The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-10-26
ENGLISH PEASANTS.
Scenes Among the Farming Folk
of the British Isle.
In THE HOME OF A CoTTAGEB.
Where Quiet and Contentment Reign and Life
is But Dream-How the Peas
ants are Paid.

RoMFoRD, Essex, Oct. IA. 1S9O.-TSpecial
correspondence of THE HERALD. l-Jeffer-
son Davis, during the last years of his
life, once said: 1.-THE material welfare of a
country is always found in good pea
santry.'' If that be true England must be
very wealthy domain, for nowhere dur
ing travelling experience of many years
and of many miles in many countries have
ever seen so contented and independent a
class of laborers as the men who till and
the men and women who tend and reap the
crops of the United Kingdom. The or
binary farm laborer in the United States
knows no such degree of comfort and pleas
ure as his brother who works upon English
soil. Only in the most favored localities of
our own country is the farm laborer so well
housed and looked after as in this, which
had always been taught ground It's work
ingmen to the bone, that the few might
have and the many might wait or suffer.
This may be true of some Industries here,
but it certainly does not apply to the agri-
cultural laborer
Taking three widely separated and typi-
cal sections Of
SOUTHERN, NORTHERN AND MIDDLE ENG
LAND,
have investigated the subject by actual
contact with the people and by mingling in
their everyday life 1t has been delight
full study, for there has been no more inter
esting character of his class in existence
than the English peasant, as you find him
at home, stolid as he may be. He gener-
ally has pleasant surroundings. His wife
IS neat, tidy and industrious, while his
children are cleanly, polite, pretty, and
above all, healthy. His humble home is a
bower OF beauty, no matter how poor he
may be. His wife is good housekeeper,
. not only in the economics but in the decor
alton of his home, and no matter how I'M
slightly or old his house may be, it is al
ways made attractive by pretty white cur
talns at the windows aud boxes Of flowers
on the lodges In fact, posies are every
where. There is always an attractive little
hower garden in front, and a vegetable
patch behind tie abode of the humblest
peasant who is willing to work, and dirt
and untldlness are practically unknown
where there is industry. This goes long
way towards making life pleasant and its
thornlest paths comparatively cheerful.
f-Just at this moment, L am surrounded by
one of the richest and most beautiful
stretches of farming country 1 have ever
seen. 1t is south of London in Essex, one
OF the prime agricultural counties of Eng
land. The only acres in fertility, beauty
VI ld1NoOupC duQ D0T1tCb CULTURE LIlaG can
compare with II are between PHILADELPHIA
anC Harrisburg in the counties of Chester
and Lancaster, along the line of the Penn
sylvania railroad. If the farms in that
garden spot were smaller, the homes of the
rich larger and more beautifully sur
rounded with shrubbery, the roadways
lined with the
PRETTY LITTLE HOMES OF THE woRKINGMEN,
one might readily mistake the one for the
other. But rich as that single section of
the United States is in all that makes agri-
cultural life worth living, it furnishes 10
such evidence of comfort for its farm
laborers as does this, and indeed most other
sections of England where the soil is titled
al profit.
Rumford is beautiful little town quaint
and old, where ten thousand people live
with as MUCK satisfaction as in any place
have ever seen. Quiet and contentment
reign, and it is so secluded in its rural dig
nifty, that almost all of the real typical con
ditions English countryside life, high and
low, can be found within easy reach of it.
/ have been travelling over the magnificent
roads which lead out of it in every direc-
ton, for a week, mlngling with the peas
antry in the fields, and at their own homes.
and cannot possibly reconcile what / see on
every hand and hear from nearly every lip.
with the romances of sadness and poverty
that have so often heard at home, and
read OF in our newspapers. As this letter
IS to be simply description of the average
life of the English peasant, and not re-
view OF the whole Industrial condition of
the United Kingdom, nor a discussion of
the political and educational advantages be-
tween our country and this, it is unneces-
sary to lntrude any other class of labor into
lines, as l intend to write fully from prac-
tical observation and association only. of
the different classes Of working people in
mir ifarr ,fo,t
suits, shall treat each one separately, that
clear view OF my observations in each
branch may be obtained without any var
nlsh OF the one upon the paint of the other
AS rule country life here, as well as all
over England where the acres are well
titled, is as
DELIGHTFUL AS A DREAM
To those who have considerable of this
worlds goods, this is essentially true. and
as to the country families. who own the
land, and let it out TO tenants. or till if
themselves. nothing can be more perfect in
the way of rural life than the manner in
winch they i've Their homes are beautiful
beyond description, and their existence one
heydey OF comfort and delightful associa.
ton. They seem to have few, if any. cares.
Their only concern is to give directions To
the bailiff, who orders all the operations and
manages the men who do the work This
leaves the day open for driving, riding or
visiting, and as ease and pleasure is the am
bition of the average Englishman, from the
highest 10 the lowest, there is nothing to
be wished for on that score. All life seems
complete and nothing wanting. There is
no struggle for dollars or rush for position
such as we find at every crossroads in
America among those who seek to accumu-
late. Every oody's place is so fixed and re-
liable that ii is acknowledged by every one
and cannot be disturbed III caaDo
fectly contented with this state of affairs
ana not IN the least disturbed by class
eXactions
THE CLASSES ARE AS IN LAYERS
through all the substrata of existence
from the time they begin with the worth
less loafer without place, until the head
of the nation is reached. Each grade is as
tenacious of its rights on the farm and in
the villages as they are much closer to the
throne. Therefore, on the manor, whether
they toll for the land man, the herdsman
the shepherd, the stockmen and the driv-
ers are each classes in themselves assert
ing their prerogatives with as much DIG
nifty as duke or prince. The house SER
wants belonging TO TIE masters household
are divided into different classes according
to the work they perform. each having
separate authority and distinct duties for
which they are held strictly responsible
but the memorable caste is still maintained
when the controversy comes
In agricultural communities all these
different grades of laborers should he
classed under the head of peasantrv. al
though the coachmen and the higher grades
of farm laborers would be indignant TO the
bone if they should be set down with the
farm laborers who live in little homes
sometimes quite distance from the acres
upon which they labor. They hold to the
nj no hat