News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-05-18

OF labor performed; and often, L may
add, to the detriment of his health.
The same is the case at harvest time,
when reaping succeeds moving, with
week or two of interval between. As
rule the corn-outting is also done by
piece-work the laborers employed at
it being often strangers to one another,
united in bands under one who under
takes the job. At this particular time
the sons of Erin, seeking harvest work,
penetrate to the most inland districts of
England, and may be met trudging
along the roads, reaping hooks and
"crooks conspicuously on their shout
ders, with other belongings in a small
bundle beside. They are often accom-
panied by their wives and children, in
gangs like gypsies, their sun-browned
skins and not overclean habiliments
telling that they have been living and
sleeping SUB fore, or at the best in barns.
or under sheds.
But this annual intrusion into the
domain of the English farm-laborer is
only for brief period of time; and
when over so also are his exceptional
wages. Autumn on, his work chiefly
consists in raising the root crops, and
getting them put away in pits or
buries," secure against the advent
of the winter frosts. This, however,
calls for no outside help; indeed, not
all of that which the neighborhood can
itself supply; and further on in the
year there is still less to do, the staff on
a 200-acre farm being reduced to its
lowest and regular number, two or three
men and a boy. Then the laborer ant,
~. engagement, who for a monthuaaR
ne.eks has bee.s holding NJ bis ngrmaI
condlai6a ssais.saaIElsst t ana nat in hand
solicits employment weeks work, or
only days. Give it to him at the
orthodox two ehillings wages, and he
viii look upon you as the bestower of
boon. Every winter scores of these
unemployed men present themselves at
my gate, absolutely begging for Sc bit
of a job" At such times, were it not
for the coal and iron mines, with
occasional "navvy work on the rail-
roads, I hardly know what these men
would do, save go into the workhouse
or starve.
I need not say that there are excep-
tons to this hopeless level of semi
Indebtedness, and that many laboring
men are content to bear the constant toll
if fai1ly remunerated for it. Not few
get help from their wives, who follow
some industry of their own, and when
the children grow up they too add some
thing to the maintenance of the family.
But until they are thirteen years of age
these are the greatest drawback and
burden, for up to that time the law re-
quires their attendance at school, and
Insists upon it in such manner that
there Is scarce a Petty Sessions sitting
without some poor father or mother be-
ing fined for infringement of this stat
ute. To many this law is an absolute
grievance. Long before a laborer's
child reaches the age of thirteen. it is
able to earn more than its own Eyeli-
hood, and so could contribute to the
support of Its parents; and when these
are disabled by sickness or otherwise,
as is often the case, even this chance of
help is withheld from them. The stat
ute, though meant for civilizing pnr-
poses, is a mistake, its enforcement
often a cruelty; and the magistrates
themselves, aware of this, are, many of
them, opposed to it, but lotens Uolens
must convict. III this compulsory edu-
cation were worth the having, one
might better excuse the compelling it. [
But it is worth little or nothing; in
many country schools the teachers
themselves needing to be taught.
When the laborer's wife is of the
thrifty sort, she will add to his earnings
by raising poultry and fattening pig,
at both of which industries she can beat
the wife of the farmer, notwithstanding
heavy odds against her in having to pay
retail prices for the feed, while the lat
ter has it at first cost. A garden is also
beneficial contributor to the laborer's
resources, and when changing residence
he has always special eye to the
amount of garden ground attached to
the cottage he may be about taking.
Rarely is it more than the eighth of an
acre; but, more or less, he makes the
best of it; not an inch of the soil is there
that is not utilized, and as much pro-
duce got out of it as it is capable of
yielding. The cultivation is done dur
ing the laborer's off hours, when re-
turned from the days work on the farm;
and oft may he be seen engaged in this
extra toll up till the latest cleaning of
light.
Such being the condition of the En-
glish farm laborer, it may be asked why
he submits to it. with wonder at his not
running away from it. Why doesn't he
better himself by emigrating? The
question is answered by asking another
How can he, or could he, emigrate To
scrape together means sufficient-even
the bare passage money for carrying
himself and belongings across the At
lantlc-would call for the boarding of
years, almost lifetime. 1t is task
that would daunt the courage and try |
the strength of a Hercules; indeed, it is
Well-n1gh an impossibility. AS well !