Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-14
PARSONS LABORERS.

Interviews with Townspeople of the Al-
 legged Alien Labor Contractor.
 BOSTON, July 14-A United Press corre- spondent has visited Northampton and vii cinity to learn the facts concerning the alien contract labor traffic carried on by Charles T. Parsons Chief of Police Maynard, of Northampton, said that Parsons had been furnishing help of a very degraded character to farmers for years. 1t had several times been necessary to compel him to keep his place more cleanly. The traffic was public nuisance.
 Editor Stone, of The Northampton Herald, said he had several times exposed Parsons in his paper, and was glad that the traffic seemed now likely to be broken up.
 MT. Bridgman, an overseer of the poor, said that the board had less trouble with Parsons now than formerly, as they had forced him to take care of the paupers he brought there whenever they got out of work. He said Parsons was Shylock of the worst type.
 The city clerk of Northampton said Par sons had been refused license for an intelli- gence office. The class of help he furnished were not worth more than SS or $10 month to any one. They were paid all they were worth. He did not believe all the stories of ill treatment.
 
 was a nuisance and ought to be suppressed.
 Farmer Ciapp, of Deerfield, who has two of these laborers on his place, says they are satisfactory to him, but a rule the people furnished by Parsons are lazy, shlftless lot, and receive all they earn. He knew of no abuse to them
 Lawyer O'Donnell gave Parsons bad character and said he had tried to use ice in which the dead body of his wife had been packed to cool drinking water for his hep The undertaken and his assistant confirm this story.
 All agreed that the laborers frequently complain of bad treatment, poor food and overwork.
 The reporter visited Parsons, and found him keen eyed, sharp looking man. He is a large land owner, a prominent church member, and keeps about twenty-five of these cheap laborers in his own employ. He said:
 II don't get any of my help from Castle Garden, and haven't for some time usu- ally go to New York every Saturday, and if any one wants a gardener or othar class of help 1 say to him, Give me $l0, and I'll find one and bring him upa That's fair enough, isn't it! It's just the same as if he wanted a horse or a COW, and paid me to get it. 1 don't traffic in human 1esh do a square business. That story about the Polander and his wife coming from me isn't true. I haven't sent a man to Sunderland this season."
 The last statement is said to be false. Par sons dec ared that the newspaper notoriety he was getting was a good advertisement. He said:
 "Why, only this morning I had letter from down near Boston saying: I noticed the shameful story printed ill the papers this morning, and it may be to our mutual bene- it Send me twenty of those men, l lose good many dollars by these fellows not full filling their contracts, so it's not all profit. If a man don't want to come with me he needn't, but if he does he ought to pay me for my time and what I've paid him."
 The reporter took care in his investigations to deal only with responsible people, and the foregoing may be relied upon as giving al accurate idea of the situation.