Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-05-25
EDITORIAL coaaEspoSpKscE.
AsroR HOUSE, NEW YORK, May le


scribable hub bub and confusion. An old
traveller, who has been accustomed to be-
holding the :" sights I" of the world might
essay TO write something about the pecu-
liarities of this city, but an amateur, who has
scarcely ever wandered from the hospitable
walls of his paternal home, is awe-struck
with the hustle, confusion, gaiety, wealth,
poverty, misery, wickedness and depravity
strangely mingled together within the linn
its of this modern Babylon. Here we be-
hold an Immense army of beggars plying
their vocation upon every street, resorting
to every means which the ingenuity OF
man can invent to attract the attention of
the multitude passing by, and thus render
ing their professional the term may be
allowed-a success. And they, in many
instances, do make it a success With their
assumed poverty and distress, their hand
organs, their hypocritical winnings, and
every manner of deception, they work
upon the sympathies of passers-by, and
penny by penny they collect and hoard
sSyay their receipts, until, we are told,
many of them have acquired what plain
country people would consider fortune.
They feign blindness; they appear deathly
pale by the use of preparations compound
ed for the purpose; they hire dwarfs and
cripples, giving them Il scanty sum of what
is realized; they array themselves in filthy
rags, and are the most woe-begone looking
creatures in the world, and have really re-
duced their vocation to a profession, by
which they not only acquire a livelihood,
but in many instances wealth and attlu-
euce.
These are the professional beggars. But
there are TO be found here thousands of
men, women and children who are born,
and who live and die in AFFECT poverty and
want. There are those who have never
known anything about plentiful meals,
comfortable beds, and pleasant homes.
They never wear any but secondhand
clothing, eat no food except such as is re-
fused by the more Fortunate and who take
shelter from the storms of earth wherever
the chances of life happen to throw them.
There are admirable arrangements here
on the part of benevolent men and women
TO relieve the dreadful misery of this class
Of persons, but Notwithstanding their eff
forts, il would be utterly impossible to con-
vey upon paper any adequate idea of the
suffering and misery which they undergo.
Why so many of the poverty-stricken will
congregate in large cities in our country,
and there breathe out miserable existence
when they could always have access to the
country in communities not so densely
populated, and there gain a comfortable
livelihood, has always been mystery t.
W. Here there are thousands now who
cannot get away; but if all would go who
could, their number would soon become
largely diminished.
Aside from the beggars, the sole object
Of the inhabitants of New York seems tC
be TO make money Money is their god
and right faithful worshipers are they
They have no time for social enjoyment
They talk nothing but business. They
think of nothing but stocks, bonds, gold
merchandise, shipping, banking, ledgers
journals, bills of exchange, and all the para
phernalia necessary To the management o
business. They dream not of fairy land,
and scenes of pleasure, but of countin,
rooms and business centres. To this enc
they crowd the great thoroughfares from
early morning till midnight hours, rush
ing TO and fro as if their very existence de
pended upon the efforts of moment.
Among the celebrities we have had tim
10 visit is the Gold-Room and Stock Ex
change, the greatest gambling houses o
this or any other continent. Here fortune
are made and lost in the twinkling of al
eye. Men visit and take part in the trans
actions, who one hour may possess thei
thousands, and the next be reduced t
paupers. None except the privileged
are permitted inside the circles. We wen
as a spectator, and our visit did not give u
an aspiration TO become a member of tn
gold board" and have "ticket'' to @
within the enclosure. The whole proceed
ings struck us a. being worthy only of ra
wing nladmen. Their jargon was about a
Ineligible to Us as the yelling of so man
Comanches, every man talking at III
same time, and each striving TO speak loud
er than the other. A friend of ours fror
Knoxville said he could only compare il {
corn-husking in our country in olde
times, atwhich everybody was about ''hal
eorned," the pile divided into two part,
and contest going on as TO which woul
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