White Slaves; or, the Oppression of the Worthy PoorBanks, Louis Albert
History
White Slaves; or, the Oppression of the Worthy Poor
Banks, Louis Albert
Poor -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Sweatshops; Working class -- Massachusetts -- Boston
I went into another place, where there were eighteen men and twelve
girls. As near as I could judge, the ages of the girls were from ten to
fifteen. The men were nearly all smoking, and that, together with the
heat from the fire necessary for the pressing, made an atmosphere that
was almost intolerable, even for a few moments. I was not astonished
that the girls looked pallid and sickly. There was only one filthy
water-closet for men and women.
[Illustration: REAR OF NORTH END TENEMENT HOUSE.]
I was in a little tenement-house Jew shop where a man and four boys
were making knee pants in a bedroom. The clothing was piled upon the
bed, which was one of the filthiest assortments of tenement-house
bedding that I have ever seen--and that is saying a great deal. The
largest shop I visited was one in which there were seventy-nine people
employed. They occupied four rooms. The rooms were quite large, but
were filthy almost beyond description. The coal was piled up in huge
heaps on the floor; ashes, both in barrels and heaps, were scattered
about; clothing was flung over the floors everywhere; dirt and scraps
of cloth literally made a carpet for these rooms. These seventy-nine
people were about evenly divided between the sexes, and yet for all
this herd of humanity there was only one water-closet, the door of
which stood open, on the landing, and the poisonous stench filled all
the rooms; the floor about it was damp and filthy. How any woman or
girl could work in this shop, and retain her self-respect, I do not
understand. I estimated that at least twenty boys and girls of this
company were under fifteen; one little boy sitting on the floor hard at
work was almost crying with a headache. The men were smoking cigarettes
here, as in other places, and this added to the poisonous condition of
the air. The majority of these people could not speak English. Taken
altogether, they were a hopeless-looking lot. Many of them had a
brutal, hunted look in their faces.
Remember, this is not Glasgow, or London, or New York, but in the heart
of Boston, in the month of June, 1891. It is easy to say that these
people are foreigners, and that they had poor wages where they came
from; that they are probably as well off here as they were at home, and
that they are too ignorant and brutal to suffer, as more refined and
cultivated people would. Putting all other questions aside for a
moment, let us remember that these people are setting up a standard of
living in our midst, which, if permitted to become established, will
dictate its cruel laws to all the laboring people in the community.
[Illustration: COMMONWEALTH AVENUE.]
If this system is allowed to go on, there are people living in luxury,
who are indifferently pooh-poohing this whole question, whose
grandchildren will be starved to death in a sweat-shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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