INTRODUCTION. WHENEVER the history of economic conditions in this country shall be written, the author will express his gratitude for all works giving the details of especial epochs and phases of industrial life. Among them he will find no more interesting experience than that attending the entrance of women to the industrial field. The author…

Chapter 1 The members of the Gilliken Gang, who, in the slow, thick stream of traffic in Walworth Road, had been noticeable only for the peculiar whistle given when one happened to be for the moment out of sight of her colleagues, turned into Trafalgar Street, and the leader, a round, white-faced young woman of…

Chapter 13 The little waitress at Mitchell’s dining-rooms was so much absorbed in thought during the day following the contest, that humorous customers, noting this, told her she was in love. To Miss Mitchell’s requests for an opinion as to the number of g’s in Reggie, she replied absently, and showed so little interest in…

Chapter 20 A bright morning, and everybody and everything in South London singing cheerfully. Elderly birds in cages, cocking one eye and looking up at the sky, on being hung outside windows straightway began an air of which they had nearly forgotten the tune; the people hurrying along the pavements hummed or whistled; shopkeepers chatted…