PEASANT LIFE IN ITALY
MEN AND WOMEN LABOR IN FIELDS
FROM DAWN TILL DARK.
Sunday Not n Day of Kent—A Little Meot
on Holidays—No Schooling For Chil
dren—The Houses of the Peasantry-
Food of a Family.
From sunny ILuly came the anarch
|f Ist who slew the Empress Elizabeth,
! President Carnot, Prime Minister
''j Canovas and finally Humbert himself.
In sunny Italy is probably the rank
est growth of anarchy and socialism
in all Europe. And in the suuny
; plains and valleys of northern Italy Is
what perhaps is the worst condition
'j of serfdom that exists in Europe to
, day. Here in the provinces that bord
jdfh er on the river Po—Lomhardy, Vene
f* tia and Emilia—the paasantry stagger
3W under burdens so depressing and un-
L bending that it is 110 wonder that the
P extract from this human press is au
la nrchy and socialism. It is iu these
IF provinces that the ferment of social
ism has worked the most. Here the
peasants are organized more or less
completely into socialistic groups.
Whatever of worth there was in the
old system of labor in these provinces
disappeared twenty years ago when
many of the old nobles were forced to
give up their landed estates because
(of the fall in price of wheat aud cat
tle, due largely to American compe
tition. With the ruin of the nolilcs
came that of many of the tenant
farmers and small proprietors, who
were compelled to leave the fertile
and smiling country and go into the
towns for work, or else emigrate to
America, there to begin life anew.
The field laborers of Italy are divid
ed into two classes, the obhligati, who
are hired by the year, and the disob
bligati, who are employed by the day.
The former class, of course, are a lit
-1 tie hotter off than the latter, for their
contract runs longer, and they can
look further ahead. But lu cither
class the outlook is miserable enough.
For not only does the peasant hind
himself to work for his owner, hut he
, binds his whole family, with the pos
sible exception of babes, who would
be included, except that they can pro
duce nothing, and therefore arc left
in the corners of the fields. For this
reason, that an employer can get the
services of an entire family for the
price of one man, an unmarried man,
or the man with a wife and no chil
dren, Is at a great disadvantage, for
work for liim is not to be had as long
ns there are unemployed families at
hand. Yet another hard feature of
this system is that the head of the
family must stipulate, if he has un
married daughters, that they shall not
marry for the period of time which
the contract has to run.
A day's work In this part of sunny
Italy is from 4 in the morning to 1) at
night—that is, from the first flush of
kdawn to the last light to be had from
the setting sun. There is no Sunday
In the calendar of the Italian peasant.
On the day of the week which all
Christendom observes, as on other
days, he is in the field at 4 o'clock In
the morning, aud between 7 and S
has liis breakfast; he gets an hour
at midday aud half an hour at 5 or (J
o'clock, aud iiieu he works on until
he no longer can see.
The women go into the fields with
the men. They hoe in the maize fields,
feed the cattle and cultivate the flax.
If the children ure babes they can do
nothing—to the great sorrow of the
employer, for they eat, if ever so little,
hut do not produce. But when they
get to ho a few years old they are
useful iu lookiug after the pigs, etc.,
aud up soou as possible they are sent
to work with their parents. The situ
ation in the green fields of Italy is
about as complete a refutation of the
y Mnltliusian Iheory as its most ardent
could desire, for it Is the
Finan with many children who gets
the most out of life us it Is lived in
sunny Italy.
The wages of the peasant's family
' are partly In money and partly in
' kind, and he has the privilege of rent
j free. In cash lie gets from ¥ls to S2O
t a year; ill kind he get fourteen bushels
of maize, seven bushels of wheat and
from 200 to 231) bundles of firewood.
If ho is in a vineyard section he re
ceives in addition ¥OO to 000 pounds of
grapes, while in other Bcctious lie gets
six to nine bushels of rye. He may
get some rice, which lie mixes with
the millet to produce the indigestible
bread which is respousihle for the dis
cuse called pellagra.
Theu he may have the privilege of
a little patch of ground ou which he
may raise maize, two-thirds of which
goes to the employer, uud he may raise
silk worms, too.
Jk So the average peasant's family of
Rilx persons may earn altogether from
$l2O to $123 a year.
The house of the Italian peasant
usually contaius several other fural
; lies. A lodgiug consists of a klteheu,
1 a bed room uud two other small rooms,
i Ju the older houses oiled paper au
i Bwers for a window, and the houses
: are damp, moldy aud smoky.
| Of course the food of a family
' whose united income is about six cents
t a day is bouud to be rather meager.
: Polenta, which Is Hour of maize
j cooked in water, Is the main dish.
Breakfast consists of polenta and a
| little cheese. For dinner there is po
> lenta and bacon soup, with perhaps
j flsli from the brook, or eggs. At 5
o'clock polenta and cheese is the meal,
| and at supper polenta and a salad
Of the cheapest vegetables. On
Christmas and ou Easter meat is set
oil the table sparingly.
Ul'lio firewood which the peasants get
sultieient to cook with in the
turner, and in the winter the family
kes refuge in the cow shed, where
a employer, under pretense that he
provides a light In the stables, lays
claim to a portion of the flax spun by
the women in the barns.
Of schooling for the children there
is none, except in the winter in the
villages. Consequently, many of these
Italians who come to America in the
hopes of bettering their condition enn
neither read nor write their own lan
guage. Great wonder It is If anything
good can come out of modern Italy.—
New York Press.
Maklnc a Tunnel Knd Sleet.
It is quite apparent that to dig a
tunnel from two sides and make both
ends meet is a delicate problem, says
Eugene P. Lylc in Everybody's Maga
zine. Should they happen not to
meet, it would he an expensive wan
deling in the mountain to find them
and get tliem together. But fortunate
ly there is a guide as true and an
bendable as mathematics. This is an
imaginary straight line between two
points. One point is a little observa
tory-shed on the bank of the I'hone,
with a spy-glass pointing horizontally
toward Italy. The other point is a
smilinr little observatory on the hank
of the Doveria in Italy, with a glass
towards Switzerland. Between the
two points r.ses in Slmplou mountain
mass. But the straight line goes
through just the same, for it is only
an imaginary straight line. It is,
however, steadily turning into a reali
ty— that is, the tunnel. And it it were
not for the grade of tile tunnel, then
some day the observatory in Switzer
land could look through the mountain
at the observatory in Italy. It will
he objected, however, that we went
around a curve lu the tunnel. In fact,
there are two curves, hut they do uot
affect the straight-line proposition.
There is a small tunnel which joins
the main tunnel some hundred metres
or 100 yards inside. It is called the
locating tuuuei, and faithfully follows
the imaginary straight line. The
main tunnel finishes its curve at this
liundred-metrc point, and thence con
tinues along the straight line to the
corresponding curve at the other end,
where again, the straight line is com
pleted by a second locating tunnel.
Oar biggest Gati.
Some spectacular particulars are
given of the United States gun, which
will preserve America's inalienable
right to possess the "biggest thing on
earth." It will weigh 120 tons, will
have a length of forty-nine feet threo
incites, and a diameter—fine by degrees
and beautifully less—varying from
sixty inches to twenty-eight inches.
It will be able to fire its five-foot-four
incli projectile an extreme distance of
nearly twenty-one miles—2o.o7B miles
is the exact figure—and a projectile
fired at the elevation required for this
distance will attain a height of 30,510
feet, "higher," says the picturesque
recorder, "than the combined eleva
tions of Pike's Teak and Mount
Blanc." Thus the record distance fired
by a Krupp 0.2-inch gun on April
28, 1802, when twelve and a half miles
were covered and a height of 21,450
feet was attained, will ho completely
surpassed.—London Post.
L'nfiM-tunute For the LUCI.Y.
A curious instance of absence of
mind is, according to the Liverpool
Post, furnished by a certain Oxford
don, whose "scholarly abstraction"
frequently lands him in difficulties.
Dining cut one night lie suddenly be
came versed in thought, and for a
time sat gazing at liis plate, evident
ly deeply engrossed in some mighty
problem. Now It happened that his
left-hand neighbor, a portly dame, had
the habit of resting her liaud on the
table, palm down and lingers closed.
Suddenly the professor awoke from
liis brown study, seized • liis fork,
plunged it into the plump paw re
posing to the left of his plate, aud,
beaming genially through liis glasses,
remarked, "My bread, I thinkl"
Sedentary Athletes.
An Englishman who has spent much
time in Paris has whimsically ob
served that the French make excellent
athletes, where they can sit down to
it. The statement Is worthy of notice,
says the Paris Messenger. It is gen
erally acknowledged that Frenchmen
cannut play cricket, and few of them
care for football; but it is a fact that
they arc skillful horsemen, as may
be seen at the polo matches in the
Bois de Boulogne. They also row
well, as may he seen every duy ou the
Seine; aud, above all, they cycle well,
as may he observed all over Paris. Aud
the bottom of all this is "sitting
down."
To Protect Wild Flowers.
Persons interested iu wild flowers
are endeavoring to create—and to or
gnnize—a sentiment for the protection
of our native plants, especially near
large cities, says the Youth's Com
pauion. The pond lily, trailing ar
butus, native orchids, friuged gentian
and many of the evergreens have been
gathered iu Massachusetts for sale iu
such quantities aud so steadily sought
by frequenters of suburban woods,
that their extinction is threatened.
The remedy suggested is that care be
used to cut rather than pull the flow
ers, so that the roots need not he dis
turbed, and that those who gather
rare plants for the market should
he discouraged by lack of patronage.
A Compass in a Guano Led.
A curious lind is reported from one
of the Cbineha Islands, off the coast
of Peru. Iu a bed of guano an old
ship's compass was lately dug up,
which, when cleaned, was found to be
in working order. The case of the
instrument is of brass, and it hears
the engraved Inscription: ".Tno. War
ren, Chepeside, City of Loudon, Mak
er, llO." The compass lias been sent
to a museum in Lima.—London News.
PUTNAM FADELESS DYEB are fast to sun
light, washing and rubbing. Sold by all drug
gists.
Even the greatest* germ cranks do not
hesitate to stack up against the microbes
that infest a S2O bill.
The poetry of motion must bo the kind
that ia sent the rounds.
STAT* or OHIO, CITY OP TOLEDO, {
LUCAS COUNTY. >
FRANK J. CHENEY makes op.th that he is the
senior partner of the firm of F. J. CHENEY A
Co.,doing business inthe City ofToledo, County
and State aforesaid, and that said firm will pur
the sum of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for each
and every case of CATARRH that cannot bo
cured by the uso of HALL'S CATARRH CURE.
FRANK J. CHENEY.
Sworn to before me and subscribed in my
. —. presence, this 6th day of December,
\ SEAL JA. D., 1886. A. W. GLEASON.
< —> Notary Public.
Hall's Catarrh Core is taken internally, and
acts directly on the blood and mucous surfaces
of the system. Send for testimonials, free.
F. J. CHENEY A Co., Toledo, O.
Sold by Druggists, 76c.
Hall's Familv Pills are the best.
Within the last 12 years the num
ber of resident foreigners in Switzer
land has increased by 155,000, the to
tal number now being 385,000.
NOV.3O™ I 6t FROM „ I 1902."
fgjll "HORSESHOE" jggjj
/JH®JI • _ l~"• ' J * L7??
'oLmr "STANDARD NAVY"
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*ArcH 3o* /Q Our new illustrated
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luW Jl/M most attractive List of Presents ever offered for Tag 3, and will It T\ Aff fWi
Nvcqjy j| he sent by mail on receipt of postage—two cents. 7 Jjl JJ I/I \1
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CONTINENTAL TOBACCO COMPANY.
IBM Jj Write your name and address plainly on outside of packages
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C. Hy. BROWN, WItST
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Chile's Qcod Railway equipment.
For its railroads Chile purchases
only the best and most expensive roll
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best crucible steel boilers, with cop
per fittings, such as would be consid
ered too expensive for general use in
the United States. The car wheels
are of cast iron, with steel tires. The
passenger cars are the best that can be
made, and are handsomely finished in
mahogany. The reason for this is
explained by Mr. J. Sutomayer, rep
resentative of the Chilean government
in Europe, with headquarters at Brus
sels, when he states that Chile is so
far distant from manufacturing coun
tries, and freight charges are so ex
cessive, that only those equipments
which will endure the greatest amount
of wear and tear are the most eco
nomical for use in that country.
MAKE MONEY AT HOME!
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Soiodont Liquid JSC Lar,e Liquid and Powder 75c All
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ATONCE
With rice to FO'II Poultry Mixture: straight
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EUREKA Mro. Co., Lept. 9, East St. Louis, 111.
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