<P> Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, remarked favorably on the conditions: "I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, I would have removed from those works if I had had the power ." " However, there was concern among many workers that foreign visitors were being presented with a sanitized view of the mills, by textile corporations who were trading on the image of the' literary operative' to mask the grim realities of factory life . "Very pretty picture," wrote an operative named Juliana in the Voice of Industry, responding to a rosy account of life and learning in the mills, "but we who work in the factory know the sober reality to be quite another thing altogether ." The "sober reality" was twelve to fourteen hours of dreary, exhausting work, which many workers experienced as hostile to intellectual development . </P> <P> The investors or factory owners built hundreds of boarding houses near the mills, where textile workers lived year - round . A curfew of 10: 00 pm was common, and men were generally not allowed inside . About 26 women lived in each boarding house, with up to six sharing a bedroom . One worker described her quarters as "a small, comfortless, half - ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants". </P> <P> Trips away from the boarding house were uncommon; the Lowell girls worked and ate together . However, half - days and short paid vacations were possible due to the nature of the piece - work; one girl would work the machines of another in addition to her own such that no wages would be lost . These close quarters fostered community as well as resentment . Newcomers were mentored by older women in areas such as dress, speech, behavior, and the general ways of the community . </P> <P> Workers often recruited their friends or relatives to the factories, creating a familial atmosphere among many of the rank and file . The Lowell girls were expected to attend church and demonstrate morals befitting proper society . The 1848 Handbook to Lowell noted that the company would "not employ anyone who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or known to be guilty of immorality". </P>

Which of the following describes the life of a lowell mill girl