Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BRITAIN FIREWOOD. for door-to-door grindery is one of those occupations which maintain the Italian colony in Clerkenwell. Boot-blacking is one of the great industries of the London streets, giving employment as it does to nearly one thousand persons. Those who follow it are, with the exception of the boys attached to the Central (Reds) Shoeblack Society, licensed by the police— who issue about 800 permits every year— and compelled to keep to the particular “ pitches ” for which they are licensed. They cannot roam about at will ; they must stop at such places as are assigned to them, however unprofitable they may turn out. The value of “pitches” varies enormously; but it may be taken that the adult shoeblacks do not earn nearly so much as the boys belonging to the various brigades. Men have AT WORK. stood all day for less than a shilling,, whereas during a recent year the aver- age weekly receipts of each lad in the Central (Reds) Shoeblack Society—the oldest organisation of its class, having been founded by “Rob Roy” Macgregor in 1851—were £1 5s. 2d. The total earnings for the year amounted to £2,878 5s.; and during its existence the society has received from the public for shoe-blacking no less a sum than ÄI 20,5 50. Admirable is the system on which this useful society is worked. When a boy is- admitted to the school—and no applicant over 16 is turned away if there is room for him—he is provided with uniform and implements out of the general funds. He is then given a “ pitch,” the first sixpence he takes at which he is allowed to spend on a dinner. The remainder of his earnings are divided into three equal parts—one-third he retains for himself as his day’s pay, one-third is kept by the society to meet his expenses in the home, and the remaining one-third is reserved as a “bank” for his benefit. And this apportionment is repeated day by day ; so that the boy gets 6cl. more than two-thirds of his earnings per diem. But he does not CHAIR MENDERS.