Liste for the worst professions for children
This article explores the worst professions we have forced our sons to undergo during relatively recent history.
Farming
On family-owned farms, farming is still a significant part of daily life, but in the past, kids would labor wherever they could and for anyone they could. That meant working long, arduous hours in the sweltering sun for meager compensation. Without parents in control, a boy who became unwell or became overburdened with work received no compassion. Many females were employed in this sector of the economy for less strenuous activities like sorting vegetables and fruit.
Children offered incredibly inexpensive (and even almost free) labor for farmers who had extremely slim profit margins during exceedingly challenging times. The globe was not only suffering from the depression but from the dust bowl, the effects of the Great War, and preparations for the next war, possibly unconsciously.[1]
As part of the attempts to combat the Great Depression, child labor was widely abolished in the US in 1938. The thinking was that by prohibiting children from working, jobless men would be able to fill those positions. For the first time in history modern, children were permitted to be children thanks to a combination of legislation requiring better wages as well as unionization initiatives in certain industries.
Picolo
In his fascinating novel When You Lunch With The Emperor, Ludwig Bemelmans, the creator of the Madeline series of children's books, depicted the lives of the Picolo. His early years as an immigrant lad working in New York coming from Austria Ritz during the Great Depression are detailed in the book. After immigrating from Austria-Hungary, he worked as a young man at the New York Ritz during the Great Depression, and the book tells vivid and sinister tales from its sordid underside.[2]
"The kid picolo is a standard in every restaurant in Europe. His ears are red and stand out because everyone tugs them; his head barely rises over the table. And even as a man, he would still immediately turn his head to the side if someone near to him makes a sudden movement because he always did so to lessen the hits that came his way from the owner to the last chambermaid; they primarily hit him out of habit.
” he on to add: “ one sees old waiters slumped against a chair, with ghastly, lifeless eyes and a lifeless face filled with anguish and cruelty, One is seeing the little guy mature, He has almost dragged his dead youth to the conclusion of his fruitless existence with flat, crippled feet.
The picolo was tasked with performing all unwanted tasks that no one else wanted to accomplish during his shifts of 6 am to 11 pm. he carried water, washed dishes, folded newspapers, He scraped the old food, cleaned the ashtrays, bowed to his superiors for the most of the day. Despite this, as we shall see, the work of the picolo was not the worst one a youngster could have had at the time.
The 1993 film King of the Hill (unrelated to the animated TV series) is based on the life of a young boy to become a picolo forced and oppressed. It is considered to be Soderbergh Steven's most underrated picture, so it is worth a look.
Apprenticeships
Boys often started their apprenticeships between the ages of 10 and fourteen. Continuing on Ludwig Bemelmans' earlier statement, "[T]he apprentices looked on the picolo with jealousy of cobblers and plumbers; they had the ears red, too, but not enough to drinks, no tips, no eat, no cigarettes.” Taking into account the fact that a kid had to spend by becoming an employee in the middle ages, In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was quite unique that he would even get paid for the work.[3]
Even still, it was challenging to labor, and the artisans who hired these youngsters were generous with their penalties. And yet unlike most of the other vocations on just this list, there have been at least a moderate assurance that you would have a solid job with a good salary waiting for you after finishing your apprenticeship.
The lads who were "fortunate" enough to wind up in training would have considered such a possibility to be a great godsend in those times of poverty and hunger. How times have changed!
Cannery Worker
Working in the factory required standing for long periods of time in the chilly Atlantic hauling fish, packing, and other foods, and winter chopping. Canning, like most other vocations on this list, was still a relatively new industry. required a sizable labor force of unskilled workers. Young people, like the nine-year-old child seen above, received up to five cents for each package they processed.
Despite the risks associated with operating in situations that are so dangerous (dangerous enough for adult men!). The lads had to operate canning equipment that could cut and seal metal, as well as very hazardous cutting instruments. The number of casualties that would have been discovered in the boatyard and sheds where these youngsters worked is unimaginable.
Unfortunately, a lot of these businesses that employed boys were operated by wonderful people. Men (and occasionally women) believed that by offering the kids work, they were giving them a better life. The classic C.S. Lewis phrase, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny truly exercised for the welfare of its victims could be the most terrible," comes to mind in this situation. Living under robber barons might be preferable to living under omnipotent busybodies moral. The robber baron's savagery may occasionally slumber and his cupidity may eventually be satisfied, but those who torture us for our own good can continue to do so as long as their conscience permits it.[4]
Bootblack (Shoeshine Boy)
According to one story, Joe Kennedy, (the father of former President Kennedy), decided to leave the stock market after receiving stock advice from a shoeshine boy. If a child who shines dirty old boots for a job can trade stocks, it might be time to quit! He quickly sold off all of his stock in order to avert the enormous market crash that would have caused the Great Depression the following day.
Leaving aside anecdotes, being a bootblack was a difficult profession. You can imagine how savage it may go when malnourished children are involved given that the involved lads regularly engaged in combat with other members of the same profession for their corner. The work was a seven-day-a-week shine, rain, or gig, just enough to cover living expenses. But it was a far better alternative than most of the others at the period for those who could afford the pricey polish and kit required.
The first known picture of a human is of a guy having a bootblack shine on his shoes. You can view the image, which was taken in 1838, here. In the lower-left corner, there are individuals. Gregory XVI was the Pope at the time of the picture; he was the last pope to be elected while serving as a simple priest (after four days he became Pope he ordained a Bishop). The Atlantic slave trade was denounced and prohibited by him as Pope.
Another related-bootblack truth is that the excellent television series Boardwalk Empire's Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, who rose quickly, attributed his success to boys reading the book called Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks or Ragged Dick. The characters in the novel, in contrast to those in the TV series, are genuine; Horatio Alger Jr. wrote it in 1867. It depicts the story of young Dick, who begins life on the road of New York with completely blacked boots, and how he eventually rises to the top by tenacity, thrift, and cunning.[5]
The coming-of-age tale by Ragged Dick, which epitomized the virtue that all boys aspired to, was a huge hit when it was first published. These kinds of books embodied the American dream. I can't stress how much I think current adolescent guys and older men should read them just for the enjoyment of it. These are for sale here. Adversity upon adversity!
Cotton Mill Worker
In the west following slavery, the development of the cotton gin and several other mechanical machines came as a godsend. The American Civil War and Republican President Lincoln's abolishment of the slave trade caused a cotton scarcity in Europe that almost brought the country to ruin. But when things started to feel more normal in the United States thanks to a new method for growing and selecting cotton, industrial advancements took things back to their pinnacle and even beyond.
The new devices were deadlier than humans but also faster and more precise than them. The usage of the cotton gin and spinning machinery carried a very significant danger of loss of limb or life. Safety precautions were not valued, and there was little control in the factories. And because kids are kids, accidents were going to happen occasionally.
Giles Newsom Twelve-year-old, who already had two fingers severed from his hand by a running machine at the cotton mill, is shown here in 1912. He slipped, causing his arm to become entangled in the machine's gears. The eleven-year-old sibling of Giles was also employed at the firm at the time.[6]
In contrast to our contemporary values, his family's response to the accident was, "Now he's just got to where he might be of some service to his mother an' then this happened and he can't ever work not anymore as he oughter." The boy's aunt's seemingly cruel statement highlights how crucial child labor was to survival family in the era before central banking with cheap credit. Or maybe the aunt was just telling the mill company to pay out a lot in compensation.
Soldier
Since olden history, when the Romans frequently employed children as young as fourteen for the general army, it has been known that child soldiers exist. Boys have recently fought for the rebel forces (for instance, in El Salvador in the 1990s), and during the Balkan area's conflicts, there were a lot of juvenile soldiers to be seen.
The most alarming historical example is Momcilo Gavric, a seven-year-old kid who joined the Serbian army at the age of eight and was promoted to corporal the following year. He enlisted since he lost his family during the war, leaving him an orphan. He helped the military eliminate the soldiers who had murdered his parents. He was transferred to England to attend education after the war, but he back in time and stayed in Serbia until he passed away in 1993 at the age of 86. Numerous memorials have been built in his honor.[7]
Although the fairy-tale nature of Momcilo Gavric's life, it is imperative to prevent children from serving in the military. Thankfully, most countries (at least those in the west) have laws prohibiting the employment of minors in combat.
Prostitute
Tragically, one of the poorest tasks on this list is nonetheless one that is routinely practiced today and may even be done more frequently than in the past because of the secrecy of numerous internet applications and websites that are utilized for the purpose. Although it is most often associated with females, child prostitution is as widespread and destructive among boys. When Jack Saul, then 18 years old, brazenly revealed himself in court as a "sodomite" and "a professional Mary-ann," admitting to a lengthy and successful career as a rent boy, he made a sensation in Victorian England (indicating that he had begun in the profession back in Ireland as a child). There were rumors that one of his visitors was the attractive Prince Albert, who was only seven years his senior and the oldest grandchild of the reigning Royal at the time.[8]
It's interesting to note that this is the same Albert Prince who has frequently been identified as Jack the Ripper. He died during the Spanish flu pandemic at age 28. Catholic youths were especially prone to prostitution during a time when "Papists" faced severe legal discrimination in England. In addition, street gangs and pimps would have effectively held many of the youngsters who engaged in this activity as slaves. Many of the boys engaged nowadays are runaways with limited choices for lawfully earning a living because of underage labor regulations and missing relatives. Two young prostitutes are shown bargaining with possible clients in Times Square, New York, in the 1970s.[9]
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