The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1863-03-10 00:00:00

THE CONDITION Or THE SWANAGE
QUARRYMEN.

Sta,—My attention was arrested a few weeks since
by the sonouneement in the columns of a weekly
oontemporery of a hue of railway from the Wareham
station of the Loodon and South Western Railway
to Swung! ; and brief as was the announcement, it
yet brought vividly to my mind a pleasant visit I
paid last summer to that small but interesting
watering place. As • stranger, with plenty of time
OS my hands, I was struck with many things Which
to a resident would have passed unnoticed. I was
surprised to dad that the qsarrymen, who form the
balk of the inhabitants, were in • worse state of
ode= than thu lubjects of the autocrat of all the
Remise. trout • careful examiestion of the subject
I Tend that oar friend tbe quarryman (of whom Sir
C. Write was so glad to avail himself) begins life at
the age of ten years, by following his father to
" quer," where be is soon set to "dub" pitchers,
and then on to the other mysteries of the craft, till
he is muter of the whole, when by the payment of •
certain fee of Si. bd. he becomes fully initiated into
the guild. Our hero is still young, and the world
all before him. Hs bass trails, but how shall be
work it? Is the words of a local celebrity (Mr.
Brown), what be wants is "little credit." He
goes to the laadowner and gets leave to open or
break • piece of ground, where he reckons there is •
good veils of stone; and then to • man he terms his
merehant, says, "Mr. It—, lint aboot to
open a 'qua:,' can you let nie have credit till I get
up some stone." (louses it lath. *ay his father
did before bini, and so it is the regular war of inst.
DOOM between merchant and quarryman.) Of worse
the merchant consents, and the quarryman then
• goer; to work, soil sends his wife to the merchant's
shop for the munitions of war with which to light
the battle of life, for which the merchant is after.
wards to be paid in stone. Before the stone or ready,
however, the quarryman is in the merchant's debt
some £l5 or £2O for items after this fashion, via.
' One week :-30 loaves, at a balpenny more than the
summit value or price. But why so many loam* In,
one week, you exclaim, for • young couple. Alt l
I thereby hangs a take. The surplus over lb* week's
consumption is to be exclienged with • shopkeeper
for mbar little Deormairs w !deb the merchant may I
not keep. and the orchange is 13 per cent. against
! the quarryosea. I have taken the loaf as an esample,
but this is the most favourable to the system, for
the merchant, like a genuine Yankee or old Jew
salssoma, keeps a general shop, he runs to • system
of tickets to • friends shop, who then shares the
extra profit with the merchant. But you exclaim,
why does the quarryman sebinit to each extortion?
I reply, he does not man to be able to help
He is in the merchant's debt, sad if be relents to
assist in perpeteatieg the abominable system the
merchant will cut of the armpitss and sue for his
debt—then he will be ruined; so that in a point of
fact they are the slaves or bondservants of the mer-
chants, working hard and faring herd, and
when stases' or old age wince ea they
became • burden to the panel), • login.
mate result of the pauperising system of the
merchant. The quarryman under the present
system cannot raise his Mane and get it to • market
without the aid of the merchant; and ones in his
bends he speedily @nepenthe to circomstaaceo
Whether the railway can benefit the quarrymen
remains to be proved. Some MO very sanguine on
the point. God grant it may emir* him, for never
mortal had niore need to put faith in God and keep
his powder dry than has the Swamp, quarrymen.
Yours, kn., VERITAS.

PRINCE OF WALES critisusnom CONNITTEL
Sri, -Some few days ream I beard the committee
ha 4 voted DM to feed the aped and other poor, and that
they rejected the proposal of the sob-sommittee to
allow innkeepers to provide We dinner at Is, 6d. per
head, and expressed an opinion that it could by done
better by the ammonites for • kas sow. Now. CVO 10e.
would provide for 940 persona, sod leave • Wane. of
10a. for Wales, he., he. To.day I tam Informed
that the committee had decided upon providing • dinner
for all those above 40 years of age, estimated at 660,
in anwaber, and that the old vote of 6.10 was reminded,
and red substituted. Now, as 640.1 2m. each amounts
to 1/44, I cannot we that the plan ia hotter in point of
seoneney, and 300 person. will Cif it he ...fled out)
be deprived of a substantial dinner. The saving
Elfr, it appears, is to bedsvoted to moist in
the town. It was then proposed by an old friend
"Jem" (be will excuse the familiarity), that lb. new'
hers he extended to all tio 1114,ria people of the
town, if tie funds would permit of it, bat this was net
carried. Csditionted, however, he again mounted his
middy (now this is really to. lami), end wont of almost
to Poundhary (I beg pardos,—poend cake I moan) to
feed. Having astadled himself that it wee rOO4, and
smacked his lips, be proposed, a. they had reed £l5
by the dinner, that. ooreenitios be formed to provide
amusements for *boas who would not have • dinner.
(Why should the Imadworking youth be forgotten?) and
that CIO be voted for that purpose? But poor Junes
we. again &haled.
Now, it oppeare to be that they amid have seleeted
many respectable men to see that everything was done
"decently end In order," and they might have let
"their moderation be known" to many on that day
at rejoicing, when the rich and poor meet together.
It was then proposed to vote Rs to • committee for
amusements, but as three or four of the leading
memberi did not approve of it (aorli / do not impute
any bad motive to them), many others were up far
bet appeared to prefer that of "follow my
re7l7;" to any other. It used now be left as it wee on
• former occeeion, to those unconnected with the corn
mittee, to afford amosemente, and if they should adopt
such sports as may not be considered " orthorloa," who
will be to blame, Why, you will be ready em,,
" The Committee," for not keeping it in their own
hands. I heard yesterday that the Illommittee had
voted £5O for illuminating the Town and County Hall,
and that conesquently all the deserving poor Radar 40
years of age me to be deprived of their dinner. For
10a, they could have given a dinner to 300, and
had the IT 10., for decorating and illonainMiag the
lamps in the mime way seat the agricultural show is Ino.
I am, &r, your's, fie.,
INQUIRILL
Dorchester, Nandi 31d, 1863.