The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-02-19

credit and reveal the tenderness of a
being woman / could not for mo-
ment blame you for coming to me so
frankly and openly.
TT is a sad fact that too many chill
dren have to work. / do not myself
believe in child labor below certain
age. But first of all, let me tell you
that stage children are never quite as
young as they seem to be. And then
If our social system cannot permit OF
every child growing to manhood or
womanhood without doing any labor,
let us see what kind of work is pre-
ferable and what kind Is distinctly dis
tasteful or dangerous.
II visited cotton mills in some south
ern states and saw frail young girls
working all night in the thunder of
machinery breathing the impalpable
cotton dust which in few years sends
them to a consumptive's grave.
II went into coal mines in Pennsyl-
vania and / was shown children 10
years old, ten hours day astride on a
coal chute picking with their bare
fingers pieces of slate as they rushed
past. I saw their hands, the nails were
generally torn off and some of them
had lost the first phalanx of the in
dex or thumb and were handicapped for
life. The mill girls were paid So and
the slate pickers 81 a week. On your
way home tonight will you please count
the hundreds of barefooted boys who
will try to sell you a penny newspaper
And if you should not go back to your
apartment before the small hours, you
would wonder when all the children
get any sleep.
Cruelty to children! You read ir
all the Sunday papers that story OF {
wealthy woman who owns home and
q vacant lot on Fifth avenue. OF course
/ shall not speak. But the vacant lo
worth s650,O00 is used as a playground
by a noble dog who wears a silk cloal
which cost $50, and a jeweled collal
worth $1,000. Rubber boots, fur lined
protect his poor feet. And an attendan
sees to 1t that the priceless animafi
wants are filled as soon as expressed
Take walk some day through the mar
row streets of the east side. Watch tn
wretched little creatures who are tn
children of the common, vulgar peopl
who work for a living. Their cottol
cloaks may have cost 80 cents whei
they were new. Their shoes-thei
playground is the, public street and
costs them nothing except of cours
when d trolley car or a wagon run
over them. and then II only costs Their
their lives. And do you know that
Brooklyn judge granted an indemnit
of I'll to q bereaved father whose chill
Ind heen killed by a carr
"And do you know what these emu
dren eat? DO you know how man
practically subsist on the free break
fast given to school children by som
philanthropic bakers on the east size
DO you know where they sleep? @
a pile Of rags or garments their fatne
and mother have been sewing on. Dun
ing the summer they spend their nlghl
orr roofs or fire escapes. And do yo
know that 100000 children in Ne
York city go without schooling or q
tend school on part time, that Is
hour a day, because our politicians nee
the money for election purposes? Ar
now. tell me, do you still pity our dar
ing baby boy? He comes to the theatl
ar o'clock in a closed carriage al
cDmpanied by his mother lie u
the stage about twenty minutes 81
with the munlmer's instinct wilie
makes children delight in Indian game
war games school theatricals, he 81
joys every minute of Iii AT 3 oclos
lie Is III bed IN good hotel or, 4
travels. III comfortable Pullman draw
ing room. He arises ait . or 10 IN y
morning, eats solid breakfast, tn'