Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-08-01
MORNING LEADER.

lVlite Refagees At CairO-Iheir Desti.
tutiOn-GOOd SisIts-EIle Necessity OF
Relief.
A correspondent Of the Chicago Tfi-
bune thus writes:
Refugees are still arriving at this post in
large numbers. They are devoid of cloth
ing food or money, and repose upon the
levee, unprotected by a friendly ROOT, and
without any means of helping themselves.
In fact, many Of them do not appear to
have the desire to help themselves. If
they desired it ever so much, however,
the could not. Ninety-fve Of these poor
houseless wretches, driven from their
homes at the South by the conscription
officer and the fear of starvation for them
selves and little ones, arrived last night on
the steamer Belle St. Louis. As write
the most helpless portion Of the number
lie upon the hard ground, within my
view, covered only by the filthy rags they
have brought from Secessia, the thermome-
ter at 80, and their unprotected
heads and faces exposed to the
fun blaze of the noon-day sun. -Four
died before morning How many more
may die ere night sets in, Providence
can only foretel. But a single, rough,
small coffin Of unpainted pine, borne up
on the shoulders of a colOred man, in the
direction of the group, informs me that
one more "poor unfortunate has been
added to the hundreds which repSse in our
city cemetery or in the potters field.
There is mother and her two children,
one barely out of arms, sitting beneath
the body Of a wagon, upon which is load
ed her household goods. She is tanning
their fevered and PROSTATE forms with an
old newspaper, and waiting-for what
What should one wait for beneath that
broiling sun ?-Death
Just near neighbor to this mother Is
wife attending apparently the last hours
Of her poor war emaciated husband. Be
yond her sits man who, more fortunate
than the remainder, has possessed himself
Of an old umbrella, perched upon pile Of
bedding, looking upon the sutferings Of
those around him with peculiarly idiot
ic stare. he IS either drunk o. mad
perhaps a little of both. God knows he
has suffered enough to be permitted
blank space in existence, purchased even
al the expense Of his brains or his souls
salyation Little children's forms press
the fiuJy leyee, cOmely women-a few on
Lyle upon the nard earth, their faces to
the sun. And as the wheels Of cart dray
and wagon, and the feet Of pedestrians
pass them they turn not neither do they
give forth any signs OF life.
These refugees arc nearly all Of the
class deuominated -the poor white
trash They have not, many ofthern, the
good sense 10 move from The levee and
gain be shade Of building. or some
place where the SUMS rays do not strike
iull upon them. They do not have the in
telligence Of animals. Whether 1t is that
they never had II, or whether they have
suffered lntraveling from their homes un-
I'll the little sense they once had has flown
from them, l am unable TO say; but a
horse Or u mule as long as it had the power
OF locomotion, would try TO do something
to get out of the deathly place in which
these human beings have been dumped
after leaving the steamboat. These people
do not move, or Try to move. The Relief
Society will call fOI them IN due aeason, if
they live long enough, and take them
away. This Is what they wait for, or If
the society fails them, the y. ). Quarter
master viii cause them to "move on, and
give them transportation 10 a cooler eli
mate-if they be not chilled in death ere
he arrives. -.--r- 81. --..--
A fund should be raised among the be-
nevolent cities Of the North, aud sent
here to the Cairo Refugees Relief Society,
to be expended in relieving the wants Of
their poor suffering people. Cairo does
much-but no single city in the Union
could well sustain the demand that for
year past, mas been pulling at the purse
strings of our inhabitants. Who Will
help Us? ..