vening object had not thwarted them, is cer
tain. Thirdly, it is beyond all controversy
that the girl by, her ready rifle prevented
further depredation on the panther's part
after he had overturned the only obstacle
between himself and me. The Mexican
stopped the way of the panther, the panther
gave the Mexican his death wound, and the
girl killed the panther, which, therefore of
the three saved my life ?" and my poor friend
plunged his face in his hands in a second
state of abstraction.
I remained silent, knowing it was useless
to try to awaken him to his senses. Finally
he raised his head.
" I must revisit the scene of the occurrence,"
he said, "and secure the rifle, the knife, and
the panther's skin as relics of such a memor
able conflict."
I smiled grimly, said nothing, but came to
the mental conclusion that he would not re
turn with a panther's skin, a knife and a rifle,
or at least if he did, they would be entirely in
cidental articles, for after all, I do not think
it is such a hard problem to decide which of
the three was the actual preserver of his
life ; do you my reader ? G. D.
THE CONDITION OF LABOR,
FOR some time past, the condition of the
" wage earning classes " has received ex
traordinary attention from all of the civilized
nations of the world.
A short time since a factory inspector was
appointed by. the Hungarian government for
the purpose of gathering statistics bearing
upon the condition of the working classes of
that kingdom, and in one of his reports, cer
tain important facts are brought out.
The report says that in factories of all
kinds there are employed thirty-eight women
to every hundred men—a proportion of fe
male service very much larger than that of
our own country, where there are about
THE FREE LANCE.
twenty women employed to every hundred
In Hungary the work in the tobacco and
textile industries is very largely performed
by female labor. The hours of daily labor
average about
. eleven, though in the paper
and glass factories they frequently extend
from fourteen to eighteen hours per diem.
Sunday labor is rare throughout Hungary,
except where the work must be carried on
continuously. The average daily wages in
all branches of work, and for both male and
female service, runs from about thirty to fifty
cents a day—an amount so small that even
the low pay of Hungarians, who come to
this country in search of work, receive in
the coal and iron mines of this State must
seem attractive in the extreme.
In France, the conditions of labor, so far
as pay is concerned, are more favorable than
in Hungary ; but the hours of daily service
will average longer, while one disadvantage
which the French working-men have to en
dure, is the tendency to entirely ignore Sun
day as a day of rest. As one writer on the
subject has said : "There is no day of rest
there. When the revolution abolished saint's
days, and Sabbath clays alike, Sunday work
became an established practice."
"The museums and galleries are open on
Sundays, but you look for the working-men
there in vain. They are at work in the fac-,
tories, whose chimneys are smoking as usual,
Or building house, or working in the fields,
or they are engaged in various departments
of labor. The railway trains run precisely
as on week days. As you pass through the
country on Sunday you see the people toil
ing in the fields. Their continuous devotion
of labor cannot fail to have a deteriorating
effect upon their social condition, and this,
we believe, it is which gives to the men, and
especially to the women, the look of a pre
maturely old and overworked race."