The Boy With the U.S. Census

to help those business men whose books did not specifically divide receipts, expenses, and so forth in the same order as the government required. Indeed, he made several very pleasant acqua

great when he learned that this had been omitted from the census since 1904

nd entered upon the schedules as one, he thought such an idea was stretching the point a little far. Fortunately he had covered a large number of them during the first weeks of the work

address of a milliner not down on his lists, who did work for wholesale as well as retail trade, went up the steps of a really handsome house, and ran

, the boy caught sight of a pile of fashion magazines, and he was sure that he was on the right track. After a few moments' delay

he said, "that you are a

looked b

inued, perceiving at a glance

er zat you wa

ed, "I just want to kno

all enlightened by thi

ts; I design zem, an

roprietor," said Hamilton; "t

wn ze house," she said; "I pay ze r

it. I did not wish to trouble you that way. I come from the census,

zat-ze

xplained Hamilton, "their names and how old they are, what they work at and how m

rounder at every sentence, and when Hamilton had fi

zere was no poli

far as I know,"

t y

e boy said, a little nettl

s ze gendarmes ask. An' if you are not policeman, why do you wear badge

e boy insisted, "that's a census badge. Mada

e of the gendarmes of her native land and the burly

disguise'?" she s

d, "and the badge is just to show that I h

illiner objected, "but if you say you have ze

red. He got along well enough while the formal questions about name, address, nature of work, and so forth w

er if ze girls work all ze night to finish ze hat for ze gr-rand occasi

"with such a number of society people as

l move. The French

or thirty evenings, but even zen

ow the prevailing practice followed in the establishment during the year. He was a litt

he said, "I suppose th

pected valuable information. But he came to a dead stop on the question of raw material used during the year. For the material used in wholesale work the figures were easily secured, but the retail trade was another matter. This the milliner

,-here it says that every factory must state the total cost of

a factory! Zis establishment a factory! And me, one of ze

the tempest he had so suddenly evoke

e said, "and it is used for eve

A factory has chimney, high, high, and smoke, a

he boy, "but it is only one kind. But if

out of her on any subject; the deadlock had become absolute when the door opened and the maid showed in a young girl, evidently a customer. The propriet

s a lull, Hamilton

would you mind explaining to Madame what the census i

ould not make out what it was all about. I

all right, and have finished my schedule but for one thing, and that I cannot get hold of. If you would just ask

ght on this subject, and laughingly she had to admit to

milton; "I've got an ide

part in it, she was American enough to be unwilling t

of Madame's

es

ept here, there must be some sort of ledger,

ade a litt

tainly come,"

ade your account is, and if you can make a guess as to what the material you have brought her cost you,

d. "I don't know that I can give very exac

ered, "but since that doesn't seem easy to g

e at the result, and the schedule finally filled out. As Hamilton rose to go, the girl said laughingly: "I think

ear it in mind," and thanking her heartily, he went on

ecause much of the work was done on the night shift. Because of this, Hamilton had got in touch with some of these factories-they were principally glass works-on the night side first. He

f attention. The night superintendent, however, was ready to help, and Hamilton went to him constantly in the endeavor to have the schedule for t

st hopelessly under the blind hammer of greed," and the boy wondered whether this especial works was one of those which the poet-author had visited. Owing to the number of times Hamilton had been forced to go to this factory, two or three of the men had come to know him b

ere doesn't look a

so very old," the man r

amilton went on, with an assumed air of careles

four or five,"

tone, "I should think it would be hard for a boy to

t, and looked at the lad, passing hi

I began," he said. "I'm only th

ok over thirty,"

ifty. And it's all due to work when I was a youngster. Every year that a boy is put

does it, and that any Stat

figures show that it is growing here," was the reply. "But you talk as thou

rusader?" as

ught to get along well together. And," he added, mo

hy

imself to read and write, but he doesn't read anything except about labor conditions all over the world, and he knows all there is to know, I guess, about this business of

oal mine during dinner-time. Many even younger wor

l him 'the crusader

will put a stop to child labor, and he talks all the time of getting ready for this 'crusade' as

milton. "I'd like to ta

urse, but there are minutes in which he can talk, and 'the crusader' is

e from his fellows became most marked. Hamilton had a couple of large apples in his pocket, and he thought this might be a good opening. Taking one of them out of his po

an a

evour it. It was clear either that he was hungry or that such a luxury as an

you been in the

," 'the crus

ust a youngster when

was the answer, "

hink," said Hamilton, wondering whether this would have

h and bench to furnace, but at the word he turned. The air of weariness fell from him, his back straightened, life and passion flamed into his eyes, and despite the grime and sordidness of his surroundings, despite the rags in which h

ery night, knowin' that the mornin' only brings another day o' misery. Think of a little boy or girl o' ten years old, sufferin' already so

ould help don't know abou

land of opportunity. It is the land of opportunity-opportunity for the children to starve, opportunity to suffer, opportunity to die wret

be as bad as that,"

increased the "cr

bitter 'most as soon as they can lisp, where the brightness o' childhood fades out before its time, an' where its only world is the mill, the shop, an' the fact'ry. Th

en there; they call the heathen lost, though in the worst an' wildes' tribes the children have a home an' lovin', if savage care; Russia cries shame on what goes on in our fa

t there is really more of it here than i

rse last year than ten years ago. 'Child-labor,' somebody says, 'has about it no halo of antiquity. It is a thing of

amilton tersely, staggered and shocked b

of six and fourteen workin' in the fact'ries of America last year. The figures showed that over half of 'em were workin' more'n e

e Hamilton watched him. The work was a fearful strain. Sitting where he was, Hamilton could see all the way to the annealing oven. Counting the number of steps the "crusader" had to take, Hamilton found the distance to be about one hundre

ic strain upon the back. In addition to this, the boys were compelled to face the furnace each time they came bac

for it could not be done at a walk, and thus were alte

oom was a large round furnace containing a number of small doors not quite four feet from the ground, and a glass-blower was stationed before each of these. With long iron blowpipes these men, by giving the blowpipe a little twirl as they thrust it into the semi-molten metal, drew out on the end of it a small mass of glass, of about the consistency of nearly melted sealing wax, and holding this mass on the end of the blowp

nd these places?" queried Hamilton

hing for a bottle-that is thrown in with everything liquid you buy. The manufacturer's got to make his little p

this way e

an shook

nnealin' oven. The big fact'ries mostly have 'em, but there are plenty o' places like this in small towns where everyth

n sauntered away, and went back to the place where the "crusader" w

en workin'," he said, "but you haven't

bie

an' five

do any real work!"

er o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid three year old can soon learn to straighte

igar fa

ight shift, with her teeth all blackened and decayed from excessive snuff chewin', a little girl o' five year old, busily and clumsily tyin' threads in coarse muslin, an' answerin' a question she said she had been there every night throughout the h

ed Hamilton. "Didn't

war once over the question of a negro havin' to work under compulsion,-or at least, that had quite a bit to do with the war,-but you can enslave white children, you can starve 'em, you can shut 'em up in rooms without air, you can surround 'em with dangerous machinery, y

ay below ground, often too tired to go up in the cage at the end of the day

protested Hamilton. "It mu

argo calls 'The Bitter Cry of the Children,' but those few are very

going to

do anythin' that's big and brave and worth the doin'. In a year from now I'm goin' to start a crusade, like the Children's Crusade in hist'ry, an' march to every mill an' fact'ry in the United St

o would

, little children are bein' slaved and driven to death because no one has the nerve to say what

e boy agreed, "but you'd get

e. But if by gettin' into trouble myself, I could get even one hollow-eyed shadow of a child to run about and play like other folks, I'd be willin' to take anythin' that come after. I don't see that carryin' bottles is goin' to

ly and aggressively, as though he expected in

o' the children has ever rung in your ears, it'll never stop till you're doin' somethin' to help. Do you think I could dream every d

ut

day an' the stars by night, an' work an' sleep in peace? An' there's one thing more to say, an' then I must go,-t

e he found the figures done at last and the completed schedule awaiting him. He gratefully accepted

g with the 'crusa

ntendent looked

m?" he asked, a little s

the boy answered, "but I can hardly believe that the

r the cotton mill horrors, when, as a matter of fact, a very large proportion of the mills in which the worst conditions were found are owned by

ago that the slavery in the South wasn't started by the plantation owners. There were no Southern vessels in the slave trade,

t you've got to remember that it was the easy shiftlessness of the Sou

business?" asked Hamilton. "I tried to find tha

argely through information gathered for them by the census. Then there have been thorough Congressional investigations, and the States are being checked up hard to insure that factory inspection shall b

is inc

could be thought of as a passing thing, it would be bad enough, but to know that every month hundreds of children die

hat will probably take care of it

dent looked at

t evening that you were

arton," answ

der New York a fairl

" affirmed the boy

e headquarters of several forms of industry in which large perce

s can those be?" asked

not officially reported, of course, but less than twenty per cent is done by men. The disgraceful fact that the New York schools are so crowded that many of them can only give 'half-time' to the children and consequently teach them in two sections is a great help t

to lead his crusade then, i

sighed the s

asked H

at crusade," the older

y n

d his chest s

hildren when the lungs are not yet strong. We keep the 'crusader' here in order to help him as much as we can, although he gives a lot of trouble in the w

u m

e has designed for it will wave over no other battalions than those he has seen in dreams, and the drums will sound the fi

in Southern cotton mill who has been emplo