Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-03-04
From he yracu a. W Courier
Three Pictures OG War ana
Taxation.


: In the reigbboring County Of oswego,
widow lady OF q family whose name is we'll
knosn IL that county had one hundred and
/ iifty scres Of good land set apart for her
dover in her husbands estate. This land was
leased by her for five years at four hundred
and fifty dollars per year, she having the taxes
4on the land 20 pay The taxes upon IL for
the present year are three hundred dollars
Thus, the war ard its consequent debt and
taxation have swept away two.thirds Of her
income aud lef; her the merest pittance
In this county OF Onondaga, a husband
and father died, leaving behind him a wife
and three dauvh,Crs-all then infants, Ia pro-
petly worth four thousand dollars and some
two thousand dollars in money The son,
when Of suitable age, went TO the wars,
and is dead The widow, too, has gone where
the wicked cease from Troubling, aud the wea-
/ ry are at rest Despite OF VII the commend
able and praiseworthy efforts Of the family,
+ the real estate alone remains 10 them Upon
this, some two hundred and forty dollars
in taxes must be paid this year and unless
the orphaned girls can earn so much besides
supplying their own needs, the homestead
| property must be gradually enCumbered to
4 pay the taxes, or sold
There are thousands Of cases Of equal
bardships in every county and State. There
are thousands, TO whom the last dollar aud
the last man is something more real than
a mere figure OF rhetoric or an ad capfaR-
dim political speech. The war takes the
widows and The orphan mite, bu' adds them
to the swollen Golfers OF the rich, and of The
| pampered contractors, SPECTATORS aud other
loyal" favoriles Of the government, and the
reverse OF the above picture is to be found in
every city among class of super6ne loyal
lists, who, clamorlng Tor the last man and the
last dollar, take the best care that they shall
be literally the last man to go the war so
long hs they can transfer the last dollar Of
the people 10 their own pockets by war con
tracts and war speculatons.
! In Washington, recently, a sumptuous
feast was gwen by contractor. The profits
on only twenty cannon manufactured by him
for our liberal government betrayed its lavish
expenses, Its cost was a hundred thousand
dollars. The invited guests we're seven hum
dred in number. Each guests entertainment
cost about one hundred and fifty dollars. The
| glories OF AIaddln's enchanted palace were re-
peated and daz2Ied the astonishsd crowd
Even the street was carpeted, lest the guests
shou d soil themselves by contact with the
base earth. This is the third picture, the
reverse Of the two former.
The steady tendency and necessary result
oi all these things is to annhilate all of our
Republican equality and simplicity of man
ners, to make the rich richer, and the poor
poorer Ito cramp the mnlitudes in pc nury,
want and destiution, as in vice. and to beget
profusion, o4tsntation and a deblslng luxus
ry among the favored few. 1t is building up
nurseries of misery and often crime, on the
one hand of boundless sensuality, self ndul.
gence and vice on the other. Itthreatens to
spread among us all the mischief of he So
cial systems Of the old world, its sordd mis-
cries, and its hesrtless pomps and splendors.
The war is doing this, and will continue to do
il aud not the heroic soldier, but the heart
less speculstor and tricky politician, and cor.
rupt treasury thieves, are to be ohr miserable
lordlings-fellows who know Just enough to
figure profit and loss, who have little brains,
less intelligence and no conscience, and the
little they have of either, is neither in the heart
or head, but in the pocket