The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-11-19
CHILD SLAVERY IN FRANCE.
Disclosures Concerning the Sale of
Italian BOYS,


Public attention has been turned to
a form of slave trade now carried on in
France and Italy by disclosures which
are being made on the subject. The
victims 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 chill
dren were sold into virtual slavery as
beggars, when mutilations were prac-
ticed 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 $50 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
duly executed before a notary. and the
village priest blesses the departing con
voy of little ones. There are no sta
tistics of the mortality among them.
but it was calculated formerly that of
100 children taken from their homes by
padrones 20 returned home at the end
of their period of slavery, 80 settled
permanently 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 is years. The French law forbds
the employment of any children less
than 10 years old at such work, but that
is avoided easily. Their services are
sold to the manufacturers at from seven
to thirteen dollars month, according
to the locality. and they work ten hours
day. The padrones pocket all their
wages and sometimes even the gratui-
ties that may be distributed among the
employees of an establishment upon spe-
cial occasions.
Their condition in the factories is de-
scribed as shocking. They work in
superheated atmosphere, charged in ad-
dition wish noXious gases, and are con-
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 nor
NAL state is, in many cases it is aggra-
waited by the brutality of the regular
workmen, who hate them both as being
Italians and as 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-
ton in a certain case found that their
chief fare was soupe aux legumes and
bread, with occasionally bit of cheese
and some wine, but never any meat. 1t
is estimated that the cost of sustenance
of these children ranges from five to
eight cents day each to the padrone.
In one case the cost of feeding 10 of
the little slaves was found to be 40 cents
a day. The children are wretched in ap-
pearance. as is to be expected. They
are lodged in ill-smelling tenements,
three and four on mattress of sodden
straw, with rarely any coverings. even
in winter. They are clothed in 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 1900 are employed.
More children are constantly being
brought into France from Italy to take
the place of those who die or become in
capactated for work and to supply the
demand for cheap labor. So great has
the demand become of late that girls
as we'll as boys are being sold by their
parents. The attention of the French
and the Italian government has been
called to the matter, and the trade will
be regulated if not suppressed.-N. Y.
Sun.