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Child Toilers Of Boston Streets

Creator: Emma E. Brown (author)
Date: 1879
Publisher: D. Lothrop and Company, Boston
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13

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111  

At one time, the neighbors used to notice a little girl in man's hat and coat, who worked at a part of the dump not far from the old man and Tommy. Poor child! if you could have seen her and the wretched place she called home, I know you would have pitied and longed to help her. I believe she ran away, at last, from the cruel woman who beat her without mercy, and drove her out to work at the "dump," no matter how cold or how stormy the weather might be.

112  

Sometimes the truant officers find dozens of children here among the ash-heaps in school hours; indeed it is a frequent excuse with a certain class when they are late, or absent from school for a number of days, that they "hadn't no coal t'home, and so they had to go to the "dump" There is one little girl, -- I've forgotten her name -- who actually picked up all the coal used by the family from April till November.

113  

Down on Church Green, on the right hand side as you leave Summer Street, are a number of old junk shops that are well-worth a visit. Here it is that many of our little ash pickers find a market for their "treasures"; and I'm going to give you a picture of one just as I saw it, not a great while ago.

114  

The door was wide open, and the little, dark, low room was just packed -- way to the ceiling and way to the sidewalk -- with all manner of outlandish things. There were all sorts of broken tools, rusty bolts, nuts, chains, parts of iron railings, old kettles, pans, horse shoes, etc.; then there were great tow bags crammed so full of paper rags that half of their many-colored contents were scattered on the floor, and thinking of the mischief a single match might do here I didn't wonder the junk dealer had hung up in a conspicuous place the warning words, "No smoking allowed." There was only a narrow space left just in the middle of the room, and even here you could scarcely take a step without treading upon something.

115  

A short distance from this junk shop is another, where one window is rilled with tailor "chips," and reading the sign over the door you will see that this shop makes a specialty of "paper stock." A little farther on and you will find a "Black and White Smith," whose doorway is curiously decorated with old iron cables, broken anchors, rusty kettles, pans, and old, old things I had never seen before "on sea or land."

116  

They tell me these old junk dealers make heaps of money out of the seeming rubbish brought to them by the ash pickers; and I think it is easy to understand when we consider how many things in daily use are made from this same old "junk."

117  

For our pretty superfine stationery, our books, yes, even the pages of "Wide Awake," maybe, are made from the motley "paper stock;" while from bits of melted glass come our window panes, and our lamp shades; and as to the old rusty metal, why, all manner of kitchen furniture is made from that! Truly the little ash-pickers and the old junk dealers ought to have their reward, for they help not a little in carrying out that twice-repeated command to "gather up the fragments that nothing may be lost."

118  

THE FRUIT-VENDERS.

119  

She was selling grapes the first time I saw her, -- great purple bunches that looked so tempting I didn't wonder half her stock was gone, though it was still early in the day. Such a happy face as it was under the old brown hat! It had been a very successful day, and little Amelia had "good news" to carry home.

120  

By-and-by I'm going to tell you all about her home, her good auntie, and the little cousins who seemed to her like brothers and sisters; but, first of all, I want to give you a picture of little Amelia herself.

121  

Perched on her rough board seat, you will find her almost any day at her special corner, which is far down on "new" Washington Street.

122  

You know a deal is said, now-a-days, about the "nuisance" of these street stands; but I don't believe any skittish horse ever took fright at this innocent little fruit tray. O, it takes up such a "wee bit" of room at the broad corner! And, as to interfering with the trade of the big fruit stores why! what are the few cents our little girl earns at her stand, compared to the sales made every day by confectioners, corner grocers, provision merchants, and a host of others who do not call themselves "fruit dealers" at all! O, Consistency, thou art a jewel, a rare jewel!

123  

But little Amelia doesn't mean to borrow any trouble. Nobody disturbed her yesterday, and nobody has disturbed her to-day. Really, that tip end of Washington and Elm Streets seems as much her very own as if she had in her pocket the "warranty deed" for it, all signed and witnessed.

124  

"And a very good corner it is," she says to herself, remembering how many people, on their way to the Boston and Maine depot, stop just here for a half dozen oranges, a couple of lemons, or a nice ripe banana to eat on the way.

125  

Sometimes, she can make five dollars a week, but that is only when the weather is fine.

126  

Come with me away down to the North End and I will show you what becomes of all those precious pennies that little Amelia picks up at the "corner."

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