This document provides a summary of life for a working class family in Australia in the early 1900s. It describes the difficult working and living conditions they faced, including long work hours in unsafe factories for low pay, and their basic home life struggling with poverty and disease. It depicts the father working grueling 10+ hour shifts under unsanitary conditions before returning home to minimal meals with his family in their small home.

1. T’was the Days
1901-1914
Regienald Panganiban
SocialStudies9.5

2. Wow, it is not a good
feeling waking up to a
Summers day.
New Year’s Day, A
Federation, 6 British
Colonies were now
considered a
Federation.

3. My name is Johno Anges and I
live a hard life. After waking
up I was already ready for
work, I don’t have many
outfits due to the money
I’m paid but it does the job,
I work under these
conditions every time.

4. I face the same thing everyday on
the way to work, I walk a mere
5kms just to go to a worse
environment than home. There is
an alternative rather than
working, horses, but only the rich
can afford it and they always pass
me while I walk, and then later on
I pass horse droppings that have
been there for a while and the
smell and insects absolutely
dominate the area which means I
am more vulnerable to diseases
which is not a good thing.

5. Here I am at work, in a factory I
spend more than 10 hours in with
unsanitary conditions and toxic
fumes emitting from machinery
and we don’t even have any
proper toilets around here! They
expect us to dig holes and do us
business in there, disgusting pigs.
I am exposed to more illnesses.
We have no guaranteed safety in
this factory AND they all expect
us to work in hot AND cold
conditions! I have no alternative,
this is my only income.

6. I’ve finished my shift and I am
grateful, as I leave I am busting so
much although I was stopped by
one of my bosses telling me to do
overtime without pay, stupid pigs.
So I do for an extra 2 hours and
there is no way I can tell my wife
that I won’t be home for an extra
two hours. Now that I’ve finished
my shift I am really on my way
home and I take the same road
home from the same way I got
here passing the same horse
droppings and insects.

7. I open the door to my home and yell
out, “I’m home!”. The wife named
Sidney and kids Austin and Karen
come out greeting me warmly
and we have supper together,
supper consists of the same as
breakfast for them, but the first
meal of the day for me that was
kept in the Coolgardie Safe. It was
a few slices of bread from a full
loaf and half-eaten eggs. That
was really enough for me, I have
it nearly every-day.

8. Another day of the week, luckily its
the end of the week, I get paid.
Poorly paid for severely
dangerous working conditions. I
walked the same road as
yesterday. Here I go 10 hour
working shift, but this time I get
stains on my shirt from fixing a
machine that required oil, and
according to my wife oil is hard to
clean off. I am on the way to the
exit and my boss stopped me
again, but this time with my pay
about 15 shillings, thank god. I
took the same route back home
but 15 shillings richer.

9. I came home earlier than expected
because I did not work overtime
and I caught the kids cleaning the
house and the wife washing the
clothes, on the way to greet her I
saw a rat and I decided to catch it
and throw it out far away, doing
so I startled the kids and I threw
the Rat out. The children asked
me “Why?” I had replied “They
can give you severe diseases, you
should get rid of them.” The
children then kept an eye out for
them whilst cleaning.

10. As I greet the wife she notices the
stains on my shirt, Sidney gets
angry with me and then after
speaking with her we and the kids
have supper, the same thing as
yesterday with a twist, the loaf is
starting to go off so we pinch off
the off parts and Sidney and the
kids eat but I passed and went to
bed early. Although I did not
sleep because of the Summer
heat, eventually I dozed off.

11. Waking up to another day of scraping
of clothes and moving of furniture,
but this time with a sickly feeling of
vomit and cough, bad mix. I told
Sidney and she said “We will have
to cure that ourselves, it is too
expensive to hire a doctor, but I do
have a feeling it is the whooping
cough, it is common around this
time.” I still went to work the same
route because I needed the money
for the family, I could not miss a day
off work, besides the route isn’t as
bad anymore, I had gotten used to
it but the insects are still sickening.

12. I woke up one very hot morning
sweating and my wife was yelling
out to me to dig a new cesspit,
which was doing for our business,
so I did. I was already late for
work and I decided to take the
day off and refuse pay for that
day because I still have my 15
Shillings, my wife was angry and
me and my children were curious
as to why I was at home on the
day.

13. During this day off at home which is
really on a rare occasion I thought
of entertainment, the only way I
can entertain myself is playing
card games.
Somewhat 15 years later even if
the family got older, work
became easier and money started
to roll in.