Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-03-30

Anteio uappy C0f1stl8u children,
! Little savage children, too, h
That our planet ever knewl at
Apxe princes and princessee, III
lssses Some In very handsome dresses
Nsked some, bedaubed with paint.
Only think Of the confusion
Such motley crowd would makei
And the clatter of their chatter,
And the things that they would hrsakl
O, the babhle of the Babeli
- O, the dutter of the fussi
To begin with Cain and Abel,
49, And TO finish of with usl H
]. ~ -.Asrrys .Kusswn.
Children who Work.
How few residents of Manhattan Island
realize, or are even aware of the fact, that
within It's 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,
e no bright walks in Central Park They
3 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 normal childhood
imperatively demands They may be seen
In the early morning, in al portions of the
city, among the laboring throng, hasten
Z ing, with serious mien, to the service of
the day.
y y 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 EN-
ployments are recorded in a single school
fnrt t,<xxyo oot,1 s,,b
tin boxes, whalebones, whips, tobacco,
= y toys, soap, shirts, ropes, picture frames,
paper collars and boxes, mineral waters,
fans, feathers, corks, chignons, brushes,
ebrier-wood pipes, bonnet frames, bottles,
bags, beads, artificial flowers, and bird
8 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 Sections 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 a sales lady" Eighty little girls at
& one school are registered as Mnurses." !"
They are employed all day at home "tak
ing care of the baby while mother goes
out to wash. Some quite small girls,
. working in type-foundries, give their oc-
.gris merely placing the types In rows upon
.iis settiug-stick'
Many thousands of children, some of
them very small, are at work in the to-
6aeco factories ef 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 a single family. Permits
to visit the larger factories are not easily
obtained. In this craft, also proprietors
have methods Of work which they jealous
i ~ guard.
of one of the oldest tobacco establishments,
as he gave usya permit to visit the factories
under his chaTge, against the employ
mento of young children; but the overseers
Say that the children will go elsewhere
and get work that their parents are in
want and need their labor, and so it seems
impossible to avoid hiring them.''
In one of their factories the youngest
child employed is four years of age, the
i 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 cases
where their parents or guardians are en-
= ployed, are brought with them for safe
: Keeping, and as it is quite impossible for
them to keep still ''all the time, they
are glad to initiate the others in stem
ming, and are soon able to add a dollar
to the weekly wages Of mother, sister, or
grandmother Thus they learn the bust
= neSsy and in the course of year or two
become regular !" hands,
Saw d very pretty little baby, certainly
not more than four years of age, trying to
sn1earn. She looked very demure, sitting
upon an inverted basket. and occasionally
B glancing sideways at visitors. This nurs-
ling, with her prominent forehead, deli
cate features, blue eyes and golden hair,
\ looks more like a stray fairy who has lost
asher way and fallen into the foulest and
2 darkest of prisons. ga sssjg
~ T The entire building steams with the
5fi fumes of tobacco, and some of the rooms
are positively TN bearable to those not &C
custoned to the odor. The rooms where
the women and children work are the
least objectionable: but they are dreadful
Z places for young children to grow up in.
Ten thousand children, it is said, are
working in tobacco, in New York and
z Brooklyn, for ten hours day, six days OF
the week, and fully five thousand of them
are believed to be under fifteen years OF
= age z Children in many cases supply the
places of more mature hands, and thus of
fer the employer an opportunity for gain
not to be resisted as long as other manu-
factuTers with whom he must compete en-
ploy this cheap labor. 9.
In a subterranean apartment few
dozen boys are at work chopping the weed
i''' in its rough form, preparing it for the pro.
w cess of softening in brine for the stem.
8 mers.p "a little light comes in from some.
& where, enough for US to distinguish the
utter dreariness of the scene. The little
stove in the middle of the cellar fails tc
overcome the dampness of the atmos
phere, but the exercise seems to keep the
4 boys warm. Most of them, as might be
-bs expected, are chewing tobacco.
+, Interesting boys of ten or eleven were
Il keeping the knives of a cutting machine
u clear by using sponge saturated will
= = tum thus being brought in contact at once
"a with two brother vices of society-ruu
and tobacco They are getting their edu
cation. IF they prove apt scholars we may
4 expect them to graduate in few years.
Juli0 a. Holmes IN Serd6neassJ for Apr1. Z, &
ssfss1 ~ ! ~ --------pp-s-- ( -tv ~
THE following amusing incident latel.
occurred in a village in Ireland. A seryan
girl went into diapers shop to purchase
+ some ribbon. The shopman produced (,
8 very fine article, but rhe objected to it OF
tie ground that the shade of the color dit
- not exactly suit her. "0h," said the shop
Il man !" If you will only imagine that i
you the color will make no differ
y enoe.n And he entered into disquisitiol
sls upon the extraordinary power of imagina
80 ton The girl heard him through very at
tentixely, and then consented to have thre
= or four yards of the ribbon put mp. Sh
"A putt quietly in her pocket and was abon
z ito wal off Stop, if you please, Z, sal,
81 TIE shopman, you haven't paid for th
ribbon." Never mind" was the reply
list imagine that paid, and it will max