IX.
FORTY to fifty miles a day, always under a weight of more than a
hundred pounds,—for when the trait has been emptied she puts in
stones for ballast;—carrying her employer's merchandise and
money over the mountain ain ranges, beyond the peaks, across the
ravines, through the tropical forest, sometimes through by-ways
haunted by the fer-de-lance,—and this in summer or winter, the
deason of rains or the season of heat, the time of fevers or the
time of hurricanes, at a franc a day! … How does she live upon
it?
There are twenty sous to the franc. The girl leaves St. Pierre
with her load at early morning. At the second village, Morne
Rouge, she halts to buy one, two, or three biscuits at a sou
apiece; and reaching Ajoupa-Bouillon later in the forenoon,
she may buy another biscuit or two. Altogether she may be
expected to eat five Sous of biscuit or bread before reaching
Grande Anse, where
she probably has a meal waiting for her.
This ought to cost her ten sous,—especially if there be meat in
her ragoût: which represents a total expense of fifteen sous for
eatables. Then there is the additional cost of the cheap liquor,
which she must mix with her drinking-water, as it would be more than
dangerous to swallow pure cold water in her heated condition; two
or three sous more. This almost makes the franc. But such a
hasty and really erroneous estimate does not include expenses of
lodging and clothing;—she may sleep on the bare floor sometimes,
and twenty francs a year may keep her in clothes; but she must
rent the floor and pay for the clothes out of that franc. As a
matter of fact she not only does all this upon her twenty sous a
day, but can even economize something which will enable her, when
her youth and force decline, to start in business for herself.
And her economy will not seem so wonderful when I assure you that
thousands of men here—huge men muscled like bulls and lions—
live upon an average expenditure of five sous a day. One sou of
bread, two sous of manioc flour, one sou of dried codfish, one
sou of tafia: such is their meal.
There are women carriers who earn more than a franc a day,—women
with a particular talent for selling, who are paid on commission—from
ten to fifteen per cent. These eventually make themselves independent
in many instances;—they continue to sell and bargain in person, but hire
a young girl to carry the goods.