The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-08-16
The Little LabOrers of New York City.

1t is estimated on trustworthy
grounds that over l00.O children are
at work in the factories of New York
and the neighboring districts, while
from $4,000 to 10000 are ''tloaters,
drifting from one factory to another.
OF these the envelope factories employ
about 5000 children, one quarter of
whom are under fifteen years of age.
The average earnings of the little work.
ers are So per week. The ventilation
of these factories is generally good.
The gold-leaf factories employ large
number of children, though the exact
statistics of the number can not be Civ
en-. This occupation requires much
skill and delicacy of touch; it is not Sc
we're, but demands constant attention.
The outside air is carefully excluded
from these factories, owing to the ftag-
lie nature of the material used. The
girls employed are mostly over fifteen
years of age. The furnishing of gold,
silver, and china-ware is mostly done
by girls, some of whom are under thir-
teen years of age. Singularly enough,
it is said THAT men in this business re-
quire to wear breastplates, in order to
prevent injury from the steel instru-
ments employed, while the girls who
labor at it sit at long tables, their I'M
defended breasts pressing against the
handles of the frame.
Paper-box factories, embracing all
sorts and sizes, from match to work
box, employ at least 10000 children.
These become very expert, and often in
vent new patterns. The material be-
ing cheap, the children are permitted
to take home enough to do extra work,
and are thus excluded from night school.
In regard to factories for making ar
tifcial flowers it is extremely difficult
to obtain trustworthy information, as
access to the shops is rigidly refused.
After considerable investigation, it
seems to us that from 1000 to 10000
children are engaged in them, of whom
nearly 5000 are under twelve years of
age. Many are only five and seven
years old. The latter are employed
preparing and cutting feathers for COL
oring. Employers claim this to be a
healthy business, but, Judging from the
pale and sickly countenances of the
girls, we doubt the assertion.
Another important industry employ
ing children in the city is the manufac-
ture of tobacco. The tobacco factories
contain fully 10000 children, of whom
5000 at least are under fifteen years.
The youngest child we saw employed
in them was four years of age. He
was engaged in stripping tobacco, and
his average earnings were about one
dollar per week. Many laborers work
all their lives in these factories. We
saw persons as old as eighty years in
them. A man seventy years of age told
us he had spent thirty years in one fac
tory. His two boys had entered the
factory with him at the age of ten and
twelve years, and were now at work as
men in the same shop. Another, the
foreman, and general workshop mana
ger, had entered that factory thirty-fve
years ago, when a boy ten years of age.
In some of these factories boys under
fifteen years are employed in dusky Gel
lars and Easements, preparing, brining,
and sweetening the weed preliminary
to stemming." The underground life
in these damp, cavernous places tends
to keep the little workers stunted in
body and mind. Other boys from ten
to twelve years were squatting on the
floor, whetting the knives of the cutting
machines with mixture of rum and
water applied with sponge. The ra-
pidity with which the girls work is
wonderful. A girl of sixteen years can
put up thirteen gross of packages of
chewing tobacco in tin-foil, and twenty
two gross in paper, in one day. Girls
and boys from twelve to fourteen years
earn in this business from four to five
dollars per week. Some little girls only
eight years of age earn three dollars
per week. The fact is that these chill
dren are often able to perform the same
amount of this light labor as adults,
while they only receive a portion of the
pay given to older laborers. Thus the
children who ought to be in school are
made to deprive older laborers of their
employment and remuneration.
Still another branch absorbs a great
number of children-the Irvine facto-
ries. No accurate estimate can be OBJ
tanned of the number of little laborers
in these, but 1t is known to be very
large. In one uptown factory alone,
200 children, mostly girls, are en-
ployed. This work is dangerous. The
"hackling machines are generally
tended by boys from ten to fifteen
years of age. Their attention must be
riveted on the machinery, and can not
relax for moment, or the danger to
life and limb is imminent. The "twist-
ing machines" attended to by girls, are
equally dangerous. Many have lost
their fingers, or joints of them, that
were caught in the Irvine. Only great
presence of mind has saved many of
these girls from losing the whole hand.
We knew in one instance, in single
night school in New York, five factory
girls who had each lost finger or
thumb. 1t is evident that strict legis-
lation is needed here, as it has been in
England, to protect these young work
i