Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-04-24
THE "HIRED MAN"
Modern Conditions Drive Out Institu-
tion Which Dates to Colonial TYmes
From tho portIooJ r,s...>


AS the democratic manner of life on the
New England farm has given way to
our present complex civilization, the hired
man has been eliminated. Time was
when the bulk of the farm work was done
by the hired man. Now it is done by
hired labor which demands a wage scale.
fixed hours Of labor and all of the other
new-fangled notions which grew out of
the emergency of toll from the debased
and down trodden condition in which IL
found itself forty or fifty years ago.
In the days of which I write the aver
age farmer would have thought as much
of going without hired man as he would
his horse or his COW. 1t might be that
during the rush season he took on n boy
or two to help the man, and If he were
particularly opulent he might have per-
mitted his wife a hired girl, but there
was always, or nearly always, the hired
man.
He remained with him the year around.
except possibly in the winter time. when
he was permitted to go into the woods.
or II work was particularly slack to earn
few dollars on the drive. But even at
that 1t was as often the case that the
hired man stayed around during the win
ter to do the chores while the farmer
himself worked in the woods or on the
drive.
The reason for this was what the farmer
earned was his, while IL his man earned
an extra dollar it was his own and all
the boss saved was his servants wages
This was not much. but as dollars were
counted in those days it was worth con-
sdering. In fact every dollar was
deemed worth considering at that period
of our civilization.
The wages paid the hired man varied
considerably depending in a measure on
what he was worth ard to some degree
on what the farmer thought he could af-
ford to disburse.
There were farmers who were rather
close listed with their help and refused
more than S14 month, while some went
so far as to open their hearts to the en-
tent of S2S or $50 month But $50 was
about the limit. l used to know a great
man hired men, and | can recall but
one farmer who paid more than $50, and
he was generally held guilty by his associ-
ates of demoraliaing the labor market.
But to this 50 cents or dollar q day
which the hired man received in cash
was also to be added his board and to
some extent his clothes-that is, 70 was
Frequently permitted to wear some of the
bosss old pants and shirts when about
his work.
But there was another consideration
which was really worth while and would
be esteemed as such by s7me even in
these days of Sc a day nod carriers. He
occupied a position of what amounted to
social equality with his employer. He
slept N the same house with him, ate
at the same table with the rest of the
family and occupied the same paw IN the
church. If there was n daughter in the
house he was permitted t. ray court 10
her if she found it agreeable. as she often
did, and &c went along with the rest of
the family to the donation parties and
the grange meetings.
As would Of necessity fo,lo. ho often
married the GuGhtev and took her 70 a
farm OF his own or worked the home
place on shares, or "shears" as they used
to cay m those days.
Al these PRIVILEGES compensated as
may be seen readily in measure for the
fifty cents o. a dollar a day which con-
stituted bis cash emo.unerts.
But the hired man WORRIED, and
am going t. ask thc printcr t. put tnat
N big letters. in those days Tie GARNER
got up at three Of -four o't'ocl. n the
morning, and, as Josh HNraa used to
say, burned OUT Eve pounds ~ wood and
five cords of candles waiting rr dayiisht.
Josh was al iiyht about tic wood and the
candles, but there was l,tlc waiting for
daylight. Tho farmer and t'o hired man
went to work. The stock had to be fed
the tie-up cleaned up, the milking done,
and the other farm laLor5 done, COM
monty called chores.
After chores came breakfast and then
work. At noontine came dinner and then
work until supper time, In the summer
time when the daylight came early and
stayed late, the hired man and his en-
ployer generally labored from four O'Clock
in the morning until eight at night. with
time out for meals. This was especially
true of haying time.
The hired man had the rest of the time
to himself as the saying is. In the fall
and spring it was not as hard, and in the
winter he would sometimes get by with
a short day of twelve hours.
Some farmers were constantly changing
hired men, with new one almost every
year and sometimes two or three different
ones In a year. Others employed the
same man year after year until he be-
came as much of fixture on the farm
as the we'll sweep or the barn. Often vio-
lent quarrels would take place between
the farmer and his man. and cases were
not unknown when they would come to
blows. but it rarely occurred that these
violent differences led to severance of
relations.
1t came to be understood that the mat
ter of personalities had nothing to do
with the hired mans job. Even If the
farmer did discharge his man after a
quarrel it was more often than not that
he would come around to work again the
next morning.
In the old days the hired man was
Yankee. like his employer, and as far as
birth was concerned was his equal So
cially andas | have said, was treated as
such.
Farm help isn't paid Sc or 81 a day, as
labor of that sort gets in the cities and
towns, but there are no more $50 month
men. More often 1t is twice or three
times that, and that includes board.
1t CRATES on the farmers, especially the
old farmers, to pay the wages they have !
to nowadays. and they get together at !
their oranges and resolve what an out /;
rage 1t is. But they pay it, which is the
only thing they can do.
SALE OF WAR SAVINGS STAMPS IN
NEW ENGLAND IN MARCH. 1919
Mrs f. l.. Higginson, New England ,