Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-07-26
Children i'm English Iron Mills.
sad stories of Suffering.


Children i'm English Iron Mills.
Sad stories of Suffering.
A correspondent of the Pail Mall Gazetts,
who has visited some of the iron furnaces
in the "black country" of Stafordshire
and Worcestershire, tells these sad stories:
:" In the mills and FORCES boys of all ages,
from eight and upward, may be found, amid
the labyrinth Of machinery and the coils of
heated iron, engaged by day and night in
turning long, redho seething bars. Their
activity is very great, owing to the nature
of their work, which requires rapidly of
movement, and contrasts strangely with
their otherwise jaded and worn appearance.
In addition to the labor Of dragging along
the iron, each Of these little fellows has to
run, in short stages. o distance of more
than eleven miles every day, in an oppres-
sive atmosphere, thick with dust and steam
Owing to the quick and uncertain move
ments of the hot iron bars in their passage
through successive rolls before having time
to cool, the occupation Of these boys is at
tended with some danger, a serious burn
being an almost every day occurrence.
Standing in the midst Of an extensive
forge few years ago was alarmed by a
cry Of terror at the farther end of the
works. There was a general rush to the
spot, and | shall never forget the horrible
and sickening sight that met our view. A
large rod of seething iron in coming from
the rolls had somehow twisted aside and
had literally pierced through the body of a
little fellow some ten years old. For a
while the loar of the machinery was sus-
pended, and two or three brawny puddlers
carried the helpless creature home; but
when the first thrill Of horror had passed
away the wheels were again set in motion
and all went on as before.
The lives Of these boys are almost en-
tirely spent in the FORCES, except the hours
allotted to sleep. They have their meals
there, and in the snatches of leisure it is
their playground. In most of the works is
the arm or basin of a canal, the water of
which IS kept is kept in state of chronic
fever, and in which, despite its inky color,
they delight to battle, both in winter and
summer. SO constant are they in their
additions that they often come out parboiled,
like washer-woman's thumb. Some of
the proprietors of these works have pro-
vided night schools for the instruction of
the children in their employ; but, as rule,
they are in mind and body alike neglected,
and the densest ignorance prevails. They
have no home training, most of their houses
being locked up all day, the parents and all
the children being out at work and return
ing home fatigued at night, nothing but bed
or carousal in the Fox and Dragon is ac-
ceptable.
Returning home late one evening, saw
two little children, boy and girl, lying
asleep on a door step, which proved to be
that of their own home On awakening
them they told me they were waiting for
their mother to come out of neighboring
tavern, and open the door They had no
father, and had been hard at work all day.
The boy worked in forge, the girl in a
foundry, and the mother in a iapannine
factory; and being thus separated all day,
no bond of affection seemed to bind them
when they met together.
"West of Dudley is a strange wild region
known as the mailing district composed
of scattered hanlets, to all the houses of
which is attached what appears to the
stranger blacksmith's shop. The manu-
facture of wrought nails is, and has been
for century or more, the great staple in
dustry of the district 1t is carried on by
the nailers in their own houses. In few
trades Of the district does the employment
of women and young children assume a
more Objectionable form than in this. The
women seem TO have lost all traces of the
modesty of their sex, and from childhood
are addicted to swearing, smoking,-re-
sembling as far as possible the other sex in
their habits and department, even to the
wearing of their coarse flannel Jackets
They mostly marry very young, often at
fourteen, and seldom later than eighteen or
twenty. With such women as mothers, it
is not difficult to Judge of their children.
From tenderest ages, often from five to six
years, they are trained to that round of la
Dor in which their lives are doomed to be
spent. The first stage is blowing the bel
lows, and next they are tau sht to forge the
smaller kinds of nails.
50 The hours of labor are dreadfllly pro-
longed, often exceeding sixteen hours per
day; the rate of remuneration very low, AID
the homes are consequently wretchedly
poor. Entering one of them lately, / saw
the father, mother, and eight sons and
daughters, all toiling in an ill-ventilated
dirty-hovel. 1t was growing late Z the
evening, and | inquired, : Is it not time to
cease your day work?' .Oh, noa, MASTER
rejoined the mother; we've a motifs work
afore us yet, or therell be no bread O. the
the loaf O. Sunday. 1t was Friday night,
and II was, as learnt, practice to work
from Friday morning until Saturday after
noon, without having more than short
snatches of rest for meals. While linger-
ed, little fellow, who could not have been
more than eight, fell from his work appa-
rently exhausted, but his father, on otserv-
ing II, threw at him a hammer handle, tell
ing HIM with an oath, to recommence his
work. lie took no part in our conversation,
having. like his two eldest daughters. a
snort pipe in his mouth, which seemed to
MN ana them the calumet of peace"
This is by no means a solitary case.
hundreds of such instances are to be found
OF Ittle boys and girls, just emerging from
ooyhood, lll-fed, ill-clothed and overworked.
trained amid vulgarity and vice, and in the
1ensest gloom OF ignorance. Were it not
4 =. sunday schools, | shudder to think of
IN tue future of these hapless children. Their
nVes could only be compared with those of
me 'heathen in his blindness on whose be-
nan Exetet Hall is pleading so eloquently
"urlng this month of May. | visited Sun