The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-10-07
HOW SOME MEN LIVE.
CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CON-
DITION OF BRITISH AND
AMERICAN LABORERS.
The English WOrklugmen Flourish Where
American Ones Would Die.

Correspondence Boston Commercial Bulletin.
There are many articles of diet which
the American workingman enjoys that
are beyond the power of purchase of the
English workman. Lobsters there cost
one shilling apiece to the merchants who
purchase them from the fisherman. Oys'
ters are an unattainable luxury. All
kinds of fish, except herrings, are high
in price. Mutton is seldom below six
pence per pound, and the cheapest parts
of beef cost about twenty cents per
pound. Moreover, the Englishman has
no sweet corn, no squash, no tomatoes,
no sweet potatoes, no watrmelon, and
peddlers do not bring peaches, berries,
apples and other fruits to his door and
sell them to him for a mere tr ae, as is
done here every day the year round al.
most, 1t is no wonderithat great tide
of emigration is rushing hither; the only
wonder is that any poor man remains in
England at all. If people could cross
the Atlantic on foot as some of the
pioneers crossed overland to California
in lS49 the British Islands would soon
be drained of their industrial popula-
ton.
Thus far I have spoken of the English
workmen, He lives better than his
neighbor across the border. In scarcely
any department of industry are the
wages in Scotland equal to those paid in
England. l do not know the reason Of
this. 1t is probably because Scotland is
a poorer country. In the large cities Of
Scotland the workmen perhaps live as
well as those of England, but in the
country districts tae people fare very
frugally. The principal diet is oatmeal.
This is served in the form of porridge
for breakfast and is eaten with milk or
molasses. The dinner consists of a
small piece of fat pork boiled, or, in the
absence of this, of herring, which is
eaten with bread made of a mixture of
ground barley and peas, Sometimes the
bread is composed wholly Of barley, but
as a rule it is a mixture of barley and
peas. In addition they USE bread
composed of oatmeal, "oatCake," which
is wholesome and palatable The Sun,
dag dinner is composed of small piece
of meat boiled in several quarts of water
and tlis water thlCkened with little
cabbage and leeks cut in small pieces
and seasoned with pepper and salt, the
people have the audaCity to describe it as
soup, or what is equivalent to it, kali"
Tea and coffee are almost unknown
among these people. The tea consists of
pOrridge, the same as the breakfast, ard
for sup er barley bread or oatcake and
infnitesimal pieces of cheese are served.
The shepherd who tends the flock upon
the hill sometimes carries little oatmeal
in bag and little salt in paper. At
mealtimes he places some ofthe oatmeal
in wooden bowl which he carries for
the purpose; moistens the meal with cold
water from the brook; strs the salt
through it, and the mixture forms his
meal-well named a meal. This may
constitute his diet day after day, the only
break in the monotony of the thing be-
ing the "kail" on Sundays. The material
is always the same, though the method
of preparation is occasionally varied. In.
stead of porridge, the children are regal.
ed 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 make sturdy
men and women. The people enjoy
few of the Commonest vegetables from
time to time, but fruits they cannot as
pirC to. To these people smoked her.
ring is a positive luxury-high living.
Most of them do not taste meat from one
years end to the other, except on New
Years day, a day which is observed as a
holiday. The shepherd, the hedger and
ditCher, the road mender and the hang.
ers.on to rich mems estates are the peo-
pie who fare thus frugally. In his Got.
tar's Saturday night" Burns describes
the food which is served for supper:
But now the supper crowns their simple board,
The halesome parritch, chief o. Scotias food
The soupe their only hawke (a) does afford,
That 'yont the hallan (b) snugly chews her
Good;
The dame brings forth in complimental mood
To grace the lad her weel hained (c) kebbuCk
(d) fell (e),
And aft he's pressed, and aft he cas- it guild;
The frugal wife, garrulous, will tell
How twas tOwmond (D auld sim lint was I the
bell' (g).
a COW; partition WALL we'll preserved
cheese; pungent; twelve months when
was in flower.
NoTE-It will be observed that the cheese was
brought out only because it was an extraordinary
occasion.
The cottar, it may be observed, be,
longs 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 prin-
cpally of potatoes and Indian meal,
"yellow meal" without any accompani
ment to either. Few of the peasant Irish
ever taste meat throughout the year,
Those living on theseaCoast occasionally
enjoy the luxury of a fish dinner, but the
occasion comes seldom in their dreary
lives. How much better off is the Irish
man here, luxuriating in Corned beef and |
cabbage, and smoked shoulder and vege-
tables two or three times week, with |
salt pork, spare ribs and fresh pork
shoulder blades for breakfast and sup
per relish2 An Irshman, 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
seashore and pick off the limpets and
take them home and roast them to sweet
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