The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-08-15

Mutton "ttit 10
Veal a." ,ac9 cess l4i"
Turkeys, =" 90
Ducks, Z" 40 20
Geese, 6au 80
How much meat, then, can French laborer
at Is to 20 cents per day. who has family
to support, afford to consumed Not one third
of what is given to our negroes
But the manner Of living, and the quaint.
ty and quality of food consumed among the
laboring classes in these countries are not
matters Of inference--they are distinctly
stated on unquestiouable authority, few Of
which we shall proceed to give. We COM
mence with the three grain growing regions
of Russia which communicate with the Baltic
sea, and from which Matte Brun, the ge.
ographer, informs us there were exported
during the nine years previous to 1884, up
wards of six millions of bushels Of wheat
and more than twelve millions of bushels of
rye, oats and other grain. In this country.
says Matte Brun:
"The rate of wages is very low; it is certain
that it does not average more ii so much, as
five pence day, yet the condition of la.
borer in constant employment, with a cottage
and potatoe ground, is admitted to be much
superior to that of the peasant, who was re
Gently raised from state OF vassalage to
| freedom. The laborers that are boarding in
| the houses Of their masters, have a sufficient
| quantity of coarse food, such rs rye bread,
potatoes, and buckwheat and sometimes,
though raret,n, meat"
And this is land from which grain is er-
ported and where there is no scarcity of meat,
for the same author tells us that the best
focks of merno sheep, exclusive of wool, do
not bring more than 1850 to $500 a piece!
But what can laborer, at ten cents day, do
towards supplying himself and family with
the necessaries even when grain and meat
are at reasonable pricef
| In Bohemia, province of Germany, where
the mountains and the forests abound in diff
ferent sorts of game and the rivers and lakes
are stored with various kinds of fish, Matte
Brun informs us,
'sThe food of the inhabitants is very differ
ent in different districts aud the cause de-
ponds more on the wealth and poverty Of the
soil, than on the wealth and poverty OF the
people. Barley and oatmeal. milk and po-
tatoes are generally used on the mountains
particularly by the laJorers;; beer is reserved
for holidays. But in the valleys, and the
plains, where nature is most proiuse, the hus-
bandmen have better and more substantial
nourisament. The use Of animal food is not
so rare and beer or wine Is the ordinary
drink"
We now come to consider the condition of
the laboring classes Of France, whose slow
prices" have called forth such warm eulogies
from Mr. Buchanan. Says Matte Brun:
. The cottages of the peasantry proclaim
their poverty the windows do not admit Of
sufficient light; the doors, even the walls,
hardly afford shelter against the blast The
laborer is seen in his wretched dwelling
borne down by want and toll; his principal
food is cheese or milk, which cannot be Of a
very good quality, for the cows are ill,fed,
and they are used in common with the oxen
in the "plough."
The reader, by this time will be able to un-
derstand the reason Of the Glow prices of
labor in France and Germany. With the
| laborer in those countries it is not question
of comparative comfort-but of life and
death--of existence or starvation. To keep
soul and body togther is as much as he can
do.
Mr.. Buchanan remarks, that whilst British
manufactures are langushing those Of the
continent are springing into healthy and Wig
orous existence" True, the manufactures of
France are flourishing. But how fares it with
the human beings by whose labor these fa-
nous manufactures are made to fourshf-
wretched, half starved. squald - behold
them, of wintry's night congregated by
hundreds and thousands in the barns Of the
country, that they may be kept warm by ami
NAL heati Are these the BLESSINGS" which
are to "cover our land ;"
To our Buchanan readers we beg leave re-
.pectfully to address a few remarks, by way
of conclusion.
You have seen from authentic sources what
is the price Of labor in France and Germany,
the countries which Mr.. Buchanan has ad'
duced as examples of the BLESSINGS" of low
wages, and how very few, even Of the neees-
saries of life, can be procured by those whose
fortune it is to be compelled to earn their
living by the sweat of their brow. Have
you any little boys, of vigorous limbs, manly
forms and intelligent faces TO educate whom,
and perchance to see at future day oistin
guished in one of the professions or in the
councils of the nation--fathers will have
such thoughts-to educate whom, we say
yon are bending all your energies, and on
whose account labor, when it has its reward
dis no fatiguef" Is this your condition. If
it be, pause for q moment-look at the condi-
ton Of the children oil the laboring man in
France and Germany and the cherries fate
that awaits them. and then say, yea will vote
for James Buchanan, who spoke for and voted
for policy which would degrade you and
your children TO the same leveli
George Trcup Howard. Esq, late Judge
CITY Court Of Savannah, died in Columbus
on Friday night of Congestive fever.
The Boston Traveller reports that the