink o' the kind;
and, if you don't believe _my_ word, you may go and call your Missis
out of the back kitching, as knows more about it than you do!" An' are
you goin' to tell _me_ we ain't to 'ave a Factory Act, after _that_?