I04 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



soon be no superior political advantages here for the 

 masses, nor educational ones either. England is at 

 work in earnest, and what she does, she does well. I 

 prophecy that young England will give young America 

 a hard race for supremacy. 



Some of us walked ahead of the coach for several 

 miles, and I had a chat with a man whom we met. He 

 was a rough carpenter and his wages were sixteen shil- 

 lings per week ($4). A laborer gets eleven shillings 

 (not $2.75), but some " good masters " pay thirteen to 

 fourteen shillings ($3.25 to $3.50), and give their men 

 four or five pounds of beef at Christmas. Food is bacon 

 and tea, which are cheap, but no beef. Men's wages 

 have not advanced much for many years (I should think 

 not !), but women's have. An ordinary woman for field 

 work can get one shilling per day (24 cents) ; a short 

 time ago ninepence (18 cents) was the highest amount 

 paid. Is it not cheering to find poor women getting an 

 advance ? But think what their condition still is, when 

 one shilling per day is considered good pay ! I asked 

 whether employers did not board the workers in addition 

 to paying these wages, but he assured me they did not. 

 This is southern England and these arc agricultural 

 laborers, but the wages seem distressingly low even as 

 compared with British wages in general. The new sys- 

 tem of education and the coming extension of the suf- 

 frage to the counties will soon work a change among 

 these poor people. They will not rest content crowd- 



