The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-09-15
THE LAPORIEG CLASSES IN
1884.
How Mechanics Families Lived q
Hundred Years Ago.

There can, however, be no d0uDt
that q wonderful ameliOrati0n has
taken place since that day in the con-
dition of the poor. Their houses were
meaner, their food was cOarser, their
clothes were of cOmmoner stuff, their
wages were, despite the depreciation
that has gone on in the value OF
money, lower 10y one-half than at
present. A man who performed
what would now he called unskilled
labor. who sawed wood, who dug
di'ches, who mixed mortar. who car
lied boards to the carpenter and
bricks to the mason, Dr. helped to cut
hay in the harvest time, usually re-
ceived rs the fruit of his daily toll
two shillings Sometimes, when the
labnrers were few, he was paid more,
and became the envy of his fellows,
if ut the ehd of a week, he took home
fifteen shiliings to his family, a sum
now greatly exceeded by four dollars:
Yet all authorities agree that in 1874
tho hire of wOrkmen was twice as
in IVA.
On such a pittance it was only by
the strictest economy that a mechan
ic kept his children from starving
and himself from Jail. In the low
and dingy rooms which he called bis
uomc were wanting many articles OF
adornment and of use now found In
the dwellings of the poorest of his
class. Sand sprinkled on the floor
did duty as a carpet. There was no
glass on his table, there was no china
in his cupboard, there were no Prints
-. ~ \1h.f a SfflYyA WAC ha
did not know, coal he had never
seen, matches he had never heard OF.
Over q fire of fragments OF boxes and
barrels. which he lit from sparks
struck from u flint, or with live Goals
brought from a neighbours hearth,
his wife cooked up q rude meal and
served 1t in lewter dishes. He rarely
tasted fresh meat AS often as once in
a week, and paid for it a higher price
shan his posierity. Everything, IN
deed. which ranked as a staple Of life
was very costly. Con stood at three
shilings a bu>hel, wheat at eight and
s.xpence. All assize o: bread Was four
pence, a ln,und OF salt pork Was ten
pence. Many other commodities
now to te seen on the tables OF the
poor were either quite unbroken or
far beyond the reach of his scanty
means. Unenviable is the lot Of hat
man who cannot, in the height of
the seas III, when the wharves and
markets are heaped with baskets and
crates OF. fruit, spare three cents for a
pound of grapes or five cents for as
many peaches, or, when Sunday
| comes round, indulge his family
with " termelons 'r canteloupes:
One hundred years ago the wretched
fox-grape Was the only kind that
found It's way to market, and was the
luxury of the rich. Among the
fruits and vegetables of which no
one had even heard are canteloupes,
many varieties of peaches and pears,
tomatoes and rhubarb, sweet corn,
the caulifower, the egg plant, head
lettuce and okra. On the window
benches of very tenement house
may be seen growing geraniums and
verbenas, flowers not known a zen
tury ago. LII truth, the best kept
gardens were then rank with
hollyhocks and sunfowers, roses and
snowballs, lilacs, pinks, tulips, and,
above all, the Jerusalem cherry-s
plant once much admired, but now
scarcely s~een.-John Bach McAds
teTs.