nine and ten

they worked from early morning till late at night o'clock-preparing tobacco; they were denied the pleasure of going into the streets-the only place where they could get fresh airat all seasons of the year, and also the privileges of education; I have seen children, ten years of age, born in this country, who could not speak a word of English; others could speak but a few words; they were children of Bohemian parents; the conditions of the tenement-houses where these people live are bad, few being kept in even comparatively good order-compared, I mean, with tenementhouses not used as factories; the rooms are smallthere being but one small light room, about twelve and fourteen feet and one or two dark bed closets you could not call them rooms; I have seen seven persons working, eating and sleeping in these rooms, besides two or three children; the tobacco was strewn around, and the stench from it was sickening to any one not used to it; some of the places recently visited by me don't seem to have had a coat of paint or any repairing done since the houses were first erected years ago; I may mention one of these places three houses which is on First avenue, between Forty-first and Forty-second streets, and occupied by working people of Landauer & Shauss; one of the apartments I was in where the wife had her throat tied up and three children were rolling over the floor- the plastering had fallen in large blocks from the ceiling and the walls; others were in like condition; this is a sample house; I could mention half a dozen blocks in about the same or worse condition; the tenants have no time to clean, working from early morning until late at night, many, in busy seasons, taking their sleep with their heads on the benches in none of them, when the work is brisk, does the work wholly cease, for the women (who are generally bunch makers), work while the men sleep; then when the bunches are ready for rolling the men get up and the women sleep; and so it goes on every day in the week not excepting Sunday."

;

Testimony, corrobarative of the above, was given by Frederick Haller; he said:

"At this time of the year business is so depressed that adults have scarcely enough to employ them, consequently children are not employed; but in busy seasons you can see any number of children employed in stripping and preparing tobacco; the number so employed would average more than twenty to a house and the ages would range from five to fourteen; they work from eleven to thirteen hours a day-sometimes more; they do not work as long hours as grown persons, but enough to kill them rapidly; their education is neglected, and I have seen children born in this country, ten years of age, who could not speak the English longuage; I have seen this in the tenements of Silverthan & Co., East Thirty-sixth street; Joseph & Co., East Sixty-third street; Asch & Co., Fifth street; and Lewis, Lichtenstein & Co., East Forty-fourth street; and Keyman Bros., East Fifty-ninth street; the condition of the houses is very bad worse than the lowest order of other tenement-houses;

they have dark filthy halls; bad plumbing and bad ventilation; in one of the Heyman Brothers' houses about eight months ago I saw stairs without banisters, which had been broken off, and any one, in the darkness, was liable to fall over; I have seen eight persons working in a small room about twelve or fourteen in one of Joseph's houses; one of the eight was a little fellow, not more than nine years old, indescribably dirty and ragged; another was the grandmother, and both were stripping tobacco; such scenes are frequent; the stench, the filth, the utter wretchedness and seeming hopelessness of the inmates and the thought of the future of the little children brought up under such circumstances, is simply heartsickening."

But child labor is not limited to industries carried on in tenementhouses; there are factories in which it is employed, although the compulsory education law and the manner of its enforcement has prevented it to a very great extent.

Artificial flower making is very largely carried on in this city, and a girl who works at it said:

66

"I work where twenty-one girls are employed in a small room; I know many girls working who are under fourteen years of age; we work nine hours a day, and I earn $1.50 a week; the girls often have to go home with headaches, especially when we work on carmine and yellow; there are establishments which employ hundreds of girls; they are all in the neighborhood of Houston, Mercer, Greene and Prince streets."

In many candy factories in Courtlandt and Chambers streets little girls, mostly Italians, are at work, but they attend night school and are entitled to certificates, which will be spoken of hereafter. In jute and hemp mills, pencil works and paper hanging factories, paper box and button works, girls and boys are employed, who as sert they are over fourteen years of age, but who if physical standard was required would be unable to pass; they are small and delicate looking.

The following tables obtained from the Records of the Police Department show the number of children between eight and fourteen years of age arrested for the five years preceding the enactment of the law, and for the five years ending December, 1883, together with the cause of arrest.

SANITARY

TESTIMONY OF PHYSICIANS ESTABLISHING THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF CHILD LABOR UPON THE PHYSICAL NATURE, AND AN ESSAY BY ROGER S. TRACY, M. D., SANITARY INSPECTOR OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH OF NEW YORK, UPON THE HYGIENE OF OCCUPATION.

Of the obligations imposed upon civilized communities none appeals stronger to the sympathies of the benevolent and philanthropic than the one that imposes a care for the physical and mental welfare of the young and helpless. The charitable freely give of their wealth to care for the orphaned and homeless young children of the land, while the State yearly appropriates liberal sums to provide for the vicious and unfortunate.

The testimony submitted does not relate to either of the classes stated, but reveals the fact that a very large percentage of the children of the State of New York are compelled, either by their parents or the force of circumstances, to spend the larger portion of their young lives in factories, mills, or tenements, where but slight, if any, attention seems to be paid to those safeguards which are conducive to good health. If the present system of child labor is to be permitted to continue it should be the first duty of the State to provide precautionary and effective means to secure the enforcement of proper sanitary regulations, in all factories, mills or tenements where children are either employed or domiciled.

J. D. Featherstonhaugh, M. D., produced as a witness, testified: Q. You are a regular practicing physician in Cohoes? A. I am, yes, sir.

Q. How long have you been engaged in practice in this city? A. Fifteen years.

Q. Have you in that time ever visited any of the work-shops where children are employed? A. Oh, yes.

Q. Ever been in the Harmony mills? A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do you believe the sanitary conditions to be good in the Harmony mills? A. I believe they are very well arranged as to all sanitary conditions; I think they have done all they can; the rooms are high, tolerably well ventilated and clean; comparing them with a great many others I have seen, they are in advance of them.

Q. You have practiced among the employees of the mills? A. I have.

Q. Do the employees, especially children, ever complain much of headaches? A. Yes, sir; a great deal.

Q. Do you know whether any precautions are taken to prevent the introduction and spread of contagious diseases in the factories? A. In times of pestilence, when we had small-pox here, they paid me to vaccinate their help and they furnished rooms to vaccinate them in, and they also sent me from house to house to vaccinate them, and almost used compulsory measures to enforce vaccination among their employees; that is only one example.

Q. Then caution is used to exclude employees from bringing contagious diseases into the mills from home? A. In case of epidemic where they have diphtheria, scarlet fever, or any thing like that, they do not allow them to come; that is, members of the family are excluded.

Q. Can you tell what percentage of the children are habitually absent on account of sickness? A. No, I cannot say; it is impossible to tell; I might see a dozen or fifteen a day who might have troubles caused by working in the mills.

Q. Is there any larger percentage of sickness among them than among children outside of the mills? A. Oh, yes; a great deal. Q. Do you know if personal violence has been used to control the children in the factories? A. No, sir.

Q. Did you ever know of any employees being killed or maimed for life by machinery in the mills? A. Oh, yes.

Q. Were many of them children? A. Three to my knowledge. Q. Do you consider that proper care is taken by the company in looking out for the lives and limbs of their employees? A. Certain orders have been given in regard to accidents that have happened there, and in regard to the manner of avoiding them; I believe they must have been violated, because death was met with under circumstances against which they had been cautioned by their employers; they were killed by the mules; the orders were that the mules should be stationary when being cleaned and they were cleaned while in motion.

Q. Do you know of children losing an arm, leg or finger? A. Yes, sir.

Q. How many during your experience-about how many? A. Well, I only know of one child losing an arm; fingers, I have - I cannot say; perhaps twenty-five, perhaps fifty; somewheres between these numbers.

Q. These were lost by machinery? A. Yes, sir; by machinery. Q. What diseases are most prevalent? A. Diphtheria, scarlatina, whooping-cough and measles.

Q. Do the children employed there generally get wholesome food to eat? A. Well, yes; I think so as a rule; I think they do; I think they are fairly fed, yet that is a question; so far as that is concerned, I believe their food to be wholesome, but I cannot answer as to the quantity.

Q. Do you find that the health of the children employed in the