Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-09-29

thJOJ 1t, DIS tle dlIlOSplleIe was SO CloSe
and sitting. Sometimes | had to work
until midnight, but got no extra compen-
sation. Once or twice told the boss |
could not support myself on those
wages, but he only laughed, and told
me if l did not like them to go else
where, as he could get hundreds of girls
for the same wages who would be only
too glad to obtain the situation.
In one room in one of these colliery
buildings-a room not more than fifteen
feet square, have seen forty boys at
work picking slate from the coal. They
were seated on rough hemlock boards.
The windows were always open, in Win
ter as well as summer, in order that the
dust could escape. In the winter the
wind whistles through the apartment
and beats in at the door. From seven in
the morning until darkness compelled
them to cease these boys sat on their
benches, with backs bent almost double
separating the running coal, The slate
pickers range from seven to fifteen
years of age. If any visitor will take
the trouble to visit the miners cemetery
near by, he will not need to be told how
many of these boys never reached the
age where they could become miners.
The tOmbstones are numerous, but the
great majority of them are Of boys who
have never reached the age of fifteen
years, slatepckers who have been over
come by their inhuman toll. The wages
paid are from 81 to $3.50 per week, if
they have the luck to be steadily en-
ployed. Many of them live long dis
tances from the cOllieries. In such in
stances they are carried to work in the
morning and home at night by the coal
cars of the company, for which service
they are charged sometimes as much as
ten cents per trip, the money being de-
Quoted from their wages, OftentimeS,
when work was slack, leaving them in
debt to the company.
A terrible story of suffering in the
South was related to-day by Rev. j. S.
Menardie, Master Workman of the Au-
gusta, Georgia, Local Assembly. He
stated that children five years of age, all
mills from twenty minutes to SIX a. IN.
to half-past six p. m. Dinners were
eaten at the mills while work continued.
The food consisted of pork, corn bread
and greens. In winter many of the
children had to go barefoot. Work can
not be procured in the mills without a
pass from former employers, and hands
have to give two weeks notice when
they wish to leave. The manufacture
ers own all the stores, and the hands
must trade in them or lose their situa-
tions. The average wages for children
is from fifty cents to 81 per week.
Women are paid by the piece and can
earn sixty or seventy-tive cents day;
machinists receive $3.50 per day, and
the highest wages paid is 50.
Vincenzia Veprek states as follows:
That she lived until recently in one of
the tenement houses of Jacoby & Book
man, cigar manufacturers, in Thirty
eighth street, by whom she was EN-
ployed; that she testified before the
Ford Committee on or about the 14th of
August, and she was discharged from
her work the next day, and she did not
get the money due her until the Satur-
day following her discharge.
She has been living in the tenement
house until day before yesterday, when
she was dispossessed by proceedings in
the Fifty second street civil court Her
goods were put out on the sidewalk, and
are there yet She has no relatives
here She has been a widow for eight
years. She is entirely destitute and has
no money. She has three children
here and an older child in the old
country.
When she was working she made
about 81 week; it varied somewhat
with the work she had to do. She has
worked only about week since her said
discharge, but the firm is giving up
business and she could not earn money
enough to pay her rent.
She has tried without success to find
work in many other factories Now.
having no home at all, she has no chance
to get or do any work at present. She