Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1873-03-01

cheapest Romanst pictures. Of which our
unsOphisticated folks don't know the
meaning. | could show you half dozen
places where the Pope is eXccrated, and
Rome held in reprObatiOn. and yet on the
walls are 1.-The Seven COlOrs of Mary. or
the Sacred Heart" Yes; am sure our
'sOcieties''-Tract and Christian knowl-
edge-might do great deal with advan-
tage in the way of pictures for the poor.
But was telling you about Mrs. BO-
sancO. Well, she paid well enough that
two shilings, and shilling more,
after letting another week drop, and then,
after waiting a good bit. another couple
of shillings: and then, without waiting to
pay up all, what did she do but buy pair of
green glass earrings and a brooch to
match-(these Cornish girls are all mad
after jewelry it's in the blood. | think)
and half crowns worth of flowers
"real flowers" they always call the artiti-
cial ones. because they last longest, | sup
pose. once had the honor Of walking
over three miles of moor alongside of Her
Majesty's Inspector Of schools for our dis
trict, and he-a Cornish man, tOO-Stuck
up for this love of 4" flowers" and | think
he even had weakness for the rings and
glass jewels; sit showed taste struggling
against difficulties" | don't agree with
him. Ii wouldn't do for me to give up
selling what every body wants to buy
but if could afford to keep a conscience
(as somebody says-yOu see I'm we'll
read man, thanks to my Scotch friends
for that, Id never sell any of that rub
Lish any more, I've seen the harm Of it,
and know how often fly-away hat full
of flowers covers an uncombed head,
IL
dress with nothing but rags underneath
it. And as to the mischief in other ways,
young Blobbles, who's a '.lady's man.
could tell. and does tell, too. much about
that; and I'm afraid more than half of il
is true.
So, mind. | didn't try to sell those
things to Mrs. L.; only showed them
with tue rest of my stock, and she singled
them out as a banker would a false note
amid pile of good ones. Buy them she
would, and she'd manage the paying.
And she did for awhile; but when her
husband for three months brought home
nine, and twelve, and eight shillings, and
then went up to fifty, and then down to
two pounds. and stuck there for a twelve
month, she having her second baby, and
and long bout of fever, too, during the
while, how could the poor woman pay,
should like to know: OF course my way
was plain. couldn't afford to lose; and
so at last had to tell her husband. and
the stOrming RACES he got into were
enough to frighten a body. He wasn't
going to pay her debts, he'd 60 to prison
first !; but he did pay little, and then he
could pay no more; he had debts al
" shop" and little gettings. and so was
obliged to cOunty-cOurt him; and some
how he did get into BOdmin Jail, as
be said he would. What could
do? IL wasn't my fault, you know.
It's that horrid gambling plan tina:
they call tribute work." Nothing
throws me out of my reckoning like that;
there's no certainty in a mans pay.
Where a man works "tO wages you
know what he gets, and what his wife can
afford, and in many parts Though seldom
i'm this tcetOtal district) anything that's
spent on your wares is saved from the
beer-shOp. But tributer may get six
pounds one month, and nothing at all the
next. i was up at Haley OAe day, and
met an old fellow I'd known .rears before
as a miner, taking a load of early Cornish
cabbages TO sell. ''HallO!" said |
.'them sort of things don't grow down in
Wheal Kitty" ''No," he reioined; mo
more Wheales for me. l had two-and.
thirty years of it, man and boy; and how
do you think / stood when | left off;
Why, seven shillings on the wrong side,
and one month made as much as eight
rounds. No more tribute work for me
I've turned market-gardener; it pays. and
there's no miners disease"
Let me explain this. In a mine the
''grassmen" (surface wOrkers), who look
after the water, the stamps, etc, ge
wages from two pounds five shil
lings to two pounds ten shilings s
month, rarely higher. The underground
men are either ''at tutwOrk," the ground
being let out to the lowest bidder at sc
much a fathOm, or 'under tribute" II
which case, after paying their share to-
ward the working expenses, wear ant
tear of tools, etc, they get previously
arranged proportion of the value OF the til
which they have raised.
This ''tut-work" is uncertain enough
The rock varies every few fathOms, ant
the mems constant complaint is that tn
mine captains won't set long bargains
for fear if man has bought hard bi
dear he might come to very soft bit be
fore he made his length. "a tut" mai
sometimes makes very little 'when th'
| SiOuiIu uO
But ''tribute" is as gambling as specu
lating in mine shares. A man may hav
rich lode, and then his gettings ar
worth having. Half st. Fusty was bull
in that way by tributers in North Levani
But mines are poorer nowadays, an
mine captains are sharper. They TAX
care to put all the rich lOdes to tut-worl
and if a man does make six pounds on
| ttvy fn sscuf hir
down" for three or four months
come.
That's why so many men have gon
abroad. AS soon as the high price of ii
forced up wages a little, and SO gave thel
a pound or two in hand, off they went,
the immense disgust Of pursers and cal
tains. 1t was quite stampede last sprin:
You see, tribute is poor life. SuppO
ing a man only digs out rock and eartl
his lode thinning out to nothing, why !
doesn't receive shilling AZ the month
end, and has his candles, tools, pOwde
and mine dues to pay for out of his cap
tai, if he has any. An abOminable sy
TEN, and keeping the men slaves to Il
shops, always in that wrctched state
living from hand to mouth. It's just
trick to work poor mines that new
ought to be worked at all, by taking Il
men into partnership of the heads | W
tails you lose sort. No mine ought ev
to be kept on which can't afford to pa
fair weekly, not monthly, wages to i
workmen; and since mines vary fro
richness to poverty, mines ought. to II
thinking, to be worked by the state.
However, that's not the point; what
, saw is that tribute ruined the BosancC
, and has done me out of many an hone
, shilling. Honest, say. for I'm, as ! to
t you. highly respectable individual;
{ scorn to do what half the miners in n
E county delight in-promote a mine th
/, was about as likely to pay the sharehofde
as to produce diamonds and gold nugge
/ wouldn't carry Jumps of good rich Q
. i'm my pocket. and drop them where t
l London gentlemen were coming to see
e the ground looked promising. Miners
! these things. though they are very reli
$ ious men. One of them who had turn