—" I work at Bradley Mills. A few days since I had three 'wratched cardings,' about two inches long. The slubber, Joseph Riley, saw them, showed them to me, and asked me ' if this was good work.' I said, 'No.' He then, in the billy gait, took a thick leather thong, and ' wailed' me over the head and face, for, I think, a quarter of an hour, and ' for all' my cheek and lips were bleeding, he 'wailed' me on, then sent me to my work again, and I worked till a quarter past seven. I went to the mill at half-past five in the morning—he ' wailed' me a bit past one in the afternoon. I worked in my blood—as I worked,the blood dropped all in the piecening gait. My right cheek was torn open, swelled very much, and was black. My lips were very much torn, and each of them was as thick as three lips. He lashed me very hard over my back, too, in all directions ; but the skin was not torn, because I had my clothes on—he has many a time strapped me before till I have been black ; he has often struck me over the head with the billy roller, and raised great lumps with it. At one time, when I had thrice ' little flyings,' which I could not help, he took me out of the billy gait, lifted me into the window, tied a rope round my body, and hung me up to a long pole that was sticking out of the wall, and there left me hanging about five feet from the floor. I cried very much, and so in about ten minutes he took me down." The above true account was last week taken, verbatim, from the lips of a poor child, aged ten years, by Mr. R. Oastler.-Leeds Intelligencer.
The Sydney Monitor December 29 1832.
(From the Ballot of February 19th ) THE FACTORY MOLOCH.
We have before us, says the English Chronicle, an authentic account of the children in a worsted manufactory, which may be considered as an average representation of the whole. From this account it appears, that in the factory in question, there are employed 235 children, from the age of nine, to the age of 12. From the age of 12, to that of 15, the number is 160, and from the latter age to 18 inclusive, there were of young persons 50, making 475 in all, on an average of 12 years of age; only 15 men are required as overlookers. These children are required to be at their daily drudgery, in winter as well as summer, at six o'clock in the morning, and to remain in the factory till seven in the evening, with but one brief interval of half an hour every day, with the exception of Saturdays, when they cease working in some factories at half-past five o'clock, in others at six. But there are occasions, on which this labour is lengthened, from six in the morning till eight or nine at night, making fifteen hours of toil, only broken by the same interval—of one half hour for meals, rest, or recreation. This is not all--the system has been carried to such lengths in this human oppression of its juvenile victims, that the children have been confined in the factory fourteen hours continuously, without any time being allowed for meals, rest, or recreation, the children being obliged to take their meals while attending the machines; and in some factories, this practice has prevailed for years. But the inexorable spirit of this factory system of enslavement and torture of the young, has been more inventive in the process by which it inflicts evil, on the most helpless portion of the human race, than the previous statement would imply. There are two sets of children employed —one set for the day, the other for the night—those by day working from six to seven, as we have stated—the other set beginning at seven, remaining at work by gas or lamp light, till six the next morning. These little nocturnal "slaves of the lamp," are worked on Saturday nights till half-past eleven, and resume work at half past 12 on Monday morning, A.M.—thus, as it has been observed, "delicately avoiding the Sunday, by half an hour at each end of that day." Now the grand principle of Mr. Sadler's bill is, to limit the duration of juvenile labour in the factories to ten hours a day, which is surely quite sufficient, unless the children are to be regarded—in the way that the political economists regard them —as mere animal machines, born into the world, solely for the purpose of being harnessed to the yoke of Mammon, or, to use the more approved term of science, " capital;" for that is the name which the modern high priests, who serve at the golden altars of him whom Milton calls— "The least erected spirit that fell from heaven," give to the God of their selfish idolatry.
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At a public meeting on this subject, held at Leeds on the 9th ult. Mr. Samuel Smith, Surgeon, said, "As one of the surgeons of the infirmary of this town, I have had extensive opportunities of witnessing the baneful effects produced upon the health and limbs of children by too long work, and too short intervals for rest and relaxation. I have seen limbs which have been beautifully formed, in a short time from the operation of these causes, reduced to the lowest stage of deformity; and individuals who, but for these causes, would have been models of beauty and manhood, doomed to remain through life, deformed dwarfs. It is now about twelve years ago, since my attention was first directed to this subject, in consequence of seeing an unusual number of cases of deformity of the lower extremities, sent from a neighbouring manufacturing town; my surprise however, at this circumstance ceased, when I ascertained, that at that period, the children were worked much longer in the factories of that town than this. The expenditure of the infirmary for steel machines, to prop up and support bent bones from those causes, soon after this became an item of such importance in the yearly expenses of the institutions; that the weekly board very properly thought it their duty to pass a resolution, taking from the surgeons the power of ordering machines costing beyond a certain sum, without first obtaining theo consent of the board ; and we have now frequently to compound the matter, by getting the parish from which the poor patient comes, to pay one half of the expense, and the infirmary the other. The number, and the serious nature of the machinery accidents, admitted into the infirmary, are quite frightful to contemplate. I feel confident the proportion of these accidents will be materially diminished by the Ten-hour-Bill, not in the proportion of the one, two, or three hours which may be deducted from the amount of labour, but in a much larger proportion; for I have long had a suspicion, that many of these poor children get their fingers and hands involved in the machinery, while in that state of listlessness and apathy produced by fatigue. I have had it in confession from an overlooker, that it is often necessary towards the latter part of the day, to shake poor factory children by the shoulders to keep them awake while standing at their work. Is it proper, is it right, that poor children who, even when standing on their legs, cannot keep their eyes open, should be placed almost in immediate contact with all kinds of dreadful machinery—with cog-wheels, and things which are emphatically called devils ? To remedy these evils is the object of Mr. Sadler's Bill, the second reading which is, we understand, postponed to the 27th Inst. A public meeting was held on the 30th ult. at Keighley, on Mr. Sadler's Ten Hour Factory Bill, on which occasion Mr. Joseph Firth, who had himself had eight years' experience as a factory child, observed with regard to West India slavery, much has been said; but I say that those who will not support the emancipation of infants, should never disgrace themselves by signing petitions for the abolition of Negro Slavery. I will now advert to the eight years' experience I had in factories. It was said by Mr. Oastler, that children go to work at the factories so young, that they are obliged to be carried. I was one who went at six years old [a woman in the gallery (his mother,) said, "Thou went when thou wast only five and a half,"] and I must say, that they have not time to eat their meals as they should do. I will tell you how the thing runs. I have to be thankful that I was not so bad as the little girl mentioned by Mr. Oastler at the Huddersfield Meeting. I did not start in my sleep, and ask " is it time, is it time ?" but my mother who lay close by me, often had to pull me out of bed before I could wake. There was generally no light, and I found my things or not as it happened. "Mother, I can't find my garters." " Well Joseph go without them, and I'll bring them at breakfast time." Breakfast comes, but, where am I ? I am in the frame-gate looking over the machine; the work spins badly; she puts my breakfast in the window-bottom, and I make an attempt to eat it—The overlooker comes to the machine—" Holloa, an end down there." I go according to his order and set it right. I return to get my breakfast, but when I have got two or three spoonfuls of my porridge, the overlooker calls out, "Holloa, an end down here." In doing that, I am kept continually on my legs, my meal gets cold, and I cannot eat it. When it is carried home at noon, " Well, what's thou brought thy breakfast home for ?" "Why my side spun so ill, I hadn't time to eat it." " Well, thou must get thy dinner, it is not a very good one, but I'll put thee on a bit." 'This is all true, and much more I can tell you. On one occasion it happened that something was wrong, for you know that sometimes lads will get into mischief, and because he could not beat us sufficiently with a leather strap, so he went for a whip. I was terrified, being quite a little one, when I heard the monster coming up the stairs cracking the whip. I got under the machinery ; the others caught it severely, but I being a very little one he could not see me, so I escaped for that time. Another circumstance was this: it happened that one of the master's sons and he had to sew lists on. That day I set the machinery a going, and tore off the overlooker's list, upon which he felled me down by a bat (blow) on the side of the head, and the drum kept going round against my cheek while I lay on the ground. At that time, as is common with lads, I thought that, if ever I were able, I should like to recompense him for his ill treatment, but I have never yet had corporal strength to do it, and now I am more anxious to combat him with reason and argument, and to convert him by statements such as have been made before you.
Sydney Monitor (NSW : 1828 - 1838), Wednesday 15 August 1832, page 4
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