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THE FARM LABOURER IN 1872.
ell Oldsort, what do you think of this movement amongst the labourers?" asked his landlord one day of a West-Midland farmer.
"I don't know what to think, I don't," answered Oldsort.
"How many men do you employ?"
"Why, four regular. But I'll tell you what; I and that Edward Sharpe there, can do as much work in a day as I and all those other three, Tom Careless, Jack Shirk, and William Slow."
"How's that?"
"Why, you see, if I tell Sharpe to do a thing, it's done well and quickly, and I need never think about it again. But if I tell any of the others, I've almost got to do it myself, or it will be done wrong."
"And what are they earning?"
