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A Bad Lot: 1911

May 1911. Fries, Virginia. A part of the spinning force working in the Washington Cotton Mills. Group posed by the overseer. All work. The overseer said, "These boys are a bad lot." All were alive to the need for being 14 years old when questioned. View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

May 1911. Fries, Virginia. A part of the spinning force working in the Washington Cotton Mills. Group posed by the overseer. All work. The overseer said, "These boys are a bad lot." All were alive to the need for being 14 years old when questioned. View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

 

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Fries

I asked a local how you pronounce the name of the town: is it "fries" or "freeze"? The local joke is that it's "fries" in the summer, and "freeze" in the winter!

Pop. 614

The 2000 Census showed 614 (I think) people living in Fries, which basically died when the mill closed in the 1970s. I'm from that area and it is seriously in the middle of nowhere down in Western VA/NC border. They have this picture on a web page.

Giveaways

Too bad the Zeno company didn't give away shoes. I don't know how these boys worked in mills and walked through the rubble outdoors in bare feet. I notice through so many pictures of this era how many dirty, barefooted children there were. I don't think I would have made it.

["Of this era," and all the eras before it. Shoes and baths for children are, historically and generally speaking, recent developments. - Dave]

B-b-b-bad to the Bone

The boy with the Zeno cap probably received it as a giveaway from the Zeno Manufacturing Co., maker of chewing gum. The company was bought by William Wrigley in 1911.

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