Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-05-16
CHILDREN AT WORK.
LITTLE ONES IN THE STRUGGLE
FOR BREAD.
Vow the Young in our Great Cities Grow
Up.

The number of children employed in
Boston is about five hundred, says the
Boston Transcript. Over half of this
number do not attend school at all, and
the remainder go for the twenty weeks
required by law. These chilrden are
all under fourteen years of age, and
many of them are not over ten years
old. They arc obliged to work or be-
come charges of the city, and their
labor is often the chief support of an
invalid mother, or, at least, a much
needed help in large family.
A certain number of these children
may have attended school part of the
year, possibly, but not the time re-
quired by law. Comparing the num-
Der Of children at work in 1889 with
the total number employed ten years
ago, we find that the number is now
much smaller. This indicates the wise
provisions of law and the efforts which
have been made for 1.-THE prevention of
the illegal employment of children. In
Massachusetts the total number of
children at work is 3040. OF this
number 1907 are boys. The larger
number of these children are employed
in factories.
In Boston there arc five hundred of
these little ones, who work beyond
their strength, who should not work at
all, and who are growing up with lit
tie or no home training and who are
exposed to unwholesome surroundings
that are forming the characters and
making the physica! bodies Of the men
and women of the future.
The cash boys in MANY of the large
stores are not over ten years of age.
They often deceive their employers as
to their age, in order to get work. The
necessity of earning the few dollars
each week has been taught them from
their babyhood, and the thought of
the almighty dollar, which means to
them the coarsest of food and cloth
ing, is the chief one of their little
lives.
The evening schools do some work
among the children who are employed
during the day. But it is q question
if child of ten years Of age is equal
to Ten hours of work and then two
hours of stndy. We look with sur
prise upon an ordinary man or woman
who tells us that after days work
time is found for two hours of study.
A child cannot receive any real benefit
from night schools. Their rest is of
more Importance to them than the lit
tie they would learn.
These children are errand boys,
bundle boys, paper carriers, cash boys,
bootblacks, messenger boys, and mill
operatives. Now and then a boy is
apprenticdd to some trade. In this
case he stands better chance; his
work is not so hard; he is given more
privileges, and his work is, in itself,
an education that will fit him to take a
! place in the word.
The little girls are employed as cash
girls, servants in families, mill opera
tives, and, as in the case of their
brothers, occasionally apprenticed.
Among the children at work in Boston
one-third are of Irish descent, one
third have French-Canadian parents
and tho remaining third is, in about
equal numbers, of German, English,
and American parantage. The greater
number Of these children come from
homes; many of them como from
homes where the parents would gladly
care for them if they could, but where
the amount earned by the parents is
not sufficient for the needs of the fam
lily, so the elder children are obliged
TO take up their share of the burden.
At first the boy or girl begins work
with sense of Importance, and rather
looks down upon children who go to
school. But gradually it becomes a
routine in which tired hands and feet
move almost mechanically, and by the
time they reach the age when their
work should be of advantage to them,
their physical strengths unequal to the
demand upon it, their minds have not
qu.ckened or developed with years,
and they add to the army of half-de-
pendent people constantly needing as
sistance.