"You will not be surprised at it," replied Doctor Bronson, "when I tell you they are never paid in money, with the exception of the chiefs of gangs, and the men in charge of the machinery.
"They receive a daily allowance of bread; it is not such bread as we are accustomed to, but simply coarsely ground wheat flour, containing a liberal proportion of mud and chopped straw, and very carelessly baked. With so bad a quality you might suppose the quantity would be abundant, but it is not; a laborer can devour his day's allowance at a single meal, and frequently it is not enough to satisfy his hunger."
"But is that all they get?" one of the boys asked.
"That is frequently all they get," was the reply. "True, they are promised something more, but they do not often receive it.
"According to an official report on the subject," the Doctor continued, "the wages of hands in the factories are fixed at fifteen cents a day for a man, and eight cents for a boy, while those of the field hands are eight cents for a man, and five for a boy. And when they are paid at all it is invariably in kind—that is, in grain, sugar, or molasses, at a high price—and not in money. It is difficult for them to sell these articles, and the best they can do is to eat them, or perhaps barter them off for something more desirable. Not one laborer in twenty has anything to show for his work on the sugar estates or in the factories except his thin cheeks, and the bones half protruding from his skin."
"It is no wonder," said Fred, "that they begged so hard for backsheesh, and that they seemed, unlike the Arabs of Cairo, to be very grateful when we gave them some small coins."
Frank thought it very strange that the sugar culture in Egypt should be unprofitable when the labor cost next to nothing. The Doctor answered that it would undoubtedly pay handsomely whenever it was honestly and economically managed, but from present indications there was no prospect of a change for the better.
INTERIOR OF A SUGAR-MILL.