Girls come from school and begin by dabbling about the shop and running messages. Presently they become "spreaders," and in two or three years' time "coverers," the highest position open to them. The cutting of the paper and cardboard is done by machines, which men operate. The material thus prepared to the required sizes is passed on to the girls to be glued up into boxes. The girls use no machinery, and stand to their work at benches. At the height of summer, and despite the gluey atmosphere of the workrooms, the girls have the usual reluctance to open windows. Wages start at 3_s._ or 3_s._ 6_d._ Spreaders are paid from 5_s._ 6_d._, to 7_s._ 6_d._; coverers, 10_s._ and 11_s._ Hours vary from shop to shop. Some begin at 8 and finish at 6.30 (Saturdays, 12.30), with a meal hour at 1 o'clock. Others allow an hour and a quarter for dinner, so as to enable girls to get home. The week is then arranged as follows: 7 a.m. to 9.15 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 3.15 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (I.) _Pattern-book Making._ This trade consists in making pattern-books for travellers, and is usually found in close alliance with box-making. Girls get 4_s._ to start, and rise to 13_s._ a week. The hours in one factory visited were found to be as follows:-- 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. 2 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. without a break. APPENDIX IV.--WOMEN IN THE PRINTING TRADES IN BIRMINGHAM. FIFTEEN firms were visited. No women compositors were found in the chief printing businesses visited in Birmingham. The wife of the manager of one factory said that ten years ago in non-society places there had been a very few women compositors in Birmingham. They took 15_s._, as compared to 33_s._ taken by the men compositors for the same work. It is now fifteen years since the informant left the trade, and she believes that at present none exist in Birmingham. She imagines that it is the strength of the Compositors' Union which has driven them out. Only one owner of a printing business considered that factory legislation was detrimental to the interests of women in the printing trade. He says that he keeps a number of youths where he would otherwise employ women, as in stress of trade overwork has to be done, including Sunday work, _e.g._, at the time of the great cycle boom. He tried to get permission for the women to work on Sunday, but could not. Another manager considered that the Compositors' Union spoilt the chance of women workers in the printing trade. He himself, if it were not for the Union, would like to train girl compositors. No other printer expressed this opinion. All said that, on the whole, men were better in the compositors' room, as they could be set on any job, and the pressure of women would necessitate much rearrangement. MACHINE RULING.