The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-12-01
Wadsworth Dispatch,
PUBLISHED
$500 Per Annum.
CHILD SLAVERY IN FRANCE.

Disclosures Corcerning the sole OF =
Public attention has beer turned to a
form of slave trade now carried on in
France and Italy by disclosures which
are being made on the subject. The vic
tins are Italian children who are bought
from their parents by padrones and
forced to work in glass factories, chiefly
in the central part of France. Formerly
large numbers of these children were
sold into virtual slavery as beggars,
when mutations were practiced upon
them to excite sympathy, as musicians
and as chimney sweeps. That slave
trade was suppressed, but the law does
not reach the present form.
The children bring from 100 to $50
francs (s20 to 500 and are sold for a
period of three years. 1t is so much
money found and a mouth less to fill,
the peasants say. The contracts are du-
ly executed before a notary, and the
village priest blesses the departing con
voy of little ones. There are NJ Stats
tics of the mortality among them, but
it was calculated formerly that of 100
children taken from their homes by pa
drones 30 returned home at the end Of
their period of slavery, 80 settled per-
manently In their new surroundings,
and the other so died, and in view Of
the conditions in which they find them
selves at the glass works there Is no
reason to suppose that the mortality is
any less now Their ages vary from II
to l8 years. The French law forbids
the employment Of children less than
IS years cid at such work, but that is
evaded easily. Their services are sold
to the manufacturers at from 81 to $13
q month, according to the locality, and
they work ten hours o day. The pa
drones pocket all their wagcs and some
times even the gratuities that may be
distributed among the employees of an
establishment upon special occasions.
Their condition in the factories is de-
scribed as shocking. They work i'll a
superheated atmosphere, charged in ad-
dition with noxious gases, and are ON
stantly exposed to severe accidents,
while their injuries do not receive prop
er treatment. They are especially sub
ject to lung troubles. Bad as their o
NAL state is, i'll many cases it is agra
waited by the brutality Of the regular
workmen, who hate them both for being
Italians and for working at far below
the regular scale of wages. They are
naturally i'll fed. A magistrate who
was called upon to make an investiga-
f,O, -, n ooptoi,, IN O IN fnY,,,l thot 4hn,,
chief fare was soupe aux legumes and
bread, with occasionally q bit of cheese
and some wine, but never any meat. 1t
is estimated that the cost of s~ustenance
of these children ranges from 5 to S
cents a day each to the padrone. In one
case the cost of feeding u of the little
slaves was found to be 40 cents a day.
The children are as wretched in appear
ance as is to be expected. They are
lodged in i'll smelling tenements, three
and four on a mattress Of sodden straw,
with rarely any covering, even in win
ter. They are clothed i'll rags, for the
padrones do not permit them to carry
any luggage from their homes to save
expense.
The number of these children can
only be guessed at. 1t is estimated that
in two departments 300 are employ
ed. More children are constantly being
brought into France from Italy to take
the place of those who die or become
incapacitated for work and to supply
the increasing demand for cheap labor.
So great has the demand become of late
that girls as well as boys are being sold
by their parents. The attention Of the
French and tho Italian governments has
been called to the matter, and the trade
will be regulated if not suppressed. =