Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-08-09
The Little LabOreig of New York City.


It is estimated on trustworthy ground
that over 100, 900 children are at work
in the factories of New York and the
neighboring districts, while from 5000
to 10000 are "foaters," drifting from
one factory to another. OF these the
envelope factories employ about 5000
children. The average earnings of the
little workers are So per week. The
gold-leaf factories employ large num-
ber of children, though the exact sta
tistics of the number can not be given.
This occupation requires much skill
and delicacy of touch it is not severe,
but demands constant attention. The
Furnishing of gold, silver, and china
ware is mostly done by girls, some of
whom are under thirteen years of age.
Singularly enough, it is said that men
in this business require to wear breast
plates, in order to prevent injury from
the steel instruments employed, while
the girls VIII labor at it sit at long Ia
bles, their undefended breasts pressing
against the handles of the frame. Full
ly 5000 girls from twelve to sixteen
years of age are employed in making
paper collars. A girl can count and
box Is, 900 collars in day of ten hours.
Paper-bux factories, embracing all
sorts and sizes, from match to work
box, employ at least 10000 children.
From 10000 to $4,000 children are en-
gagged in making paper boxes, of whom
nearly s, 900 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
h althy 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 factory.
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 manager, had en-
tered 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 cellars 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
floors, whetting the knives of the cut
ting machines with mixture of rum
and water applied with a sponge. The
rapidity 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 So perweek.
There are already over 10000 persons
in New York who can not read or write.
These little overworked operatives will
swell this ignorant throng. Fortunate
ly this great abuse has not escaped the
attention of humane men.