Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-30

| trade. Later he became a small manufac-
turer of hats in Glasgow and was buffeted
ND and down, failing in his business, going
back to to the workable again, trying to
keep tavern, becoming q
book canvasser, continually suffering with
poverty and disease and finally determin-
| ing to emigrate to America. 1t was in
| 1862 that he reached New York with his
family, being then over sixty years of age
| and so poor as to have been hardly able to
raise the money to pay for the ocean pas
sage. He found that the felt hat business
was carried on to considerable extent in
New York and neighboring towns, but, as
he had no credentials as to hiss years
service Ga necessary qualification for
strangely he had great difficulty in obtain
ing work. He at last succeeded, only to
find that he had, in effect, to learn new
trade and unlearn much of his old teach
ings that was useless. This was, naturally,
not easy for man of sixty years, but
he seems to have struggled bravely. Here
are a few of the reflections he has made on
English and American workingmen: ''The
Americans as well as the Americanized are
decidedly more respectable in their per-
sonal appearance, and they are better
clothed and more refined in their deport-
ment. [ was
MOST AGREEABLY SURPRISED
when I began to have experience of the
social condition of the men in my own
trade AS general rule there is no dis
tinction between the man of substance
and the artisan, so far as either manner or
personal appearance goes.
"From my own experience of the gen
eral condition of artisans in America, L
certainly should not advise well-conducted
tradesmen to emigrate to the United
States; for when the habits of the people
and the deprecated value of the money
are taken into consideration, think the
balance would be in the favor of this class
remaining at home. Come easy, go easy
seems to be the maxim by which nearly all
classes of workingmen in the country reg
ulate their conduct. Young men who wish
to enlarge their experience in their
respective branches of business would do
well to visit the country; there is much to
be learned in all the industrial branches.
'The unskilled workingmen who emil
CRATE toI America do not only improve
their own circumstances, so far as the
creature comforts are concerned, but, as
general rule, they raise themselves in the
social scale, and thereby become a new
people, with feelings of self-respect to
which they had been strangers in the old
| country.
sit may be stated that the laboring man
who goes out to the West must not expect
to make money without hard work. There
is no such thing as Sinking labor, either
in the workshop or in the fields. A man
must make up his mind either to work or
play, otherwise he will soon find his level.
No workingman should go to the United
States after having passed the prime of
life; youth is the proper season for adapta-
billy to the new conditions of the country.
Laboring men who go out to the states
should avoid, if possible, remaining in
any of the towns on the Eastern seaboard,
and if they cannot proceed beyond the
Allegheny mountains they should at least
90 as far into the interior of the country
as they can manage.
''Under ordinary circumstances there is
no such thing as having to beg for leave
to toir in the United States, nor do work
ing men require to carry certificates OF
character with them in
SEARCH OF EMPLOYMENT.
Rags and squalid misery are seldom seen
except in the towns.
II may observe that people at home have
been good deal mislead by statements
concerning wages in the United States, be-
cause the earnings of fast men-and that,
too, under favorable circumstances
have been reported as ordi-
nary rates in their respective
branches of industry. In those branches
of business in which the workmen are paid
by the piece, the men in general-but the
fast men in particular during times of
brisk trade, have better opportunities of
making large wages than they have at
home. This arises from the circumstance l
have already noted, which is this: That as
| long as the work on hand in shop lasts,
every man has as much as he can do"
After reviewing the manners, habits and
social life of the industrial classes in the
United States as far as they came within
the range of his experience, Mr.. Burns
says: ''If they could live by bread alone,'
America would be paradise for them
but there are other things which men re-
quire, who have minds as well as
bodies, social intercourse in order to be
agreeable, should be oiled with human
characterized by kindly consideration
! for each others feelings and sentiments
This is not the case in the United States
Take it as general rule, the people have
little or no respect for each others feelings
or opinions. The soil is not congenial to
friendship; it is therefore, not likely to be
productive of those kindly sympathies
which are calculated to take the biting
edge from misfortune. Whether men toll
with their hands or their heads in America
it is done as if they were racing against
time. They make money fast, and spend
it, frequently, without any consideration
for its value, as fast as they earn it. With
the exception of that quality which
REDUCES ALL MEN TO ONE DEAD LEVEL,
and the use of the franchise COME rred
by citizenship, see very little either in
the social or political condition of the
American people that we do not possess in
higher degree at home. 1t will very
readily be asked why would advise peo-
pie to go into country would not reside
in myself? If were young man and
obliged to labor like the agricultural
workers in the west of England, 1 would
find the change America would afford me
a place to sigh and struggle for. In this
country man with from nine to twelve
shillings week, with the money at its
present value, must, if he has mind at all
! feel himself as much socially degraded as