168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



working year an expenditure for pots alone of ten thousand dol- 

 lars. The present tank furnaces are out of blast during July and 

 August, but the year's repairs are only a nominal expense. The 

 hot season is chosen for renovation for very obvious reasons, 

 though the heat alone is not sufficiently intense to make the ces- 

 sation of work a necessity. 



In thus following the evolutionary process by which a glass 

 bottle is produced, one meets with many ingenious contrivances 

 and many shrewd adaptations of means to ends, but he will scarcely 

 meet with any problem of quite such deep interest as that pre- 

 sented by the people who carry out this process. Particularly is 

 one struck with the large number of boys, scarcely more than 

 children, who are employed in such a factory. About the furnace 

 proper there are even more boys than men. The law does not 

 permit the employment of children under twelve years of age, but 

 exceptions are sometimes allowed by the labor inspector in case a 

 boy has a widowed mother, or some other particular demand upon 

 his early activity. New Jersey further attempts to protect her 

 children by making an annual school attendance of five months 

 compulsory for them. In the glass-blowing districts this require- 

 ment is met by the establishment of night schools supported by 

 the State. The term lasts only for the allotted five months, the 

 daily session being for two hours, from half-past six to half-past 

 eight o'clock. My own limited observation of the working of 

 night schools has led me to believe that they are but poor substi- 

 tutes for work done earlier in the day when the boys are fresher 

 and more buoyant ; but the superintendent of a large factory, to 

 whom I spoke on the subject, was of the opinion that these child- 

 ish glass-workers are doing very satisfactory work in such schools. 

 It is hard, nevertheless, that childhood should be made so short, 

 and that the work-a-day life should begin so early for these little 

 people. They seem, it is true, a very happy, merry set of young- 

 sters, and, if one may judge from the tricks they are constantly 

 playing on one another, they manage to get a fair share of boyish 

 fun ; but they can not fail to lose much in being so soon harnessed. 

 As a class, these lads seemed to be finer looking and in many ways 

 better conditioned than the older workers, so that one would nat- 

 urally fancy that the hard work was leaving its landmarks. Men 

 who have known them longer tell me, however, that it is a new 

 generation, and one that has been reared under more favorable 

 conditions of life. 



They are comparatively well paid. The little boys make three 

 dollars a week, and the larger ones six ; modest sums admittedly ; 

 but large enough under the circumstances* of country life to per- 

 mit a little laying by. I felt curious to know what aspirations 

 were most favored in such a community, and to what ideals the 



