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Show 24 NOTES ON "Because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong,-bccause I know how and can do it,-thcrcforc, I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much as suits my fancy." This, if true, is a very serious matter; neither more nor Jess than a deliberate and wanton violation of the eighth commandment. But is it true? Is it a fact that Quashy docs not receive a fair return for his labour? Let us make a calculation. For the first fourteen years of his life, Quashy is a bill of expense to his master, costing him, on the average, here in Maryland, twenty-five dollars a year, which, for fourteen years, amounts to three hundred and fifty dollars. 'ro this m1,1st be :ulclcd tho average interest, which would be six per cent. for seven years, if the earlier years of the fourteen were as expensive as the latter; but as they are not, we '''ill put it at six per cent for five years, or one hundred and five dollars in all; which addc<l to the three hundred and fifty makes four hundred and fifty-five dollars for the cost of Quashy to his master, at fourteen years of age. From fourteen to twenty-one, he barely pays his keeping, so that to his cost at fourteen must be added seven years' compound interest at six per cent, making his cost to his master, a.t twenty-one, omitting fractions, six hundred and eighty-four dollars. This is supposing him to live till twenty-one; but as, according to the census returns for 1850, thirty in every one hundred die before that age, and the average time of their death is at seven years old, the expenso of raising t\lirty for seven years, or, which is the sam(', say twelve for fourteen years, (it would be, fifteen for fourteen yea,rs, if the expense of the last seven years were no greater than the fii·st seven,) must be added to the cost of seventy in every one-hundred; that is to say, to the above six-hundred and eighty-four dollars must be adde<l twelve· seventieths of itsolf, to get at. the actual cost of Qua shy to UN C LE 'l' O ~l· S CADIN.· 25 his master, at twenty-one; ,yhich gives, in round numbers, eight-hundred <lollars. Now, if Quashy is not to be a bill of expense to his master ~e must pay six per cent. interest on his cost, nnd an addi: honal one and thrce-qut.Lrtcrs per cent. life-insurance; in al1, seven and ~hre~-quar~ers per cent., or sixty-two dollars per annu~, wL10h ,Is a httlc over five dollars a month. 'This, then, IS Quashy swages, already paid him, in adv::mco, in the shape of food and clothing, &c., during his minority.* . If now we add to this, (what every New-Englander who has hvcd at the South knows,) that Quashy does not do more than one-thu·d, or, at the very ulmost, one-half as much work as an able-bodied bbourcr on a farm at the North (sec Note 15,) an<l t4at for this he receives, bcsi<lcs the fiv; dollars above mcntionc<l, his food, clothing and shelter, with mcdtcnl a.ttendancc and nursing when sick, and no deduction for lost ttme, even though be should be sick for yours while the "farm-hand" at the North gets only ten or ~wolve dollars, and has to clothe himself out of it, and pay his own d.octor's a?d nurse's bill in sickness, to say nothing of lost time, I thmk :"e shall come to the conclusion that if there has bce.n s~ea.Img anywhere, it has not been from Quashy. But rt wrll be said, Quashy's master gets rich on Quashy's labour. , Well ! what is tho inference from this ?-that Q~ashy s master ita thief? If so, then Jonathan is a bigger tlucf,, for he gets rich fa ster on the labour of his "hire'l m~n. For my part, I do not think that either of them is a. thlCf, though Jonathan certainly comes the'llearer to it of tho two. 1 . *Should it be said tha.t the freo bbourcr at the North docs not pa 118/~ter/or Qthe expense he has been nt in ren.ring him in childho~c[ ~t:m ~ere :r: uashy ought n~t to bo required to pay interest on thn.~ him 'in :~::~i~r, ll;e do~s p~~ huu, though in a different way; he pn.ys from. g h.s 0\\U clnh.lren,-n.n cxpcusc tli:Lt Quashy is frcv 4. |