The Indianapolis journal., 1896-03-23
expense for everything else, has no laws
10 prevent this exploitation of flesh and

expense for everything else has no laws
to prevent this exploitation of flesh and
blood.
SUFFERING CHILDREN.
But the crying cruelty and ignominy OF
the regime co not end with the starvation
of the fathers. The torture of the children
must follow. In all these small mines the
ore is carried out through the long, steep
galleries on the backs of young boys. They
are sold for the purpose when eight or ten
years old. The employer pays from 50 to
300 lire 90 to 60 dollars) for these carusi.
as they are called. and they are henceforth
his until death or the military service claims
them. More than one of these children,
trying TO escape from their intolerable suffer-
irgs, have been deliberately beaten to death
by their owners. The bystanders did not.
dream of interefering-"he has the right"
If they live they are paid 10 cents for twelve
hours. labor day; It Is saved up for . them EN-
them TO their parents. Then they should be
free, but the day of liberty comes not in
| Sicily after many weary years.
4Signor Rossi describes the visit made by
| him TO one of these mines which gave en-
| poyment TO 1900 men, His companion was
| the Socialist member of Parliament, De
/ Felice, who has been condemned to long and
| painful Imprisonment because all that he
| had seen and heard in this United Italy
| only bred in him dreams of fantastic revo-
| luton. AS they came to the entrance of the
mine they started at the sight of what
| seemed gathering of dwarfs Stark naked,
| prematurely old. these were the little carusi.
| Two of them look torches to light the Wis
| itors their way.
| holding with our hands TO the vaulted roof.
| The steps. dug in the soil. are very irregu-
| lar sometimes low. sometimes high, now
| worn away. now dry and dusty, and then
wet and slippery. We had gone few yards
when We distinguished faint light. 1t
| coming up, bending under their load of
| sulphur. Then We heard their sighs of an
| guish, growing more distinct as they drew
| nearer TO us-the sighs of young children
| scarcely able to go forward. yet obliged to
| stagger on for fear that the miner should
come to beat them with his stick or burn
/ their legs with his lamp De Felice and
| felt our hearts bursting as We stood TO one
/ side to let pass this procession OF pariahs.
| AS we saw them. bent under their burdens,
| trembling on their unsteady legs, pity so
seized on US that we ourselves wept like two
| children.
| ourselves that they had the skin of their
] shoulders and of the spine all the way down
/ the back either red and raw or callous
where it had been abraided, and there were
| scars and bruises. Further on. in gallery.
| where the steps were higher and more diff
| cult, we came on another procession of these
carusi, bending under their terrible Load M Nt
| po,nds-enough, one would think. to Kill
| a child by exhaustion). ] heard one say,
meeenf eee must 40 let the sack fali AT third
| turn there was another, with his burden on
| the ground. He wept as he crouched beside
| H. He had fair hair and blue eyes, but the
| ewes were reddened with weeping and the
! tears fell over pale. hollow cheeks In my
/ career as a journalist have seen men
| shot. hanged, lynched, rnassacred; have
| seen horrors Of every kind, deaths in ev-
cry way; have seen nothing which affected
| me like this ts.t
| For Italy to heal all this distress in Sicily
many things would be necessary 1t is only
| fair to saw that some seem almost beyond
| the power of any government, The great
L c1,n ISa.e ehrOE ron n
| peasant proprietors should be protected
against the taxes Of the state itself; ard
| against the usury of the gabelotto- Villages
| should be established in the desolate but
| fertile stretches of country. And effective
| laws should regulate labor on the land and
| i'm the mines. As it is, nothing is done
not even bread is given. The hungry dare
not CLEAN in the fields. for, the land owner
needs the grass for his sheep ColajGnnf.
| the Republican, and Sonnino, Of the last
| Crispi Ministry, have studied the question.
| How shall it be solved?