The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-30
NO ROOM TO LIVE.
THE OVERCROWDED md INSANE
TARY CONDITIONS
La Some of the Villages In the Eastern
Part of England.

| Inc most FlLGl quSStioii
with the agricultural villages of Eng
land to-day is that of housing. On TINS
question the public conscience mas
gone very much to sleep. Yet thefe
never was a time, says correspond
ent of the London Daily News, When
village life was going through SO crltl-
cal a crisis as now, when all the
younger men, and as many OF the
young women as can get away, are
leaving. The conditions, of course,
vary in different counties, and even in
districts of counties. In the north the
laborer is admittedly better off and
more independent than his southern
and eastern confreres, possibly even,
on the whole, as regards housing. That
he may be and still leave much to be
desired. For in many districts of the
south and east matters are about as
bad as they could well be.
This correspondent recently walked
| through some of the more purely aSri-
cultural districts Of the eastern coun-
ties, beginning with Essex, and pro-
ceeding thence through Suffolk and
Norfolk, covering the ground very
thoroughly in all three counties, and
comparing notes with observant men
on the spot. says:
In making a tour of this description,
nothing strikes one so forcibly as the
unstinting bounty of nature in con-
trast with the niggardlness of man in
sharing those bounties with his fell
lows. You come, perhaps, to vale of
Astounding fertility. The fields at the
time of my visit were laughing with
the promise of harvest. The wheat
reddens the barley waves its plumed
ears, the oats sigh as they shake their
tasseled heads, everything combines
to gladden. and rejoice the heart, so
rich is the increase given by that
indWelling spirit or essence of things
which is above and apart from man.
One walks along enjoying the scene,
inspired by that ungrudging, that
munificent hand, feeling how wonder
full and glorious it all is-until one
comes to village. There one sees the
contrary spirit at work-a spirit mig
gard and misery, that begrudges, that
stints and starves, and would, as it
were, crowd the poor ont of reach of
that all-g laddening, bounteous spirit,
for fear that they should taste of it's
InullilceNCe ana feJOlCe.
One would not like to say that any
human heart willingly harbors a
thought or feeling so base; but such is
the impression made upon ones mind
by scores of Essex, Suffolk, and other
villages A typical village of the kind
consists of one long, dismal street
There may be a few better-c class
houses in it, but the majority are
small, old, and dilapidated Many are
of one-story only, some apparently
containing but two or three rooms.
But the most striking thing about the
village is the contrast presented be-
tween its congeries of human habita
tons and the splendor of the growing
corn and other crops. The fields give
one the impression of overpowering
abundance. They seemed, when I
passed, to be literally overlooking,
bursting their bounds, so to speak and
croWding the houses into the roadway
Many of the cottages appeared hardly
to have a foothold on the land. Gar
dens at the back were the exception |
Some Of the houses had patches at the
ends, and now and again in front. but
they were all of the most scanty de-
scription |
Wherever and whomsoever one asks |
the condition of the man |
on the land, one is met with the same |
three or four sides of the same ques- |
ton. 1t is either the cottage he lives |
in, its meagre dimensions and dilapi- |
dated condition, and the smallness of |
the garden attached, or it is its unsan-
itary surroundings. With the latter, in |
not few instances, is bound up the |
question of the water supply, or. as is
too often the case, the entire want of
supply. Another aspect of the same
question is the lack of cottages They
can't be had for love or money. and
great inconvenience is suffered in con-
sequence. AT one village | heard of a
horseman who had to walk between
three and four miles every morning be-
fore o'clock because he could not get
a house nearer to his work black
smith and wheelwright in another vii
age told me he had partially engaged
L wheelwright, but had finally to re-
inquish the appointment because no
cottage could be obtained for him
within a reasonable distance. / heard
IF parish in Norfolk in which there
we're but three cottages, while in it
we're sixteen laborers at work on three
different farms who had to walk on
hree different farms who had to walk
between four and six miles every day
o their work.
In the past it seems to have been
cry much the custom to put up the
aborer's cottage where it was most
for the farmer, and to leave
uch matters as sanitation, water, etc,
o take care of themselves. In a num-
,er of cottages, within the last few
weeks, I have heard the complaint,
There is no water near; we have to
20 half a mile for it, One woman
whom I asked for a drink of water, af-
er walking for several miles in the
rolling sun, replied almost savagely,
| can't give you one; we have too far
0 fetch water" On asking further on
low far she would have to fetch it: |
vas told possibly a mile" / heard
lso of persons having to go a matter
f two miles for water but ! met with
o instance of the kind myself. Very
however, was it to receive the
nswer, 1--WE have to get our water a s
est we can--out of bitches and
onds," One man living in a three
Dom cottage in Suffolk said he had to
o over quarter of a mile across the
elds for their water A woman, in