Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-11-12
How the POor Live in England.

/ -ouA AAlH ~ l. evening k0eE.
DR.. Edward Smith, an English medical
officer, has recently undertaken careful
Investigation of the quantity and quality
OF food consumed by the Iaboring classes
in England-especislly the farm labOrers.
| For the purposes of his inquiry he selected
three hundred and seventy families from
| thirty-seven different counties. These
| families were induced to answer 9 series OF
carefully prepared questions, and from the
results Dr. Smith Eas prepared a set of
very Interesting tables.
From a scrutiny of his report, we get
| some curious glimpses Of the laboring
mans lie in oYercrOwded England
housekeeping" IS reduced, amongst these
u1fortunsteS 10 narrow limits. All kinds
Of wretched- economies are adopted, which
are frightful to read Of The laborer, It
seems, as n rule, consumes much the larger
Stare Of the fooasprOcured for the house
hold Of which he is the head In the
poorer districts he eats NEARLY ali the
meal and bacon" and DR.. Smith relates
that the quantity and also tho nutritive
quality of the food obtained by the wife,
and also by the children at the period of
rapid growth" is often insufficient to keep
them in health. Bread and potatoes ap-
pear to be the chief articles of diet In
many parts of England the laborer is still
paid in kind, and receives part of his wages
in wheat or -four. White flour Is preferred
to that Of darker color; and it is held to
be sign of bad management for
wife TO buy bread of the baker, instead
Of baking it at home. Sugar or molasses is
in the poorer districts, luxury, but is used
in nearly all cases at the average of only
half pound per head, weekly. It is held
by these people to be not a cheap food,
'perhaps on the ground that it is absorbed
by the bread, and then does not satisfy the
children, the satisfaction of the sight being
a very pressing item IN the arrangement
o. the poor mans dietary"
Butter is used almost universally. Of
the families visited, nearly third-thifty
per cent,-never ate butchers meat, and
in some of the remaining cases the people
taste meat only when siek sheep are killed
on the farm, and this diseased meat is
taken By them as part of their wages.
Where but small quantity Of meat is
used, the whole is cooked for Sundays
dinner. and what is left over is set apart
for the husband, who eats it during the
week, bis family having none. In this
wsy, ''if tho family be thrifty, the hus-
band will have q morsel of meat
or bacon throughout the week,
whilst his wife or children may eat
it but once, and both himself and his house
hold believe that course to be necessary 10
enable him to perform his labor" Picked
pork is the form in which meat is most
commonly used, we are told, and this for
the reason that it Is least liked by the chill
dren, "The wife" sdss Dr. Smith, ahas
gained by hard experience an acute per-
ceptiOn as to the food which will supply
the greatest number of meals" 0hly one
fourth Of the families OF thoseifarm labor
ers ever drink new milk, and another
fourth never get milk in any shape. Tea
is In universal use; coffee, which is the in
dispensable draught of our western farm
ers and their men, is used only in forty-four
per cent. Of the cases exhibited BY DR.
smith. This is because coffee requires su-
gar and milk; tea they can drink without
either But this abstinence of coffee sp-
pears another plOof o. the wretched condi-
ton Of these people. The women and
children consume the greater share of the
tea, as the men do of the meat.
Such is the living of the farm aborers
and their families in England; aud yet
there are persons found TO tell this class
that they ought not to emigrate TO Ameri-
ca, that they cannot better their condition
here.