SOCIOECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE THEATRE advantage through theatrical employment Statistics show that children’s wages were of real benefit to them and that the rate of pay was exceptionally attractive, especially for girls An 1897 study reveals that boys could expect between 1d and 1/4d per hour for delivering milk, coal, or newspapers, or for working in a shop One barber’s boy earned 2s 6d plus food for working more than thirty hours per week In contrast, girls tended to remain in domestic industries, and there a 10-year-old might earn 6d and food for minding a baby for forty-two hours a week A 7-year-old girl helping a landlady to clean for several hours a day earned only a few pennies a week One 11 year old girl working every night for four and a half hours in a shop earned a total of 1s a week Another girl received 2d and her food for turning a mangle for three and a half hours daily and for ten hours on Saturdays Matchbox makers working in all their out of school hours and on weekends made 6d per gross At the top end of the scale, a 12-year-old brushmaker earned 3s for her week’s labour Rates of pay higher than 1s a week were exceptional for female children.92 In the late-Victorian theatre, however, male and female children could earn between 3d and 6d a night for dancing in provincial pantomimes,93 or between 6d and 1s in London As they became more experienced, child pantomime supers could earn up to 8s a week at Drury Lane or 3s at minor theatres, and between £1 and £3 for chief parts at Drury Lane, or 10 to 20s at the minors.94 Children on one musical tour received 15s a week, and the principals earned between £2 and £5 plus travelling expenses.95 These rates of pay are comparatively generous, even though wages were only paid from the last week of rehearsals, leaving from two to five weeks of labour unpaid When they could get them, managers preferred girls to boys because they were more attentive to authorities; along with the custom of using females for boyish and adolescent parts, this gave girls the competitive and pecuniary edge, as well as valuable experience for adult careers Theatrical wages and provision for unemployment Whereas women in manufacturing trades could expect from four to six weeks of pay to be deducted for illness, slackness of trade, and half-time seasons, performers’ off-time was much greater.96 Estimates of the average number of weeks performers were in work vary, but Halling and Lister concur with an American source that suggests that thirty weeks is a reasonable figure Gardner is more pessimistic, 33