Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-02
naiIg Afausbst Sournal.
TURKISH LABORERs.


TURKISH LAB0RERS.
Labor is so far free in Turkey that :
man can leave one employer for another
at the end OF his term, provided he owe:
the first nothing. If he is in debt, he be
comes serf, except in name; for, being
charged compound interest, the debet
grows so quickly, it is soon more than he
can ever hope to pay and then he is liable
to be transferred, with his debt, to any
+ land owner thinking it worth while TO pay
off the original creditor. In these cases
the unlucEy debtor receives so much grain
every year, sufficient, if he has family,
to keep them in state of semi-siaryation
So long as the Turkish laborer can avoid
debt, he is not so badly off. Naturally OF
penuriously economical habits, his wants
are few. A two-penny earthenware pot
is the only cooking utensil he needs to
prepare his daily meal--a dish of beans or
lentils. onions, salt, picked cabbage, gar
lie, and pepper, eaten with bread ofmixed
grain. Sailed cheese, olive oil, and hemp
seed oil are occasionally INDUCED in; but
meat, wine, and spirits are reserved for
festival days. These come rather fire.
quently with the Christians-almost at the
rate of one week, for, counting Sundays,
their idle days number 100 in the year.
Many live upon bread, making five or six
pounds a day of that suffice to keep body
and soul together. Setting aside the vic
TINS of debt, the agricultural laborers are
well clad, and there are but few who can
not boast of the possession of holiday
suit, red leather shoes included-a suit
they make last their lifetime Their ord-
nary clothes are almost all made at home
by their thrifty, Woodworking wives; their
working attire, consisting of cotton-twist
shirts and drawers, thick wooden socks,
an outer garment of dark wooden stuff, red
skull-cap, covered with a cotton turban,
and sandals of raw buffalo hide; and in
winter Of an overeoat of sheepskin, with
the wool inside. The women wear cot
ton garments, deliberately embroidered
with bright, home-dyed woods, and for
head-dress, cotton kerchief, covering the
neck and bosom.
The ordinary agricultural laborer lives
in one roomed house, built of sun dried,
square bricks, upon foundation of stone
rubble, cemented with wetted clay and
chopped straw. The rubble is carried
about a foot above the surface of the
ground, the walls being bound at intervals
with strips Of rough hewn oak, beech or
pine. running along their inner and outer
edges, and fastened together by cross
pieces nailed to them. In some parts the
pent root is covered with heavy slate or
shale slabs, but light, kiln baked tiles are
oftener used. The room itself is from
eight to ten feet in hight, and measures
from twelve to fifteen feet square. 1t il
provided with one or two very small un.
glazed windows, closing with sliding shut
tiers, and an open fireplace with fiue
The whitewashed walls, some three feet
thick, are studded with wooden pegs, anG
in their recesses usually two or more
shelves are fitted, while another narrow
shelf runs all round the room, near the
ceiling. Such house will cost f22
Prosperous laborers will have two or more
rooms, beside stable and out houses.
In the billy districts of Macedonia, where
stone and lime are easily procured, SUBJ
stantially built houses of two or three
rooms are common enough; but whether
the house be of stone or of clay, il is
equally destitute of furniture Within
chairs, tables and bedsteads being articles
unknown, or at any rate undesired. A
few straw-stuffed cushions, or even a
piece or two of rush mating, placed upon
the hard clay floor supplies all the sitting
or sleeping accommodation the occupants
require. In fact, unless their domicie il
provided with sort of verandah, they pre-
fer to take their rest, in summer, at least
in the open air. In any case they lie down
in their clothes, covering themselves witt
a blanket, if they have it; if not, an over
coat serves the purpose. Chambers Jour
nal.