Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-16
A rIcrURE OLLIE IN ENaLANp.

POVERTY OF FHE sPITALFIELDs WoRRPRoPLE.
The Rev. Isaac Taylor incumbent Of st.
Matthias, BethHal Green, has printed for
private distribution a little pamphlet de-
scriptiye Of the condition Of his parish,
which he describes as the headquarters of
the Spitalfelds silk trade. He says
"The great difficulty which confronts rs
Is the dead level of excessive poverty. A
skillful workman, making costly velveis or
neh silks, and laboring from twelve TO six
teen hours a day, will only earn On an
average about twelve shillings a week.
There are many who DO not earn above
seven OF eight shillings, and the labor
required 10 gain these miserable wages is
great and excessive. TO make a single inch
OF velvet the shuttle has TO be thrown one
hundred and eighty times, one hundred and
eighty times the treadles have to be worked.
sixty times the wire has 10 be inserted,
sixty times 10 be Withdrawn, sixty times the
knife has 10 be guided along the whole
breadth of the work, and sixty times the
pressure of the chest has TO be exerted on a
heavy beam, which is used 10 compress the
work Six hundred distinct operations are
thus required 10 make one single inch Of
velvet the average payment for making
which is one penny.
The women, whose strength does not
enable them to move 50 heavy a beam with
the chest, are employed in making yel-
veteens, silk and cotton trimmings. They
earn about one-third the wages of the men.
For fancy braid the payment is ID. yard.
Even at these starvation wages work is very
scarce; the men areoften for weeks together
out of employ, or, as it is termed by a
wretched mockery, at play The parents
frequently find il quite impossible TO send
their children to school, even when they
have clothes and shoes in which to go.
The poorlit creatures have TO be retained
al home to earn few miserable pence by
means OF some Of the numerous 'childrens
trades which unhsppily flourish in Bethnal
Green.
Among these trades the foremost per
haps Is the manufacture of lucifer boxes.
For this work the payment is 2td. per
gross. or thirty-two boxes for 3D., ont OF
which the little laborerB have to find their
own paste. The other day ! took upon my
knees a little girl who is employed in this
manner She told me she was four years
old. Her mother said the child had earned
AFA Own AANMAA AhNa HAAAtN AAAA a. "a y
wears OF age. This infant now makes several
hundred boxes every day Of her life, and
her earnings suffice 20 pay the rent Of the
miserable room which the family inhabit.
The poor little woman, as might be expect
cd. Is grave and sad beyond her years. She
has none Of a Child's yivacity. She does
not seem To know what play means. Her
whole thoughts are centered in the eternal
round of lueifer-box making, in which her
whole life is passed She has never been
beyond the dingy street in which she was
horn. She has never so much a. seen tree
or a daisy or a blade OF grass, A poor
sickly little thing, and vel a sweet obedient
child, the deadly pallor Of her face proclaim
ing Enthusiastically that she will soon be
mercifllly taken away 60 a better work.,
where. az last, the little weary fingers shall
he al rest And this is only one case ont OF
scores and hundreds. The mortality among
Young children is something frightinl.
u DO not know anything more terrible
thsn the statements which one continually
hears. It is common thing for a mother
Ia saw that She has buried six or eight, and
reared one or two. This mortality among
the children is chiefly owing 20 the deadly
uyercrowding, aud to iusuiiciency OF food
and clothing. Last summer We found a
family Of eight children living with theig
father and mother an a room some ten teet
sauare, and almOt I'm state OF starvation.
The whole ofthe children had the smallpox
CAT upon them. They had no medical care
or nursing the only medicament that had
hesn used was a little oil rubbed ever lheiI
faces this the father said he had heard was
good for the smallpox. The man Was en-
gagea. meanwhile. in the delicate work oi
making white chenille, % be sole M th'
fashionable Wesiend shops.
Hardly a family in the parish possesse.
more Than a single noon, IN which al
tbe members live and work and sleep. Tor
this one room from three shillings 70 four
shilings weekly Is commonly paid out Of
thu soanty earnings, leaving a SUN quite
insufficient TO provide the most necessary
iood Last week NV colleague went into a
room where the father lay seriously i'll
and asked the vile some question about the
uouIishment she was giving him. / wall
show YOU. sir, what We have was the reply
She opened a cupboard door. One slice Of
3ry bread Law carefully treasured on ths
shelf an that was lea for the support OF the
-,ck man and the whole family, and not ,
hali-peany did they possess whereNlth q
procure more. j believe ! am under tbs
marx when affirm that not one family iu
twenty has 3 blanket Of Their own, ana ao'
aore than one ia twelve has a sheet
ssSsasaua.1..ssz.s IzIalzsiIsl11l.