The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1914-09-22
LABOR POORLY PAID
Unskilled Men Get Small Pay in
South America.
Women Fare Still Worse as Few Oc-
equations Are Open to Them and
Wages Are Extremely Poor
Nearly All IIIiterate.

EuIre RIOS, Argentine, >. A.-SOm0
time ago young Brazilian attending
the University of Illinois told me that
in many portions of his country four
fifths of the people could neither read
nor write. One finds this state of
things throughout South America,
though In some countries, like Uru-
quay, the percentage of illiterate is
not SO great. The women are scarcely
schooled at all. Women in South
America are far down on life's scale,
among the cheap things of no impor-
lance. They are so regarded by the
men and SO regard themselves, says
Katherine Reynolds in Chicago News.
Truly the poor opinion that these
women have of themselves almost
takes ones breath away.
Not long ago l was talking to my
cook. She is a native of Uruguay, and
unlike the vast majority of domestics
can read and write. One day found
her blowing her way through Don
Qufxote." That interested me and we
talked. / found her exceptionally
bright and of a thoughtful turn of
mind. / drew her on and was sur
prised to hear her express very sane
ideas on South American politics and
economic conditions. The girl is an
Indifferent cook, but she would make a
splendid teacher of political economy.
She gave me much interesting in
formation and told me many signifi-
cant anecdotes bearing on the life of
these people. But what astounded me
was her closing remark.
That, sonora" she said, lis only
what l think and know and is Of
course of no Importance whatever, for
l am most certainly only woman, not
a patriot And woman cannot, OF
course, know anything of these things"
So it seems that only men are patri-
OTIS here. National patriotic holidays
are not womens holidays. Woman
suffrage is in these lands only faint,
ridiculous sort Of far off echo. Indeed,
if you mentioned it even the women
would look at you with smile of pity
for your idiocy in even dreaming that
such thing could be.
In all these countries the top layer
of society is overeducated. This social
cream, taking much of its style and
temper and education from England.
apes English aristOcracy and scorns
work. The young South American is,
as a rule, sickeningly effeminate. The
girls, overdressed, Overrouged, aping
the costumes of Parisienne, are very
often startling looking creatures to
American eyes. They, too, are fitted
only for society, and know as yet no
way in which to earn a living. The
masses have as yet only the crudest
sort of industrial education.
There are trades here for men and
in the cities one finds fairly competent
masons, carpenters and all other arti-
sans working under an eight-hour law.
But outside of the cities you see less
skilled men and the wholly unskilled
peon working from sunrise to sunset.
Here there is no eight-hOur law. Toll
for these men begins with the first
faint streak of dawn and lasts into dim
twilight. And for this they are paid
Is cents an hour in our money.
So when you go to grocery store
and discover that crude, dirty granu-
lated sugar is II cents pound and a
small bar of cheap toilet soap, the
three for quarter kind at home, costs
these people 80 cents and that coal is
| SIS, gold, ton, and seven cent cali
CO 35 cents a yard you wonder how
they live at all.
The only cheap thing in the Argen-
tine republic is meat-beef and NUT
ton. Pork. ham and bacon cost very
nearly their weight in gold and are
the greater part of the year impossible
to get. And when you do get the
native pork you usually throw It away.
1t is badly cured, spoiled in part and
horribly spiced with garlic. The beef
! and mutton are really dear if you
consider their poor quality, the care
less cutting and filthy delivery. You
pay 35 cents paper Can Argentine dol
lar is "A cents in our money! for kilo
which is about two and fifth
pounds.
You cannot order sfrloin or porter
house steak or proper roast because
butchering here is an unknown art.
The animal is hacked up in any weird
fashion and you get merely nameless
chunks of meat. Such chunk is i'm
paIed every morning on sort OF a
big wire safety pin and carried with
out scrap of paper about it through
the hot, dusty streets. Sometimes the
delivery boy playfully drops it into
! the filthy dust and hands it to you
smothered in dirt. Every time the
meat man comes you just naturally
look around for the dog.
The animal whose flesh you are
forced to buy is probably killed the
night before or that very same morn
ing. When you come to this bit Of
knowledge you no longer wonder that
/ fho u,oat 10 Tough and f1avOrlpSS and