The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-08-01
RANCHING OUT WEST.
PUPILS ON THE FARM WHO PAY FOR
THE PRIVILEGE OF WORKING.


Come to America to Learn How to
Drive PIow and Bargain-Winding
Up as Hotel Dishwashers.
In some Of the northwestern cities like
st. Paul, Minneapolis and Winnipeg, it
is an every day sight to see a young Brit
Usher land from the train, with one eye
glass screwed into his face Gin order that
he may not see more than he can COM
prehend, some one has been unknd
enough to say, corduroy suit of blouse
and knickerbockers, bright yellow leath-
er CATERS buttoned up to the knee,
fore and aft cap, two guns, that he may
shoot all the buffalo he expects to find
just outside the town, a dog and about
500 pounds of baggage. He has come to
learn farming. He is a gentleman's son,
accustomed to comparative luxury and
ease all his life.
Arrangements have been made for
him by some English firm, of whom
there are good many in this business,
to do "chores" for his board, and to pay
e1O0 down to ''learn farming'-that is,
to master the mysteries of Harvesting
horse, to milk cow, to drive sulky
pillow, to drive seeder, to drive now
er, to drive harvester and, possibly, to
drive bargain. AS soon as he has mas
tered the last accomplishment, he gen.
orally sees that he has been duped, leaves
his teacher and strikes out for himself. =
THEY WANT TO GO HOME.
The coarse food of the farmers table
and the rough society Of his hired help,
who get good wages, while he gets moth
ing, generally disgust him, however,
long before he reaches the stage of edu-
cation last mentioned, and the young
man starts for the nearest town, hopingi
to find more congenial employment. HS
goes to the hotel, and by the time he has
discovered that there is no demand for
any class of unsilled labor, save on the
farm, he is in debt to the landlord, and
in great many cases brings up in the
hotel kitchen as a waiter or dishwasher,
or even stable boy.
One of the peculiar things about this
class of young fellows is the longing all
of them have to go 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 boys undergo
considerable hardship, with dangers to
morals and health, rather than to have
them meet the inevitable evils of idle
ness in England. For the prejudice
against any form of trade or business,
outside the professions, is strong there
yet, and many an English gentleman
would rather have his boy washing
dishes in America than standing behind
a counter in England. Of course it is
not heralded from the housetops that
dear Reginald is washing dishes in
America; oh, no, he is "ranching it in
the west"
81 remember the case of two young
lads" said Dakota lawyer, ''fresh from
famous boys college in England What
struck me particularly when first I saw
them was their cheerfulness and their
boots.
''Their boots were amazing. The boys
were short for their ages, Is and 16, but
above the knees of the tallest man in the
settlement, and were big in the feet in
proportion. 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
roominess, they replied that they had
been led to believe that the cold was so
intense in the northwest that 1T was GUS
tomary for people to wear all the socks
they had at the same time.
"'Boots' we christened the boys, indis-
criminately.
"Then they produced their shoes from
their trunks. Splendid shoes they were,
but the heels were shod with great plates
of iron, and the soles were full of brass
pegs with protruding heads as big as peas.
The shoes must have weighed five pounds
each. Extra hob nailed, the lads called
them, and useful they would be no doubt
ON the stony, finty English roads and
fields, but on the soft loamy prairie lands
of the west, where you could not find
one stone to throw at bird in a ten acre
lot, they were about as retarding to To-
comotion as the suction boots Of those
artists who walk on the ceiling.
"Well, they went out to the teacher
who had secured them and 1 lost sight
of them for while. One day l came
across such thin, sorry, disguised little
chap, sitting on the back steps of hotel,
that l barely recognized him as one of
the rosy, smiling boys I had laughed at
a few months before.
"'What's the matter, old man? l said,
what are you doing here?
"sMaking the beds and washing the
Dishes he replied sorrowfully. I'm
"boots" now with vengeance he add
ed, with Pickering smile.
"'Didn't they treat you well? asked.
"'Oh, they did all they agreed to do
he answered; but it was not what we
expected, you know. wish I had my
hundred pounds back
"'Where's your brother, and what's
he doing?
"'Cooking for a lot of English fellows
that have camp out at the Forks
elias he, too, thrown over his teacher
and his comfortable home, with plain
but substantial fare" as the cirt dlar
said? asked.
eyes said the lad, 4 think he'd like
to go back, though, but the farmer viii
not have him. We broke the contract
and left him, and suppose he can refuse
to renew it. He has our money safe, do
you see?
Il saw, but what could I do?'-New
York Tribune.