Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-12-28

its deepest sorrows and loftiest yearnings, walk.
ing patiently the fre-paved track of poverty end
sufering;. and when you say to the poor man
"your poverty is the result Of crime to the un-
successful. your failure is the effect of your own
sins,' your brutal taunt falls not only upon the
poor and unsuccessful, but upon his forehead who
Is the master Of US all. You mock God,s and in
his place enthrone Mammop, that lowest of ali
the devils, who, while his prouder compeers stood
erect, blasted but defiant, went crawling on all
fours in search of pennies. -..7 g q ssz#*@ r.
ssAny one who does right can get along. It's
only the idle, the improvident, or the criminal
who are poor" This, reader, is not the senti-
ment Of protested atheist, but of a large number
of good folks, who dressed well, eat well, sleep
well, and rather think themselves the exact mod
els ofrespectability of and vrtne. Let Us try their
doctrine moment. IS So @ ss
If. through the rain and sleet or this drear win
ter night, you will look into younder-hovel! no,
but huge mansion rising in the heart of the great
city, and tenanted by at least hundred Of the
most miserable of the poor-if you will cast your
gaze into particular room, lighted by single
candle, you will behold a pale woman working
with her needle. .@asa as L r
A woman in suffering; but girl, scarcely more
than child in years; eyes gfaring feverishly in
their hollow sockets, cheeks sunken, lips pinched
and white and the dead, blank look of misery and
want on every lineament. - ee
This girl-woman, by the death of her father, a
hard-working laborer who all his life toiled late
and early for rent money and bread; and when he
could work no more, died, had become the only
protector and hope of the brother and sister, little
children, whom you may see sleeping now upon
the bed in in FOUNDER corner of miserable room
To Keep them in bread and home, the grl-woman
works at her needle sixteen hours day-works
until pulse is everish, eyes hot and dim.a.d lungs
heavy as lead-for which she gets per day from
sixteen to twenty five pennies; from whom, we
will not say for we wish to spare the feelings of
the sleek gentlemen who work up the lungs and
lives of women into merchandise. Well, sixteen
pennies per day is rather small capital upon which
the grl-woman is to support herself, and feed and
clothe her orphan brother and sister Even the
sixteen pennies will not last long, for the con-
sumption is busy at the life of the grl-women; in
a little while there will be grave dug for her.
your lips as you say,-sAny one that is not idle
and improvident can get along, the idle, the i'm
provident, the criminal, only are poor"-will you
tell US the particular sin of this girlwomen, who
is now digging her grave with the needle? You
can hear her grave cough, as, for an instant she
stops in her work and looks up with her feverish
eyes The particular sin of this girl if you please?
Life has never disclosed to her any of it's blos-
SONS nothing but its thorns. The joys of love,
the name of wife, the holy wealth of motherhood
can never be here. She is ;dedicating herself to
death, for the support of her brother and sister.
Now, of what sin is she guilty' Speak out sleek
gentleman. aa
Was it sin in her that her. father unable to
work any longer, fell sick and died! . -
When she is dead, the boy and girl, her broth
er and sister, will be cast friendless upon the
world without education or hope, in the open
square within the Tombs, the rope about his neck
and gibbet over his head the girl to come at last
to a death-bed by which will sit no comforters
but dishonor and shame
Nov, will you complacent gentlemen, tell US
wha. sin it is of this orphan boy and girl, that, by
father and sisters death, they cast adrft upon
the world. Their poverty is the effect of their
SIM you know-that is your doctrine-tell us the
particular sin! zd5 a
But, say you, this case is exceptional, and but
tor. your pockets over your we'll filled purses
Exceptional! O most convenient loop-hole !!
through which you can creep to escape the con.
sequences ofyour internal dogma.
This case is not exceptional. It is the case, in
some shape or other, of one half at least OF the
lagre cty's poor-poor, who are poor through no
fault of theirs, but who work straight for bre ad
as long as life's daylight holds out. the worst
scarcely one-fourth of the poor are poor from
their own fault. Bring out your statistics; lift the
veil which hides the secrets of society; and you
will find this to be truth, hard even for you to
get over. " S g3F17a@s
But. taking the other side of your dogma, by
which you all. complacent gentlemen, tell US, in
effect if not in so many werds--tRat pcealh IS hEe
sign of virtuous life spent IN honest efort--you
will alloy US to pause moment while en-
dearor to believe that you are not in earnest
that this dogma is only a joke of yours, very
brutal Joke, vet still intended for joke. as
Wealth always, or in one case out of three
| is the symbol of a virtuous life spent in honest
effort. g1tsls. sa.s ss.e Ees-.sa ..l...s.
Horrible mockery! Where lis the man who
dares trace to their real source FIVE out of ten o
the great fortunes of this metropolis? The mar
dos s not live who dares do it. And if such mar
did live, his disclosures, or rather his analysis
would cause him to be hunted forth like a wilt
beast from the pale Of city civilization. -.
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