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Many of the children who are employed as helpers, messengers, cash boys and minor laborers in shops, foundries, factories, offices and as venders, are the mainstay of families that live, God knows how, for the one who should be the bread winner is an invalid, a cripple, a paralytic, and would be in the charity hospital or the almshouse were it not that the instinct of family unity is as strong and admirable among the humble as among the rich.

I don't understand what "were it not that" & the last part mean. Does it mean that "it's not because that the instinct of poor families are as strong as the rich families, but thanks to the children, poor families are able to live"?

jay
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2 Answers2

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The disabled parents would be in the almshouse if it were not for the fact that the instinct of family unity is as strong in poor families as in rich ones.

Kate Bunting
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You could translate it also as "thanks to the".

Many of the children who are employed as helpers, messengers, cash boys and minor laborers in shops, foundries, factories, offices and as venders, are the mainstay of families that live, God knows how, for the one who should be the bread winner is an invalid, a cripple, a paralytic, and would be in the charity hospital or the almshouse, but thanks to the strong and admirable instinct of family unity ...

But in this case "were it not that" sounds a lot better.

Brain
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