Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-03-31
Children who Work.


realize, or are even aware of the fact, that
within its confines are at least one hun
dred thousand children-the adjacent cities
contain perhaps as many more-to whom
the morning light of six days in the week
brings only toll. For these children there
are no schools no nuttings in the woods,
no bright walks In Central Park. They
are prematurely burdened with the cares
of life; dwarfed In stature from the lack
of proper nutriment; by confinement in
the bad air of workshops; by the beating
of heavy burdens, and the deprivation OF
such recreations as a normal childhood
imperatiyely demands They may be seen
in the early morning, in al portions OF the
city, among the laboring throng, hasten
ing, with serious mien, to the service OF
the day.
You will be astonished by the vast num-
Der of occupations in which boys and girls
under the age of fifteen years are made to
earn from fifty cents to five dollars per
week. Nearly two hundred different em-
ployments are recorded in single school
for boys They manufacture ink, tassels,
tin boxes, whalebones, whips, tobacco,
toys, soap, shirts, ropes, picture-frames,
paper collars and boxes, mineral waters,
fans, feathers corks, chignons, brushes,
brier-wood pipes, bonnet frames, bottles,
bags, beads, artificial flowers, and bird
cages. They are apprentice boys, cash
and errand boys; they work at hair.pick-
ing and map-coloring; they post bills
and tend stands. Two have given their
occupation as "Sextons assistant" Some
of these trades are rather high sounding
for boys, such as blacksmithing, carpenter
ing, and architecture; but it would seem
that nearly every business pursued by
adults admits of the employment of chill
dren in some of its simple details.
Frequently items appear upon the regis
ters indicating little sentiment of pride
or ambition in these night students. The
hotel chambermaid or cook invariably
gives her occupation as housekeeper." "
One little girl of eleven years processes to
be sales lady" Eighty little girls at
one school are registered as nurses" "
They are employed all day at home "tak-
ing care of the baby while mother goes
working in type.foundries, give their oc-
cupation as "type-setting;" but their work
is merely placing the types in rows upon
setting.stick.
Many thousands of children, some OF
them very small, are at work in the to-
bacco factories of New York city. More
than one thousand are employed by q
single firm, and there are hundreds OF
smaller establishments scattered through
the city, sometimes consisting of merely
the members of single family. Permits
to visit the larger factories are not easily
obtained In this craft, also proprietors
have methods of work which they jealous
AZ have expostulated," said the manager
of one of the oldest tobacco establishments
as he gave us permit to visit the factorie:
under his charge, against the employ
ment of young children; but the overseer'
say that the children will 60 elsewhere
and get work that their parents are II
want and need their labor, and so it seem:
impossible to avoid hiring them"
In one of their factories the youngest
child employed is four years of age, the
Oldest person a woman of eighty. They
work side by side.
! Children so young as four years, we are
told, are not regularly hired, but, in case'
where their parents or guardians are EN-
ployed, are brought with them for safl
keeping, and as it is quite impossible fo
them to "keep still all the time, the.
are glad to initiate the others in stem
ming" and are soon able to add dolla
to the weekly wages of mother, sister, o
| grandmother. Thus they learn the busi
ness, and in the course of a year or tw,
become regular hands"
saw very pretty little baby, certainl.
not more than four years of age, trying 4
learn. She looked very demure, sittin
upon an inverted basket, and OCCASIONAL,
glancing sideways at visitors. This nurs
ling, with her prominent forehead, deli
cate features, blue eyes and golden hail
looks more like stray fairy who has los
her way and fallen into the foulcst an
, darkest of prisons.
The entire building steams with tn
fumes of tobacco, and some of the room
are positively unbearable to those not aC
: customed to the odor. The rooms wher
the women and children work are tn
least Objectionable but they are dreadfu
places for young children to grow up in.
Ten thousand children, it is said, ar
working in tobacco, in New York an
', Brooklyn, for ten hours day, six days G
are believed to be under fifteen years G
age. Children in many cases supply tn
places of more mature hands, and thus Of
,, icI the employer an opportunity for gai
. not to be resisted as long as other manu-
facturers with whom he must compete EN-
ploy this cheap labor.
Ia a subterranean apartment a fev
dozen boys are at work chopping the wee
in its rough form, preparing it for the pre-
cess of softening in brine for the stem
!, mers" A little light comes in from some
,, where, enough for us to distinguish tn
utter drcariness of the scene. The littl
stove in the middle of the cellar fails
overcome the dampness of the atmo'
, phere, but the exercise seems to keep tn
boys warm. Most of them, as might b
, expected, are chewing tobacco.
Interesting boys of ten or eleven wer
. keeping the knives Of a cutting machin
clear by using sponge saturated wit
, rum, thus being brought in contact at ono
with two brother vices of society-ruI
E and tobacco. They are getting their edl
, cation. If they prove apt scholars we ma
!, expect them to graduate in few years.
Julia A. Holmes in SeriJner's for ApriI