The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-09-11


BRUSSELS. september II TO the
traveller passing through Belgium, the
country appears to be one continuous
industrial town.. From II the car window
one sees nothing but clties.t towns and
villa ges. and one is rarely out Of sight
OF smoke stacks. With the except ION
+ OF certain small provinces, the whole Of
Belgium resembles nothing but a. cluster
OF N; mines, II work hops and factories
around which the populat ion OF the coun-8
try Is scattered, 1 81 s595s8
III TO the American 4. accustomed to mag
|Snificent distances VI and large N spaces. Ess It
seems quite incomprehensibes8 that u the
upon It's small territory. The is whole
country is not much more than 100 miles
each way, not muGh3 greater than g. quar-
ter OF the State Of Ohio, and In about
three hours one can traverse IT. In q ny
direction. Upon this small area there
population increases by leaps aE and
bounds. The birth rate is excessively
high and In spite y OF the fact that the
country Is more densely populated / than
any part OF Europe. except saxony.
there seems to- be more immigrants ti1an8
emigrants Half of the people are Flen IN
ish and half are French; but both sec
tons OF the population, w..o, by the
way live In perfect harmony and ac-
cord continue to increase in population
with each year. @
With such crowded population II is
natural that Belgium should be land
OF cities. For the most part the people
gather into cities and towns, and even
the farming popula tionS lis 30 dense that:
there is mo isolation ln.tfe life IS one
pa sses through this country one can see
how carefully the land is cultivated
The agricultural sections OF the country
are divided and sub-divided into little
miniature farms, almost two thirds Of
the farms being less than two ond one
half acres in extent Such a thing as a
large farmgis almost unknown not one
in 300 having the area OF { all ordinary
homestead. IA Tho movement from IL he
country to the city Is Very. easy because
OF tho small area and the easy comnluni-
ca tIon, and as many Of the cultivators
OF the soil do not own The land which
they work. tile temptation to leave the
field for the factory Is correspondlngly
great. SI9 III An
Everywhere III Belgium one sees cyl "
dcnces Of the utmost thrift and ECONOMY.
and the greatest possible utilization Of
every available means Of increasing the
family income, Nothing seems to be
thrown away. and the cheapest means
of productlan seem always to be used,
THUS In Belgium. dogs to large ex-}
tent take the place OF horses. The milk
man, the baker. the coal dealer, the sell a
or OF petroleum, and the vendor OF small
articles, who cannot afford TO feed q
horse. generally goes about town with a
little cart drawn by, one Of these strong.
native dogs. 4 One sees q dog harnessed
to the wagon either In front or below
the truck, and sometimes these dogs
draw us much as half n ton or. even a
ton OF coal. The dogs work Willingly.
dragging their heavy loads from early
In the morning until late at night, ana
OH the whole they are well treated But
the sight is not "a pleasant one, for they
are often taxed beyond their strength
and their tongues hang out and their
bodies droop from exhaustion,
Next to tho dogs, women arc the hard !
est worked creatures In Belgium, Often
a woman ia llarnessed With dos, q Wor
men, In fact, are employed almost every
OF them worked underground IN the
mines; and even now there are many
thousands who do the hard work OF pick
ing slate upon the surface. l4lege we
saw troop OF women with title tW'lS
brushes cleaning the street IN an ener-
getic but highly ineffective manner;
There were fully q score q them ana
day. It Is probable that the work was
not only worse done, hut was dearer
than 1t would have been imam Ameri-s
can city where higher wages would nave
been paid and more modern methods
used. {lsa 4; s5 III q 4
extremely thrifty but to work quit cons
itimlously: They do not work as hard
as does the American Workman, and they
accomplish very much less; hut their
work 3axtends through long. hours, . nd
the pay for Az IS extremely small. Re-
Gently the government took. q census Of
tha WORKING people of Belgium and
printed a large report about the rates
az wages, the hours OF labor and The
conditions Q. the workers generally,