Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-01-27
"PERS VERE.m
POMEROY, OHIO.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1857.
COLD WEATHER.

H~Oa S'.N~
titution. The widow and fatherless chill
dren in their Affections. Thou, Oh! Lord,
art husband to the widow, father to the
orphan, and canst shelter them from the
chilling blasts of the inclement season, and
fully satisfy their hunger with bread; for
Thine is the earth, Oh, Lord! and the full
ness thereof! The gold and the silver are
Thine, and the cattle on thousand hills"
The prayer made an unusual impression on
our mind, and train of reflections crowd
ed themselves upon us so wildly and fast,
that we entirely lost the sermon which fol-
lowed, and cannot now recall even the sub
ject of the discourse. Stepping, as we
did, from the warm church, into an at
mosphere Of ten degrees below zero, and
fastening through the biting frost to our
own comfortable room, we commenced, in
voluntarily almost, to repeat the prayer,
"God be merciful to the poor and needy
in their dcstitution. The widow and faith
erleSs in their afflictions" when suddenly
the train of thought which lost us the SER
mon returned, and we thought, that lay
man as we are, our readers would forgive
us if we should even presume to preach
them short lay Lecture through the Tel
egraph.
The poor! The needy! The destitutc!
And are there such? And in a season
like this! Let us see. The papers of
Cincinnati are filed with scenes of patient
suffering among the virtuous poor of that
city, the recital of which almost congeals
tie blood! A city of 100000 people
without fuel in such winter as this! at
least without fuel for the poor. Hundreds
of widows and other females, who in the
best of times can but procure the merest
nccessariese of life by the most incessant
toll! Hundreds of honest men who de-
pend for the daily bread to support their
families, on their daily labor and labor not
to be obtained Hundreds more, sick and
wasted, dying by the slow torture of a
lingering starvation! Thousands Of Or
phan children as well as others, whose
only school is wretchedness, and whose
teachers are cold, hunger and want! Goal
is sixty cents n bushel, and when the poor
have by any means obtained dime or two
the choice must be made between the
chances of death by cold orstarvation. If
the pittauce is spent for fuel, hunger clings
to them and if for food, frost completes
the work of famine. Several who could
not obtain work, and were ashamed to
beg were found to have burnt up the last
article Of their furniture to save their chill
dren from freezing and had then sat down
TO wal what next? Yet in the midst
of all this the theatre is crowded nightly.
FHo ball and tie dance goes bravely on.
The gambling hells increase their victims.
The keepers of the grog shops take from
the miserable drunkard, in payment for
poisoned whisky, the very bread which
bencvolence has given to their famishing
children. And hundred churches point
their costly spires towards Heaven, while
wealthy Christiansl from warm and velvet
cushioned pews complacently thank God
that hey have plenty, and piously ask HIM
to shelter the outcast, and clothe and feed
the naked and hungry.
But we need not go from home to find
Instances of intense suffering. Here in
Pomeroy, are those whose struggles for
mere existence, if fully known would
move all hearts. 1t is true we have abun-
dance of fuel in our town. But how are
the poor to obtain it even here? With the
present prices of provision how is a wo-
man to provide shelter, fuel, food and
clothing, for herself and children? And
we have many suchl How true it is thai
"the poverty of the poor is their destluc'
ton" For be it remembered, that the less
able any one is to work, the less likely
they will be to find employment, and Tie
less the reward when it is done. Without
the possibility Of providing themselves
comfortable homes, they are necessarily
compelled to accept such tenements a;
others will not occupy; wretched sheds
through whose open rents, the wintry
blasts and driving snow, enwrap the shiv
ering inmates. In these miserable abodes
where stove and furnace could not drive
out the frost, the scarcity of fuel but cheats
the half froze children with the mockery
heat. Add to all this, the want of sucl
clothing as the more fortunate find essen
tia to their comfort, while sitting by th'
glowing fires in their close warm homes
and the music of children crying for bread
and YOU have faint outline of the condi
ton of many, even amongst us.
Yet thc earth is the Lords, and TIN
fulness thereof. The gold and the silve