The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-15

out to rescue them Instead, the Legfs-
 lature of Alabama refused to lberate
 there they are still, chained. by the con
 sent, tact or explicit, of Alabama par
 ents. to their twelve hours day in the
 factory. The following are not imagin-
 ary cases; they represent actual in-
 There is little Mary Her bright brown
 eyes look up at me intelligently ike
 caged birds. Her father and mother
 and three brothers and sisters are in the
 same mill. She is now years old. and
 stands all day before spinning frame,
 her delft fingers joining thread as It breaks at this end or the other of the long ''side.' Probably she can manage
 four by this time and earn 40 cents a day. Her httle feet nsed to ache fit tn
 drop off, but one get, , used t to ,nSs anythlns' 1T can read my letters," she said wist-
 fully but I can't put them together.
 nen, with burst of childish eagef- ness. Are YOU going to send us to
 school, lady; oh, l do want to go to school" There is Jim. He must be
 nearly 9, also, but he is smaller ana
 frailerE than Mary, so slight and bent; i 1onged to pick him up, poor light weight that he was. and carry hlm away from the hungry machinery that was draining his life. He is so proud Of his
 record. He worked for forty long nights l when he was wears old, while grown folks were snoring. Sometimes he got
 so dead sleepy he couldn't Keep awake | but the Super1ntenOent uaSheu coiu Wa l ter in his face and that woke him up. | No, he slept very little in the day, II
 was so light and the others made noise. l He could have gone on, but hlS father | and mother ignorant they were, got
 anxious about their baby who grew no l bigger, and took him to where he and
 his live brothers need only work twelve
 hours in the day time.
 | There is Joe, with sad, moroSe race | and bent shoulders, who shambles into | the mill Sunday School to contribute his
 nickle,-whch the mill-men SO gra- | ciously enabled him to earn, to the
 conversion of the heathen Joe cannot | read or write. his heavy eyes are scarce,
 ly lifted to look at you. He Will be l7
 next birthday and has worked Tour years. l When he grows a little older his only
 pleasures will be those which are, sadly, | easy to get. His exhausted mind ana l body cannot rise to lnteiiectual JOYS
 and the only trouble he will go 10 VII VII i be to get to a bar so as to procure drlnk | to stimulate him after his days work.
 His shoulders are bowed with leaning
 over a truck, running with 1t sixteen
 or seventeen niles a dag thy n9 ri anu 0O"
 l When I knew Johnnie he was going
 to school, though his mother, a widow l told me the mill snnerintendent coin- plained of his having been taken away | from work, and that to retain her place l she might have to send him back to 1 the factory. He had been sweeper
 there. and his duty was to sweep up
 the clinging lint ali day with a broom bigger than himself. The 25 cents day
 he earned did not compensate ms mother
 for his pale and languid looks when ne ,, l came home, and indeed she tolu me II hardly paid for his food. = 1 Jessie will never spin again. She IS [ | years old. Quite old enough says the supetintcndent: to look after herself ana s , be OhPdirnt. The poor mite found the 1 way uf transgressors hard, for by some 1 misundetstanding or disobedience, the thumb of her tender little right hand