The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-09-23
LIFE IN SAXONY.

LIFE IN sAx0NY.
Correspondence Chicago News.l
Cooking stoves and ranges of the
American style are t'hobs" on either
side of the trap-door, upon which you
can boil your coffee or make your tea,
and do lot of other things of which !
know nothing. am told that the
stoves are very convenient in some re-
spccts, and I know that they do their
work we'll when they get a chance.
THE SAXON MECHANIC.
The Saxon artisan is a handwriting
man. He begins his labor at 6 in the
morning, and finishes his days work
at 2 in the evening. He has few
minutes for lunch about 8 o'clock a.
m. has an hour for dinner, sometimes
an hour and half, at midday, in some
factories, he rests for about fifteen min
utes during the afternoon. If he is a
first-class man, receiving moderately
good wages, he refreshes himself with
glass of beer during those rests, but
the great majority of tho artisans and
mechanics cannot afford to drink beer
more than once or twice day; then,
as is the case in England, they partake
of an article known as Workingmen's
beer, very inferior to the ambor fluid
found in the first class restaurants. The
wages of an ordinary mechanic runs
from So to SO so per week; of a fair to
middling workman from 81 so, and of
an A No. skilled and trustworthy
mechanic from So to So so. The latter
is considered to be good wages, and it
is here, where all the necessaries of
life are SO cheap. With IS per week a
mechanic can live as well in Germany
as he could in America ON $15. He
doesn't handle as much money as the
American mechanic, but he has about
as much proportionately, at the end of
tho week as if he did. His money
doesn'tslip through his fingers as rapid
ly as it would were he living in New
York or Chicago. Besides, his needs
are not so great. While he dresses bet
ter-much better-than the average
American mechanic, his home is only
scantily furnished, his wife is very
plainly clothed and so are his children,
ana he INDUCES in nothing that is
costly or extravagant.
THE HOME OF A MECHANIC.
The rooms of the German mechanic
he always lives in rooms--arc, first
of all, very clean. He has no parlor,
no sitting-room. If his family is very
large, as is generally the case, perhaps
he has four rOoms-a kitchen, living
room, which Is his parlor and sitting
room also, and two bedrooms. If his
family is small and his wages are low,
he occupies two rOOmS-one for his
kitchen, the other answering the pur-
poses of bedroom, parlor, dining, and
sitting room. His furniture is made
ofpine, stained or vanished, and pol
ished. The floors are bare. The beds
h k<~ =
are in the houses Of those who are more
fortunate then he. There is but little
in his room. A fair estimate of the
cost of the furniture in the apartments
of tho German mechanic would be
about 800, or 424 marks. A mark is
worth less than the American quarter,
its exact value being 23 4-5 cents, but
its purchasing qualities are about the
same as 81, and it is estimated at about
that figure in all transactions there.
-Four hundred and twenty-five marks
should, therefore, furnish three or four
rooms very nicely, but one of the ex-
ceptions to the general rule of cheap
ness is furniture, which is very high,
comparatively speaking. The rooms
have that cold and cherries appear.
ance which is noticeable in the apart.
ments of those who are better off, but
1t Is plain that this is only apparent to
the stranger. I have limited at what
seemed to me to be the dreariness of the
rooms here, but L don't think 1 was
ever properly under stood.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POOREST
CLASSES.
nave seen the barefooted children
OF these very poor people limping over
the stubble Of rye-fe}d from which
the crop had just been gathered. II
nave watched them picking among the
stubble and dropping sometime from
their fingers into tin cans which thew
carried. have asked what they were
doing, and have been told that they
were gathering the grains of rye which
fell from the heads as the crop was be.
ing removed; that in an acre field they
might find enough of these grains to
fill a quart measure; that they brought
the grains home to their mothers, who
roasted them, ground them, and then
made coffee out of them. And these