Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, November 29, 1901, Image 3
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" "SPEARHEAD" f§ "GOOD LUCK" | "mi i\/ * r*i" nßar wtwWfJ'J - JOLLYTAR I '*o TAGS. 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For its railroads Chile purchases only the best and most expensive roll ing stock. The locomotives have the 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! No matter what your occupation .f, tn le or• fa mule, whether employed or not, can earn extra money at home; no ennv..sinmr or books. 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