The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-10-07
How the British Workman Lives.

kinds of fish, excepting behring's are high i
price. Mutton is seldom below sixpence DE
pound, and the cheapest parts of beef COS
about twenty cents per pound. Moreover, th
Engllshman has no sweet corn, no squash, n
tomatoes, no sweet potatoes no water melons
and peddlers do not bring peaches, berries, aI
pies, and other fruits to his door and sell then
to him for mere tride, as is done here ever
day the year round almost. 1t is no wonder tina
the great tide of emigration is running hither
the only wonder is that any poor man remain
in England, at all, If people could cross tn
Atlantic on foot as some of the pioneers cEosset
overland to California in '49 the British Island
would soon be drained of their Industrial pop
ulation.
| Thus far Ihave spoken of the English work
man. He lives better than his neighbor across
| the border. In scarcely any department of in
dustry are the wages in Scotland equal to thosi
paid in England. . do not know the reason 0
this 1t is probably because Scotland is a poor
er country. In the large cities of Scotland tn,
workmen perhaps live as well as those OF Eng
land, but in the country districts the people
fare very frugally. The principal diet is oat
meal. This is served in the form of porridgt
for breakfast, and is eaten with milk or mo
laSSeS. The dinner consists of small piece o.
fat pork boiled, OF, in the absence of this, of 8
herring, which is eaten with bread made from
a mixture of ground barley and peas Some
times the bread is composed wholly of barley
but as rule it is mixture of barley and peas
In addition they use bread composed OF oat-
meal, "oat-cake," which is wholesome and pal
atable. The Sunday dinner is composed of a
small piece of meat boiled in several quarts OF
water and this water, thickened with little
cabbage or leaks, cut in small pieces and sea-
soned with pepper and salt, the people have
the audacity to describe as soup, or what is
equivalent to it, "kail." Tea and coffee are al
most unknown among these people. The tea
consists otporrldge, the same as the breakfast
and for supper barley bread or oat-cake and
infinitesimal pieces of cheese are served. The
shepherd who tends the t1ocks upon the hills
sometimes carries little oatmeal in a bag and
little salt in paper Atmeal-time he places
some of the oatmeal in a wooden bowl which
he carries for the purpose, moistens the meal
with cold water from brook, stirs the salt
through it, and the mixture forms his meal
well-named meal. This may constitute his
diet day after day, the only break in the mo-
notony of the thing being kali dinner on Sun
days. The material is always the same, though
the methods of preparation is occasionally va
ried. Instead of porridge the children are
sometimes RECALLED with ''crowdie." This is
oatmeal into which boiling water is stirred
This may be eaten with milk or molasses, but
sometimes both of these are dispensed with,
and piece of fat pork or lard used instead
The food is coarse, very coarse, but quite
wholesome and makes sturdy men and wo-
men. The people enjoy few of the COM
monest vegetables from time to tifhe, but fruits
they cannot aspire to. To these people a
smoked herring is a positive luxury-high Ev-
ing Many of them do not taste meat from one
years end to the other except on Sundays and
New Years day, a day which is observed as a
holiday The shepherd, the hedger and ditcher,
the road member, and the hangers on to rich
mems estate are the people who fare thus tru-
gally.
The cotter, it may be observed, belongs to
the class mentioned above. In Ireland the
people have to be content with even humber
fare, that is to say, that portion of the people
who constitute the peasantry. Their food
consists principally of potatoes and Indian
meal, yellow male" without any accompani-
ment to either. Few of the peasant Irish ever
taste meat throughout the year Those living
on the sea coast occasionally enjoy the luxury
Of a fish dinner, but the occasion comes seldom
in their dreary lives. How much better off is
the Irishman here, luXuriating in corned beef
and cabbage and smoked shoulder and vegeta-
bles two or three times week, with salt pork
spare ribs, and fresh pork shoulder blades for
breakfast and supper relish An Hishman
who was brought up on the southwest coast
of Ireland, informs me that he was often glad
to go down upon the rocks by the sea shore
and pick off the limpets and take them home
and roast them to sWeeten his meal of pota-
toes. Christmas day is the only day in the
year on which thousands of the Irish peasant
ry taste butcher meat, and they will have to
starve themselves for weeks previous to
obtain it.
The foregoing will convey to the reader an
idea of how meanly the people are obliged to
live in the free and enlightened country of
Great Britain. 1t will also go to show that
there is a blessed privilege in being an Ameri-
can citizen no matter how humble.
Concerning the habitations of the lowest
classes a few words may be said before closing
this article. 1t is common for unskilled labor
ers and their families to live in one room, the
same as agricultural laborers. The rooms are
usually large, 10 or IA feet square, and no
space is occupied by stove But, as may be
supposed, the people are somewhat cramped
for accommodations. A large portion of the
room is taken up by the beds and dresser and
big table," as the dining table is called. The
BEDS of course, are not quite so conspicuous
as French beds would be. The four-post bed
is curtained and is therefore screened from OBJ
servation and in many families box beds are
used. Some families use folding beds which
dIC SsllllC EJltll DIS u SOld UGu,
with the difference that when closed they pre-
sent the appearance of bureau The highest
paid mechanics seldom have more than two
rooms-a kitchen and bed room. The kitchen
is the living room and in it company are re-
ceived and entertained. On Sundays the bed
room is thrown open. The rent of single
room varies from one pound ten to Two pound
ten year. For two rooms, from three to FIVE
pounds year. In our money from $3.50 per
annum to $3.50 for one room, and from $15
to $25 for two rooms. The rent is payable
quarterly and delinquent tenant may be sued
in the county court.
The holidays of the British workman are, to
some extent, regulated by the customs which
prevail in different localities throughout the
United Kingdom. The regularly established
holidays, as we'll as | can recollect, are Good
Friday Midsummer Holiday and Christmas in
England, and the two former and New Years
day in Scotland. In Ireland the English Gus
tom is followed, and, in addition, the Catholics
observe St. Patrick's day and the Orangemen
the 18th of July, which is the anniversary of
the battle of the Boyne. But there are many
other holidays besides these, which are regu-
lated by local customs, such as the occurrence
of feasts and fairs, and the action of trade as
those established by law. The British work
man tolls hard; there are few departments of
industrial labor in which the duties are sine
cure, consequently he likes a holiday, and
when it occurs he gives himself up to its en-
joyment with zast. But he does not depend
entirely upon holidays for the social enjoy
ment which association with his fellows pro-
notes; his Saturday nights are, as a rule, de-
voted to pleasure, or what he regards as pleas
ure, a circumstance to which may be ascribed
the poverty of his condition, for in some of the
great manufacturing towns the debauch of
Saturday and Sunday leaves the workman in
such condition as to be utterly unfit to com
mence work on Monday morning. Hence it
is often the case that mills in such cities some
times actually stand idle on that day Such
British workmen as compose the operatives in
great manufacturing cities are, large portion
of them, uneducated and illiterate, and have
no source of enjoyment beyond the pipe and
the glass, and the free use of the latter does
not at all tend to improve their condition.
land free traders ask the American manu-
facturer and his employees to compete with the
kind of labor described in the foregoing arti-
clean article evidently written by one who
knows whereof he writes. How many are
there in the United States who are so base as