From Our Suchien Correspondent Our little city boasts of two egy factories. One, across the Canal, worked by machinery, and one in Suchien which has entirely hand labour. It was to this latter we went. It employs about 50 women and girls and even more men. It is a half-day work; starts at 6 a.m. with an hour for breakfast, and closes at 12 noon, the nien waiting till 2 p.m. to clean the barrels, ete.. that hold the eggs.
There are. two or three long tables which certain women supply with eggs from crates which have a stated number, a record being kept for paying the women.—Each woman sits with a small zinc tray in front of her with an earthenware-glazed basin which receives the whites of eggs. Beside her on the table is another to receive the yolks and on the floor a basket for the shells; these latter are finally drained into a tub so there is little waste. There is a large cistern for them to wash in, and I did not sce a dirty hand amongst them. They break the egg into their hand, Ivt the white run through their fingers and very deftly pitch the yolk into its b: The skill and quickness with which the work was done were wonderful. When these basins are full there are women to carry them in wooden buckets to the end of this shop. The men then take them away and empty the whites into an immense barrel provided with an upright pole, the top of which has two horizontal bars, and the bottom a cross of wood—pretty much like a washing machine.'
The two men at opposite sides of the tub-ach with his hands on these poles—pushed it first from, then to them, a most laborious process which seemed to bring into play every muscle in the upper part of their neck and body. I could not help suggesting that a wheel on the same lines as a washing machine would have done the work as well and saved all this manual energy.
When the egg stuff has been beaten to a thick creamy consist rency, it is put aside in tubs with spigots at the bottom, the scum and froth rise and the liquid albumen is then drawn off, put on metal plates and baked for 30 hours. The baking rooms are supplied with shelves and fired by furnaces luming coke.
Meanwhile the yolks are carried to another workshop supplied with a wooden vat and two large barrel churns, To the yolks are added a prepared baking powder and some other chemical and they are churned to a thick curd. The wooden vat to receive this curd extends to the end of the room, and is covered with canvas for cleanliness. This curd is either partially baked or unbaked according to their orders. They buy "tens of thousands" of eggs per day and one woman can break from three to four thousand in a forenoon, for which she receives 160 cash.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.