The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-02-22
What Comes from the Aeh Barrels .

The following, from the pen Of Mrs Frances
ID. Gage, published in the Ohio Farmer, is a
good description of low life in n. Y. city The
number OF inhabitants accorded by the writer is
by far too SMALL however, twice that number,
one million, would be nearer correct:
1t is IN old saying, and true one, that one
half Of the world does not know how the other
half lives" Here in New York are nearly hall
million of people. Rents arc cnorlnous--a
garrett five stories in the air, low dark, unblest
with any modern improvement, usually rents at
five to eight dollars a month at the lowest
Beefstcaks at forty cents q pound, and every
thing else graduated proportionally.
How do the poor live?
You may well ask the question, and we may
ask another, which puzzles us quite as much.
How do the common class, who are not poor,
1--we for call no man or woman who has two
good hands, q healthy body and q reasonable
brain, poor. But live they do and were you to
see many of them upon the street. you would
never dream that privation or want had been
their neighbors, much less their intimate bosom
friends
"Out of my window" can see across the
street. in little nook or enclosure at the erd of
stately brick house on corner, five stories
high, and fronting upon two streets, three ash
barrels, which were to me wonder and II revc-
lation for many weeks, as / sat in my arm chair,
helpless and glad to amuse myself rs I could.
Every morning the barrels were full to overflow
ing-every evening they were empty And
what of III the thoughtless dwellcr in the
country will ask.
Much, my friend much that leads ont into
by-ways and highways, that, if we dare to follow
where they lead, would open to us doors of trade,
commerce, agriculture and mechanism, that
would astonish and interest, and perchance
amuse, or stir up in the depths of our souls sym.
pathy and kindness, and care and economy that
has never before been awakened into active ex.
istence. F.I. II.
A very simple thing it is to fill the bucket
WIN the worthless coal ashes in the morning,
and carry 1t forth TO fill hollow or raync in
the garden, or build crossing over muddy
street in the coantry town or village but the
ash barrels Of the city have more complicated
history a ~ = -
The brick house on tho corner has at least one
hundred tenants every room, nook and closet
swar'ns with human life. A liquor store. a
grocery, a tier Of rooms occupied by women who
work seamstrcsses, tailor shops, nurseries, and
l know not what Each one Of these families,
or dodgers, brings down at morning his or her
bucket OF ashes, pours it into the barrel, and
retires to the nook whence he or she came.
Now commences the process of distribution.
An old woman, with bag on her back. half
osnt, her old greasy hood and her tattercd gar
inents making one feel pitcousy for her age, her
Jumping limbs, and heavy burden, comes up. laws
down her pack by the barrel, and with a long
iron hook turns over the contents Of the same.
VERY scrap OF paper, every bit Of rag, cvory
pairing or thread that can be turned to account,
goes into her bag and adds to the bulky load
under which she bends. On she trudges to the
nexs barrel in the next yard, only too gay il sho
| IS inc first to CLEAN. She is followed III she is
not crowded away perhaps, by rolicking boy {;
! ~ comes with hop, skip and Jump around the