The Padrone System
In almost every city of the United States having a population of more than 10,000, there is to be found the padrone system, which is operated principally in the interests of the bootblacking business which the Greeks control. The peddling of flowers, fruit and vegetables in Chicago and New York is partly subject to the same methods. The labor supply furnished by this system for peddling and bootblacking consists generally of children from twelve to seventeen years of age.[24]
The Immigration Commission states in its report that there are several thousand shoe-shining establishments in the United States operated by Greeks who employ boys as bootblacks, and that with few exceptions they are under the padrone system.[25] A few boys under sixteen years of age are employed under the Greek padrone system as flower vendors, and these are found chiefly in New York City. They are hired by florists to sell flowers in the streets and public places—largely old stock that cannot be handled in the shops. These boys usually live in good quarters, are well fed and receive their board and from $50 to $100 a year in wages. When not engaged in peddling, they deliver flowers ordered at the shops. The boys employed by the padrones to peddle candy, fruit and vegetables usually live in basements or in filthy rooms; here they are crowded two, three and sometimes four in one bed, with windows shut tight so as to avoid catching cold. The fruit and vegetables still on hand are stored for the night in these bedrooms and in the kitchen. In each peddling company there are usually three or four wagons and from four to eight boys.[26]
Minor Street Occupations
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.
Conditions in Great Britain
Turning to Europe we find much more information on this subject. In Great Britain the House of Commons in 1898 ordered an inquiry to be made into the extent of child labor among public school pupils, and the education department sent schedules to the 20,022 public elementary schools in England and Wales for the purpose of determining the facts. A little more than half of the schools returned the schedules blank, stating that no children were employed; this introduced a large element of error into the return, as many of the schoolmasters misunderstood the meaning of the schedules, and consequently quite a number of children who should have been included were omitted from the total. The 9433 schedules which were filled and returned showed that 144,026 children (about three fourths boys and one fourth girls) were in attendance full time at the public elementary schools of England and Wales and known to be employed for profit outside of school hours.
The ages of these children reported as employed were as follows:[27]—
| Under 7 years | 131 | |
| 7 | years | 1,120 |
| 8 | years | 4,211 |
| 9 | years | 11,027 |
| 10 | years | 22,131 |
| 11 | years | 36,775 |
| 12 | years | 47,471 |
| 13 | years | 18,556 |
| 14 | and over | 1,787 |
| Not given | 817 | |
| Total | 144,026 | |