Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-18
THE FORGOTTEN MILLIONS.
Il Study of American Life as Typified bv
the Inhabitants of Mt. Desert.

The cost of bringing up family of
five or six children comfortably in the
town of Mount Desert does not exceed
$3.50 a year if the house. a garden
patch and cow pasture be already
provided from savings of the husband
and wife before marriage. and if the
family, as a whole, have normal health
and strength. Very few heads OF FAM
lilies earn more than that sum in a
year; for, although a DAYS wages in
summer is commonly $1.75, work is
scarce, the winter is long, and few
men can get more than five months
employment at these wages in year.
The man and bows of family can,
however, do much for the common
support, even when there is no work
at wages to be had. They can catch
and cure fish, dig CLANS, trap Holsters,
pick the abundant blueberries on the
rocky hills in August, and shoot ducks
at the seasons of migration. Wild
nature still yields to the skillful seeker
considerable quantity of food with
out price. DwellerS in CITY NAV
wonder how it is possible for a family
to live so cheaply. but there is no
mystery about it. There is no rent to
pay; the schools are free: water costs
nothing; the garden patch yields pota-
toes and other vegeta bles, and the
pasture milk and butter; two kerosene
lamps and lantern supply all the
artificial light needed, at cost not
exceeding 81 year; the family do all
their own work without waste; there
is but one fire, except on rare occa-
nd oi
which delivers all its heat into the
house; the wife and daughters knit the
family stockings, mittens and mutfiers,
mend all the clothes. and for the most
part make all their own. The ready
made clothing which the men buy at
the stores is very cheap ($10 to $l5 a
suit). being made of cotton with but a
small admixture of wool. The cloth
is strong and warm, and looks fairly
well when new, but soon fades and
wears shabby. For children the old
clothes of their elders are cut down,
the wear being thus brought on new
places. The Hessian country girl
wears proudly her grandmothcr's
wooden petticoats, and well she may,
for they are just as good and handsome
as they were sixty years ago. AScotch
shepherds all-wool plaid withstands
the wind and the rain for lifetime.
The old Swiss porter, who is carrying
the mounted travellers valise over the
Gemmi, puts on a thick wooden Jacket
of rich brown color when the shower
begins, with the remark. The rain
won't wet me, sir; this coat has kept
me dry for twenty-five years" The
American farmer and laborer use no
such good materials as these, and
therefore they and their children look
shabby most of the time; but their
clothes are very cheap in first cost,
and, like the cotton clothes of the
Chinese, they answer the main pur-
poses of all clothing. In city the
best clothes of the family must be
often put on, in the country but sell
dom. Shoes and boots must be bought
for the whole household, but these arti-
Giles are also very cheap in New Eng
land, and the cOarser sorts are durable
in proportion to their price. For pro-
lection from rain the Mount Desert
man who is obliged to be out-of-doors
in bad weather uses, in sailor fashion,
not rubber clothing, but suits of oiled
cotton cloth, which keep out not only
water but wind. last long, and cost
little ($2 to So a suiD. However hard
it may be for city people to understand
it, the fact remains that $3.50 year is
a sum adequate to the comfortable
and wholesome support of family of
seven or eight persons in the town of
Mount Desert, provided that a house,
a garden and a pasture are secured to
them President Charles W. Eliot, in
The CcnEatrY.