Читать книгу Child Labor in City Streets - Edward Nicholas Clopper - Страница 12

Table of Contents

There are a few so-called street trades in which a relatively small number of children are engaged which so far have not been mentioned in this volume. These are the leading of blind persons and the accompanying of beggars in general, little children being found valuable for such work because they help to excite the sympathy of passers-by. A few children also are employed as lamplighters to go about towns lighting street lamps in the evening and extinguishing them in the early morning. A class of street boys who have as yet received no name in this country, but in England are called "touts," haunt the neighborhood of railroad depots and lie in wait for passengers with hand baggage, offering to carry it to the train for a small fee.

Some children are used as singers or performers upon musical instruments, but this is in reality only another form of begging. The writer found one instance of a young boy who was employed by the public library of one of our large cities to gather up overdue books about the city and to collect the fines imposed for failure to return the same. Very frequently in the course of his work this boy had to enter houses of prostitution, as the inmates are steady patrons of the public library, reading light literature, and are quite negligent in the matter of returning the books within the prescribed time. Immediately upon the librarian's learning of the situation, he was relieved of this duty, and a man was detailed to perform the task. Such special occupations as these do not constitute a real factor in the problem because of the small number of children involved, and hence they are omitted from consideration.