The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-01-11
TRAFFIC IN BOYS.
Youths Lured From Home
to Become Wage Earn
ers for Men.
Especial to "The Jersey city News."l

lSpeclal to The jersey C1ty news. sx
BRIDGETON, Jan. II, 1901.-The glass
workers of this city, aided by some phil
anthropic citizens, are taking steps to
stop the traffic in boys which threatens
to assume alarmin proportions unless
some action be taken soon. A recent case
which reached the courts has accentu-
ated the evil and precipitated the move
ment for an early abatement.
In all glass works many active, healthy
boys are necessary to help the blowers
of glass. Indeed, so great is the demand
for youthful workers that small towns
are wholly unable to supply it. Glass
blowers themselves generally earn big
wages, and, being thrifty and provident
as a class, much prefer to keep their own
boys at school and give them the adj
vantage of a liberal education. so that
the demand for the lads must be sup-
piled from other families.
The recent boom in the glass trade,
which struck all the great South Jersey
industry, has SO increased the demand for
boys that it cannot be met and several
handicap for lack of them. This was par
ticularly felt here, and the cupidity of
certain persons was aroused by the APP
parently rich opportunity for easily MAX
ing money. Not long ago it was dis
covered that one man in this city had
eight or ten boys he had managed to in
veigle to the city. He boarded them at
his home and gathered their wages. but
somehow the boys were always in his
debt, and could scarcely get decent
clothes to wear. They also complained
that their food was wholly inadequate,
their sleeping quarters, wretched and
their treatment shameful. This mans
business was broken up and the boys
found new homes.
The scheme seems to have taken a
fresh hold, but it looks as though it
would again meet such opposition as
would kill it, The favorite plan seems to
be to advertise in the Philadelphia or
New York newspapers for boys ito work
on farm" promise of a good home being
held out to them. Many parents, perhaps
hampered by large families for which they
are unable to provide properly, are in
duced to permit their boys to come here.
In many cases the traders who advertise
are given full authority as guardians, and
in a little while the boys are indentured
as apprentices in the glass works with a
long term of service, which amounts
practically to slavery, ahead of them.
Their guardians collect the wages,
amounting to from So to s. per week,
and if six or seven boys can be secured
on these terms the trader has an easy
thing
AS rule the boys have been treated
shamefully, and the matter has been
brought fresh to public notice by the ar
rest of young George Hart, who was
accused by Rudolph Madden of steal
ing several dollars. Hart came here
from Philadelphia, in response to an ad-
vertisement, his father being unable to
support him. The case attracted unusual
attention, for young Hart is exceedingly
popular with his fel1ow-workers at the
glass works. When they learned what
had happened to him they were great
ly ihcensed, and such was their conf
dence in him that they quickly raised a
fund to employ a well-known lawyer to
defend him. The boy was quickly re-
leased from jail. where he had been
placed on Madden's charge When Hart's
father came here to inquire into the case,
Madden offered to withdraw the charge
if the lad were taken from the city. The
father was inclined to accept the con-
ditions, but when he heard the good re-
ports of his son from his companions
and learned from the lawyer that the
boy could stay here as long as he desired.
he was more than pleased. AS the re-
suit of the glassworkers' interest in this
specific case new home was found for
young Hart in a respectable family, and
he returned to his work in the factory
in triumph. Four other boys still reside
with Madden, and all are employed in
the glass factory.