Page:Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (IA franklesliesillu2418lesl).djvu/2

146 FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER. 637 Pearl Street, New York. - NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 24, 1808. All Communications, Books for Review, etc., must be addressed to FANE LEALIS, 53: Peari atreet, New York Authors are requested to designate the manuscripts are distinctly, and in comunicating with us, to retain tho original Utle. NOTICE We have no travelling agents. All para representing themselves to be ench aro ico- postora. We have to thank our friends Kunhardt & Co., of 16 Exchange Fises, the agents for the Hamburg eteamers, for valuable files of the Intest European papers. NOTICE. SUCES Jeanne to secure the continuance of this journal, to avoid appointment, ebould send in their subscriptions two weeks before the fasue of the wee Bat number to which their former subscriptions entitio ther. GOOD NEWS FOR THE YOUNG. A PAPES devoted exclusively to the junior members of the family, and which shall neither be too childeb nor too maaly, but totended to include all in its scope, has long been a waat in every intelligent bonnebold. FRANK LESLIE'S Boxe AND Grat WEEKLY is intended to supply this want, and afford amusement and Instruction to the younger besbehes of the domestic circle. The impulsive and growing bog, and his budding elster, will find in the BOT' AND GIRLS' WEEKLY nothing at once to interest and instruct, while the diversity of the contents cannot fall to attract every class of mental capacity and taste. For those who ure fond of parlor sports there will be Magle Games, Coandrums and Arithmetical Puzzica, while the more serious will fod matter equally attractive to them. Bistory, Adventure, Romantic Incident, Fatry Lore, Po etry, Natural History, Manners and Customs of Foreign Natleon, Science Mode Easy, Mechanical Instruction and Pleant Anecolos-all form part of the varled enter tainment provided by the publisher of FRA L' BOTS AND GIRLS' WEEKLY for his young triends. In bref, his great object has been to take the part of the family friend and tutor, who truparte the stores of his learning and experienes, so judiciously and gen- fally, as to be ever welcome to them. It has also other special attractions, to which our readers are referred to the advertisement in another column. The Fal Elections-Their Result and Moral. Tux November Elections have had the same substantial result with those of October, and the next Congress will be more decisively Republican or Radical than the present. That is to say, upon any of the great issues be- fore the country there will be a Republican strength of more than two-thirde, which will enable that party to carry any measure, on which its members may be agreed, over the voto of the President. The House of Representatives A will doubtless stand, as now, 140 Republicans to 40 Democrats and 2 Administration mem-d bers. The Senate, os at present constituted, 1 stande 36 Republicans to 15 Democrats and 3 S Administration members. The next Senate o will probably stand 42 Republicans, 12 Demo- a crats and 2 Administration. 0 al a The b The Republican strength in the next Congress will not only be thus increased numerically, but it will be augmented in other respects. influence of the small Democratic minority will w be weakened through the characters of some of P ite members. This city sonds a prize-fighters and gambler, and a local politician of disgrace-to ful antecedente, who has not been sent to the Fenitentiary lest the inmates might be cor- F rupted. The better class of Democrats abas stained from being candidates, partly because they anticipated the hopeless minority in which w they would be placed, but uninly because they a bave little hope or desire of perpetusting a co party organization which has ceased to be pro- Ia gressive and has no living principle to animate Bod austain it. On the other hand, the Repub- th licans have left out few of their present mom- bers, except such as were inclined to what no is called Conservatism," which has been le nnderstood to be an undue subservience to Executive patronage. The more "Radical" ca men of the present Congress have, in the po main, been returned by increased majorities, and they have been reinforced by the accession ar of men hike General Butler, who are, if any-m thing, in advance of themselves. Never before has the popular will been ex- pressed in a more emphatic manner; and with popular majoritiss nuprecedented in the po- litical history of the country behind them, it be is not to be supposed that the members of the r next Congress will be less firm or decisive in tra netion than those of the present. They will an not relax the conditions of "Reconstruction," sa as set forth in the Congressional Plan," and it Fi a factions or stubborn opposition is offered to rit it by the lately rebel States, it is certain these the will not be admitted to representation. It may s be that they will have to submit to more rigid bn requisitions. The people of the South onco ex- fell into the error of believing that the De- thi mocracy was more partiean than patriotic, and ou they were astounded to see such men as Logan Ch and Sickles in arms against tham. Let them wh ER. t be ork Sp too not delude themselves a second time. The Democratic Party, with the whole power of Executive patronage to belp it, has just made a desperate and exhaustive effort to regaial power, nud has beun pulverized under the weight of buch populer majorities as mast make all further opposition a purposeless and incffective guerrilla warfare. We state the broad fact thus broadly, becoute we wish the people of the Schilh to know that they must eleet their policy without bringing into their All Calculations the possibility of Democratic sap- Import. The Democratic Party is dead; power- less to help itself, incapable of helping others. The name may be kept up in this city by a & base coalition of prize-lightern, gamblers, raplunderoru, swindlers nnd liquor-dealern with the tunse of foreign igbomutes and vice that collects here like the filth in a cesspool, but eleowhere its elements will separate and enter into new combinations, with advanced ideas. and clearer and loftier purposes. of in . We write this with no animosity toward the mtio defusct party. There was a time when its lenders were men of character and intellect; whion it had a Marey instead of a Sanlabury in the Sonate, sud a Douglas instead of a Morris orsay in the House; when it supported some L oovital principle, and was identified with men insures of national advancement. But for years it m nt bns degenerated in character as it has shrunk in e A numbers, until, despised of men, it has finally fa or been buried under the avalenche of public dis- s.approval and contempt. ed of act k S Among the incidents of the Inte convass there T is one infinitely amusing, and not without a bogood moral. That was the attempt of a num- ber of old and fossalized political leaders to effect rea diversion from the ranks of those with whom P they had formerly acted, but who had neglected. 45 them for younger, aller and more advanced TA o 00 10 of dmen, better representing the spirit and intellect of the time. Forgetting that the war has re- 13 created the nation, and gives it a new life, to th 4 of loftier aims, and a more manly character and Va of purposes, they thonght to lead and rule as of " mold, through the paltry, partisan mechanism and manipulation that was so powerful when the most exciting political question was whether or Pl not the proceeds of the sales of the public lands be should be divided among the States or go into the public treasury! Smarting under a sense of neglect, and animated by disappointment, they sought to ruin if they could not rule, and seem to have thought that they could really obtain we aud wield the balance of power in the nation, the The Weeds, the Sewards, the Blairs, the Ran- dalls, the Cowans, and the Dixons! Did not they pack conventions, stifle speech, and "put ta through resolutions as of yore, and water 48 their work with grateful tears? Never was "management" nearer perfect-never did ap- th paratus of conjuror werk more smoothly! we And they really came to believe that their TE enstle of corde was bross-clataped granite, and th dreamed that the sceptre of power would once an zuoro return to their anxious bands, Mr. wc 3 Seward buried his old associates in the State sic of New York under a hostile majority of 40,000, wi and seat the Republican party over the Falls fec of Ningarn. The flush of auticipated victory ha ssbone on the brow of the Postmonster-General, TL and the decorons Senator from Connecticut eb becaue unwontedly animate over the prospect few which the sublime optimist of the State De- Ed partment uuvailed to the gaze of his less an sanguine followers. Mr. Weed fondly hoped to once more carry the vote of New York in his reg breeches pocket, and Mr. Seward saw the war Presidential chair invitingly open before him, as the organizer of a new and irresistible party. any The hosts that were to follow the old leading were estimated by legions and not by tuite, and the gans that were to announce the ene- cess of the political coup were charged to the the muzzle. mo kee from 0110 The elections came, and they are over. In the whole history of politics there never was a in purpose of disorganization that failed Bo Big- nally as the one attempted by the rejected Jendera. A more abject fiasco is impossible. wo And the moral is, that when men die politi cally their friends should pat metaphorical of pennies on their eyes, so that they may not deceive themselves with the notion that they Th are really alive, nor distress the public by mimicking a vitality they do not possess. of (2,5 one chi die car day tor Infant Sacrifices. Tar feast of borrors we are about to spread to before our readers is not gathered from the nar- in ratives of missionarias, or the tales of credulous at travelers. We have not conght illustrations the among the human snerifices in India, the mas- eelw sacres in Dahomey, or the cannibalism of the spr Fiji Lalands. Moloch may olim its bloody ser rites, and Feticbism its annuubered victimas; eig these at least perish in obedience to impulses whe springing from a religion, degraded, cruel and The barbarous indeed, but still a religion. It may sen excite cur pity or disgust to read of such pep things carried on under such a sanction. Bat oue nggravation is wanting, and it is that, in a Christinn land, where the ministers of Hiu ver who suid of little children that "ol such is the V gro com The kingdom of Heaven" bave full away, and are of bonored and even petted, the monstrosities of bestbendom are outdone. de ain the nst and he Uar renders may think much terms of denun- cintion are too vehement to bo upplied to say civilized nation; but before our article is finished they will, we teel assured, agree with is that no language can adequately depict the the sufferings of yonth and childhood we shall mst briefly instance, and that no terms of repre- cir beusion are too strong to apply to such prac- ap-tices. The authority for our statements cannot er- be disputed; it is no less than that of a Com- 18. mission of the Parliament of England, sp- ya pointed to inquire into the condition of the Ts, childron employed in various branches of ith manufacture. The facts set forth in the report ant of the Commission would he incredible if statad aut under authority less august, aud we venture to er way that the wildest imaginings of fiction, the sum total of the crimes of ali the "sonsation novels" of the age, are tame and commenplace beside the mass of cruelty and oppression its which this report details in plain, business-like t:langunge us he in y TO A 3- The trades which this commission examined in-were of great variety, comprising most of those e not already brought under the operation of Acts of Parliament limiting the hours of labor it and providing for the education of the children in cuployed in thera. It will only be necessary. for us to instance a few, and even in these our space will uot allow us to give more than the briefest outline. Let us first tnke Lace-making. The business requires very little muscular exeftion, but considerable unnual dexterity. It is taught in private cottages, called Ince-scbools, where the pareute of the children pay a small weekly sum for their instruction, and sell the lace munde by them. In the work of pulling out threads, infouts of thico years of age had been known to be employed, many at three, although from four to six is the com- mon age to begin. In sanall, low rooms, the ventilation, as might be expected, is of the worst kiud, while in some, in order to l the Ince clenu, the children sit without shoes t in the coldest wenther, the floors being of plaster or brick. The hours that these poor 1 beings are kept at work are incredible. One t girl testifies: t d d et 28 of D 8 t f That she worked in winter from seven or sight in C the morning till eleven or twelve at adobt; and in su C mer from ev A.A. to even F.M. Hos gone home in La the morning before six-once at three-having been al work till ten the night before, as many n live sat at e work through the night, and Erst did so when about thirteen or fourteen. Her parents have all the can t cars." it Straus-plait Manufacture is in like manner i taught to children in schools, and out of J 48,000 people employed in the trade, 6,000 to 7,000 ere children. As in hice-making, it is the parente who drive their children to this work, in order to add to the family fund. They find out what the physical endurance o their children will enable them to accomplish, W and this they exact to the uttermost. The D working-rooms were visited by the Commis sioners; in one, forty-two children were found, with an air spaco of eighteen and a half cubie t fect each, or less than half what each would have if shut up in a box three feet square. U The mortality among these poor over-worked e children was very grent, consumption and P fever carrying them off at a very early age. W Education is at the lowest ebb, and scarcely any of the adult population can read. In Hosiery Manufacture similar shocking LL reports are made. Parents keep their children in working at four and five years of age as long as they themselves can sit up. One witness By: IL 15 Tittle ereatures are kept up shamefully lete; mothers bove been known to pin them to their kuces to koep them to their work, and prevent their falling down fron sleep or exhaustion, and they slap them to keep t them awake." o fc ra In this business there are 120,000 employed, and the proportion of children are the same as i in the straw-plait manufacture. In the Polleries, mattersare, if possible, even worse. Out of 27,432, the aggregate number of both nexes employed, 5,918 were children, (2,917 being females), all under ten years of age; of whom 593 were under five, 169 being girla.om The mortality among these was excessive, in one district, out of 1,120 denths, 619 being of b children under five years, the majority of whom died from debility induced by want of parental or care. Roys of tender years are employed allee day long in the ovens when the thermome ter there ranges from 130° to 148°. They have to carry the molds in and out, numing thus bu in an ordinary day's work a distance estimated cc at seven miles. The most painful part of ww these rovelations was that the parents ther-ve eelves inflicted this slavery on their own off spring. Fathers were even found who did not scruple to employ their little daughters, from in eight to ten years of age, in running for a pa whole day in and out of these beated furnaces. fc- The result is that the potters, as a class, repre-p sent physically and mentally a very degenerato ge Population. They are, as a rule, stunted in ill-shaped, frequently deformed, be- sm come prematurely old, aud are short-lived. 14 very few attaining the age of Bfty. What debasement the human mind reachee fa. www ti ev pr are under such a system may he found in the s of of examination of some children, employed in makong Luciter matches. Thomas Graham, un-aged nino: uy Never heard of an engle or a lion-never of the is Bible, Eleard some talk about Chriat a good bitago ith three or four years, at a Kanter's chapel Does not ith know anything He did, or whether He was killed or know whore it geen a Dall or wint beremes of it, or whellier He is good or bad. Alice Combes, aged sixteen: ro- ano- ant Has been to church and once to chapel. Does not know what the Bible is. Has never beard of It Does pot know how the world in roade Never heard of Adam or Jena Christ. Never was taught any prayers. Know that good people go to heaven, and bad to bell." - sp- he of 2 Omitting many other trades, we now come to thone of Birmingham, represented in Parliament. mrt by John Bright. This gentleman is now actively ad engaged in agitating the question of manhood to suffrage. What sort of constituency he would ho have when the boys in his own town become on men may be judged of from what follows: ceThirty-two persons, taken from a variety of outradas and places, averaging over twelve years ke of age, and including one youth of twenty, ono ed se girl of eighteen and two of noventeen, could not tell the Queen's name Q Is it Victoria?" A. Oh, no! I don't know it when I hear it so. of Can't understand them things. Some do not or know she exists, and others show nglimmering en of knowledge by such answers as 'Isshe Princo y Alexandria? Is she Prince of Wales? Him ar and her got married. eworld. Sho belongs to all the J The above," say the Commissionen, is only part of the deuen ignorance shown irby very large numbers. Many know little or nothing of the sitoplest objects of nature- London," flowers, birds, fishes, rivers, mountains, seas, or of London, etc., in England, or other coun- tries out of it, or how to get there. kbowever, is a country, but also in the exhibi- stion: violet is a pretty bird; lilac is a bird;" y I believe I would know a primrose, it's a red rose like; don't know if a robin red-breast is ea bird, or if it flies or sings, or if the e engle is a bird the sea is made P p of land and not of water;" "people may go all the way to America in a train. Of very many, af iudced, the stats of mind regarding religions rfacts is dark. It is not too much to say that e to many God, the Bible, the Saviour, a Chris- tinn, or even a future state, are idens entirely or all but unknown. God is the good man," or the man in heaven. I've heard that (Christ), but don't know that it is. Nor do othere know where God lives, or shout the world being made, or who made it. Have not heard of Christ, I had never done my work till so late. Hove beard about 1 CAD Jesus Christ, but it is so long since that I've forgot; don't know if I am a Christian, or what it le or means; beavon was heard of long ago -when father died, mother said he was going there'! Some think that bad aud good aliko go there, or, on the other hand, thom as is wicked shall be worshiped; that means ali sball o to hell, or, again, that when people die they be buried, bain't they?-their souls as well as their bodies all go in the pit-bole when they be buried; they never get out or live again; they have not a soul; I have not one: the soul does not live afterward; it is quite an end of people when they die; the devil is a good. person; I don't know where he lives; Clarist was a wicked man! Of eighty girls at one large factory, of soven to sixteen years, fifty- nine could not read, twelve practically could uot, eleven could read a little, and the remain- ing one girl could read effectually. Some of the bigger boys laughed at the idea of being supposed to know anything." The Commissioners adopt as their own the words of one of their correspondents: Competition, that vorsolous and inexorable on- ster, must have food, and these youngsters (from seven to thirs ng are its food. A ebrap article, by ruCAD of cleap labor, i. e. that of the youngest possible hands for the longost endurable time, and at the lowest pos sible wagen, this is the desideratum, and here is the race, And whlist (by thousands) the hale, strong male in emigrating to other ellmes, the Infant isborer in Blog his place; bo le supplanted by the youth, and the youth by the child, and the chlid by the tofapt. toen, mothers, as we have seen, are also working their husbands out of work, and every improvement la ma ebisory la adapted to the least expeneve bands. in the philosophy of labor in the nineteenth coutury. And what is car gain but loss. In morals, Irriparible. Boss; in national stamina, tones and thus we shall go on, ne far as our unprotected hardware disticts are concerned, till we coutribute, as car thare of the na tional family, a poor, withered, pigmuy by too early and prolonged labor, debsard pleasure, emisscalled as to the best geallties of the Saxon race, and of little worth either in peace or war. Competition inust have a curb, and that a legal We close in sorrow this brief sketch of the inner life of the laboring classes of Eng- band, but we cannot but admire the moral courage that could brave the censure of the world in making the record pablic. In this very publicity liss safety, for as far as legisla tion can remedy these trightful evils, we may he assured it will not be wanting. Happily, in our own country such things cannot exist, partly by Legislativo enactments of the States forbidding children's labor in factories, and partly by our population not being hemmed in geographically, as in Great Britain. But if ever, in spite of onr nanay advantages, any snch crying evils should creep into our body politie, we trust that there will be some su preme power which can expose them as man- fally and honestly as this Parliamentary Coma- Wo- This This race, deteriorated cdomated by ene,"