WOMEN SLAVES OF THE FORGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10582, 11 October 1910, Page 6

WOMEN SLAVES OF THE FORGE.

• ;:.Tihemost pathetic figure 111 the strike • of; tike, women > chammakers> • Gradley) Heath (says >a Lon,doij pi>i>er).,is Mrs Patience' Rpund]' an; old. w.oman. of 79, raised -.•liei* feebly .voice- -with, ithei other' wornem-i-who:.' axe • demftndiflg the riglit to live. « - 1 ' 1 ■ It is now 67 years since Mrs Round, as a young girl, started on her long career of chain-making. Since that day her world lias been the forge :n her backyard. The _ great happenings in the world outside have never pierced the walls of her lidmej. where l -day after day/.- and, -year ''after year she has ceaselessly .beaten-the glowing iron into shape and; worked tlie bellows until her figure lias become bent and her hands indented' with the marks of the chains she has forged. ' After sixty-nine years the old woman has laid- down .her hammer and bravely defied her employers, by the others who demand wages of 2-ld ; ar. hour instead of ljd an hour. I found her standing beside her forge, where the white' ashes on the stone floor showed signs of recent work before -the strike*: • She- was full of -excitement, for .she had just returned from a strike'meeting-held-a)mile» from the chain-making village. > ■ The very fact of.the place of meeting being ' so l far away l'\vr>s' of - great moment to Mrs Round,- who liasnever in' her life stepped across: the outskirts of Cradley Heath., Birmingham, which is ten miles'; a wavy foreign town "to.'the oldworriati of the forge.-' ''These aTe wonderful, times,", sho said. "I never thought that I should live to assert the rights of 'lis women. It has been the* 'week of my . thVeeind'etmgsi-'andstitJh-besiutifiTl'talk-when'4he -winter comes -wo-'shfilj. Jiavo 3£d ian. hour. That .will be riches; but the time seems so long. In the whole of my liffe.l have never stopped working ill the shop for more than two da vs. I started when I was a little girl of ten —-it seems loag, long years ago ■ now —and ever since then I .'ihavef made^chains—hundreds and hundreds of miles of them. -Once I used to count, and counted 'up .to 3000 miles, but that was-long. ago. I have learned-to love the forge, for in the winter'.time the glowing: Are keeps, me warm and the bright sparks keep me cheerful. I'm getting just a little old-now." Mv husband is a cripple,'andi it is hard work to keep our little home together!" •' * ' ' ij Mrs Round, did not exaggerate'the' difficulty of keeping' the 'home together. Beforei.'.tlie strike' she used-'to > ijs'd'at four o'clock in the morning, and finish, work when the light faded so that she could not see to pierce the- of the" never-ending chain together. . .People, wonder -How she lives, as many wonder -how anv of' the -women - live who- woTk fevery minute of! the-day at-their-fbrges and only snatch a few hours of sleep when. it becomes physically impossible for them to continue work. .i l ' ; : Nothing 'tvoutside ; • -the; tfoi-ge—except;■ the strike, which is the one exciting* iii.cident m her life—has any: interest for lieri -1 Her .life. is- -wrapped, up m- the i making- of ■chains,' and shet*will= talkffoF. i.hours : ihe-•''sparkS'rand>-/woiiiaierful, chains she has made during 1 hercareer .. i. Her children have grown up, and in i their turn have become cham-makers,--i and their children have also- 'becomei i chain-makers. The old - woman, -therefore, is now . left at home-Ivitlfe Her;crippled husband. 5 Mrs Round is< not the only chain- ; maker .years',jOf iage^jiWho. has struck. -There • are-itwelwefstrikers.: in all who have reached three score and ten.' ' 1 ' s ' " - » -»