The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-01-30


venerable condition our Queen attained
before she had completed her sixtieth
year. a circumstance which we believe
cannot be said of any of her predecessors
on the throne; scarcely any of whom,
indeed, lived to see their children of the
third generation. There was a time
GO tbs sixty years since" and more-when
the nation was confidently looking for
ward to the birth of a great-grandchiid
of the reigning monarch and his Queen,
child who might now have been our
King had he lived. Who shall say that
Providence has not ordered events other
wise for the great good of this nation
Who that considers the parentage from
which she sprang can wish that the
Princess Charlotte had lived to succeed
her father? Little did those who
mourned in November, 1917, imagine
what compensation was in store for all
who loved their country's best interests,
under the rule of another Princess not
born until eighteen months later. That
Queen Victoria should have lived al
ready to see her eldest daughter a grand
mother seems to be in accordance with
those outward signs of prosperity which,
by the rules of poetical justice, such o
life and such reign as Her Majesty s
deserve. And when we pray UiUat
Regina, we are inclined to add, HAnd
may she live to be great-great- grand
mother" In the classes who marry
early, which are the highest and the low
est, it is not such q very uncommon
thing for persons to live to be great
grandparents. Probably every country
parish can produce one or two specimens
among the poor. And in the annals of
the great and noble, carefully preserved
by such chronicles as Sir Bernard Burke
and Captain Dodd, we sometimes meet
with curious cases of longevity and Ito
coin term) great-grandparentage. We
could name, for instance, noble Duke
and Duchess who are great-grandparents,
though wanting still two or three years
of seventy; Viscountess, some years
younger than the present century, who
has great-granddaughter aged twelve;
one Earl whose son is sixty one, and an
other whose grandson is thirty-seven. It
is less than ten years since the widow of
the twentieth Lord Grey de Ruthyn
died, and had she been living now she
would be, though not older than eighty
seven, great great-grandmoiher, for her
Ladyship was the grandmother of the
late Countess of Loudoun, whose grand
son, the Earl of Arundel and Surry, was
born last September London Society.
THE WAGES OF FARM HANDs.--The
Department of Agriculture has been
collecting some figures of wide interest
regarding the rate of wages paid for
farm laborers in different parts of the
country. The statistics show that, with
the exception of Minnesota and some
States and Territories still further West,
the average monthly rate of pay declined
from 3 to Is per cent. during the year
ending last April. But this decline in
was more than compensated for by an
equal reduction in this expense of living
so that the relative condition of the
laborer improved during the year. The
pay of farm laborers in New England on
yearly engagements, without board.
averages $40 81 per month, and the
average cost of living So OF. The
average for the Middle States is S16 60:
the South Atlantic States 81 10: and
Gulf States, $15 80; in the nine inland
States east of the Mississippi, from
$49 so; south of the Ohio to $29 80 in
North. West of the Mississippi the
present average is $23 81 per month,
slight increase over year ago, while
the price of subsistence has fallen of.
In California and Washington Territory.
the increase has been still larger, and
now reaches $38 25, but is more than
offset by much greater increase in the
cost of living. There is almost every
where good demand for labor, and
there seems no donbt that the condition
of the agricultural class is steadily
improving along with the rest of the
country.