Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1855-01-03

Opening Of the New Year.
New YORK, Dec. 81, 1854. I
The last day Of the year--we have ben
waiting the arrival of the steamship Atlanti,
to the last day Of the year, and still she doe
not comes Fifteen days out is a long trip ia
one Of the Collins steamers, even at this se@
son Of fogs and prevailing westerly winds. !
little anxiety begins to be felt for the abset
ship, rendered sharp by the sad remembrance
of the Arctic. But it has so often happened, thu
Sunday has brought up missing steamer, tha
no real alarm will be allowed concerning tie
Atlantic, until this day shall have passed owe,
without tidings of her whereabouts
This has been q terrible year upon the Az
lanic ocean steamers. The City Of Glasgow
with FIVE hundred souls on board, lost, leavins
not soul to escape, nor fragment Of th'
ship to tell the tale the Herman, the City o
Philadelphia, and the franklin, run aground
and destroyed among the rocks or the quick
sands; the Arctic, that dreadful disaster; but
the missing boats of the Arctic, filed witt
people from the ship, congratulatiEg them
selves in their escape, where are they7 Douh-
less, as well as the mass of the passengers
who went down with the otsamar, 49,
elm the deep bosom ofthe ocean bured.n
Shall the year close its record of these fearful
and calamitous scenes, with another chapter
for the Atlantic. 1t cannot be possible. I've
day is bright and calm !; she will surely come
in to-day. Some dislocation of her machinery,
or detention in the fogs, or she may haveput
back, as she did on one occasion before. Who
knows7 Let us wait through the day. Sun
day hardly ever fails to bring the steamer TAT
is behind time. She win surely come into
day. WV
1t is q melancholy task to review the gloomy
history Of this expiring year. The ulivehal
ravages Of the cholera in the old world andhe
new-tbe bloody work Of these murderous vars
in Greece, Turkey and the Crimea; the savlge
atrocities Of the Chinese revolution-the rso-
lutionary elections of Mexico, the Central AMIR
lean States, and the republican despotismspf
South America, the many disasters by storE$
and wrecks, and explosions, and collisions, any
fires, and earthquakes, and foundations; tie
cholera all along our Northern frontiers, a lont,
general, and desolating drought, particularly
severe through the central States ofthe Union
the scourge of the yellow fever in the South
bank failures, railroad frauds, &c, &C., mako
up, indeed, dark and dismal catalogue of dread
full judgments, and of the thousand suffering.
and misfortunes within the narrow limits of Z
single year.
II is relief to feel that this disastrous yea
Is at an end. What the new one may have il
store for us, God only knows. 1t brings hops
with it, at all events, of better times, bette
seasons, and better things. We may hav'
peace in Europe. Business may be restored t.
its accustomed channels, bread may becon'
cheaper with the opening Of spring, work plen
tiful, and the prospects of the industrial classe
may brighten into positive blessings. 1t il
something that we are about closing tie book
of the past year, and beginning with nes cal
endar.
But, alasl the beginning is sad cough in
this swarming hive Of destitute people. Look
at the daily papers Of this city. See the va
rious devices adopted and suggested forthe re
lief Of the starving poor. Observe the dali.
meetings of unemployed mechanics in the Park
and their revolutionary tendencies, inspired b.
the keen agonies of wives and children wasting
to the grave for lack of bread. One activ,
gentleman has collected schedule Of twenty
seven thousand destitute females in this singl,
city Of New York, imperiously demanding in
slant relief. Our streets swarm with beggars
1t was but yesterday that among them, thu
writer Of this encountered, in one Of our mos
public promenades, q woman with four small
children at her heels, clad with few loose rags
and all barefooted, soliciting penny to help 4
buy loaf Of bread. And this morning W,
we're witness to a violent quarrel between ,
man and woman over scrap of waste papeIii
the gutter, not worth the twentieth part 81 I.
cent They were chifoniers, that class who
gather up the loose scraps Of paper and rag
and bones from the cutters, which they cleal
up and assort for sale to the paper makers AM
the bone boiling establishments. To this clas
and to many other thousands, the soup kitd-
ems established by private and public subsdp.
tons are indeed windfall.
With this general suffering among our poG
and destitute with the opening Of the white,
what can we expect before the winter is enaed'
God help u.s. We shudder to think of it. The
corporation and our wealthy citizens are-nobly
laboring and contributing to prevent the shame
which would fall upon the community from
scenes Of death by starvation; but much more
Of relief, TO arrest such scenes, much more than
has yet been contributed, will yet be required
Fit be not provided, then we may anticipate q
taste Of the grand riots Of which our knowledge
heretofore has been limited TO the descriptions
Of such outbreaks in England, France, Ger
many, and Italy.
Starving men are not likely to be very tice