Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-02-26

are women and girls, are just as badly Off
IN the dipping and glaze room. Glaze
dust Is constantly splashed over the moor
to be stirred UP by the feet OF the work.
ers. and to be carried and scattered all
over the room. and even to other parts
Of the factory, by the skirts OF the fe-
male laborers. Small ware Is generally
finished by dry rubbing, a great deal of
this work being done by women. girls or
boys. who inhale the particles they brush
off. Glaze dust always and inevitably
rises from the finished ware, now thor
oughly dry, as 1t lies stacked on shelves.
only to be stirred up again when it is re-
moved from the shelves and taken out
Of the factory, to be sold.
Conditions are better in some localities
than in others The factories In Trenton
Conditions in Some other pottery
Are Found to Be Bad. found to be
not SO bad, in the main. but in some
other cities the arrangement Of the work.
or lack of arrangement rather. left a
great deal to be desired, according to DR..
Hamilton. The clippers spatter them
selves with the glaze liquid, and 1t falls
on the wooden floor and dries, to rise as
dangerous dust. In one Ohio factory the
dippers' helpers are women and girls,
called .'takers-off" and ''gatherers.' Hold
ing the drain board, which receives the
ware after it has been dipped, these wom-
en- and girls stand directly in front Of
the dipper.
Sometimes the dipers are careful when
they lift the ware out of the glaze. but
as rule they are not. Not infrequently
they throY the glaze all over their cor
ner Of the shop and the girls are splashed
girls wear caps to protect their hair.
but this does not save their faces. The
girls then sponge the bottom Of the ware
and put it away to dry. The gatherer
assemblies the pieces when they are dry.
This is a very dusty occupation. and 1t
is SO carelessly arranged in most dip
ping rooms that every worker in the
room is exposed to the dust. Rubbing
of small ware, such as butter plates,
small saucers and the like, is very dan
handled individually. Sweeping up the
dust of the rooms at any old time.
sometimes even at the noon hour, which
is not unusual, il not common, Is inimical
to the health of all as well as to that
of the girl who does the sweeping. Floors
of cement or metal kept damp would lay
millions of these dust particles at the
outset. But, with a few exceptions. not
even this simple expedient is resorted to,
the floors nearly always being of rough,
uneven boards.
Thus lead poison is bred and fostered.
Thus lead poison claims thousands Of
workers as
Lead Poison Claims its own
Thousands of Workers. "a hun.
dreds are delivered over to death. A
in pottery, tile works or porcelain enam-
Ell factory. Within few months. or even
weeks, symptoms of lead poisoning are
noticed. He turns a dirty white. He
gets up with foul taste in the mouth
peculiarly sweetish taste becomes mani
fest and food is repulsive. Severe pains
attack the back and legs. Paralysis is
the next step. or perhaps grim fate will
be content with palsy. An early and
death rings down the curtain.
The bureau of labor cites ten typical
cases of lead poisoning. One Is of a
young man who went to a hospital with
lead collie after three days in a pottery.
His was an extreme case. Another is a
girl Of nineteen. who, after three years
in dipping room of a white ware pot
terry, Is emaciated. weak-an invalid
Number is white-haired old man. ap-
parently over seventy years old, weak
and trembling, unable to dress himself.
tottering when he walks. He Is forty
eight years old! From his twenty-sixth
year he worked in the colored dipping
room of tile factory. When he was
thirty eight lead poisoning had advanced
too far to be ignored: Finally, there
came a stroke of apopiexy with partial
paralysis A young Croatian worked
eight years as an enameler of sinks and
before his arms became para
Iyzed. Later he was able to return to