Litchfield enquirer., 1881-07-07

POVERTY IN ITALY.-The laborers of Italy
 are the poorest paid and worst fed of t;bristen.
 dom. Our consular reports of their earninos
 certainly have not overstated the dismal facts
 The working man of our country moi ouIy
 obtains of the average quite five times for his
 labor, but pays less for the c0mmonest neces-
 saries of life, and has far superior choice as
 to the variety and quality of the objects of
 daily useVr consumption. Mrs. Jessie White
 Mario, than whom no one is better acquainted
 with the condition of the lower classes in
 Italy, forcibly demonstrates from official sta.
 tistics and reports, in the last number of the
 Minerva, a monthly review, published in
 Rome, the actual evils which are now sffiict-
 ing them and preparing the way for some
 great social and civil catastrophe, unless suf-
 fcient remedies be found in season to avert
 their consequences. She terseiy heads her ar
 ticle, 'Misery in Italy," It is sad and em.
 phatic contrast to the goldeu-hued and roman
 tic way of treating Italy by writers in gener-
 al, but calculated to do much good if it helps
 open the eyes of Italian statesmen to the act
 ual condition of the laboring population, and
 the rapid changes for the worse going on
 among theh since the Union, caused by po-
 litical changes, excellent in themselves, but
 which they were not fully prepared to meet.
 All the evils of the older systems concentrate
 
 there is sufficient counterpoise of good in
 the new to meet them. Formerly, food was extremely cheap in the separate Provinces of Italy, because there were no foreign demands for their oil, wine, grain, aud meat; DO facil- ities of expo:tation, while the hostile Custom house regulations virtually inhabited it. Consequently, the produce of the redundant soil renamed for home consumption, and pri- ces of the necessaries of life were on the same scale of lOwness as the wages. Since then wine has quadrupled in cost; -four and pork have doubled, and these, with Indian meal, constitute the staple diet of the peasant and laborer. The last article, known here as polenta, varies from doubleto three times it's old prlce, and is still the cheapest form of food that offers excepting, perhaps chestnut four, which is the main reliance of some districts. Taxes have kept pace with the rise of food, and every new industry is almost sure to be strangled by them at it's birth, ow- ing to the shortsightedness of the local and general Governments in their financial systems. All this is sufficiently discouraging in itself. But it is not the worst that the peasantry, especially of Northern Italy, have to contend with. In the fertile aud industrious Provinces of Lombardy, Venice Emilia, and Piedmont a frightful scourge known as the peIagro, ''the leprosy of misery" far worse in it's re- mote consequences than the deadliest epidein- ic, has sprung up and increases with porten- tous significance. When once this horrible disease begins its spread It is exremely rapid. The Government Commissioners admit already a hundred thousand cases mostly inmates of hospitals or madhouses, but the real numbers of the afflicted are computed at 800, 900. Mrs. Mario says: Those accustomed to go about among the agricultural populations can point out hundreds and thousands of men. women, and even children, whose vacillating steps, drawn faces, pale with alternate stains of darker color and peculiar expression of here idiotic or cunning. denote them as marked down for pellGa7u's prey" sY
 Miss Edith Simcox, of London, spoke re- gently in that city on woma1.s rights. She believed the time was not far distant when the Parliamentary franchise would be granted to women householders. She hoped the time would come when the chief duty, of men and women would-be to help each other in society, and when that period arrived the whole race would be much benefited, and their ears would cease to be pierced with the com plaints of women. Miss Briggs moved, That in the opinion of this meeting the Parliamentary franchise should be extended to women who possess the qualifications which entitle men to Vote" F- '. .-.s f---
 ITCHING PILES SYMPTOMS AND CURE- The symptoms are moisture, like precipitation, intense itching, increased by scratching, very distressing, particularly at night, as if pin worms were crawling in and about the rectum; the private parts are sometimes affected if allowed to continue very serious results may follow. "DR. SwAYNEs ALL-HEAL1Na OlNT- AENT" is pleasant sure cure. Also for let ter, Itch, Salt Rheum, Scald Head, Erysipelas, Barbers' Itch, Blotches, all Scaly, Crusty, Cutaneous Eruptions. Price50 cents, boxes of SIPS. Sent by mail to any address on re- age stamps Prepared only by Dr. swayne & Son, 330 North Sixth Street, Philadelphia, Pa., to whom letters should be addressed Sold by all prominent druggists