The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-02-27
TRADES THAT KILL.
CALLINGS MORE DANGEROUS
THAN DYNAMITE MAKING.
Miscries of Lead Workers Filled With
POison-How NIatchmakers Are
Said to Contract Ter
rible Maladies.
attention is
being given in England just


lions which are said to jeopardize the
healthand lives of the workers. And
some appalling facts have been dis
covered, but it is doubtful if these
will lead to remedial legislation, for
the victims are the poor and ignorant,
who are quite as much opposed to the
investigators as are the oppressors
themselves. Living always upon the
verge of starvation, as their fore
fathers did for generations before
them. these unfortunates regard the
! Investigators as meddling monsters
who would destroy their only means
of earning bread for themselves and
their children. They are content to
work and die, rs their fathers and.
mothers did, and as their children will
do.
But while England certainly heads
the list as Nation with killing occu.
pations, the same conditions exist
here but in a much less aggravated
form. And there is no remedy unless
the demands OF commerce be arrested,
and to make that possible the whole
machinery of the world must be re-
adjusted.
In round figures there are 90, 900
wage earners in England employed in
killing or misunderstanding occupa-
lions. and quite as many in this coun-
try, owing to the similarity of the in
dustries.
1t would seem that the making Ct
dynamite should be more hazardous
calling than the making. of hats, but
carefully gathered statistics show that
for one death of q dynamite worker
there are ten of hatmakers. In fact,
the dynamite trade is not classed
among deadly occupations. In the
making of hats fine lint is thrown
off which works its way day by day
into the lungs of the workman, pro-
ducing in time a variety of maladies,
and each one of them life shortener.
Hat making is trivial, however, to
the trade of manufacturing chlorine
gas. 1t has been shown that if per-
fectly healthy man follows this occu-
patton for nine years he will be o
corpse. Nine years is the maximum,
L
is extensively used for bleaching and
dyeing. and in the making emits q
heavy greenish ,vapor. This poison,
entering the lungs of the workman,
soon brings on racking cough, in
flaming the lnng cells and eating away
the tissues and generally ending in
death.
| Ice factories are common enough
throughout the country, but it is not
generally known that ten years is the
limit set by physicians for man who
works in one OF these places. In the
hot summer days, when the tempera.
ture is among the nineties, the men in
an ice factory are working in place
as cold as the Polar regions. muffied
up in overcoats and ear mufs, and
wearing heavily padded gloves. Even
then they suffer from cold, yet when
the days work is over they swelter
like the rest of humanity. These ex-
IRENE changes soon weaken the sys-
tenn, and pneumonia or consumption
is the ultimate end.
Much publicity was recently given
to the fact that the Gould brothers had
insisted upon the girls employed in
their match making factories having
their teeth filed. The girls objected,
or some of them did, but if they had
appreciated the full danger OF their
calling they would have done other
wise. After three years of continuous
labor the average matchmaker, from
the poison given of, contracts loath-
some disease which takes hold of the
bones of the body. The bones most
quickly affected are those iof tho jaw
and face, and in time these crumble
away, leaving the worker a hideous
spectacle.
The lead workers of Newcastle, Eng.
land, are the most to be pitied. They
are genuine white slaves. and the fact
that eighty per cent. of them are wo-
men makes their lives the harder.
Death is o common occurrences among
these women. and the death is due d.
rectly to the effects OF working over
che lead.
A recent case was one which hap
pened on the day member Of the In
vestigating Committee reached New
castle. The victim was nineteen
year old girl named Elisabeth Ryan.
She had worked as "white lead" wo-
man only four months. Her duty was
to carry from the tank in which the
white lead is mixed into paste with
water to the stoves, or hot chambers,
in which it is dried, three dishes OF
the lead, each weighing twenty-four
pounds, or seventy-two pounds in all.
These are carried on the head. and the
work is continuous twelve hours day.
When she had been ct this work four
months the girl fell down on the floor
of the factory one morning foaming OF
the mouth and tearing her hair. She
was carried to the vorkhouse, and the
only entry made IN the register was
Elizabeth Ryan-lead poisoning"
On the second day there was another
entry: elizabeth Ryan-very bad, -
and on the third another: elizabeth
Ryan died to-day" No investigation
was made; nothing was done. It was
simply case OF lead poisoning, and
these are SO common that not even a
note ,f tho 1oot1, roo--,rAxl = Al :.