It's difficult to guess this boy's age. He's probably younger than he looks. The steady gaze of his eyes, the firm set of his mouth and the position of his hands suggest a tough kid who has had to grow up quickly in bleak and maybe hopeless environment.

The Shorpy archive contains lots of subtle information - as in this Lewis Hine photo - which you can't acquire by reading history books. There are many photographs that show, if you look for them, glimpses of the very age and body of a time, its form and pressure.

I don't think you will find any barefoot kids working in a glass factory.

Clearly he got them second-hand from someone who had gotten most of the good wear out of them already. What an old soul he looks like.