190 THE NEXT GENERATION 



that when mill owners needed more helpers, they went to 

 the poorhouse for them. And when the order came, the 

 caretakers of the place packed the children into wagons or 

 canal boats and sent them off to be inspected. Having 

 arrived, these children were put into cellars, dark, damp, 

 unwholesome, and there the mill men came with lighted 

 lanterns to examine them. Height, weight, size, and shape 

 were taken into account, " and the bargain was struck." It 

 was really a purchase of children by the wagon load from 

 their poorhouse guardians. Very little money was paid for 

 these loads of small workers, but at least, henceforth, the 

 poorhouse itself would not have to support them. As for 

 wages, they received none whatever. They worked " sixteen 

 hours at a stretch by day and by night. They slept by turns 

 and relays in beds that were never allowed to cool, one set 

 being sent to bed as soon as the others had gone to 

 their toil." 



Robert Blincoe describes his own experiences. He says 

 he was sent to the place when he was seven years old, and 

 that children and pigs shared the same food, the pigs being 

 fed first, because they grunted so loud that they had to be 

 quieted. When fattening time came for the pigs, they received 

 " meat balls and dumplings " with their other food. The 

 children never had any fattening time. They were always 

 hungry, and they wanted dumplings, too. To get them they 

 " used to slip away and slyly steal as many as possible, has- 

 tening away with them to a hiding place where they were 

 eagerly devoured." 



But it seems the pigs learned to keep " a sharp lookout, 

 and the moment they ascertained the approach of the half- 

 famished children, they set up so loud a chorus of snorts and 

 grunts that it was heard in the kitchen, when out rushed the 



