This image depicts a caricature and its explanation. It gives a look at the conditions on the British Factories at the start of 19th century. If they weren't bad enough, the workers depicted in this image are kids. Related with the idea that workers were a little more than the machines in the factories for many employers, it's sad and even hard to believe that this also applied to the children, who had to work on those inapropiate conditions to help maintain their families, and sometimes, themselves. The only consolation, is that this was probably not as common as we may think, and rather few cases that made a lot of noise (unlikely). In the other side, even if it was slow, authorities reacted to this, and through the 19th century they kept encouraging and proposing laws to improve workers labour condtitions.
Image of Wellcome Images, used under a CCA 4.0 License