Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-21

ing, simply because, through the greed of
the farmer or the grinding oppression of the
luxurious land owner, he has not been paid
fair days wagesi
That the farm laborers of England get
along as well as they do on their meager
earnings makes them all the more deserv-
ing of sympathy. In the cottager's home
economy is a fine art. The families are by
no means small, nor do long intervals elapse
between new arrivals. Fortunately, though,
as the number increases the older ones will
be getting big enough to add little to the
family income, and it will often happen that
the wife takes in washing, or does work of
some kind.
He Cannot Buy Much Beer.
Honest Hodge is fond of his pipe, it
soothing influence of the weed that much of
his content is due. Yes, ard he is fond of
his glass, and this no doubt accounts in
some measure both for his occasional hilari-
BUSINESS in circumstances which might de-
press him and for the general hardness of
his lot in financial point of view. But he
does not drink much-how could he on such
small earnings? ga man can't get much
beer on II shillings a week." blurted out a
rustic laborer at political meeting we at
tended, and surely he told the truth. The can
didate was inveighing against the other side
tor their attitude toward the Direct Veto,
which he characterized as a subtle effort to
rob the poor man of his beer, and that was
the reply he got intended, no doubt, as q
hint to the would-be member of Parliament
that what the farm laborer cared for most
was not beer, but better wages.
In the line of clothing the laborer man
ages to get what he needs primarily by not
needing very much, and, as q secondary
measure of relief, by making what he gets,
which is of the poorest quality, last him for
long time. A Sunday suit will do service
twice day at church for as many twelve
months as there are shillings in his weekly
wage, and q working suit, providing the
good wife Is smart at patching, for at least
couple of years. The schooling of his
though up to a few months ago he had to
squeeze little out of his pittance for even
that.
How Honest Hodge Takes His Meat.
Such dry goods as his family may require
he gets usually at the nearest market town,
and prices in the lower grade of materials
his sole indulgence in 1t consists, as rule,
of pudding about twice a week with lit
tie fat pork, or few scraps of beef, very
deeply imbedded in the centre of very
large quantity of dough. To find out how
much truth there is in the common idea that
the necessaries of life, other than those just
mentioned, are considerably cheaper in viii
lagos than in towns, have made special in
quries upon this subject, and what have
discovered is that bread is the same as in
London, 10 cents for 81 lb. loaf, flour
from 48 to so cents stone "a lbs. }, sugar
from to 5 cents lb., tea, of which COM
modify even laborers and their families in
dulge in large quantity, from 80 to IS
cents Ib, coffee from 25 to Sc cents, ba-
con from IL to 20 cents, while cheese, which
is, perhaps, when seasoned with his half
pint of tourpenny ale, the poor laborer's
greatest relish for supper and lunch, can be
bought at the village shop for from IA to 20
cents lb.
Inevitably, Honest Hodge has organized
of late for the advancement of his own in
terests. The National Agricultural Labor
ers' Union was his first effort of this kind,
and it is still his best love. Joseph Arch,
who by the vote of laborers has just annihi-
lated lordly competitor in Parliamen-
tary struggle in Norfolk, is President of
this union, and have it from Mr.. Arch's
own lips that in that county alone 189 new
branches have been established and no less
than $4,000 new members enrolled within
two years.
The Rural Laborers' League, rival So