The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-11-08

1
Mercantile houses are getting along
with fewer salesman, porters and dray-
men. Building operations are con-
fined exclusively to the completion of
work already under way. The banks
seem to have tided over the storm,
but the depressing effects of the dis
aster are now beginning to be felt by
hegeneral business community. From
present indications it seems that the
suffering soon to ensue to the poorer
classes must be simply appalling.
There is no prospect whatever that
the laborers recently thrown out of
employment will be able to obtain
any steady work until Spring. What
they are to do until then cannot sur
mise. Their old employers have moth
ing for them to do. But the difficulty
does not stop here. In all probable
ity the number of unemployed per-
sons in the District WColumbia will
be doubled or trebled within the next
few weeks. The two thousand men
upon our streets seeking for some hon
est employment byi which to earn
their bread win soon be joined by
another army equally as large. The
extensive improvements of the streets
and public parks have attracted hither
thousands of laboring people. Soon
this work will be stopped altogether,
and what these people are to do then
is question for which I cannot shape
any reply. But they must have bread
for themselves and their families.
They must have coal to keep them
selves and their loved ones from freez-
ing. Where their bread and their coal
is to come from no one knows.
1t were small matter if none but
the rich were affected by these panics.
1t We're an affair of no moment if the
panic had ended in the smashing mp
of a lot of bankers and SPECTATORS.
No one fears that the banker when he
fails will go hungry for food. No one
is anxious lest the tock-speculator's
wife should have to go in rags. No
one fancies that the children of the
bankrupt gold broker will suffer with
cold. Though the banker and the gold
broker, and the stock-speculator, may
!" fail y for their hundreds of thousands,
or for millions, they will not fail for
the necessaries of life. They viii con-
tinue to eat..healthy food; they will
continue to clothe themselves COM
fortably; they will still build blazing
fires on their hearthstones. Who is
fool enough to fancy that Jay Cooke
will be seen wandering through the
streets seeking employment by which
to earn his living. Where is the idiot
who thinks that Henry d. Cooke will
ever come before the Civil Service
Examining Board to compete for a
$1,000 clerkship. Though such men
are bankrupts, millions of dollars
worse than nothing, they will exper-
fence no suffering. 1t is on the should
ers of the laboring men that the bur-
den must fall. They who produce our
wealth are the men and the women
who must suffer want because of the
wild extravaganza and the foolish
speculations of men who never knew
what it was to earn an honest dollar.
But Washington is not the only
place where the suffering is already
becoming apparent. The cry is uni
versal. 1t is worse in the large cities
and in manufacturing towns. The
farmer is to a certain extent indepen-
dent. He may have to deny himself
comforts. He may have to wear
patched pants, his wife may have to
mend up her old calico dresses, but
out in his corn crib he has great heaps
of yellow grain back in the woods -
are scores Of tall trees, which, yielding
to his sturdy blows, will be made into
fire-wood to make his home cheerful
and warm. The poor man in the city
has no corn crib, no forest trees. He
depends upon others, and others will
not supply him without money. But
money he can not have without work.
And work he can not get.
This is gloomy picture, but there
will be gloomier ones drawn within
the next six months. / am not over