The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-05
PUPILS ON THE FARM.
PAYING FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF
WORKING.

Learn Row to Drive q Plow and q
Bargain.
From the Ne,o York Tribune.
Tho murder in Canada recently Of an
ENGLISH lad who had come to America to
learn farming has directed considerable at
+anrion to that class of young fellows, who
ore mora common in the west than they
.-o here. In some Of the northwestern
e5ties in fact, like st. Paul, Minneapolis
and winnipeg, it is an everyday sight to see
: Young Britisher land from the train, with
o1a eveglass screwed INTO his face lin order
that he may not see more than he can COM
,,rabend. some one has been unkind enough
- saw. a corduroy suit of blouse and knick-
orbockers, bright yellow leather CATERS but
toned 10 to the knee, fore-and-aft cap,
AGO guns, that he may shoot all
,be buffalo he expects to find
inst outside the town, a dog and
ssbort 800 pounds of baggage. He has come
+o learn farming. He is gentleman's son,
accustomed to comparative luxury and ease
ali his life. Arrangements have been made
for him by some English firm, OF whom
there are a good many in this business, to
do .choresn for his board, and to pay e100
down 10 1dA Ah6AO ID, W lAlt4oltI
the mysteries of Harvesting horse, to milk
a COW, to drive a sulky pillow, to drive
sseder. to drive a mover, to drive har-
vester. and possibly to drive a bargain. AS
soon as he has mastered the last accomplish
ment. he generally sees that he has been
duned lea yes his teacher, and strikes out
for himself.
The coarse food of the farmers table and
the rough society of his hired help. who ge5
good wages, while he gets nothing, gener-
allv disgusts him, however long before he
reaches the stage Of education last men
toned, and the young man starts for the
nearest town, hoping 10 find more congen-
ial employment. He goes to the hotel, and
bv the time he has discovered that there is
no demand for any class of unskilled labor
save on the farm, he is in debt to the land
lord, and in a great many cases brings up
in the hotel kitchen as waiter or dish
washer, or even stable-boy.
One of the peculiar things about this class
of young fellows is the longing all of them
have to 60 home again, and their evident
inability to crafty that wish, although
most of them receive sums of money from
their friends in the old country at regular
intervals The fact seems to be that they
are not wanted at home. Their parents
seem glad, or at least willing, to have their
bows undergo considerable hardship, with
such dangers to morals and health as a
western town may present, rather than to
have them meet the Inevitable evils of
idleness in England. For the prejudice
against any form of trade or business, out
side the professions, is strong there yet, and
many an English gentleman would rather
have bis boy washing dishes in America
than standing behind counter in England.
Of course it is not heralded from the house
tops that dear Reginald is washing dishes
America, oh, no, he is ''ranching it in the
west.n
81 remember the case of two young lads, !"
was was visiting New York the the other her
day, fresh from a famous boys
college in Eogland. What struck ME par
ticularly when first l saw them was their
cheerfulness and their boots. They had
heard of the splendid system of checking
luggage as they called it, in this country,
so that when they took the Grand Trunk
railway at Montreal, where they
landed, and bought tickets for Min
took clean shirts out of their boxes
put the checks in their pockets, and were
much surprised not to find their trunks at
Minneapolis when they arrived. The cere-
mony of customs examination on the border
at Detroit, had escaped their notice. Their
trunks not having been opened for the in
spectors, were lying there still, and it would
take at least a week to get them again, if
indeed they ever came at all. Still the lads
smoked their cigarettes and smiled on every
thing.
Their boots, too, were amazing. The
boys were short for their ages, Is and 16,
but the boots would have reached half way
above the knees Of the tallest mau in the
settlement, and were big in the feet in pro-
portion. Walking was difficult in them.
: The boys almost seemed to take one step
up into the toes first, and then
pull the rest of the boots along
after them at the second stride. In answer
to questions about the reason for such
rooniness, they replied that they had been
led to believe that the cold was so intense
in the northwest that it was customary for
people to wear all the socks they had at one
time. The boots were too big to go in their
trunks, so they had worn them on the road,
expecting to find their shoes in their trunks
when they reached their destination. When
they learned that moccasins were the only
thing fit to wear in winter they gave the
boots away, though they must have cost SIS
apair. Boots we christened the boys in
discriminatory.
Then they produced their shoes from
tnelr trunks, which had arrived Splendid
shoes they were, but the heels were shod
with great plates of iron, and the soles were
IQll OF brass pegs, with protruding heads as
Dig Is peas. The shoes must have weighed
nve pounds each. Extra hob-nailed,' the
lads called them, and useful they would be,
no doubt, on the stony, fiinty English
roads and fields but on the soft loamy
prairie lands OF the west, where you could
not ind one stone to throw at bird in a
ten-acre lot, they were about as retarding
70 locomotion as the suction-boots of those
artists who walk on the ceiling.
Well they went out to the teacher
VINO had secured them, and / lost sight of
them for while. One day came across
sgch thin, sorry. disguised looking little
cAap, sitting on the back steps of hotel,
.laG barely recognized him as one of the
rosy, smiling boys l had laughed at few
moaths before.
=. WHAT'S the matter, old mang said,
"ha5 are you doing here?
A., Making the beds and washing the
GShes he replied sorrowfully. I'm
Boots" now with vengeance he added,
WIZ INA pickering smile.
Didn't they treat you wellp | asked
on oh, they did all they agreed to do he
answered answered but it was not what we expected,
'Vu 1I Enow. / wish had my e100 back
vi mink you could have learned all you
"au Yea without paying for itP | asked.
i,o es, and been paid 81 day for learn
doingp soui Oio1nef ano "na'S Ae
ho4 COOKING for lot of English fellows
lave camp out at the Forks