Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/83

 advantage. It is her business to keep the hungry mouths satisfied. How to make a halfpenny go as far as a penny is the problem which is causing the furrows on her brow to deepen week by week, and shadows to appear under her strained, anxious eyes.

She may be able to read and be fond of a good book; but there is no time for reading. The baby wants feeding; or there is the husband's tea to prepare; or the little garments need mending. She must wait till the children are grown up. That will be her time. Then she will read and go to meetings and lectures, and, in such ways, try to educate herself. But the children come so fast, and there are so many, the time is long in coming. And when it does come, she has no strength, no inclination. Her chance is gone. And she goes, too, far sooner than she need.

The tendency, observable even now, in domestic as in other arts, is all towards co-operation. If they have plenty of means housewives to-day are not compelled to wash their own clothes. The public laundry has been an institution for a considerable time. So much is its use recognised that many houses are actually built without the