The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1867-02-26

TFrom the London Times, Jan. 20.
The Mechanics and LahOrers
Famishing---Twenty Thousand
Dock LabOrers Not Earning a
Shilling I'm Two Months.
At a meeting held at the Mansion
House number of communications on
the subject, which had been forwarded to
the Lord Mayor, we're handed in by him,
with a request that as they appeared to
contain much information in reference to
the state Of the population in the dis
tressed districts, and to be furnished by
persons on the spot, cur reporter would
give the material parts Of them. At a
meeting of the Poplar Board OF Guardi-
ans, held on the 9Th of January, it was
stated that the number of outdoor pau
pers had increased to such an extent that
the relieving officers had found it utterly
impossible for them to visit all who had
applied for relief. Mr.. Jeffries, the re-
lieving officer for the South District, had
nearly 1000 families on his books, each
family representing at least five persons.
He had been at work night and day, and
felt quite unequal to the strain. On the
previous day he had given away two tons
and FIVE hundredweight of bread. The
total number of persons relieved out Of
the house that week was S,319, being an
increase on that Of the corresponding
week Of last year of. 5,453, and the con-
tractor had supplied the Union with 16
tons 13 cwt. of bread in week, or 1924
loaves. That was in Poplar alone. A
gentleman residing in the West India
road, writing on Sunday last states that
he had visited many of the working peo-
pie at their houses in that neigborhood,
and that the distress among the laborers
and mechanics is appalling. Many of
them, he says, is quite disheartened, sit
ting within bare walls, with neither bed
nor clothing, and with their children al
most naked and famishing. Strong young
men had burst into tears on seeing him
enter, and pointed to their starving wives
and children in silent despair. Some
among them had been very improvident;
but others quite the reverse He had
that day relieved a young nan with four
children, who was an iron worker, and
had been out Of employment for many
months. He was teetotaller, and had
husbanded his saved earnings to the last,
and now, with his family, had nothing to
lie upon but the bare floor, and nothing
to cover them but single sheet The
Rector of Bethnal Green Mr.. Hansard)
writes that there is great deal Of dis
tress there; that the commercial panic, the
cholera, and the frost had severely affect
the working classes; that the rates are
now in the proportion of s.. in the pound
per year; that the work-house is full, ev-
cry spare place being occupied by bed,
and that on Tuesday last eight hours were
spent in lnquiring into the outdoor ca
ses. The pittance Of Is. or IS. a week he
says might wellbe supplemented BY pri-
vate benevoleuce. The Secretary of the
Dock and Wharf Laborers' Association,
High Street, Shadwell, writing on Satur-
day last, thinks he may safely say 10000
of those classes are now quite out of en-
ployment and had not earned a shilling
for the last two months; that probably To-
0J0 of them are dragging out a miserable
existence by pledging little things and
selling articles of furniture; and that the
rest are receiving scanty relief from the
parishes of White Chapel, Bethnal Green,
Spital6elds. Shadwell, Poplar and Wap-
ping. Another correspondent writes:
Sickenipg and heartrending have been
the scenes of distress | have Witnessed
during my four months voluntary en-
ployment Of doing what I could, in my
humble degree,:o assist in alleviating the
misery of some of my fellow-creatures.
Upwards of 500 families during that time
have been brought under my notice, and
can unhesltatingly affirm such season
of distress and misery was never before
experienced in this locality. lie addS
that during all the summer months, owing
to the scarcity of work and the visitation
ef cholera, many families bad to part
with articles of clothing, bedding, aud
everything upon which money could be
obtained, so that when, the winter set in
they had nothing left to dispose of, and
the pawnbrokers, whose shops are already
crammed with goods, care but to give the
merest trife for things which may never
be redeemed. Now the distress was fear
fully and palpably developed by the con-
tinuance of cold weather. To particu-
larize cases of distress, he says, is almosl
beyond his power. 1t is widespread and
almost universal. He has seen three and
four families of children in one house,
where the fathers have had perhaps moi
more than few weeks work since the
middle of last May, and twenty, thirty,
and even as many as sixty duplicates had
sometimes been shown hin, 1.-THE silent but
meurnful representatives of what wa;
once comfortable home.