Cannibals all! Part 14

"'A girl eighteen years old--I never learnt nought. I never go to church or chapel. I have never heard that a good man came into the world, who was G.o.d's Son, to save sinners. I never heard of Christ at all. n.o.body has ever told me about him, nor have my father and mother ever taught me to pray. I know no prayer: I never pray. I have been taught nothing about such things.'--(Evidence, Mines, p.

252, 11, 35, 39.) 'The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth to save sinners.'--(_Ibid._ p. 245, l. 66.) 'I don't know who made the world; I never heard about G.o.d.'--(_Ibid._ p. 228, l. 17.) 'Jesus Christ was a shepherd; he came a hundred years ago to receive sin.

I don't know who the Apostles were.'--(_Ibid._ p. 232, l. 11.) 'Jesus Christ was born in heaven, but I don't know what happened to him; he came on earth to commit sin. Yes; to commit sin.

Scotland is a country, but I don't know where it is. I never heard of France.'--(_Ibid._ p. 265, l. 17.) 'I don't know who Jesus Christ was; I never saw him, but I've seen Foster, who prays about him.'--(_Ibid._ p. 291, l. 63.) 'I have been three years at a Sunday-school. I don't know who the Apostles were. Jesus Christ died for his son to be saved.'--(_Ibid._ 245, l. 10.) Employer (to the Commissioner,) 'You have expressed surprise at Thomas Mitch.e.l.l (the preceding witness) not having heard of G.o.d. I judge there are few colliers hereabouts that have.'"--(Second Report, p. 156.)

The moral state of the collier population is represented by the Sub-commissioners as deplorable in the extreme:--

"LANCASHIRE.--'All that I have seen myself,' says the Sub-commissioner, 'tends to the same conclusion as the preceding evidence; namely, that the moral condition of the colliers and their children in this district, is decidedly amongst the lowest of any portion of the working-cla.s.ses.'--(_Ibid._ Report, s. 278, _et seq._)

"DURHAM and NORTHUMBERLAND.--The religious and moral condition of the children, and more particularly of the young persons employed in the collieries of North Durham and Northumberland, is stated by clergymen and others, witnesses, to be 'deplorable.' 'Their morals,' they say, 'are bad, their education worse, their intellect very much debased, and their carelessness, irreligion, and immorality' exceeding any thing to be found in an agricultural district."--(Leifchild, Report, Mines: Evidence, Nos. 795, 530, 500, 493, 668.)

_Calico-Printing._--This employs a vast number of children of both s.e.xes, who have to mix and grind the colors for the adult work-people, and are commonly called _teerers_. They begin to work, according to the Report, sometimes before five years of age, often between five and six, and generally before nine. The usual hours of labor are twelve, including meal-time; but as the children generally work the same time as the adults, "it is by no means uncommon in all the districts for _children of five or six years old to be kept at work fourteen and even sixteen hours consecutively_."--(Second Report, p. 59.) In many instances, however, it will be seen that even these hours are shamefully exceeded, during a press of work.

"352. Thomas Sidbread, block-printer, after taking a child who had already been at work all day to a.s.sist him as a teerer through the night, says--'We began to work between eight and nine o'clock on the Wednesday night; but the boy had been sweeping the shop from Wednesday morning. You will scarcely believe it, but it is true--I never left the shop till six o'clock on the Sat.u.r.day morning; and I had never stopped working all that time, excepting for an hour or two, and that boy with me all the time. I was knocked up, and the boy was almost insensible.'

"353. Henry Richardson, block-printer, states--'At four o'clock I began to work, and worked all that day, all the next night, and until ten the following day. I had only one teerer dining that time, and I dare say he would be about twelve years old. I had to shout to him towards the second night, as he got sleepy. I had one of my own children, about ten years old, who was a teerer. He worked with me at Messrs. Wilson & Crichton's, at Blakely. We began to work together about two or three in the morning, and left off at four or five in the afternoon.'

Night-work, too, with all its evil consequences, is very common in this trade;--and of the general state of education among the block-printers in Lancashire, the Commissioners thus speak, (p. 172.)

"The evidence collected by Mr. Kennedy in the Lancashire district, tends to show that the children employed in this occupation are excluded from the opportunities of education; that this necessarily contributes to the growth of an ignorant and vicious population; that the facility of obtaining early employment for children in print-fields empties the day-schools; that parents without hesitation sacrifice the future welfare of their children through life for the immediate advantage or gratification obtained by the additional pittance derived from the child's earnings, and that they imagine, or pretend, that they do not neglect their children's education if they send them to Sunday-schools."

_Metal Wares._--The chief seats of manufactures in metal are Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Sheffield; but many of the minor branches are carried on in different parts of Scotland, and in Worcestershire and Lancashire.

In the various departments of this species of manufacture many thousands of children of both s.e.xes are employed. They begin to work generally about their _eighth_ year, as in Birmingham and Sheffield, but often earlier; while in _pin-making_, as carried on at Warrington, both boys and girls commence when _five_ years old, and work _twelve hours_ a-day, and sometimes, though rarely, even more. The hours of work in most of the metal manufactures are very irregular, generally from ten to thirteen a-day; but, especially in the neighborhood of Wolverhampton, it is by no means unfrequent to extend them to fifteen or sixteen for weeks together. The places in which the occupations are carried on are occasionally large, clean, and well ventilated; but in the great majority of cases, a very different description of them is given.

"In general the buildings are very old, and many of them are in a dilapidated, ruinous, and even dangerous condition. Nothing is more common than to find many of the windows broken; in some cases I observed more broken than whole panes; great and just complaint is made upon this point by those employed. The shops are often dark and narrow; many of them, especially those used for stamping, are from four to seven feet below the level of the ground; these latter, which are cold and damp, are justly complained of by the workers. From defective construction all these old shops are liable to become 'sufficatingly hot in summer (and also at night when the gas is lighted) and very cold in winter. Efficient ventilation is a thing unknown in these places. The great majority of the shops are never whitewashed, but there are many creditable exceptions to this statement.'

"It has been already stated, that although the whole population of the town of Wolverhampton and the neighborhood, of all ranks, are engaged in the different manufactures of the place, yet that there are few manufactories of large size, the work being commonly carried on in small workshops. Those workshops are usually situated at the backs of the houses, there being very few in the front of a street; so that the places where the children and the great body of the operatives are employed are completely out of sight, in narrow courts, unpaved yards, and blind alleys. In the smaller and dirtier streets of the town, in which the poorest of the working cla.s.ses reside, 'there are narrow pa.s.sages, at intervals of every eight or ten houses, and sometimes at every third or fourth house. These narrow pa.s.sages are also the general gutter, which is by no means always confined to one side, but often streaming all over the pa.s.sage. Having made your way through the pa.s.sage, you find yourself in a s.p.a.ce varying in size with the number of houses, hutches, or hovels it contains. They are nearly all proportionately crowded. Out of this s.p.a.ce there are other narrow pa.s.sages, sometimes leading to other similar hovels. The workshops and houses are mostly built on a little elevation sloping towards the pa.s.sage.'"--(Second Report, p. 33.)

The most painful portions, however, of the Report on the metal manufactures, are those which relate to the treatment of the children and apprentices at Willenhall, near Wolverhampton, and to the noxious influences of those departments which are carried on at Sheffield.--(P.

83.)

"455. The district which requires special notice on account of the general and almost incredible abuse of the children, is that of Wolverhampton and the neighborhood. In the town of Wolverhampton itself, among the large masters children are not punished with severity, and in some of the trades, as among the j.a.panners, they are not beaten at all; but, on the other hand, in the nail and tip manufactories, in some of the founderies, and among the very numerous cla.s.s of small masters generally, the punishments are harsh and cruel; and in some cases they can only be designated as ferocious.

"456. In Willenhall the children are shamefully and most cruelly beaten with a horsewhip, strap, stick, hammer handle, file, or whatever tool is nearest at hand, or are struck with the clenched fist or kicked.

"457. In Sedgley they are sometimes struck with a red-hot iron, and burnt and bruised simultaneously; sometimes they have 'a flash of lightning' sent at them. 'When a bar of iron is drawn white-hot from the forge it emits fiery particles, which the man commonly flings in a shower upon the ground by a swing of his arm before placing the bar upon the anvil. This shower is sometimes directed at the boy. It may come over his hands and face, his naked arms, or on his breast. If his shirt be open in front, which is usually the case, the red-hot particles are lodged therein, and he has to shake them out as fast as he can.' ... 'His master's name is ----, of Little London. There is another apprentice besides him, who is treated just as bad.' ----, aged fifteen, 'works at k.n.o.blocks with ----. Is a fellow-apprentice with ----. Lives in the house of his master. Is beaten by his master, who hits him sometimes with his fists, and sometimes with the file haft, and sometimes with a stick--it's no matter what when he's a bit cross; sometimes. .h.i.ts him with the locks; has cut his head open four or five times; so he has his fellow-apprentice's head.'

"466. The Rev. Isaac Clarkson, magistrate, vicar of Wednesbury.

'In his capacity of magistrate complaints often come before him, made by boys against masters, from different places round about, such as Willenhall and Darlaston, but he did not encourage them, as they should more properly apply to the magistrates of Wolverhampton. More complaints came before him from the mines than from the manufactories; but sometimes there was very bad usage in the latter. A boy from Darlaston has recently been beaten most unmercifully with a red-hot piece of iron. The boy was burnt--fairly burnt. Wished to cancel the indentures; but the master had been to the board of guardians, or to the clerk of the Stafford union, and promised to behave better in future. Has had various similar cases brought before him.'"

The following statements of the Commissioners demand serious consideration.--(Second Report, p. 105.)

"581. But the chief disease is that produced by the occupation of the grinder, which is the most pernicious of any branch of manufacture in England. The inhalation of the dust of the grindstone and of the steel of the knife, or whatever he may be grinding, is so pernicious, that the life of a dry grinder scarcely averages thirty-five years, whilst that of a wet grinder is seldom prolonged to more than forty-five years. The bent posture and pressure on the stomach aggravate the evil.

Fork-grinding is the most pernicious, because it is done dry, and a great deal more of the steel has to be ground off. Dr. Knight states that he cannot better express how injurious grinding is to the health than by stating, that 'they who are the greatest drinkers among the grinders are sometimes the longest lived, owing to their more frequent absence from their work.'

"582. Dust flues, in the state of perfection to which they have now been brought, appear to be capable of greatly diminishing if not of entirely obviating the evil. The Sheffield grinders cannot, however, be induced to avail themselves of this security; they know that they are doomed to an early death, yet they are absolutely unwilling that the evil to which they are exposed should in any degree be lessened: they regard every precaution to prolong life with jealousy, as a means of increasing the supply of labor and lowering wages; they are for 'a short life and a merry one,' and hence, even when the masters are at the expense of erecting the apparatus, these men refuse to use it, and even frequently kick it down and break it under their feet.'"--(_Ibid._ Evidence.)

As to the moral state of this cla.s.s of work-people, the Report speaks thus.--(Second Report, p. 176-178.)

"933. The moral and religious state of the children and young persons employed in the trades and manufactures of Birmingham, is described by the Sub-commissioner as very unfavorable. The social and domestic duties and affections are but little cultivated and practiced; great numbers never attend any place of religious worship; and of the state of juvenile crime some conception may be formed from the statement, that of the total number of known or suspected offenders in this town, during the last twelve months, namely 1223, at least one-half were under fifteen years of age.

"934. As to illicit s.e.xual intercourse, it seems to prevail almost universally, and from a very early period of life: to this conclusion witnesses of every rank give testimony.

"936. WOLVERHAMPTON.--Of the moral condition of the youthful population in the Wolverhampton district, Mr. Horne says--'Putting together all I elicited from various witnesses and conversations with working people, abroad and at home, and all that fell under my observation, I am obliged to come to the conclusion, that the moral virtues of the great majority of the children are as few in number and as feeble in practice as can well be conceived of those who are born in a civilized country, surrounded by religious and educational inst.i.tutions, and by individuals anxious for the improvement of the condition of the working cla.s.ses.' He adds of Willenhall--'A lower condition of morals, in the fullest sense of the term, could not, I think, be found. I do not mean by this that there are many more prominent vices among them, but that moral feelings and sentiments do not exist among them. They have no morals.'

"940. SHEFFIELD.--In all the Sheffield trades employing large numbers of children, it is stated that there is a much closer intermixture of the younger children with the elder youths, and with the men, than is usual in the cotton, woollen, and flax factories; and that the conversations to which the children are compelled to listen, would debase their minds and blunt their moral feelings even if they had been carefully and virtuously educated, but that of course this result takes place more rapidly and completely in the case of those who have had little or no religious culture, and little but bad example before their eyes from their cradle upwards.

"943. Habits of drinking are formed at a very early age, malt liquor being generally introduced into the workshops, of which the youngest children are encouraged to partake. 'Very many,' say the police officers, 'frequent beer-shops, where they play at dominoes, bagatelle, &c., for money or drink.' Early intemperance is a.s.signed by the medical men as one cause of the great mortality of Sheffield. 'There are beer-houses,' says the Rev. Mr. Farish, 'attended by youths exclusively, for the men will not have them in the same houses with themselves. In these beer-houses the youth of both s.e.xes are encouraged to meet, and scenes destructive of every vestige of virtue or morality ensue.'

"945. But it is stated by all cla.s.ses of witnesses, that 'the most revolting feature of juvenile depravity in this town is early contamination from the a.s.sociation of the s.e.xes;' that 'juvenile prost.i.tution is exceedingly common.' 'The evidence,' says the Sub-commissioner, 'might have been doubled which attests the early commencement of s.e.xual and promiscuous intercourse among boys and girls.'

"953. SEDGLEY.--At Sedgley and the neighboring villages, the number of girls employed in nail-making considerably exceeds that of the boys. Of these girls Mr. Horne reports--'Their appearance, manners, habits, and moral natures, (so far as the word _moral_ can be applied to them,) are in accordance with their half-civilized condition. Constantly a.s.sociating with ignorant and depraved adults and young persons of the opposite s.e.x, they naturally fall into all their ways; and drink, smoke, swear, throw off all restraint in word and act, and become as bad as a man. The heat of the forge and the hardness of the work render few clothes needful in winter; and in summer, the six or seven individuals who are crowded into these little dens find the heat almost suffocating. The men and boys are usually naked, except a pair of trousers and an open shirt, though very often they have no shirt; and the women and girls have only a thin, ragged petticoat, and an open shirt without sleeves.'"

_Lace-Making._--In this occupation it is proved, by unquestionable evidence, that it is _customary_ for children to begin to work at the age of four, five, and six years; and instances were found in which a child only _two_ years old was set to work by the side of its mother.

The work is of course very slight, but is trying to the eyes. The Sub-commissioner, after detailing a case, says:--

"58. In this case, if the statement of the mother be correct, one of her children, four years of age, works twelve hours a-day with only an interval of a quarter of an hour for each meal, at breakfast, dinner, and tea, and never going out to play: and two more of her children, one six and the other eight years of age, work in summer from 6 a. m. till dusk, and in winter from seven in the morning till ten at night, fifteen hours.

"59. This family is singular only in the children being set to work at the ages of two or three. It is common in this district for children to commence work at four, five, and six; the evidence renders this fact indubitable."--(Second Report, p. 10.)

The following extracts relate to the hours of work in the lace trade:--

"336. In the Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby districts, partly from the causes just a.s.signed, and partly from the dissipated habits of the workmen, 'the hours of labor are so extremely irregular that it is impossible to speak of them with exact precision.' The hand-machines, especially the wide machines, are usually double-handed; some very large ones have three men each; the men work such machines by 'spells for shifts.' The most common time is sixteen, eighteen, and occasionally twenty hours. 'However long,' adds the Sub-commissioner, 'may be the hours during which the machines are propelled, even for the whole twenty-four, either by hand or power, there are scarcely ever two complete sets of threaders.'

"341. Mr. William Hinde, aged twenty-nine, operative--'Among the small masters, who have each one or two machines, it is the custom for one set of children to work for two or three masters. The masters often live a long way from each other; children have often to go one or two miles. They are always wanted when the machine comes off, whatever may be the hour of the day or night; they are required just as much by night as by day, unless the men will accommodate the children, which is very rarely done, especially when trade is good. When there has been a good pattern, and the machine in constant use, the children "have scarcely a bit of peace," they have no regular time for meals, "no time for nothing;" when one machine is off, another is on. Was himself formerly a threader, and then a winder. Has often gone at six in the morning, and has had no time to get any thing to eat, except a mouthful now and then, till three or four in the afternoon. It is the same now, when trade is good. The children have no regular time for meals; they have their food sent to them, and they eat when they can; some have nothing but a bit of bread. There is no more regular time for sleeping than for eating; the children often lie down "in the middle of the shop door, when it is warm." Thinks hundreds have been sent to the grave by this work. It is enough to kill the children, going half fed and clothed to work in the night, at this time of the year. (The thermometer last night was 102.')--(Second Report, pp. 56-9).

Of course, work of this nature, for such hours, and at such an early age, cannot but be followed by deplorable consequences to health in after life, as well as to moral character. Accordingly the Commissioners report.--(II, p. 109, 110, 181.)

"598. From the nature of their occupation, the long and irregular hours of work, the frequency of night-work, and the insufficient time allowed for meals--an evil of the greatest magnitude in the case of growing children--the const.i.tution is frequently seriously impaired. 'The majority of the children whom I saw,' says the Sub-commissioner, 'were pale and unhealthy-looking, and several were of diminutive stature. The health and sight are often greatly impaired, especially among the runners, who occasionally faint while at work; indeed, there cannot be an occupation which more seriously deteriorates the const.i.tution. Short-sightedness, amaurosis, distortion of the spine, excessive const.i.tutional debility, indigestion, and derangement of the uterine functions, may be said to be almost universal: all the evidence points to this conclusion.'

"'In the town of Nottingham,' says Mr. Grainger, 'all parties, clergy, police, manufacturers, work-people, and parents, agree that the present mode of employing children and young persons as threaders and winders is a most fertile source of immorality.

There can, in fact, be but few states more immediately leading to vice and profligacy. Children of both s.e.xes are called out of their parents' houses at all hours of the night, and, as it is quite uncertain how long they may be required, whether for two hours or the whole night, a ready and unanswerable excuse for staying out is furnished.--(No. 138.)

"The moral condition of the lace-makers in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Beds and Bucks, is stated by Major Burns to be extremely low, and prost.i.tution is rife among them, from their scanty earnings, their love of finery, and the almost total absence of early moral culture."--(Report: App. Pt. I, p. A. 12, s. 104.)

_Millinery and Dressmaking._--The portion of these instructive volumes which describes the condition of the young women employed as milliners and mantua-makers in our great cities, and especially in London, is, however, that which has left the most painful impression upon our minds--not only because the work of these unfortunate girls is of all the most, severe and unremitting--nor because it is inflicted exclusively upon the weaker s.e.x, and at a period of life the most susceptible of injury from overstrained exertion--nor yet because the actual consequences which are shown to ensue in thousands of cases are so peculiarly deplorable---but because the excess of labor (with all its pernicious and fatal results) is endured in the service, and inflicted in execution of the orders, of a cla.s.s whose own exemption from toil and privation should make them scrupulously careful not to increase, causelessly or selfishly, the toils and privations of their less favored fellow-creatures--a cla.s.s, too, many of whom have been conspicuously loud in denouncing the cruelties of far more venial offenders, and in expressing a somewhat clamorous and overacted sympathy with sufferings which cannot for a moment be compared in severity with those which are every day inflicted on the helpless of their own s.e.x, in ministering to their own fact.i.tious and capricious wants. The remark may appear harsh, but the evidence before us fully warrants it--that probably in no occupation whatever--not in the printing fields of Lancashire--not, in the lace trade of Nottingham--not in the collieries of Scotland--scarcely in the workshops of Willenhall--most a.s.suredly not in the cotton factories of Manchester, (which a few years ago the fashionable fair of London were so pathetic in lamenting)--can any instances of cruelty be met with which do not "whiten in the shade" of those which every spring and autumn season sees practiced--unreprobated, and till now nearly unknown--in the _millinery establishments_ of the metropolis.

The following extracts will show that we are guilty of no exaggeration.--(II, p. 114-122.)

"622. It is estimated that there are in London, in the millinery and dressmaking business, at least 1500 employers, and that the number of young people engaged by each employer varies from two or three to twenty-five or thirty-five--the average in each establishment being about ten, making in the whole 15,000; but this does not include journeywomen who work at their own houses, of whom also there are great numbers.

"623. In some of what are considered the best regulated establishments, during the fashionable season, occupying about four months in the year, the regular hours of work are fifteen, but on emergencies, which frequently recur, these hours extend to eighteen. In many establishments the hours of work, during the season, are unlimited, the young women never getting more than six, often not more than four, sometimes only three, and occasionally not more than two hours for rest and sleep out of the twenty-four; and very frequently they work all night.

"625. Miss O'Neil, Welbeck street, an employer, says--'In the spring season the hours of work are unlimited. The common hours are from six a. m. till twelve at night--sometimes from four a. m.

till twelve. Has herself often worked from six a. m. till twelve at night for two or three months together. It is not at all uncommon, especially in the dressmaking, to work all night; just in the 'drive of the season,' the work is occasionally continued all night three times a-week. Has worked herself twice in the week all night. In some houses which profess to study the health of their young people, they begin at four a. m. and leave off at eleven p. m., never earlier. Has heard there are houses in London which work on Sundays.

"628. Miss ---- ----, manager--'has been ten years a "first hand,"

which signifies the party who takes the superintendence of the business, as overlooker of the young persons, cutter-out of the work, &c. The common hours of business are from eight a. m. till eleven p. m. in the winter; in the summer from six or half-past six a. m. till twelve at night. During the fashionable season, that is from April to the end of July, it frequently happens that the ordinary hours are greatly exceeded: if there is a drawing-room, or grand fete, or mourning to be made, it often happens that the work goes on for twenty hours out of the twenty-four, occasionally all night. Every season in at least half the houses of business, it happens that the young persons occasionally work twenty hours out of the twenty-four, twice or thrice a-week. On special occasions, such as drawing-rooms, general mournings, and very frequently wedding orders, it is not uncommon to work all night; has herself worked twenty hours out of the twenty-four for three months together; at that time she was suffering from illness, and the medical attendant remonstrated against the treatment she received. He wished witness to remain in bed at least one day longer, which the employer objected to, required her to get up, and dismissed the surgeon. It frequently happened that the work was carried on till seven o'clock on Sunday morning. If any particular order was to be executed, as mournings or weddings, and they left off on Sat.u.r.day night at eleven, they worked the whole of Sunday; thinks this happened fifteen times in the two years. In consequence of working so late on Sunday morning, or all that day occasionally, could very rarely go to church; indeed it could not be thought of, because they generally rested in bed.'

"639. The correctness of these representations is confirmed, among others, by the following medical witnesses:--Sir James Clark, Bart., Physician to the Queen--'I have found the mode of life of these poor girls such as no const.i.tution could long bear. Worked from six in the morning till twelve at night, with the exception of the short intervals allowed for their meals, in close rooms, and pa.s.sing the few hours allowed for rest in still more close and crowded apartments--a mode of life more completely calculated to destroy human health could scarcely be contrived, and this at a period of life when exercise in the open air, and a due proportion of rest, are essential to the development of the system. Judging from what I have observed and heard, I scarcely believed that the system adopted in our worst-regulated manufactories can be so destructive of health as the life of the young dressmaker.'