Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/244

230 expressing may be a little enhanced by the immediate contrast with that of the female brick-makers I have noticed. Still, compared with many forms of congregate or factory labour, the nail-makers, even with their small earnings, are quite on an even footing as to physical comfort and moral surroundings.

The nail-maker pays on an average 2s. 6d, a week for his cottage and shop. He must find his own tools, which are rather simple and few in number. His anvil is generally a small piece of hardened steel driven into a cast-iron block, and not more than twice as large as the face of his hammer. As he and his family generally make only one size of nails all their lives, he needs only one heading-tool to each hammer. He utilizes every square foot of space at and around his forge. If he and his wife or daughter are the only members of his family to use it, he often lets one or two stalls to his neighbours for 8d. each per week. That is, for this rate of rentage he lets a neighbour heat his rod in the same fire and make nails on the other side of the forge. I have seen four girls of about sixteen years of age standing around the same forge at once, each with her rod in the fire. The coal used must be lighter and more smokeless than the common sea-coal, which is apt to form a crust over the fire, which does not admit small rods easily.