Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-05-15
Written for the Chronicle.
Our Chicago Letter.
CHICAGO, Saturday, May 9, 1868.

| that not less than ten million dollars will
be expended in building during the season.
| Many of the structures being erected are
of imposing appearance and very costly.
Indeed, it is confidently asserted that some
of the blocks just built and now being put
| up on State street are not surpassed for
elegance, beauty and cost in the United
States. This makes business very lively
among mechanics, and skilled workmen
have steady employment, at wages which
to you may seem large. Yet few of them
save money, and the great majority barely
| make the two ends meet
| There are at least 20, 600 mechanics who
have served, or profess to have served,
regular apprenticeship, now working in
| Chicago, and the wages received by some
of the principal classes are as follows !:
Plasterers are getting from $500 to $3.50
per day carpenters and house-builders
from 1925 to $500; stone masons from
$3.50 to S4.75; bricklayers from $3.50 to
| $500. Of carriage makers the different
classes are paid as follows; blacksmiths,
1925 to $3.50; wood workers, 1915 to
$3.50; finshers, 1926 to $500; and
trimmers $500 to $3.50. Maehinists re-
ceive from $3.50 to $500; painters from
1926 to $780, saddle and harness ma
kers from $12 to $40 per week and tin
smiths about the same. These are the
highest wages paid, and it is probable that
the average of all mechanics is not more
than $l8 per week.
AS has been said, these wages may seem
high to you, and your mechanic readers,
but when rents and the prices of provis-
ions are taken into consideration, they
are really low, and it is on'y by rigid econ
omy that mechanics with families-and
most of them are blessed with large ones
can lay up anything for rainy day.
In the first place, business is SO con-.
Quoted nowadays, in large cities, that
very few mechanics have work the year
round. Manufacturing establishments are
arranged so that great force can be put
on in the busy season, and when it is
over, all but few hands are discharged
out door mechanics are prevented by the
weather from working large portion Of
the time, and in other trades the business
is done in three or four months Of the
twelve. To be idle in city like Chicago,
is to spend money, and continued idleness
generally ends in dissipated habits. Thus
it is that even when at work, no small
portion of mechanics wages go to the rum
shop on Saturday night. Many spend the
most Of their money in such places, and
but for this custom, one half of the two
thousand saloons in the city would be COM
PEELED to close.
But with sobriety, economy, and steady
work, the city mechanic is not so well off
as his brother in country towns, and not
near so likely to establish himself in bnsi-
ness, and eventually acquire a competency
High rent is one of the chief drawbacks
Such houses as majority of your indus
trious mechanics occupy, if they do not
own, rent for more in Chicago than an Or
binary workman earns. Small cottages
and they are very small, without yard,
garden or out house-rent for from $50 to
$40 per month; comfortable two-story
houses from 5000 to 81 300 year. and
first class houses from $4,000 to $4,000.
The highest figures are those generally
demanded, so mechanics are compelled to
go to the outskirts of the city. three or
four miles from where they work, or hire
rooms in the large tenement houses down
town. The latter course is generally
adopted, and to say nothing of its incon-
venience, is prolific of contention and i'm
morality. There is an old saying that no
one house is large enough for two families,
What then must be the state of things
when half a dozen are all huddled under
one roof. OF the people thus thrown to-
gether, some are always vicious and i'm
moral, and as it is easier to pull down than
build up, it is plain to see whose influence
is likely to prevail in these little commun-
tiles. The demoralizing effects of such as
sociations are visible upon all, and particu.
larly upon children and young girls just
budding into womanhood.
But tenement houses with all their evils
are several degrees above city boarding
houses. The men and women are COM
PEELED to mix with their fellows, or be the
subject of remarks to which few are willing
to submit. Many mechanics, with wives
but no children, live in boarding houses,
and pay from $1l to SIG per week for in
different food and eight by ten rooms. 1t
is said that two-thirds of the people in
Chicago board, and your correspondent
thinks the estimate low one. the pro-
portion of mechanics is quite large-prob
ably thirty per cent.
There is no animal with keener scent
than the pickpocket, thief or confidence
man, and it is good evidence of an ap-
preaching crowd at the Soldiers and Sal
lors' and Republican National Conventions
that large numbers Of these fraternities
have already arrived. They are sharp and
bold fellows, and visitors will do we'll to
fight shy Of them. A remarkably bold
| robbery was committed by one of these
fellows, yesterday, in broad daylight, and
in the very heart of the city. Entering a
| pawnbroker's shop, he made small pur-
chase, and then asked to see diamond
ring worth $4,000. This he placed upon
his finger, walked rapidly out of the front
| door, fastening it on the outside, and dis
| appeared before the astonished clerk could
recover his wits and follow him by the
side door,
The Soldiers and Sailors Convention
meets on the 10th it will be remembered
the day before the Republican Convention.
1t is now known that large delegations will
be present from most of the states. Tick
cts may be procured at the Matteson House,
and the convention meets at Turner Hall
on the north side.
At the same place, on the 18th of June,
will be held the sixteenth festival of the
North American Singers Union, (Senger-
fest DIES Observation-Disclosures S@ngerbund.
or words to that effect, you know,) when
music loving Germans will be present from
| oil ro rte If tho cauDty