Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1894 — A BLACK SPOT UPON ENGLAND. [ARTICLE]

A BLACK SPOT UPON ENGLAND.

Women and Girls Who Work at the Anvil and Forge. Henry Lloyd, one of the best known and most intelligent of New England's labor leaders, is sight-seeing in England. His last letter to the Boston Labor Leader contains the following amonj* other things: While in Birmingham, writes Mr. Lloyd, I was invited to go to what is called the Black Country. Dudley, Old Hill and Cradly Heath—about fifteen miles from Birmingham, to see the nail and chain workers at work. It was the most wonderful sight I ever witnessed, and one I shall not soon forget; in fact, it is a disgrace to Great Britain. Here I saw hundreds of women, young and old, some of them bare to near the wrist, standing before the anvil and forge, welding chains and making nails, for from ten to twelve hours per day, and after a thorough investigation, going among these people, speaking to them, and then comparing notes with labor men in the towns, 1 am convinced that they do not average more than three shillings and six pence per week. Boor young girls, their hands grimy and hard, with the black dirt ground into the skin, dull and heavy countenances, with all hope gone, and one poor girl said to me, “No one cares for we (meaning us 1 , master, we maun say a word." Married women at' one forge, their husbands at another, and an affair like a hammock slung ; from the ceiling of the little shop, with a little delicate baby. I have seen the mother leave the forge and reach up and take the baby and nurse it, whije she talked to me and cried. I may say they work in isolated little shops at the back of their houses where, as a rule, there will be three or four forges, but in some cases more, or even in some only one. The men doing the heavier work cannot earn more on an average than twelve shillings per week, and even les?. A short time before I arrived here, two men hung themselves with the chains they made, driven to desperation by poverty. The coroner said their condition was a black spot upon England. I cannot go further into detail, but will have more to say again about them. Let me add, on the side of a beautiful hill, overlooking this black valley, is the castle and grounds of the Earl of Dudley. He owns all the land in the town and village, also the coal mines ground the district. The earliest known photograph of Garah Bernhardt was taken in 1867, when she wak playing at the Odeon. Her dress had a crinoline, and her face is innocent and childish. Spice then one photographer alone has taken her in 1,007 different attitudes.