The Struggle for Freedom [May, 1888]

SPAIN

Hunger reigns in Andalusia. At Quersado the workmen are literally starring. At Sevilla they are demonstrating for the same reason, and the civic guard has been sent to preserve order and starvation among them. At Pedroso the same condition. At Loja people parade the streets demanding bread or work. At Linares the work is suspended in ten mines.

ROUMANIA

In Romania the peasants have revolted. They have marched through the country sacking and destroying barns and houses, attacking and punishing proprietors, agents, praefects, and fighting the troops. The militia, and even the regulars have shown an admirable disposition to fraternize with the people. The cause of the revolt, it is hardly necessary to say, is sheer misery. The condition of the recently freed Rumanian peasantry is recognized to be one of the most miserable. They live in huts made of straw and clay, having only one opening„the door„ and a layer of reeds on the bare ground.

Their daily meal, when they have one, consists of mamaliga, made of maize and water, a little come, and sometimes some rotten fish. Milk, butter, and eggs are unknown to them. For four months in the year they are short of even the scanty fare above mentioned.

The peasants are still indebted to their proprietors for the redemption price of their Land, and must besides pay rent for the pasture. A bad harvest and a bad winter, like the last, are enough to reduce them to the very verge of misery.