The background context of the joke photograph is deeply horrifying. Many of the children who worked in these mines would die before 18. The rest ≥75% of them wo

The background context of the joke photograph is deeply horrifying. Many of the children who worked in these mines would die before 18. The rest ≥75% of them would develop black lung & die before their 30s. Others would die crushed between equipment. There would be daily mutilations and fatalities. Wikipedia has a great summary of extant literature, more resources below, The work performed by breaker boys was hazardous. Breaker boys were forced to work without gloves so that they could better handle the slick coal.[11][12][14] The slate was sharp, and breaker boys would often leave work with their fingers cut and bleeding.[11][12][14] Breaker boys sometimes had their fingers amputated by the rapidly moving conveyor belts.[6][10][11][15] Others lost feet, hands, arms, and legs as they moved among the machinery and became caught under conveyor belts or in gears.[6][10][11][15] Many were crushed to death, their bodies retrieved from the gears of the machinery by supervisors only at the end of the working day.[6][10][11][15] Others were caught in the rush of coal, and crushed to death or smothered.[6][10][11][15] Dry coal would kick up so much dust that breaker boys sometimes wore lamps on their heads to see. Asthma and black lung disease were common.[4][6][10][11][14] Coal was often washed to remove impurities, which created sulfuric acid.[18][19] The acid burned the hands of the breaker boys.[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_boy#Use_of_breaker_boys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_boy#Use_of_breaker_boy... I don't want to be a killjoy, but we find it funny because it's cute. They found it funny because it was dark humor. Somewhere along the way, the core got lost, i.e. children were losing body parts, limbs and their lives on a daily basis for the crime of being born poor. https://njdigitalhistory.org/jane-addams-child-labor/index.php/diseases-and-threats/ https://njdigitalhistory.org/jane-addams-child-labor/index.p... https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-child-labor-committee/articles-and-essays/reporting-on-labor-conditions/ https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-child-labor-committ... https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.01131/ https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.01131/ https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/child-miners-lewis-hine/ https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/child-miners-lewis-hine/