The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-10-25
Riches in Europe.

The rich own all the land, which is
held in large estates, often by heredi-
tary noble tenures, and cultivated by
tenants, or more frequently let out in
small sections to petty renters. There
are no farms in the American sense.
The people are not farmers but ''peas-
ants They live not in isolated farm
houses on their respective tracts OF land,
but in villages, from which they 90 out,
each to cultivate his little patch. This
is especially the case in Germany. In
one of these villages they are huddled
up together in about fifty houses or huts,
resembling the quarters of the negroes in
the South. The whole, with the sheds
and other out buildings, does not take
up more space that the buildings of
an ordinary farm in Pennsylvania. In
these villages they generally have a
church, windmill, and beer saloon as,
the only public buildings. If the pro-
prietor has any residence on his tract of
land, it is not in the village, but is in
palace or castle, with park. But
more commonly he lives in the largest
of the neighboring towns, or else at the
capital or royal residence.
The landed estates being thus large,
and their limits fixed from time immemo-
rial, it will readily be seen that the
working class cannot own any land.
Furthermore, the land generally descends
in direct line in the family of the pro-
prietor, like the aristocratic titles. 1t
is the same in regard to the dwellings.
The houses are all large, there being, l
presume, not one in Berlin or Paris cost
ing less than $40, 900, so that the lower
classes cannot be property owners, in any
sense, but depend on the rich for their
lodgings.
Again, the rich carry on all the man.
ufactures, commerce and business enter
prises, which are there, on large scale,
and owned by long standing houses or
extensive corporations. The high cost
ofthe raw materials, and the great guam
tity of machinery and implements re-
quired, will not allow those with little
capital to enter into them. If the poor
enter, they are crushed out by the COM
petition of the great firms, which can
accordingly master the trade and keep
the monopoly. These great firms have
always large profits, and are, indeed the
only class which have such; because la
Dor is cheap, and the people cannot af-
ford to work on their own account, as
if no capital were required.
The rich in Europe live well, having
their palaces, liveries, twenty courses
and rich wines at their tables, spending
the summer at the watering places in
Switzerland, and all this with little ex-
pense to themselves, since their great
trains of servants cost almost nothing,
owing to the cheapness of the labor.
Thus, there is an immense difference
between the poor and rich in Europe,
owing partly to the original establish
ment, in feudal times, of a few princes
or knights over whole nations or depart
ment. When these were afterward
united with the French kingdom or the
German empire, the proprietors gave up
their independence, but not their land.
1t is owing partly to privileges grant
ed from time to time by kings and prime
es, in the shape of rent charges, exemp-
ton from taxation, ETC.; and partly to
the start gotten by long-continued ac-
quisitions and New.