The herald. [microfilm reel], February 27, 1898, Image 21

About The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
MOST YOUTHFUL LABOR ONION IN U.S.
Organized by Bright Boys and Girls Concerned in the Great
Cotton Mill Strike in New England—One of Their
Leaders Expounds His Up-to-Date Views.
There is one phase of the great strike
Bow going on ln New England that has
■o far escaped attention. It is that the
boys and girls share In the contest.
Of the 40,000 cotton mill workers in the
cities of New Bedford and Fall River,
Where the strike is on In greatest force
at present, there are at least 10,000 un
der twenty, and half that number are
mere children, not sixteen years of age.
These young workmen are as enthus
iastic ln the fight against a reduction
of pay as are any of the older hands.
They were even more ready to go out
on strike; for being young and not hav
ing outgrown a fondness for holidays,
they did not object to the prospect of
a rest from their unceasing round of
toil.
The backboys have probably the
youngest Labor Union In the .country,
for the average age of its members
cannot be more than sixteen or seven
teen. But trades unionism Is born and
bred in these youngsters: indeed, It was
brought over from Lancashire by their
parents, many of whom came from the
great cotton spinning distrlot of Eng
land. Most of the boys are well versed
In the arguments of the labor leaders,
and can reel them off at an astonishing
rate. Here is what the secretary of the
Union, a bright-eyed Englishman of
eighteen, gave as his idea of what that
organization will do for the boys:
"The doffers and backboys have al
ways been put upon because the man
agers and superintendents think it per
fectly safe to dock or discharge one of
the boys. They look nt it this way:
'There are plenty of others to take
their places, as almost any strong boy
can do the work; so we can make them
crawl as much as we want to.' But
when they find that we have a Union
ELLEN OSBORN'S FASHION LETTER.
New York, Feb. 25 —The little dress
maker and the engaged girl made a
tour of the shops yesterday. Both were
happy; they were shopping for the
trousseau. The little dressmaker took
the engaged girl from counter to coun
ter and showed her "woven air" and
"woven wind," delicate and transpar
ent summer tissues, more filmy than
any muslin. They looked at "microbe"
nets with fine, Irregular meshes, and at
striped and plalded silks patterned like
"go-bang" boards and combining reds,
greens, blues, and yellows so vivacious
ly that nothing short of a breakfast
food advertisement could countenance
thejr colore.
The little dressmaker caused the en
gaged girl to notice how soft and pli
able are the spring wool goods for easy
draping, and how popular is the old
fashioned tarlatan. They pulled over
stuffs for day wear and evening wear
till the counters ran pink in twenty
shades and forty materials and dripped
with Roman and Russian reds and
cranberry jelly color. The little dress
maker tiptoed her way to certain rooms
where new French models were to be
peeped at, and let the engaged girl set
how long the shoulder seam 1b now to
be cut, so that the modern athlete and
Amazon may give her muscles the He
with an aesthete's sloping shoulders.
They inspected sleeves severely tight
and bare of ornament, and stood before
skirts planned to give a slim, picket
fence result, by means of trailing
draperies, closely fitted.
They looked at the revived Yak laces,
at the huge picture buttons that come
with the Louis styles and at hundreds
of other things It would take a page of
type to mention; then the little dress
maker cried out ln her enthusiasm:
"To think that I used to be little
'Fetch-and-Carry" in a black Jersey,
and a white apron watching you meas
ured and now I myself am going to
make you all these bea-u-u-tlful
gowns!"
So they sat down at a round table
in a restaurant to consider samples,
and the little dressmaker sketched and
added figures and rubbed out and made
more sketches on the corners of the bill
of fare.
"I don't believe you can do better,"
she said, with brows knit and pencil
poised, "than to have your travelling
dress of this new royal blue camel'B
hair. All my customers say their hus
bands like blue better than any other
color."
The engaged girl blushed and dim
pled.
''I'd have quite a simple French tailor
and will all stand together, they will
be more careful what they say or do
to us. We don't suffer much from
fines, as some of the others do; our
wages are so low that if they took
much away in fines there wouldn't be
anything left. But with our Union we
shall be able to demand as good treat
ment as the other workmen receive,
and we sha'n't be discharged except
for some good cause. Besides, if we
can get an organization started with
money in the treasury, we can hold out
better when there is a strike or lock
oat."
There are at present about two hun
dred members In the Backboys' Union,
but It Is expected that when they get
started their membership will grow
rapidly. Whatever outsiders may think
of their association, it Is certain that
the boys know what they are about
The Backboys' Parade.
and that they believe tho Union will
bring them many advantages.
The question that naturally rises on
hearing of this army of youngsters
among the factory operatives is: What
on earth do so many children find to do
in the mills? The answer is simple
enough to anybody who has seen them
in operation, for it is a fact that a large
part, of the work of turning out the
millions of yards of cotton cloth that
are made in this country every year is
done by boys and girls. They are em
ployed to assist the spinners who run
the mules and the weavers at the
looms. Some of them are carders, em
ployed in the lighter work of almost
every department. A "mule," remem
ber, is the great frame, twenty feet or
more wide, on which the cotton fibre is
converted into thread, or yarn, as it is
called in the mills. It moves back
wards and forwards on an iron track,
LOS ANGELES HERALD) SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 27, 1898.
drawing out the fleecy cotton Into fine
strands which are reeled off to big
spools, ready for the looms. On the
looms these threads are unwound, and
are united by the swift moving shuttles
to form the fabrics which we see piled
up in the stores.
Both in the spinning and the weaving
rooms each operative attends to sev
eral machines and has one or two as
sistants, who are boys or girls. These
are, in a sense, apprentices; they are
learning the trade and In time are
likely to become spinners and weavers
themselves. Like apprentices, too, they
do a great deal of work and receive
very small pay.
As one old workman put It, "there's a
lot of leg work In a cotton mill;" and
most of this falls to the share of the
youngsterß. They run for bobbins,
help watch the looms lo see that the
yarn is unreeling properly, and in gen
eral do everything that the workman
tells them to. They don't often get a
chance to try running tho looms or
frames until they have been a long
time in the mill; for the operative is
wary of letting the ambitious young
ster touch his own part of the work,
since any flaw in the cloth costs him
part of his wages.
The doffers, backboys, and helpers of
all kinds who work in the cotton mills
have no easy life. They are up at six
In the morning and away to the mill
at 6:.10. There they remain until six
at night, not even going outside the
factory during the noon hour unless
they happen to live near by. This is
their regular round every day but Sat
urday, when the mill closes at four, and
Sunday, when they do not work at all.
For their fifty-eight hours of work they
receive $2.50. or possibly $3.oo—about
four cents per hour!
They all come from poverty stricken
homes, where father, mother and chil
dren all work at the looms; and their
home life In the bare and dreary tene
ments is scarcely more pleasant than
the hours they spend in the mill. Some
of their lives make very sad stories.
The superintendent of schools in Fall
River told me of one such case. In
the night school, where the boys and
girls who work during the day have a
chance to learn to read and write, a
composition was set, and the scholars
were asked to write on the subject:
"The Happiest Day of My Life, and
What Made It So." When the papers
were handed in It was found that one
boy had written under the title: "I can
not write on this subject, as I never
had a happy day in my life." The
case was looked up, and the boy's state
ment was found to be perfectly true.
He was a cripple, the only support of
an invalid father; and both father and
son had to live on the pitiable wages
that the little cripple earned. I am
glad to say that, as soon as the facts
became known, the boy's cheerless life
was gladdened by at least one happy
day which he is likely to remember.
But in spite of the hopeless lot of a
few, most of the boys and girls who
work in the mills are ambitious and full
of fun, like others of their age. It is
amusing to an older person to note the
business-like ways which the boys
quickly take on. As has been stated,
the backboys of Fall River—which Is
the capital of the cotton-spinning in
dustry in this country and contains
30,000 operatives—have formed a Union,
(iowiis for a Spring Trosseau.
and I attended one of its meetings. The
boys had evidently learned from the
older men how to conduct a meeting,
for everything was done in due order.
It was decided to ask the Weavers'
Union for recognition,—which was af
terward granted. This means that
while the strike lasts the backboys
as well as other workers will be able
to draw on the full treasuries of the
older associations. In case there Is a
strike In some other district after they
go back to work, they may be asked to
contribute twenty-five cents per week
from their wages to help support those
strikers; but so firm is their faith In
the benefits of their Union that they
will willingly give up one-tenth of their
scanty earnings for its sake.
Copyright, 18H8, by Bacheller Syndicate.
BAD BOYS MADE
ELECTRICIANS.
The State of New York has opened
the path of learning that leads to
science to the boys for whom it Is
forced to care. As a result of this, the
electric department of the State Indus
trial School at Rochester is a constant
object lesson to those who believe that
l>oys who have once started upon a life
that pointed toward an evil ending can
not he made good citizens.
It was a good deal of a venture at
first, but every day is now showing the
wisdom of the movement. The elec
trical machinery that furnishes the
electric light for this institution is prac
tically operated entirely by boy elec
tricians, there being, of course, several
instructors to give the boys counsel
and be present in ease of an emergency.
When the plant was first put in it
furnished 1,500 ligihts for the buildings,
but this number was increased to over
3,000, and the source of light from a 15
--horse-power motor to four 5-horse
power, one 15-horse-power, one 10-horse
power and two 2-Worse-power motors.
The additional motors, with the excep
tion of the 10-horse-power, were all de
signed and built at the school by the
boys, and all are giving everyday ser
vice.
These boys, most of them declared in
corrigible when they were sent to the
school, set up and aligned a 50-horse
power engine. They also changed the
electric wires from overhead to under
ground, and conducted the operation
with such care that no shut down of
the plant was necessary,—a feat which
would have reflected credit on skilled
electricians.
The experience of the boys is made as
varied as possible. The repairing donf
is as different as the many electrical
appliances call for. Every bit of this,
except the repairing of the testing In
struments, is done by the boys. This
includes repairs of motors, the wiring
of chandeliers, the rewiring of new de
partments, caring for bell circuits, re
pairs on arc lamps and the trimming of
the same. Not only do the boys per
form all the work in the electrical field
proper, but all that is directly connect
ed with it as well. This Includes en
gine work, caring for fans that are run
by motors, and the wiping and clean
ing of machinery in the power house.
The cardinal principle of the Instruc
tors is to trust the boys. Much of the
work is placed entirely In their hands.
With experience grained and under
proper instruction, they have handled
many tasks entirely alone and greatly
to the satisfaction of the management
of the school.
The result of all this is that every
boy whom Jit is found has a bent in the
direction of electrical work is. given
an opportunity to develop along this
j line. The results have been astonish
ing; and even now, a number of the
boys who went to the school hopeless
and without ambition bid fair to be
come electricians of a high order.
Copyright, IS9S. by Bacheller Syndicate.
MOUNTAIN BUILDERS
Dmidicaf Ants Erect the Biggest Structure in
Proportion to Their Size of Anu
Creature on Earth.
COL. JOHN HOBBS DESCRIBES AN AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE,
Man looks at the pyramids of Egypt
or the Eiffel Tower, then at himself,
and marvels at the massive proportions
of these works when compared with the
size of the builder. The druidical ants
of Australia are not so conceited. They
haven't time for conceit when at work
upon their gigantic mounds. Yet there
isn't a creature upon the earth which
constructs a larger work in proportion
to its size tha.t (io these Indefatigable
tollers.
A traveller who was new to the bush
gown, If I were you, with a smart little
open jacket effect, so as to vary the
toilet easily by a variety of blouses.
Then, of course, you want a skirt that
won't fro out of fashion quickly. No
body can cut one in these lightning
change days; but the drop skirt with
full length overskirt will last as long
as anything, and, probably, cut over.
Would you have black braid trimming
or black and metal? You'll want a
small black 'Marquise' hat to corre
spond; I'd have very pale La France
roses on it, with a largo black bird."
"No; no bird;" the engaged girl shook
her head, blushingly. "Dick—l mean
Mr. Spring Bridegroom—has made me
promise not to wear birds; he says fur,
feathers and beads remind him of Lo,
the poor Indian."
"No fur! No beads!" The little dress
maker, aghast, stopped ciphering.
"Men who object to women's clothes
ought to understand that men make
the fashions."
The engaged girl had a scrap of fine
white cloth, and was holding apple
green silk and Mandarin yellow againßt
It alternately.
"Oh," she said, absently; "you mean
the great men dressmakers."
"No," answered the little dressmak
er; "I mean—the apple green goes bet
ter, don't you think? I mean small men
dressmakers, poor men-dressmakers
with no more money than I have to
carry out their ideas. Do you know,
it's the rarest thing for a fashion to be
invented by a woman?"
"But," objected the engaged girl,
puckering a bit of black silk and laying
it beside the white and apple green;
"I thought that actresses "
"Not a bit of It," said the little dress
maker. "Men in Paris whom nobody
ever hears of spend their slack time of
the year thinking out novelties. They
take their fashions to the great houses,
the most striking ones are bought—for
a few francs often and a 'mercl, mon
sieur,' for these small men dressmak
ers live from hand to mouth—and there
you have a style. Models of these
models are sent to America; women
dressmakers copy and adapt: other
women like, dislike, wear. Probably
every novelty we have looked at this
morning was a man's fashion."
The engaged girl was comparing
small pieces of lace critically. "It does
seem queer," she admitted without
much show of interest. "Anybody
would suppose, when women spend so
much time on dress, they would orig
inate their own fashions. There's so
much talk now about money-making
occupations."
"There are a few women designers,"
the little dressmaker conceded; "if wo
men have any inventive talent it ought
to be a splendid field. If It weren't for
Boy. I'd —I think myself you'd better
settle on the string color."
"I think so, too," said the engaged
girl, brightening.
"Now, as this dress is for really nice
wear, I would have either the delicate
engaged two bushmen to pilot him
through the back-blocks of Queens
land. They went out of their way in
search of water, which was finally
found in the early dusk of the evening;
then they lined themselves back to
wards their proper route by the caps
of the hills out beyond Yandilla. These
went down in the night behind the
forests, and after wandering aimlessly
in the dark until long after midnight,
A Druidical Ant Village.
they built a Are with which to dispel
the dampness. They slept until the sun
was high up ln the trees. Then, look
grey cloth or the white or the putty
color. The white? Very well. You are
tall enough to stand some trimming on
your skirt. I don't recommend trlftmed
skirts to all my customers, even if
everybody is wearing them. Suppose
you have two fluffed-out ruchings of
silk; set them in a deep point in front
and behind, half way down. Black
would be the most effective. For the
waist I would have narrow ruchings of
black, or of green if you prefer, to out
line a square yoke of the white cloth.
The rest of the bodice I would make of
this apple green glace covered with
string colored lace ruffles. You want
close white sleeves and a folded waist
band of green silk fastening at the back
under a paste buckle and hanging to
the ground in chiffon-trimmed sash
ends. It is a great mistake to have
your sash too Bhort or too wide. Long
and rather narrow ones are the most
becoming. As to quantities, with your
skirt length—"
"How can you remember any meas
ures?"
"How do you remember where you
left off in a book? I know all the meas
ures of every customer I ever fitted.
But for that other calling or reception
dress you wanted, what do you say to
this soft, powder blue chiffon? It's not
durable for daylight wear, but trous
seaux aren't expected to be indestruct
ible. The prettiest spring dresses in
chiffon have cream-white lace ap
pliques in flower patterns half way
from the hem to the waistline. For
the waist you would want puffed yoke
and sleeves and a huge pink tulle neck
bow. You don't like powder blue?
Pinkish mauve then or mignonette with
bow of cerise tulle.
"If you need one of the spring silks
for theatre wear or for daylight, take
one of those fleur de velour novelties so
sheeny that they look almost laminated
with silver. The coral and white is
wonderfully pretty. You could have a
fanciful collar with coral ornaments
and coral buttons. Groups of puffs or
shirrings, set at wide intervals, would
trim the skirt handsomely.
"Of course, a tea gown. The prettiest
thing you can have is a blouse and
plain skirt in pink crepe de chine with
darker belt of velvet;- over this a lace
yoke, shaped like a short bolero, from
which hangs an outside princess dress
of a gauzy, transparent tissue. Then
for evening dresses "
But here the engaged girl said she
mustn't get too tired, because her
evenings belonged to "Dick" more than
to dresses. So the little dressmaker
swept the samples into her shopping
bag and took the girl home with her
to try on things bought on a previous
expedition. The dressmaker's Boy, aged
three, looked up at the slim young fig
ure in the beautiful half finished bridal
gown and said gravely.
'.'You mustn't hurt it, or mamma'll
whip you!"
ELLEN OSBORN.
Copyright, 1898, by Bacheller Syndicate.
ing up, the traveller peered through the
straggling low forest and exclaimed:
"Why, here are the ruins of an old
town!"
His companions simply laughed.
"Can't you see the high, broken walls
there?" he demanded somewhat piqued
at their levity.
His anger stirred their mirth still fur
ther.
"Them ain't no ruins, mate; them's
ant hills."
"Heh!" the traveller grunted, staring
at the bushmen.
They were familiar enough to the
first settler who had "humped his
swag" and "hooked" it on those hot
plains for years. The great mounds
stretched up far above the lower
branches of the trees. From where the
traveller sat they looked like broken
columns; others resembled bifurcated
spires, and unfinished bastions and
parapets. Little mounds squatted here
and there like the drums of a Maori
graveyard, broken at the top by the
weather and long exposure.
In tho village nearest the camp Are,
there were sixty spires of these colos
sal hills within a radius of two hundred
yards. The tallest measured forty feet
In height, and its base, which was Ir
regular, had a circumference of more
than eighty feet, being twenty-five feet
long, and about fifteen feet thick. The
others varied in height and depth, the
smallest having its apex scarcely four
feet above the ground. The clay which
formed them was hard; the outer sur
face, even after its exposure to the hot
sun and heavy rains, was firm and did
not crumble. These big heaps of dirt
felt like solid stone when touched.
The traveller had with difficulty dug
into the side of one of them, and was
in the act of cracking off the side
of a smaller spire with a cudgel, when
one of the bushmen, noticing him
called out: "Say, there, mister stop
that!"
"Why?" the experimenter asked.
"If you open that stink-pot there'll
lie no use tryin' to eat in this paddock.
It'll smell like mashed ants until it'll
make us sick at the stomach for days."
When his guides had explained the
effect of the pungent fumes of the
formic acid on the inquisitive "new
chums" who tamper with ant-hills,
their charge quickly desisted; but a de
lapidated mound further on enabled his
curious eye to inspect the Interior laby
rinth of these engineering little insects:
and the work showed an Intelligence
as amazing as was the size of the outer
structure. There were chambers, nests,
galleries, storage rooms, and cells,
which It must have taken miirions of
workers years to construct. But the
fortress was deserted. It had evidently
been ten feet high, and the big pieces
lay about like honey-combed terracot
ta, much worse for wear.
These monster ant-hills extended for
more than fifty miles through that
straggling eucalyptus forest. They are
said by old "swagmen" to extend for
hundreds of miles without break in the
northern and western gulf country of
Australia.
In digging for water in the vicinity
of the mounds, workmen have cut
through tiers of passages at depths of
from six to twenty feet, and as much
as three hundred yards from the spires.
Often the digging had to be abandoned
for fear of contaminating the water.
In one place in the Peak Downs coun
try the earth had been so perforated
with these ant bores that the diggers
incontinently fled from the horrible ef
fluvia which the earth emitted. It
seems that the ants had so perfectly
cemented their little subterranean pas
sages that they became round flues;
when cut they looked like quills of ter*
racotta drawn through the earth.
The appearance of this cobweb of ant
tracks in the ground has led to the
statement that those areas are simply
a bed of ants: but this is the reverse
of the fact. The ant lives only in the
hills, and merely drills out the earth
for building material. The traveller
who investigated this subject conclud
ed with the remark:
"Well, Australia beats the world. It
has a white ant which eats up a whole
house, leaving only the outer shell,
and a dark ant that eats up the earth,
leaving it also a mere shell."
Co#irriff_t, 1888, by Bacheller Syndicate.