dirty the piece is when finished; and the payments are prompt and in
ready money. The remuneration is small, especially to children
learning, and varies, according to the skill and industry of the
worker, from 6d. to 5s. a week; but this is paid in cash immediately
on the completion of the piece. It is easy to see what an important
addition may thus be made to the means of a poor cotter, by the labour
of the young children and girls, who would probably otherwise have no
employment whatever.

The goods being fairly back in the green warehouse, the next process
is to discharge the load of dirt contracted in the smoky mud-hovel,
and restore the original snowy hue of the cotton. For this purpose
they are sent out to what is termed a bleachfield, although those who
should visit such a place in hopes of seeing a verdant lawn, strewn
with the white folds of muslin waving in the summer breeze, would be
grievously disappointed. A bleachfield is simply a huge steam
wash-house, with red brick walls and a tall chimney vomiting smoke,
with not a particle of turf about it. Here, amidst volumes of steam,
and the unceasing splash of water, the mirky mass is subjected to
repeated agitations in hot and cold solutions, by means of revolving
hollow wheels, inside of which the embroidery is tossed and tumbled
for many days. A little chlorine is at last used, with much care, to
complete the bleaching; and after a term, varying from ten days to
three weeks, the goods are once more returned to the manufacturer, of
a pure white, starched and dressed as may be required. We shall find
them by walking from the green warehouse into the darning and ironing
rooms where the final process of examination and finishing goes on,
and whence they are turned out in a complete state into the saleroom,
on the lowest floor of the establishment, to be disposed on long
mahogany polished counters for sale. The extreme economy and method of