The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-06
CHILD SLAVERY In FRANCE.
Disclosures as to Sale of Italian Boys
to Agents of Glass Works.
New York Sun.


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
children were sold into virtual slavery as
beggars, when mutilations were practiced
upon them to excite sympathy, as muSl-
clans 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
($20 to $780, 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
notary, and the village priest blesses the
departing convoy of little ones. There are
no statistics of the mortality among them,
but it was calculated formerly that of one
hundred children taken from their homes
by padrones twenty returned nome at the
tied permanently in their new surround
ings and the other fifty died; and, in view
of the conditions in which they nnd tnem-
selves at the glass works, there is no
reason to suppose that the mortality is any
less now. Their ages vary from eleven 10
eighteen years. The French law forblds the
employment of children less than thirteen
years old at such work but that is evaded
easily Their services are sold tc the manu-
facturers at from 81 to $l3 month, accord
ing to the locality, and they work ten hours
a day The padrones pocket all their wages
and Sometimes 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 in SUPER
heated atmosphere, charged in addition with
noxious gases and are constantly exposed
to severe accidents, while their injuries do
not receive proper treatment. Ihey are es-
pecially subject to lung troubles. Bad as
their normal state is, in many cases 1T is
aggravated 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, natural
w. i'll fed A magistrate who was called
upon to make an investigation in certain
case found that their chief fare was soupe
aux legumes and bread, with occasionally
any meat. 1t is estimated that the cost of
sustenance of these children ranges from S
to cents a day each to the padrone. In
one case the cost of feeding thirteen of the
little slaves was found to be 40 cents day.
The children are as Wretched in appearance
as is to be expected. 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 de-
dren are constantly being brought into
France from Italy to take til place of those
who die or become incapac4Lated for work
and to supply the increasing demand for
cheap labor So great has the demand be-
come of late that girls as well as boys are
being sold by their parents. The attention
of the French and the Italian governments
has been called to the matter and the trade
will be regulated if not suppressed.