A Girl of the People | Page 8

famine or distress.
Most of the men are dock-laborers; they are often taken on only for half
a day at a time, and in this way their work is precarious, and, except for
the most steady-going and respectable, at many periods of the year very
hard to get. Almost all the men either work at the docks, or take to a
sea-faring life. Thus sailors are coming and going, and there is scarcely
a family belonging either to high or low who has not a son, a brother,
or a father on the sea. Perhaps this is one of the facts which binds the
people to one another--the rich lady in her carriage, and the poor
starved, gaunt woman who lives in one room up many pairs of stairs in
a dismal back slum, look alike out on the waters of the Mersey for the
boy who may come back any day with the taste of the sea about him.
The Liverpool boy has his work cut out for him; those who wish to
belong emphatically to the place of their birth, either earn what they
can at the docks or go to sea. They need never debate as to their
profession or their calling in life; it is cut out for them--it lies at their
feet with that sea which is brought by the ships to their very doors.
But the Liverpool girl--that is, the girl of the people--is not so fortunate.
She has no special work provided for her; she is not like the
Manchester girl, who is as certain to go into the factory as she is to eat
and drink--there are scarcely any factories in Liverpool, and a very tiny
proportion of girls find work there.
Domestic service is hated by the Liverpool lass. At one time, when
forced by necessity to adopt this means of earning her bread, she made
a stipulation that she should at least sleep at home--that her evenings
from seven o'clock out should be her own. Now that this rule is no

longer allowed, domestic service is held in less esteem than ever, and
only the most sensible girls dream of availing themselves of its
comforts.
While the boys, therefore, are earning and striking out independent
paths for themselves, the girls are under difficulties. They must earn
money; for life is not too easy to live in their native place, and each
must bring in his or her small portion of help to the family purse; but
how, is the difficulty. Some hawk fruit and vegetables, doing a fairly
brisk trade on Saturdays, and even on Sunday mornings; but the most
favored Liverpool girls earn their daily bread by selling newspapers
night after night in the streets. A good-looking girl will secure her
regular customers, have her own regular and undisturbed beat, and will
often earn from tenpence to a shilling a night; but the newspaper beats
have to be bought, and often at a high figure, for competition is very
keen, and the coveted corners where the greater number of gentlemen
are to be met that require evening papers are highly prized.
Bet Granger had been a newspaper girl for a couple of years now; her
mother had saved up money to buy her beat for her; it was one of the
best in the town, and she was always so trim and neat, so comely and
pleasant-looking, and her papers so clean and crisp and neatly cut, that
she did a fair trade, and largely helped to support her mother and little
brothers. Her trade occupied her for a couple of hours every evening. In
the morning, as the mood took her, she helped her mother with plain
needlework--Mrs. Granger worked for a wholesale shop at the usual
shop prices--or she went down to the docks.
Every Liverpool girl is fond of watching the ships as they come in or
go out; they connect her with the outer life, with the far-away
world--they give her a pleasing and ever-recurring sense of excitement
and exhilaration; but, as a rule, they never implant in her breast that
fever to be off and away which so soon affects the Liverpool boy.
Bet liked to watch the ships. She would stand erect and almost haughty
in her bearing, often quite close to the edge of the quays, speaking very
few words, and making scarcely any acquaintances, but thinking many
strange and undefined thoughts in her untutored heart.

The Grangers did not belong to the lowest of the people. Granger was a
clever workman. He was seldom out of employment; for although he
drank away his earnings, and gave no thought whatever to the comfort
of his wife and children, he was sober and steady by day. He had a
clever, shrewd head, as yet unaffected