The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-09-09
ON 81 A WEEK WAGES
George Farmery Has Raised
Twenty-Three Children.
GIVES HIS EARNINGS TO WIFE

tenIeu, ana Does Not Regret the
Struggles of Life. Now Hale and
Hearty at 81 Years. A Lesson in
Domestic Economy.
LONDON, Sept. ST have had
twenty-three children, and have come
to the conclusion that a, man is much
happier and better off with family
than without one"
Such was the opinion expressed by
George Farmery, a hale and hearty
Lincolnshire man, who, in spite of
his sixty-seven years, was actively en-
gagged in hay-making near his home
at Hemswell, near Gainsborough.
Farmery won the first prize of $40
offered by the Lincolnshire Agricul-
tural Society to the farm laborer who
has brought up and placed out the
greatest number of children without
having received parochial relief.
Il have never earned more than
$4.12 a week" Farmery continued,
land my average wage is only half
a crown day, so that l can only
reckon on 1915.
Sometimes l have only had SIS
cents day. but l have always been
happy and contented with my wife
and children.
Does Not Regret Struggles.
81 have been twice married. By
my first wife l had ten children, and
by my second one I have had eight
boys and five girls.
HAS it been a hard struggle to
bring them all up? Well, we have
had our trials, but on looking back
l do not regret them.
Il do not smoke and I do not
drink, and l have always given my
wife every penny of my wages, and
she has done the buying.
Il have never had a cottage rent
free, like some men, and have not
had a great deal of garden, either,
still enough just to grow few pota-
toes and vegetables.
Our staple food has been bacon
and bread, with, perhaps, a little
fresh meat once a week, but l have
never been much struck on butchers
meat.
''Then l have had to pay as much
as ninepence and tenpence a week
in years gone by for my children's
schooling; now / do not pay anything
Never Wandered Far.
mo; l have never spent anything
on nf oil 70
that that is where young people in
big towns waste their money.
''The only places 1 have ever been
to outside Hemswell and Fading
worth, the place where I was born,
are GainsborOugh, Lincoln, Manches-
ter, Market Rasen, ThOrncastle and
Guiseley, near Leeds.
81 have lived in Hemswell about
thirty years, and have never had a
half-penny from the parish. When
the children got old enough, of
course, they all went out to work
and brought a little home, and that
helped us to get along"
Mrs. Farmery then told how she
made both ends meet on the modest
wage which her husband brought
home.
Lesson in Domestic Economy.
well, we pay $23.75 year for
our cottage" she said. Then, every
week | buy two stone of -four, which
comes to 76 cents; a quarter of a
pound of tea, 10 cents; five pounds
sugar, 10 cents; one pound lard, IL
cents; one pound rice, 4 cents; one
pound currants, cents coal, SO
cents. That accounts for about 81 a
week.
I'VE keep pig, so l am not count
ing the bacon. Then there are the
clothes and other things to pay for,
so that there is not much left out
of Is cents.
Il have always had some little
children at home, generally about
six.
My advice to young people is, do
not get married until you are both
well between 20 and 80 years of
age."a
Farmery said that although he
was married rather young he thought
that nowadays 80 was a good age
for a man to marry, and &c for a
girl.
But" said he, with a wise shake
of the head as he leaned on his hay
fork, they might start earlier if
they knew each other well. 1t all
depends on how they get on"