By Mrs. John Van Vorst
(American contemporary writer on Child Labor Problems. The following is taken from her book, “The Cry of the Children.”)
The cotton-mill “folks” wear unwittingly a badge which distinguishes them far and wide. As I came along down over the hillside I met a child holding in her arms another smaller child; both were covered, their hair, their clothes, their very eyelids, with fine flakes of lint, wisps of cotton, fibres of the great web in which the factories imprison their victims.
“Hello,” I said, “do you work in the mill?”
“Yes, meaum.” The voice was gentle and the manner friendly. And giving a sidewise hitch to the baby, who had a tendency to slip from her tiny mother’s arms, this little worker showed me one of her fingers done up in a loose, dirty bandage.
“I cut my finger right smart,” she drawled, “so I’m takin’ a day off.”
“How old are you?”
“Tweaulve.”
“Got any brothers or sisters?”
“I’ve got him.... And I’ve got one brother in the mill.”