The Republican journal., 1871-01-26
LETTER FROM BOSTON.
Correspondence ofthe journal.

Correspondence Of the journal.
The Hard Times---Many People Willing to |
Labor, but Nothing to do --- Charitable
Funds---Fechter a Good Samaritan---Books |
and How They are Made--.Other Items.
BOsrON, Jan. q, 1871.
SUCH HARD TIMES!
is the prevailing cry of the people in this
community And as for that matter. like the
cry Of the Israelites, the same sound ascends
from all the land. Though it is in our large
cities, with their overcrowded populations.
that the general depression Of business and
consequent lack of labor is most keenly felt.
It is here that poverty makes the closest &C
quaintance with persons, grips the hardest
and holds on longest. And the popular opin-
ion of all people who have ever been famil-
lar with this skinny-faced individual is, that
he is never an agreeable companion, though
it's very consolng to ones pride to reflect
that you might be found in worse company.
Many families il their quiet country homes,
may doubtless to-day be suffering privation
and want, ard yet poverty in its most pititul
sense, in its direst and most repellant form,
wasting, wearing, heart -rending sights,
they can know but little about, in compari-
son with the wretched, abject. despairing,
half-starved objects of humanity that go in
and out from city habitations-if habitations
they chance to have, for the saying of Shak-
spear that
He who has house to put his head in
Has nice head-cOvering''-
is in these cases very seldom realized. The
daily papers of Boston bear witness to the
fact, that the numbers Of persons seeking
lodgings in police stations, are largely in
creased since the advent of cold weather.
glad of a chance to sleep on the soft side of
a plank, rather than freeze in the open streets.
And it is not alone the idle, the va
grants, the disorderly, that suffer in this way,
but many sober honest, industrious and in
telligent persons, who would willingly labor
if they had a chance 1t is estimated that
there are at present over fifteen hundred girls
out Of employment alone, besides very
large number Of men. In New York cir
cumstances are represented as being much
worse. Perhaps in no time within the last
dozen years has absolute want stalked SO
closely to the doors of so many people
OF course there is much done to mitigate
and reduce this large amount OF sorrow and
suffering, for Boston is q large hearted, phi
lanthropic city, constantly engaged in CHART
able works. But charity, we are told, be-
gins at home; and the full meaning Of this
text many of even the liberal minded Hubitcs
seem not to clearly comprehend; as wit
ness the sending off, by the various churches,
of over $4,000 within the week, to teach I'M
fortunate heathens the blessings of civiliza
ton, whilst the North End Mission languishes
for want of means.
"Where ignorance is bliss it's folly to be
wise"-and perhaps some of the miserable
denizens of North street, would be glad TO
exchange places with the comfortable, con-
tented Sandwich Islanders for little while.
FIGHTER
IS at present in the front ranks Of those who
60 about doing good, and is much praised
for his generosity, for he has chosen to let his
g right hand know what his left hand doeth. y
The giving of the whole proceeds of his
great benefit, amounting to over $4,000, to
charitable institutions was certainly a very
warm-hearted, liberal and commendable
deed; and no one has right to say that the
motive which prompted it was other than Il
pure one. hot-tempered, impulsive indi-
vidual, he evidently is; but such men are
those who carry their hearts in one hand and
their purses in the other, and whose ears are
always open to the cries of distress,
BOOK MAKING,
like great many other trades, is queer bust
ness, and doubtless there are but few per-
sons, ON sitting down with q superbly bound
copy of their favorite author in hand, who
ever think of the places doubtfully clean, or
the rough passages it has made since its exit
from the authors brain, until it safely reach
ed them. Poe at one time stripped fancy
from facts, and laid bare the whole secrets of
composing, showing that the best efforts of
authors was not all fine phrenzy, OF ready
imagination, but the hardest possible kind Of
drudgery. Facts in the lives of other well
known literary persons give additional testi-
mony to this truth. Commencing with hard
labor, it goes on in the same way through the
various processes Of printing, engraving,
folding, FASTING, sewing, binding and gid
ing, until it is finally laid upon the book-sel-
ler's Shelf completed. Through dusty shops,
on dirty benches, in soiled hands-wrought
upon and worked over without Il thought of
the grand truths they contain; handled and
talked about like any other property, and not
as part and parcel of some authors life
This is the amusing style in which they are
discussed: Sew up five hundred Ragged
Dicks" and " send one hundred Little Wo-
men down stairs" Lay Faith Gartney on
the upper shelf, and put Tennyson in box
81 don't care anything about Yesterdays now,
but shall have one hundred Moods today
How authors would shrink to hear the off
springs of their brains thus Familiarity treated.
THE FIRST BOOK
to bear the impress of the new publishing
firm of James r. Osgood & Co.,, is Woven
of Many Threads" The young lady writer
is q resident of New York, but her name has
not yet developed. 1t is a suffering story of
suffering love, and commences, 'Readcr