Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-03-24
EUROPEAN CONDITIONS OF LIFE.

European countries are not under
stood as they really exist, by read
ers in this country. 1t is only
through the chance description of
the traveller, or in the columns of a
foreign publication, that Americans
can learn the misery which exists in
other countries. In Alden's Libra
ry Magazine for March there are two
articles of unusual interest to Amer
icans.-one from the Quarterly Re-
eie,o, /" Agricultural Distress in Eng.
land,p-and the other from Long
maa's Magazine, "The London On.
employed"
The primary cause of Agricultur-
al distress in England is the owner
ship of the land by the few. The la
borers are dissatisfied, and dissatis-
faction begets socialism and revolu-
ton. Lands fall into state of un.
cultivation, are unsaleable and can
not be rented. Too much foreign
food must be purchased,-the renter
cannot purchase it,-therefore he
feeds no stock, and cannot keep up
the land. This winter has been the
most gloomy ever known for the
farmer in England. The home def
cheney in hay, oats, barley, turnips,
and such products, is millions oftons
and bushels. This alone should i'm
press Americans with the importance
OF their home market and home sup
ply.
The article concludes: " Are our
country districts to become depopu-
lated, our villages and hamlets, on
which we have so justly prided our.
selves, deserted Are our country
towns to become decayed and neg
lected, and their tradesmen and
professional men, who are dependent
on the neighboring districts, practi.
cally ruined Are our laborers to
leave their homes to swell the great
mass of the unemployed in our great
cities, and there lead life compar.
ed with which the hardest moment
of their present lives would be as
paradise on earth? Is the farmer
to gather up what he can out of the
wrecks of what used to be a moder-
ate fortune, and leave the home in
which he was born, and the country
of which he used to be prowd, for
some distant land in which he can
find interest for his money, remun-
Grafton for his labor, or at all events
fair play? And lastly, will the land
owner himself DO obliged to leave
the home of his fathers-a home
which may have been endeared to
him by a thousand memories, which
has historical associations and Incl
dents preserved through long line
of ancestors p
1t certainly seems that England as
an agricultural country has seen her
best days, and what is a country
without agriculture Yet this is
free trade England of to-day. Am
erica should open her eyes to her
vast agricultural resources, the very
life of the nation, and study to pro-
tect, encourage and make indepen-
dent the farmers calling. The
more land owners the greater the
strength of the Republic.
"The London Unemployed treats
of the unemployed wockmen and the
charitable institutions established to
provide food and clothing for as
many as possible. The "Donna " is
an association that furnishes meals
at a nominal price for the unemploy.
ed in the dockyards. The half pen
ny and penny meals are blessing
for the thousands Of poor workmen.
The meals are made up of meat
soups, well cooked and good food.
There are many pitiful incidents re-
lated,-men weak and starving for
want of food ;-others grasping the
very dishes that cats and dogs are
eating out of and devouring what
food remains. Sewing rooms are es-
tablished for women and work
enough cannot be furnished for all
who apply. Hundreds of thousands
are thus enabled to brave the miser-
les of poverty and starvation. 1t is
q noble work. Experience has proven
that the thousands would work
where the hundreds wouldn't; and
that men, women and children go to
rags and ruin from no fault of their
own in large cities like London.
Another fact of tramp life proven by
experience Is, that after the men do
find work they are unfit to do hard
labor,-want, exposure and tramp
ing having exhausted their strength
and brought on sickness and dis.
ease.
The loss in the eastern cities by
the storm, in the way of falling off