Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-02-01
The Proposed Supper to the Mem.
beers OF the Legislature.

The Proposed Supper TO the Mem.
bers OF the Legislature.
Editors Of he LHteligencer.
On next Wednesday night we are to have
a grand subscription supper at Washington
Hallg, given as an ovAtionto the members
of the Legislature.-I, like many others of
my fellow citizens am a subscriber to the
amount of FIVE dollars. feel ashamed to
own the fact. ! think ought to be.
think all the subscribers ought to be.
belieye-mauy Of them are Indeed, | know
it. For look, Messrs. Editors, at the sur
roundiugs of the case. Here, we have in
scores OF people, begging their bread from
door to door each day. Absolutely craving
miserable pittance to keep their miser-
able bodies and souls together. 1t was
bat the other day that the wives and
mothers and daughters of our 'citizeu
soldieryn invaded the halls OF tue legisla-
ture, seeking each one q small sum where
with 20 procure food. There was immi-
nent danger Of a bread riot in our midst just
then. And not day passes that these
same wives and mothers and daughters of
our sOldiery do not either in u private or
public way, tax the charity of the be-
nevolent and the patriotic. They can
not be refused of course, for they
must live. Yet the tax is oner-
Gus nevertheless. No one can refuse
to give however. Bread must be dividep
as long as some have it and others have
not. OF this hardship no one can COM
plain 1t is something against which no
one could have provided and for which no
I citizen is responsible. But what do COM
plain OF, Messrs. Editors, and what | am
ashamed of, is that amidst circumstances
| such as these-amidst daily unprecedent-
ed scenes of suffering, and hunger ana
cold, money to the amount of FIVE, six OF
seven hundred dollars is raised for a sup
1 per-for one nights fill of oysters and
wine.
And for whom is it raised? Why, ,irs,
/ for the members Of The Legislature! For a
body OF men who are rouudly and prompt
/ ly paid for their services to the tune of
! four dollars per day. For body of men,
/ Messrs. Editors, who these terrible times,
should be the lost objects of pecuniary
attention. Most, if not all tie members,
/ so far as we know them, are men who are
/ well TO do in the worldwide have plenty
and to spare both at home and away from
home. Not so is it with suffering hundreds
of this city whose labor has been cut Off
! whose husbands and sons are away fight
ing the battles of their country, and whose
| hourse threats each morning, noon and
night cry to heaven for bread and meat.
The lean stomachs of these poor people
Will on next Wednesday night crave the
very otfal of that supper. Day after day ma
ny Of them as we ali know, or as we all can
easily know, 20 without more than a meagre
morsel of cold, coarse and unwholesome
food. And yet, if this subscription had
been asked to supply these poor wretches
with the commouest comforts, 1t could not
have been raised. Iblush to say it, Messrs
Editors, but it is the truth. No, sirs, that
five or six or seven hundred dollars that is
freely given for one nights fill of oysters
and wine, could not have been raised tC
ease the wants of these poor. The here.
totore labors of those among us who arc
always foremost in every good word aut
work, are proof of what say.
Sirs, do not begrudge men their appe
titles who will participate in this supper
next Wednesday night. confess that
have neither heart or stomach for it.
feel rather as if ought to keep it as ar
evening of fasting and penitence for my
false stewardship, and that of others O.
my fellow citizens, who, like me, are sub.
scribers. l cannot hide from my eyes thai
this is the bleak winter time in the year
and that We are in the midst of dark and
dreadful and uncertain rebellion. 1t is nc
to make merry about. Festivities, public OF
private, sound to me like laughter in thu
house of death. We know that dark day!
are on US, and all round us, and that darker
days of debt and tax and want are yet t.
come. Why, then, 90 we mock the
prophecies of season of great Attic.
ton. For one, l feel that our Legisla.
ture ought, in the spirit of common
humanity, to say nothing about christians
ty, to forego their oyster and wine ova,
ton. They ought to do more. The,
ought to refuse as individuals, and as {
body, to accept of it. They ought to sug
gest that the money be given to the FAM
lies of those who are out in their couutie!
defending them from invasion. The MAI
who in the Legislature should, in goot
faith, make move of this sort, and those
men who sincerely should vote for it, will
get credit in heaven and among all RICH
thinking people. Certainly there are meI
in our Legislature who have that patriotic
magnanimity of spirit which this day actu
atcs thousands of our common soldiers
If there are not then may we we'll sa,
God save the Commonwealth"
WHEELING Jan. alss, 1862.
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