Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-09-03
Correspondent Philadelphia Times ]

UNITED STATES-How THEY oPER-
ATE.
Correspondent Philadelphia Times.l
MUNICH, August 9.
After delightful excursion through
part of Austria | am again in Ger
many. Munich is the capital of South
as Berlin is of North, Germany, and
its monuments are Bavarian, as those
of Berlin are Prussian. Notable
among them is the bronze statue of
Bavaria, the harmonious proportions of
which are so colossal that six men
may stand together in its head and
enjoy a view of the city and suburbs
while to encircle its middle finger re-
auires a cord longer than did the
waist of lady who stood by as |
scanned plaster cast of it in the
bronze foundry.
Coming abroad as / did, in pursuit
of health. | have not underestimate
the value of sleep to convalescent, or
the danger of violent or protracted
physical effort, and avoiding night
travel, have rested long at Dresden,
Prague, Vienna, Linz and Salzburg to
take a leisurely, though necessarily
superficial, view of each of these cities
| have thus seen all the country
through which / have travelled and
been able to observe the extent of the
holdings and the apparent methods,
age and sex of agricultural laborers.
THE USE OF oLD-FASHIoNED TOOLS.
| forget the date at which Living
ston came as our Minister to France
1t was, however, before the adoption
OF the Constitution, or as the represen-
tative of Washington's administration
But the precise date is not important,
as / refer to him as an illustration of a
general truth which social reformers
should ever bear in mind. Before ar
irving in Paris he had been painfully
impressed by the fact that most of the
agricultural laborers were bowed and
exhibited other signs of premature old
age. He observed, also, that their
chief implements were hoes, with
handles but three feet long, and sickles
which required them to stoop even
lower while reaping than they had
done while cultivating their crop.
He was philanthropist, and in the
hope of remedying a national evil he
not only brought to the attention of
many Frenchmen of influence the fact
that American farmers used imple-
ments which enabled them to stand
erect, but went further and imported a
large number of long-handled hoes for
gratuitious distribution. Their use
would, he hoped, demonstrate their
vital superiority and cause their gen
eral adoption. In this he was mis-
taken. They were soon discarded and
Livingston's papers thenceforward
abounded in dissertations on the diff
Guilty of inducing a people to change
their practical methods. Here, too, he
was in error. In the choice of tools
the people whose condition he sought
to improve were not free agents, but
were-as the masses of mankind al
WAYS are-subiect to social and phys
ical conditions. Had Livingston first
asked why the use of longer hoe han
dies had not occurred to the French
paysans, his labors in their behalf
would probable have taken q more
practical turn. He has, however,
! many successors among American
travellers, who vex ones ears with the
questions, why do these people not
nse our labor-saving agricultural ma
chinery? though they see unmistaka-
BILE proofs-such as the diversity in
kind and age of the crop-that the
holdings of lands in the rural parts OF
. Belgium, France and Switzerland are
.. not, on the average, so large as build
ing lots in the twenty y-second, twenty
fourth and twenty-seventh wards Of
Philadelphia. Those who own or rent
these patches of land live in villages
and labor in workshop or in factory
Old men and women-generally more
of the latter-attend to the crops
which, even when of grain, are care
fully weeded. The ground may be
prepared by the spade, though the
old-fashioned, short-handled hoe is
still frequently used in breaking it up
but much of the work is evidently done
D with trowels. 1t is evident that
Burns had not the cultivators of these
petty farms in mind when he described
the farmer walking in glory behinC
the plow.
The prevailing appearance of pre-
mature old age which aroused Livings
toms sympathies is attributable tC
this inevitable method of manual farm
. ing and to the habit which the womer
J. have of carrying strapped on theil
backs huge baskets, often heavily
[. loaded.
4 WOMEN AS FARM LABoRERs.
But it is not only the small holdings
of land which impose this character o
: work upon women, for in Germany
and Austria, where the holdings Or,
: generally larger and much of the farm
ing is carried on upon considerabl,
!. scale, women seem to do most of th'
d work, and often the heaviest part of it
is They pitch the hay upon the wagon
r while the man-if there be one of TIN
party-receives and stores it. | hav
: seen many of them plowing, ant
others with scythe or sickle, holdin!
their line with men. To sweep tn
streets of great cities, to trundle over
burdened wheelbarrows or handcart
through streets crowded with swift
going droschkies, to split, saw or pill
frewood, to serve as unskilled laborer
in glass and iron works, foundries an
machine shops, to carry stone, bricks
sand and mortar to masons and bricl
!. layers working on the upper stories
J the highest buildings, will not scel