Children Who Work

Trom Scribner's ATmitiilv. How few residente of Manhattan Island realizo, or are even aware of the fact that within its confinos are ut least 100,000 childron - the adjaoent cities contain perliaps as nmny more - to whom tho moming light on six days of the wooTt brin-s only toil. For these children theic are 110 schools, 110 nnttiags in tho woods, no bright walks in Central Park. They are prematmely burdened with the cares of Bfé ; dwarfcd in statare from the laek of proper nutrinient ; by confinement in the bad air of workTshops ; by the bearing of heavy burdens, and the deprivation of such reereations as a normal childhood imperatively deraands. They may bo seen in the early moriiin, in all portions ot tin: city, ainong the lsboring throno-, hastening with aerioiu mien to the service of the day. You will bc astanished by tho vast number of occupations in whieh boys and girlfi ;mcl:r the age of fifteen years aro made to earn from fifty cents to fivo dollars per week. Nearly two hundrcd different employmentB are recordod in a single school for boys. ïhoy manufacture ink, tassels, tin boxes, wiiale bones, whipp, tobáceo, toys, soap, shirts, ropes! piquín: iniiiuis, paper mars and boxes, IKilIX, Ijl UMÏv ., VÍ UOCl j.jjuí?, i.ji-uliri trames, bottles, bags, ioads, artificial flowors and bïrd cafres. They are apprentice boys, cash and errand boys ; they work at hair picking and map coloring ; thcy post bilis and tend stands. Two havo given their ocoupation as " Scxton's as-ústant." Some of these trades are rather high-sounding for boys, such as blacksiiiithing, carpentering and architecture ; but it would secm that nearly evory business pursued by adults admita of the omployment of children in some ofits more simple details. Frequcntly items appcar upon the registers indicating a little sentiment of prido or ambition in these night students. The hotel chambermaid or cook invariably gives her occujiation as "housekeeping." One little girl of 1 1 years professes to be a " sales lady." Eighty littlu girls at oue school are registered as "nuwes." ïhey are employed all day at homo "taking care of tho baby whiie mother goos out to wash." Some quito sniall girls give their occupation as " setting," but thcir work is merely plaoing types m rows in a " setting stick." Many thousands of children, some of thiin vt ry small, are at work in the tobáceo factories of New York city. More than 1,000 are employed by a singlo film, and thore are hundreds of small establishments aoattered through tho city, sometimes consisting of merely the ïucmbers of a single family. Pcrmits to visitlie largor faetones are not easily obtained. In this craft, also, proprietors have mothods of work which thoy jealously " I havo expostulated," said the manager of one of the oldest tobáceo establishmonts, as he gave us a permit to visit the faetones under his eharge, " agaiiist the employmcnt of young ohudren; but the Dvcrsi'crs s.ty that . tlie children will go elsewhere and get work ; that their parents aro in want and nced thoir labor, and soit seems impossiblo to avoid hiring thcin. In one of their faetories tho youngesi ehild employed is four yeara of age, the oldest person a woman of (SI). Tluy work sido by sido. Children so young as four years, we are told are uot ï-ogularly hiied, init, in oases whure their párente ar gaardians cure employed, -86 brought with them for safe keeping, and it is quite imponible for them to "koop still" all the tune, they are glad to imitate tlie others in " stemming," and aro soon ablo to add a dollar to tho weekly wages of mother, sister, or grandmothor. Thus thcy loarn the busims, and in the course of a year or two become regular "hands." I aaw a vcry pretty little baby, certainly not more than four years of age, trying to learn. She looked vory demure, sitting upon an inverted baskot, and occasionally glancing eideways at visitors. Every worker m lliis room we are told is Irish ; but this nursling, witli lier prominent forehend, delicate features, blue oyes anc golden hair, looks more likc a stniy fair who liast lost her way and fallen into the foulest and darkest of prisons. xiie eunro Duumng stoams -vitn tñe fumes of tobáceo, and somc of the rooms are positively unbearablfi to those wlio are not accustoined to tho odor. Tho rooms whero tho wonien and children work ai'o the least objectionable ; butthey are dreadful places for young children. to grow up in. Ton thousand children, it is said, aro working in tobáceo, in Now York and Brooklyn, for ten honra a day, six days of the week, and fully 5,000 of them are b lieved to be under lö yeara of age. Chil dren in maa; cases siipply the places o: more mature hands, andthus offer the em ployer an opportunity for gain not to b resisted as long as other manufacturci with whom hc must competo cuiploy thi chcíip labor. Were stringent laws passed, siniilir ( those existing in some of the New En( land Si;drs, réffolating the employmen of children under a cortain age, ïnnny o: the employcre would accept the changc and would co-operate with others in ai BMlgJTtg for a voluntary system of half time Bcnools ; while not a fow docluro tha such a system " wouldn't work, " tlicy "couldu't bc botkored with it. " In a subterranoan apartinunt a few dozen boys ure at work chopping the weed in its rough fonn, preparing it for the process of softening in brino for the "stemmers. " A littlo ligkt comes in froni gomewhero, enough tbr us to distinguish the uttcr druarincss of the soeno. The little stovo in the middle of the cellar i'ails to overeóme the dampness of tho atinosphere, but the exerciae suems to keep the loys warm. Most of thum, 9 might bo expected, are chewing tobáceo. Intoresting boys of ton or eloTen woro keeping the kai vea of u cutting machine clear by using a apongo suturatud with rum, thus baing brought in contact at once with two brothor vicos of society rum and tobáceo. ïhey aro gotting thoir education. If thoy provo apt sckolars wo may expect thom to gradúate in a fow years. now cniLnitEX aiie jtaimed nt new York In addition to the oatrage of sacrificing the health and educational intorests of children by keeiing them at niochanical drudyery nearly au heir traldng hours, eertain kinds of labor thcy porfonn aro absolutoly dangorous to both lifo and limb. At tho evening school we heard of girls who, whilo at work in twino nianufactories, had lost onc and two joints of their fingers. The principal of one school statod "that last winter sho had 10 girls who hiul lost the initial fingcr from tho right hand and theroforo could not bo taught to Tfrite. Ono child, who learned to writo with the left hand, cauio to school afterwards with tho initial fingerof that hand also gono. It was taken off in tho twisting nmchinery of a twino factory. Determincd to soo this terrible inachinery, we learned tho address of the lalgest :wino ostablishment in tho city, and away up town, nearly to Contral Park, wo wout one bittor cold day, so cold that to koep our courage up it ncoded the reüoction ;hat little girls, thinly ciad, strugglo through sueh weathor all wintor Iouít. plunge into it from hot woik-rooms and with vitality consuniod by labor ia impuro air. Wo found about 300 persons at work, 200 of theni boing childron under 1 5 years oí' age, al iioiirly all girls, who spin, wind and twist the flux. Wo wen shown a vory picturesque ma" chino tor lmeking tho flax, tonded by 10 tuidylittlü boys of 12 or 13 years of ige, flvo on each end. Thoy are niountcd ipon a platform to onablo theni to reach and chango tho clamps whioh held the lax. This monster machino, whioh sulersedea tho small hacklers upon wliich our grandmothers drossod tlieir flax, rouires to be fed at either end continuousy, and it works with the regularity and emoi-solessness of fitte. Not discovering his pcculiarity at first, and observing tho joys working tbr dear life, we remarkod o tho propriotor, " Those boys seem to e trying to show off befóro you." " No," ïoreplied, " tho machino keeps thom it " Is it not botter for them than runing in the stroets ? " askod tho proprietor. " Botter than that, yo8 ; but how are hey to be cduoatod ? " "_ i liey nearly all go to evoning schools." Studying in the evoning af ter working The troud mili of a machine malie me 'orget for a moment the terrible twisters ve camo to see." Only for a moment, icscending to the next floor we find a few ■n at work, and a few boys, but neary all girls, of various ages, and engagod i iiKiny different labors, but all oí' one ompleotion - sooty, grimy, dusty, llaxy ; 11 wcro dressed in one corner skirt of temp, often ragged and tatterod. Thcy an trom one corner of the room to anothr, carryiug heavy boxos and armsful of )obbins. Hci'o are the dreadful twisting machines ery disappointing in appearance, seomng to be only long rows of spindles stretchng from one end of the room to the othr with nothirig peeuliarly dangerous ïem. The proprietor is anxious to conirm the iiupression caused by their hanness appearanoe. " A few girls " ho says " have had their ingors hurt in these machines, but it was lways in casoa wtiere they forgot or ncglected their work to talk or play. The twisters are not more dangerous than other machines at which children work." I askcd a little girl who had lost the fourth finger of her right hand how it happenedj and she replied : " It was tho rule that we go to help the others, and I went to help a girl, and she kept twisting tho twine so," giviug her hands a great flourish. " But my little finger always dil stick out from the others, and it got caught among the flax, and L knew it would tiiko my hand ofï, and I jerked it away with all my might, and ónly half my finger. If I had been slow, ny hand wouid havo been taken olí'. " This is the simple story of a girl of 12 'esirs. Shc was trying to imitate one nore skillful thaji herself Tho storios of othor fingers lost iii twino factories vould lightly diffur but frora this. A momont's 'orgctfulncss of tho dangor, but onu monent yielding to the universal childish mpulse to play, and tho mischiof is done.