TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13740, 23 May 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Times have changed since

In tho "Lowell Offering ,, American thrilled tho world with Factories, its proof of the high

ljterary tastes of the American factory girl. But if she has now 'become a moro ordinary product of industrial conditions, it ia probably because her modern surroundings are less and less suited to develop the flower of literature. When Miss Moreno© Sanvillo, secretary of the- Consumers' League of Philadelphia, experimented as a mill-hand, she found that Pennsylvanian factories, as a rale, were in a dismal state ' as regards neatness, sanitation and a decent amount of comfort in the arrangements for the- long hours of work. In the April number of "Harpers," this brave investigator now recounts, her experiences; and ■while condemning x the cool neglect of Factory Acts f she has nruch praise for the patience and good nature shown by .the girls. Coming as a new hand to mill after mill, she was met in the most sisterly spirit.by those ■whose duty it was to put her in the way of things. Not content with these courtesies during working hours, they would provide for amusement afterwards. "Perhaps you are lonely sometimes; come and see us any Sunday

or every Sunday," ran one invitation. Another girl, still more thoughtful, offered the supposed "Florence Sullivan" one of several "dandy brothers," to '"'com© and see yor Sundays.'" Miss Sanville's plan was to take a job at ono factory after another, sharing work, making friends, . *nd studying conditions, until she had gained a satisfactory view of silk-mill labour throughout tho State. Its worst feature seems the nigiit-work for young girls. Girls under sixteen arc forbidden this employment, but tho. law is evaded in many factories. ,: Ver git aJI blue under the eyes." was described «s the recognised sign of tho night worker, pathetically evident in many snial! lawbreakers stiii in the uhori skirts of fourteen. Another industrial cruelty denies any chacco m" rest from the standing posture during « twelve hours day. During hot weather the girls work in stockinged feet. "After a few hours, the strain iptch the swollen feet becomes unendurable, and ono girl after another discards her slices."' No dining arrangements scczn provided in any mill. "The factory floor at the end of tho dinner period bath looks like, and savours of, tho dust-lieap." Each diner simply sweeps the remnants of crusts, i'ruit, cheeao rinds, nut shells and old paper, from her lap to the ground, for tho rest to walk over, and turns back to her machine ogam. Yet these untidy young women have their poetic instincts. All love flowers. All have a capacity for interest in any wider fact or thought than belongs to their daily narrow task. It is custom that has dulled them to content with "unspeakablo sanitation," and other incidents of physical and moral untidiness, as the common rule of factory life. America, where, according to the last census, ono woman in every five earns her own living, has not yet acknowledged her right to demand fit and decent surroundings for work.

Absent-mindedness is one of Lest the most striking products We of our civilisation to-day. Forget. The needs of humanity are so diverse and complex that tho capacity to comprehend and to remember everything that goes to make up the comforts and conveniences of daily life, frequently falls short of the requisite standard of efficiency. It is the little things that one is required to do at irregular intervals that .p'laco the severest strain upon the memory of the average person. That is to say, there are things most easily forgotten. To compensate- for this the wit of man is perpetually exercised to devise means that shall, by an association of ideas more or less intimate, establish a connection between the forgetful person and the thing to bo remembered. In practice it has been discovered that the most difficult mission to discharge is for the man living in a state of married bliss to perform the simple act of posting a letter for his wife. The devices utilised as a spur to memory in this particular connection are typical of the eirpedienta adopted to compass the necessities of a thousand and one other cases on all fours with it. It is the casual person (and his name is legion) who,adventures forth upon the daily round fulfilled with the most admirable intentions, and who .falls lamentably short in his performances, who must lean upon the adventitious aid df mechanical remembrancers/ Ho must.appeal to his memory through his' friends, or through some of his physical senses—for example, the man with the pieco of string tied tightly round.bifa little finger. He who binds his hand in his handkerchief is certain to excit© the comment of his acquaintances, and ho forthwith Tecalls that ho has been, charged at . the peril of continued domestic felicity to order a load of coal. A knot in ono's handkerchief is another favourite device, but familiarity breede contempt, and one is apt to forget what it ie there for. A jotting on one's ehirfc cuff is another scheme that is likely to miss fire. A note in the tobacco pouch of a smoker 13 a good idea, and something pasted over the glass of one's watch is another. A finger ring strung' on one's key-ring sounds promij;in<T, but probably best of all is to send a postcard to one's eolf, and time it to reach its destination just at the period when the particular activity sought to be recalled may most conveniently be en- j to red upon. This involves calling the machinery of tho State to one's aid; and, in a democratic country, why \ notP

The peasant living On tho Slopes on the slopes of Etna of has had ample opEtna, portunity of late to quote the Sicilian equivalent of "Butohered to make a Roman holiday." Few grimmer contrasts could be found than that afforded by a comparison ■between tho pleasure tho recent eruptions gave tho tourists and the pain they caused to the unfortunate tiller ot the soil. Tho relentless leva destroyed farni3,. gardens, cottages and villas. One correspondent likened tho appearance of tho countryside to that of a district threatened with invasion. Everywhere wero householders removing all their belongings to places of safety. In some places religious processions advanced to meet the terrible stream, to invoke 3>ivine intervention in the interests of tho stricken community. The other aide of the people is thus described: —"Inquisitive sighfcseers are -walking ebout the foot of the mountain in all directions. Never since the days of the last fair has Nicoloai afforded hospitality to such a varied crowd of visitors. Everybody is joyful and happy, and nearly all the languages of the world are spoken. . . .

Nicolosi has assumed a festival appearance. All the inns are besieged; and the sound of metor-horns echoes to the braying of donkeys, the popping of corks, and the choruses of songs. To behold a grandiose eruption transformed into a simple matter of business on the part of innkeepers must surely be a sad sight for an old and conscientious volcano." Bnt to expect people- not to go to witness such a sight would be absurd. Accounts describe the slow but irresistible advance of the lava as a truly terrible spectacle, which'at times impressed the most blase of the tourists. There was something at once awful and fascinating in the way in which this enake of fire crept through vineyards, over walls, end across roads, everything combustible in its course shrivelling up at one© and then flashing into a white flsime. But perhaps it is doubtful if the people of the stapes are

as broken-hearted over tho disaster as one might think. Life on Etna, with its ever-nresent risks,, may produce a philosophic resignation, which gives place, when the eruption is over, to a determination to make a fresh start under ihc shadow of tho cruel tyrant. Centuries of eruptions have not stayed the adr.iTce of man np tho slopes, end this, last outbreak will be no exception.