Youth
As the son of a blacksmith, Karl Kilbom grew up in a working-class family of Walloon origin in the small town of Österby outside Uppsala, where he started working in the steel mills at an early age.
In the year 1900, a socialist agitator visited Österby to talk to the workers of the mills. Karl Kilbom, only 15 years old, was one of the 7 people who stayed after the meeting to participate in the formation of a socialist club in Österby with the goal to establish a union. However, company spies had been present at the meeting and soon Kilbom was told he would not only lose his job, but also that his family, who lived in a house owned by the company, would be evicted, if he didn’t quit political activism. This time, Kilbom gave in to the threats.
Read more about this topic: Karl Kilbom
Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“I urge you to spend your youth profitably in study and virtue.... In brief, let me see in you an abyss of knowledge.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“Advice you take from me comes to you crutched
Like a beggar youth zealous for old age.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)