Lysende kæber (til Harald Voetmann)

Jeg fik smukt nok en bog for at læse op af Store forventninger i går, ikke en af Dickens, men stadigvæk en temmelig britisk en, The Worst Jobs in History af Tony Robinson, og her er fx og apropos børnearbejderen Dickens beskrivelsen af jobbet som

Match Maker (Victorian Style)

In the nineteenth century matches were made by dipping little wooden sticks into white phosphorus. The fumes from this poisonous chemical caused the dreadful condition known as 'phossy jaw', which blighted the lives of those who made the matches. Its first symptoms were toothache and painful swelling of the gums and jaw. Then came abcesses and foul discharge. Like ghastly glow-in-the-dark toys, the victim's rotting jawbones would give off a ghostly light. The only treatment was an agonizing and disfiguring operation in which the jawbone was removed surgicallly Although phosphorus was banned in Sweden and the USA, the British government refused to follow their example, arguing that such a move would be a restraint of free trade.
  For many people Victorian Match Girls conjure up the sentimental images of bare-footed waifs in the snow selling individual matches. But the Match Girls at the Bryant and May factory in London were pioneers of workers' rights. They worked up to fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. That was before fines. For offences like talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without permission, the girls would have their wages docked by anything from threepence to one shilling. Their hours were 6.30 a.m. in summer (8.00 a.m. in winter) to 6.00 p.m. If they were late, they were fined a half-day's pay.
  These young women were feisty. A commentator described them off-duty: "They have fashions of their own; they delight in a quantity of colour, and they can no more live without their large hats and huge feathers than 'Arry can live without his bell-bottom trousers. They all sport high-heeled boots, and consider a fringe an absolutely essential."