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well how to dispose of beer; still, he was not up to the wouldbe Benedick's standard, and soon a row of filled and half-filled mugs began to form in front of him on the piano. The big, boozy lover was so persistent for more and more music, that the good-natured Dutchman did not make his escape and get to bed until the lover had fallen asleep, and was unaware when the music ceased.

AMONG THE FACTORIES.

CHAPTER XVI.

LIFE OF GERMAN MILL OPERATIVES.
'KNEIPER."-THE DEAD-HOUSE OF MU-

HOW TO FORM A BEER
NICH. ANECDOTES OF BAVARIAN PEASANTRY.
STITION.

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TWELVE miles from Goeppingen, on the high-road in the direction of Ulm, nestling at the base of high hills or mountains, is a place called "Kuken Fabrik," the literal signification of which is "Cake-factory." It is, however, by no means a cake-factory. On the contrary, cake is scarcely known there, the inhabitants being glad if they only have a sufficiency of rye or black bread. Kuken Fabrik is a manufactory of cotton goods; and the town, if so it may be called, is composed entirely of the factory hands and employés, some seven hundred persons in all. Around a small park forming a hollow square are built a number of plain two-story houses, which form the habitations of the seven hundred hands. Each house has two floors, with four rooms to the floor. Families of five, six, or seven persons may sometimes be found occupying an entire floor; none, though, enjoy the luxury of an entire cottage, and the majority content themselves with two rooms, making four families to the cottage.

In front of each cottage is a small plot of ground planted with vegetables, which is shared in common by the inmates of the cottage. The park or hollow square is planted with shadetrees and provided with long tables, at which in summer the operatives eat their dinners between the hours of twelve and one o'clock. Work is begun at six in the morning, and con tinued, with intermissions during the day amounting in all to one hour and forty minutes, up to seven o'clock. For this day's work of eleven and a half hours and upward a good

man-spinner receives two and a half marks (about sixty cents). Women-spinners earn less. They average only thirty-seven and a half cents a day of twelve hours' actual work, and thirteen hours at the mills. Boys and girls twelve years of age work not more than six hours per day. Their wages amount to the pitiful sum of nine to eighteen cents per week. Tabulated, the statement of wages paid at Kuken Fabrik appears thus:

Wage-table.

Spinners, men, per week of 66 to 68 hours
Spinners, women, per week of 66 to 68 hours..
Boys and girls, per week of 33 to 34 hours
Firemen, per week of 66 to 68 hours.
Engineers, per week of 66 to 68 hours.

$3.60
2.25

.09 to .18

3.60

3.84

A workman's ordinary suit costs $7.30; a Sunday suit costs thirty to thirty-six marks ($7.30 to $8.64). Such a suit the workman wears for years. The rent of two rooms per week ranges from thirty-eight to forty-eight cents, or $18.24 to $24.96 per year. A floor of three or four rooms costs $37.44 to $49.92 per year. Those of the employés who so desire are boarded by the mill company for sixty-five pfennige a day, or about fifteen cents. Breakfast and supper consist of two pieces of bread, and coffee. For dinner is served a soup, together with the meat of the soup, bread, and one kind of vegetable, generally either potatoes or cabbage. These prices are low, and compensate in some degree for the poor wages. But do they compensate entirely? The following account will show in detail the income and cost of living of German mill operatives of the skilled and better class. The reader may judge for himself therefrom whether the low prices in Germany make proper compensation for the low wages.

Family of German Mill Operatives.

Family numbers five: parents, two children, and the mother of the father.

Condition.-Occupy two rooms on second floor of cottage; parents work in mills; the grandmother looks after house and children; family dress very plainly; have few or no comforts.

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Diet.-Breakfast: black bread and coffee. Dinner: rye-bread, soup, bacon or soup-meat, potatoes, beer. Supper: black bread and coffee.

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The German workman spends a great deal on beer. It costs ten pfennige (2 cents) a glass; the host of the one saloon permitted in the settlement said each man averaged three half-quart glasses per day. I took dinner under the trees with the men. It was a sight to see them, seven hundred in all, every one with a foaming glass of beer. Several thousand glasses are consumed every day at this one factory. The word "Gemuethlich," which Germans so fondly declare has no rival or equivalent in any other language, is simply a polite expression for "bumming." No other one thing is so destructive of domestic happiness as this German custom called “Gemuethlichkeit." Almost every beer saloon has one or more private rooms cosily furnished with easychairs and tables. These rooms are rented to beer "Kneipers" (clubs). A beer club is easily formed. Ten or twelve neighbors agree to go once a week to the nearest saloon and drink

as much beer as they can hold; that is a beer "Kneiper." Every week, on the appointed evening, they go to the private room, sit around the table, smoke and drink beer until midnight, or even later; this is called "Gemuethlich" (sociable). There is no discussion of politics, of literature, of philosophy, no flow of wit-only a flow, one continuous flow, of beer. One man orders a round; the glasses hold half a quart, but the last drop is drained and another of the party returns the first man's treat. A second round comes and goes. Another man feels called upon to respond to number two's treat, and so it continues until the whole party are heavy and boozy.

This evil, far from abating, is increasing, and so rapidly that even the Germans themselves are becoming alarmed. In 1870 there were in Prussia alone 120,000 licensed saloons and 40,000 public-houses where liquors were sold. In 1880 the census showed an increase of 38 per cent.-in other words, the number of saloons had risen to upward of 200,000, and the average consumption of beer per day was four glasses for every man, woman, and child in the kingdom! Twenty-seven per cent. of the inale lunacy in Prussian asylums is attributed to drink. These are some of the direct effects of beer, admitted by all; its indirect effects may not be so readily seen or admitted, they are, nevertheless, as sure and injurious. Look at the distended paunch, the bloated face, the unnatural redness of the veins, the dull eye of the practised beer-drinker; consider his diseased liver, his fat, overlaid stomach, overworked kidneys, and it will occasion little surprise to learn that the average life of beerdrinkers is less than that of the non-beer drinkers-is less than thirty-three years.

One night at Kuken the country singing-master arrived from a neighboring village. The members of the class went through. their exercises in the hall of the public-house, accompanied by the teacher on a squeaky fiddle. At the close of the lesson my Dutchman sauntered up to the singing-master, and asked if he might look at his violin. The country musician eyed the Dutchman's blouse, took him for some village clodhopper, and natu

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