FIVE-YEAR-OLD TOILERS.

Grey River Argus, 5 November 1907, Page 1

F I V E-Y EAR-O L D T OI L ERS.

The searchlight has rarely been turned so relentlessly on the amazing; conditions under which thousands of, ttS-Jby h-aWdv .earn; HfineSr ."tivmg" in. London,- almost as soon as >they..can talk, as !by 'Miss Olive Christian Malvery (iMrs lArchibald Maclvirdyj.in.her bookj "Baby Toilers," published by Messrs Hutohinson~,arid iCo. '.Describing 1 V. -'the 'flower industry, Miss Malvery : "I have seen mites of five and six years .learning to wrap the : strips of linen round the

stems, to "push the. wiife. through the flowers . : . . Poor babies.! . .vpnee when I. went to see them one small! brown head had fallen heavily on the table. The sleep-drugged eyes were fast shut, but the little; hainds were holding the wire. .r^- v v "The home-workers seldom leave their rooms," says -the-; writer, who goes on to tell of three baby toilers . ■hllio irkAp tiisir moitheirs to awake e'Jaistic belts -at five" farthings, or, perhaps three-halfpence per dozen. ; ;One of them, five years old, helped to hold the 'belts and hold them ta,ut. The whole family work from twelve to fourteen hours a day on tea and stale ■bread. . ~ "Babies .born into .slavery," she describes them. A whole family occupies a sincrleroom. "In many and many a corner of such rooms a jnangle may ibe found and at this dreary machine from dawn to dark litile children toil, earning with infinite labour perhaps a penny an hour. The little backs are bent, the arms .grow twisted, and terrible eyestrain results, for "the tremendous .muscular force put forth by these tiny bodies causes the 'eyes to protrude." i Sometimes the little ones afe:packed off to school, "with aching bodies and dull eyes, to pick up such knowledge as they. can. .But almost to the hour of starting, and .agaitf^on thieir return for many hours, they :take their turn at the mangle." ". v ';■ Esactly 'the same kind, of- story is told^of baby "err anders';'- staggering under extraordinary bundles ; baby needleworkers and bo^pciakers-the story of hunger, ..weariness, illness, and often ill-treatment. : ,' "And these children," . says Miss Malvery, "are the heritage;; of ;the foremost nation of the worldf'x