The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-11-26

Cfre r wound ABOUT L1e 81 - $500
i, falls 10 the feet, The upper garment
- ~ balr the time The girl Is then
hare n the waist. and neE plump bust
ahuvxa ont in the bright sun. as she
raises he- arms high to steady tht IoaH
on her head. Her skin shines IKE poa-
ished ebony. n look as close as you
nIe~ae YOU can sec no sign Of a hair on
any mart OF her except on the head
Those African natives. both men anu
women. pull out all the hair on their
bodies. going over them once a month
for this purpose. This custom y COM
mon in many parts Of me "orid
* 80 with some Of the Indians OF ~ :
Amazon. 20 with the Jswesses
Tun,s. who are shaved from head TO
foot Just before marriage. and 50 with
the Moros OF our Philippine Islands.
who carry along with them little twee-
gers 70 pull out any stray hair that
pear
Labor and Wages.
The wares these women receive are
pitifully low. Hen or Is cents a day
is big money for a woman. and a man
can be hired for 20 cents or less. For
these wage the women unload the
stone coats on the Nile. wading out
into the river and coming back up the
banks with two or three great rocks
piled high on the head They carry
sand in baskets, and spread It over the
stones on the roadways. and they sit
down on the sides OF the oad and
break stones for m~acadamizing. They
carry the mortar up ,ne scanoldlng TO
the masons. and quite an army Of
them is employed in bringing water in
~iye-gallon coal oil cars up from the
Nile. Some Of the streets are thus
sprinkfed, and many of the gardens of
Khartum are kept moist in this way.
Here, at the Grand Hotel. we have a
half dozen women who carry water AL
d. 1870 - arpf1 -. rHZ- aa ~ - G1r-A
Of the girls are tall. had a photo
graph Of myself standing beside one
taken today, and she oVertopped me
some inches. She objected to my hav-
ing her picture. and as she was =
lusty young negress it was for a time
undecided whether | should succeed.
| have asked some questions here as
to labor. The builders tell me it il
almost impossible to get what they
want. and that the more wages they
pay the greater the danger Of a labor
famine. The trouble is the natives
Will not work if they have money, and
when wages are high they work so
much the ,ess. All they need is their
food, and a family can live on > cents
and less per day. The rood consists
chiefly of boiled durra or sorghum
meal. and the drink is a native beer
which costs almost n5uhing. A man
can get a suit of clothes for a dollar,
and a woman can be QUILTED for less.
When food is cheap the prices of labor
rise, and When it is lear they fall.
The native reasons that he ought to be
paid more for his work when the food
prices are low. for in such q case he
can easily get food ahead. and why
should ne work at the ordinary wage
when he has ali he wants. When the
food gOes up the laborers need the
work to pay for it and The competition
brings wages down.
An American Brickmaker.
Referring TO the building up Of
Khartum many Of the new structures
are to be furnished with brick by q
to Port Soudan some months ago. in
and supply building material for the
new port now going W at the end of
the Nile and the Red Sea Railway.
While he was waiting for his brick
making machine he took a run up to
Khartum to see what was going on
here. He found the town booming
and decided to settle. He has bought
a native brickyard and pending the ar
rival of his machine is now making
bricks by hand with native labor. He
started only q month o. so ago, and he
tells me he has already contracts for
more than five million bricks. He is
employing several hundred SOudanese
men and women at 10 or 20 cents =
day, but he says that their labor is so
poor and unreliable that the work of
six of his natives viii not equal that
of one good American.
FRANK G.. CARPENTER.