St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-26

GLOBE paragraph given him. and added
up small column of figures as follows:
9,7.14,23, 1913, 1888. Total. 1,221.
The managerof the company admitted
that the boys were sent to any place
which possessed d messenger call, even
though they knew the message call
came from q house of ill-fame, gam
Sibly be the future of lads so terribly
ignorant. sent daily to hauntS of vice
and crime? 1t is sad to contemplate
that such a state of affairs should exist.
The Office of the American District
telegraph company was next visited.
The manager at this establishment, in
response to questions, admitted that the
hoyS III their employ were sent on en-
randS to hauntS of vice. But what can
we do?" he continued. I'VE exercise
all the moral restraint possible over the
boys while in the Office, and take away
from them any tobacco or dime novels
they may possess.
The boys have to pay for their uni
forms-S10.50 for the winter ones and IS
for those used in summer. AT the pres
ent time the company employs twenty
three boys, six being OH night duty,
each boy receiving his share of night
work. Their ages run FROM thirteen 10
twenty years. only one boy being of the
latter age. The average age of the lads
is fourteen and One-half years. The
GLOBE representative questioned a
number of the boys, and found
that all were very deficient
in reading except one lad,
seventeen years old, who had been edu-
Gated in a Catholic school and was able
to read and cipher very well indeed. Of
the seven boys questioned, not one was
at school. One lad named Jesse Get
chell will be thirteen years old at the
end of this month. His father is SER
geant of police. The boy was last at
GLOBE paragraph Nth difficulty, STUN
bling at two-syllable words. He wrote
very childish hand. more like that of
child of eight years. William Stei-
del. sixteen years old, son of furrier,
said he left school last year in the sixth
grade. He could read little better
than the rest, but certainly not well
enough for boy of his age.
Samuel Davis, fourteen years old,
said his father was fur cutter. He
had been a messenger boy for four
months, land" continued the lad in a
bold manner, 81 amt at school, and
don't intend to go, and you can't make
me gO.'
Here are few eases taken at random
from one branch of employment, and it
can fairly be assumed that cases similar
exist in other trades. Some very inter-
esting figures were obtained from the
bureau of labor OH the subject of child
labor. The statistics were gathered this
summer under great difficulty, as The
gentlemen detailed to do the work re-
peated that the children were cunning,
and lied as to their ages. The principal
employers of child labor are the Horn Il
DAM Fin Works company On the West
side. Fifty-hye boys and fifteen girls
were questioned as they left the factory.
Their ages ran from eleven TO sixteen,
and they were required to use and run
machines for cutting the tin,
Dangerous and Difficult
work. Cases are constantly occurring
where fingers are severely cut and
manned by the machines. The work is
heavy enough for men, and the SUIT
rOundingS of the boy $ are dangerous to
their moral welfare. The writer this
week met them as they left work, and
they lit cigars and cigarettes, and used
language shocking in its awful char
acter. The compulsory educational law
of this state requires that every child
between the ages of eight and sixteen
shall receive at least twelve weeks i'll
struction in the public schools. Any
parent failing to comply with this law
shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor,
and on conviction before a court of COM
petent jurisdiction be fined $40 to S25 for
the first otfense, and SIS to $50 for the
second and subsequent nffenses. But
this law at present is a dead letter, for
the reason that there are no "truant
officers to lock up any cases of chill
dren being kept from school. The con-
dition of thousands of children in ST.
Paul will he seen from the following
table of statistics collected by the
bureau of labor this year. Four hun
dred and twenty cases were examined
with the following result: