Exploitation Behind the Carnival Lights
A teenage girl is paralyzed after a dangerous carnival stunt, with her employers allegedly refusing to pay her for her performances.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Lying helplessly on her back on a cot at the Fannie Paddock hospital, unable to move a muscle, lies little 14-year-old Ida Allsop, the unfortunate victim of the loop-the-loop accident at the Mardi Gras carnival. Mrs. Emma Allsop, her mother, says she knew nothing of the accident until she saw it mentioned in the papers. Ida was working in a biscuit factory when the Mardi Gras was in San Francisco. The girl doing the loop-the-loop act was hurt and the managers wanted Ida to take her place. They said there was no danger and they offered to pay $2 for each performance. She has done the act 18 times and, as far as I know, she has not been paid a cent. It is a matter of general report that the accident was caused through the criminal negligence of the management. The child's mother is unable to care for her, and unless the public comes to her relief her lot will be a sad one.
“She has done the act 18 times and, as far as I know, she has not been paid a cent.”
This story exposes the grim reality of itinerant labor and child exploitation in turn-of-the-century traveling shows. It highlights the vulnerability of young women in a city where such carnivals often bypassed local labor standards.
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