PEASANT PROPRIETORS IN FRANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1675, 31 March 1883, Page 4

PEASANT PROPRIETOR S IN FRANCE.

Lady Verxky, who a short timn Bincc gavo in thfrCohfcmtfoiwtft licciew*tho resulWtyr pb^n^nejOUjße^Mj^ pm. prfotorslnp in some of. tha /southern dis-f triots of France, in tli'sjj^fccember number of fotttMW pjityMfpn; jojates , ber. ( , p})Cljß»tfO of Auvcrgne, in the neighbourhood,^)!: Clermont, where she found the moiucllcincut greater thau,oven at Aixdes-jßain?, , " A bit fifty yirds by thirty,'' Lady Verney says, VJopkqd.iqujte/ large, t If I , asked the value of the land they laughed at the notion of a . hectare (2A acres) ; they , bought it, they said, by the toisc, 6ft. j sqnnm or JQO toises, -a quarfjonay, ; a litfcl<J.W* h«»«> » little , bit , .there, very ofdeUfiAt an houp'a distance from each otbjjiv! A 7 lai'ge , piece together did nop jsX)Bt*'lj!asked"why they' did not buy, up or exchange so as to have their property under -their hands. It was quite inipossiblp; ,'there is the, .greatest, jpalousy of each other, nd one' can bear his neighbor to bo better off tlian himself. I board of runuing up the price at an auction from slider spite to 20f the loi.se. The expenses of the transfer of land arc ruinous to small proprietors.' 'In a sale of real propeity under f OOOf haif the Value is absorbed ; under oOOf the confiscation is complete. In the village of Beauscjour a pleasant-looking woman, who has been for twenty years chamber-maid at one of the hotels, showed us her house, part of, one which had been good in the old 'days before subdivision ; slid was preparing hemp Which the tismnnd would weave into a coarse cloth. She said that the snow lay thick on the ground from November till March, and thqy did jiot leave their houses much then. They never bought fuel ; they burnt the vine shoots, and picked up any bits they could find. ' But you must suffer from the cold ?' ' Oh, no, because we 1 go' into the stables with the cows,' she said with great gusto. '77// « la inir si douce c/mlmr' — it is so plcasantthafc one can't help nodding with sloop. The roof is boarded, and there is a little window, and when onecomes out into the open air there is such a steam and it is like an oven,' she ended with pride and enthusiasm. In another house there was no window whatever— only two panes, which did not open, over the doorway — and no light or air unless the door was left ajar. No shelf, press, or cupboard was to be seen, and on the floor lay onions, dirty clothes, bread, sticks and the indescribable remnants of neverstirred rubbish. One could not say the floor was ' dirty as the ground,' because out of doors the pure rain fell and cleared away the filth, whereas within no water was ever used by human hands, or, indeed, could be unless the whole house had been turned out of doors. • Whcie do you sleep?' said I. 'Oh, up there.' There was no stair or opening of any kind. ' But how do you get to it ?' 'By the street. ' She led the way up a steep path to the road above, , by which we reached the higher level, where the bedroom opened. True, they must pass to bed through the cold and wet, but then they snared themselves the expense of a stair. The pleaames ot spending her evenings with her cow were insisted upon by this mistress also. In another stabledwelling, for there appeared to be no separate building or room for the people themselves, there were seven cows ranged against the wall. A glazed hole did duty for a window that did not open, and light and air came in by the distant door. The heat, even on this chill day was great, but i poor old woman in one of the beds very ill, was shivering all over, and complaining of the cold, she wore only a knitted shift and her clothes were heaped over her ; it was very pathetic to see her helpless look amidst the dark filth, the bed shut in on three sides, which never could be shaken up or cleaned from biting beasts, without a fireplace, and in the cheerless, airless confusion. 'Site is my mother ; it all belongs to her — mn'ts cnjin e'vst a iwiif.' As I followed the woman through a doorway into perfect darkness, five or six large geese rushed out past her legs and nearly overset inc. Here there it as not the smallest opening of any kind, but she undid the upper half of the door, and I s.iw thcie a horse, a sick calf and the place for the fowls — here were two more beds, 'for the men.' i. c, her husband and a farm boy. The smell and dirt were so intolerable that I hardly dared step into the place. . Everywhere was the bare earth, or rather mud. This was by far (the largest and richest homesfad that we saw, and (perhaps because there was more of it), it looked nioic wietchedly dirty than the rest. Now here else did we see seven cows, or a horse, or a .servant. ' And you .sleep here summer and winter,' s.iid I, ' Jiwii sin; it is so warm and nice." The hoinble discomfort was not the efl'cct of povorty ; it was the deliberate choice of wi etched squalor, the utter w.uit of any feeling of decency or comfort, or any object in life but to save fuel, that made the place so painful. The Archangel Gabriel himself could not have cleaned the stables without a puracle. As none of them ai>o paved, water could only have made the earth dirtier, ami as for sweeping, the mass of beams of wood, sticks, old boxes, etc., mixed with manure, which filled up the corners, where the dirt and creeping tl\ings accumulated in peace, rendered this out of possibility. The food everywhere is' the universal soup of onions, cabbage, lard, or ' tin plat dc Ici/umrs an lard, avce wie pdtte fiianduc Itllc qit'iiiie Miladt I ,' or black radishes sliced. The roads were so bad that we never got beyond the eh'tjle within which the peasants sent produce into the towns, hut the doctor told us that the poverty ■ and barbarism in the higher villages were excessive. Wherever the peasants depend upon the land alone the poveity and low standard were at the lowest, wo hoard, in ;ill parts of Franco. Wherever there was some u>dif>ti n going on by which they could gain wages the standard of civilisation rose, the ignorance was less, and the wants of the population greater. We ucver saw the smallest flower near or in • any house of all the many we visited ; ■ not even the walbflowcr and nasturtiums, ' which abound even m ragged hovels in England ; not a white jessamine or china rose against the wall. Flowers are . considered as things to sell like onions, "•an:! ill the nursery gardens near 'Royat and Claremont, where the roses are hawked in hunches about the streets, it few are grown between the haricots and the carrots. Not a book or a paper were ever found 5 not a print or ■ ' picture against any wall in th«*' houses where there were three walls (of course in the stables there were only rough! pavt titions) : not a bit of china, notanfouiament, not a piece of good > furniture, or a " dock, the prides of an English cottage. It was impossible to oonceive life so absolutely have of interest, ov amusement, or comfort, or reffhemeilfc bjf any kind. There is so great a jealousy of any man rising above the rest that the equality in " the villages is nearly absolute, and the! * 'level of taste and civilisation sinks to the " capacity of the lowest ; any advance' on • this is regarded as pride and absurdity. There was absolutely no house in any of ;l the villages where the chief farmers, the < lawyer, the doctor and the clergyman ' alio«*ed a higher standard of refinement;, information, and comfort ; all ' was ' squalor ' and ignorance ahke— even the priest was a peasant like the re3t." ■

KrrxDRKDS of sheep have perished i>i , t)je sfiio\v ( drifts around Sheffield,,, , v You will do well to furnish youi' 'jhojise ' from Garlick anil Cranwpjl'^. They li.ive now ! ttic'niosf completo 'Fiirnisjhiiiir Warelfolisc in • Afcfki.ind, 'iurnttute to ' stilt all classev Rfiod, [stuonjr, and phcap. ' They have Tapestry Carpets from 2s 3tl per yard, iJi-uifpl-i from 3s lid per ' yard. Li'nol<&m fr6hi'3s Od ' W fit, Oil Cldtlis from '"IH^A \'o 4is Ud nor. yard,' good '12 feet .wide-Oil i Clritiisatas Od pooyard. , Imm9ns^,ass<}rtWont „nf IrQQiHcdstead? from; Infants' Lots to, 5 foot fftoads from 255. 480 Hedstciads ihitocktbsofcct tfro«,,-BiddJrigsofall Wndc 1 and sizes kept in tfiddijurai' Dininp, Sitting, Drawinsr-room Fur■niture, a«d And a large assortment of Afanchcstcr «nd Fu&Ubing Goods, intluding ' .>a- Hot of 'Cretonn-js, Book Catalogues lent free to in(tendinu pur«b«er«. Garlick and Cranwell, •City Hull .Arcade, Queen^trpat, ARckJv d ;