Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-03-14


s1MoNY-wHAT MIGHT BE DONE
&C. &C., &c.
When councilman Burke the other mig ht made
a verv brief, but very earnest appeal to The
en- or eight warm and comfortable looking gen
tlemen sitting around the council board. Tor
something BETTER" tor the paupers Of the city,
some of hose suffprings he is compelled, in the
position of chairman of the Committee on the
Poor, to witness, there were very few OF those
who heard it remembered long tits 30 hard for
weak humanity with good blanket to remember
still weaker humanity that hasn't any blanket
at ALL And then it is hard to realize the exls-
tence of such II state Of things in Christian
community as this reporter is about to relate
and so they are not 81 much to blame. A few
DAYS since, Just after the btterest of cold spells,
when the thermometer had been down to 2 de-
grees below zero, we determined to look into
this matter, and below we give few cases found
in radius of four hun red yards around the
council chamber
On Thursday night, when the thermometer
was two degrees below zero, there lay on oun-
die of straw, in dark room, deserted wife.
about % years of age about giving birth to ii
child. There no living creature in calling
distance and no physician near, and in that
condition of a. fairs the child was born, the moth
er hardly having covering enough to keep her
little one from freezing, still less to keep herself
warm. There the woman lay, through the long
hours of the bitter cold night The room was
not air tight and through the crevces til sharp
wind from without added 10 the misery that fill
ed it within. The apartment contained one
broken chair, and that was all its furniture,
and one or two cooking utensils finished the in
ventory of articles. And this woman Was a
pension on the city. And this is Christian
city.
ADEATH.
A few weeks ago, d woman aged so years, the
daughter of a man who in his time was the larg
est merchant in Staun ton, fell sick. She had
been struggling along with what is ironically
called "aid'' from the city, when she became ut
terly helpless, and applied to the overseer OF the
poor of her ward for place of refuge. The only
place he could find, was room rented by wo-
man. whose own poverty forced her to take III
such a boarder, AMI there the poor creature lin
gered, and when she died, which Was after three
or four weeks, the funeral array consisted OF
a hearse and driver and the good woman who
had tended her, and the 'simple but impressive
service for the dead ;" was the impatient oath OF
she driver, as the rough wooden box containing
the .maciated form, crowned with the gray hair
of the pauper jostled against The sides as it Was
thrust H. And yet there had been time when
the dead woman had moved among people ct
wealth, and when the poor thin hands now al
most touched by the rough top of the box, had
lovingly smoothed the hair OF children which
were her own.
THEGA LIFE THEY LEAD.
Our reporter took the rounds, and visited
some of the sufferers from the cty's attention"
Going into one house he found an old man, par
alyzed and unable to walk, sitting in d little
room, the ceiling of which the visitors head
yearly touched. Near him Was narrow bed
w 9TH no linen on it. A smart active looking
won.an who boards him for the city at 81 per
month. was preparing dinner. The old man,
though unable to talk plain, by holding up u
dilapidat, I'd shoe managed to humble COM
plaiut for u new pair. The woman explained
that be had l,ad them four yeas, and playfullJ
diverted his xltenlion from his trouble with
"Johnny wants his dinner don't he y ruse
which succeeded to The extent of Causing John .
nyn promptly to remove his eyes t. the dinner
pot, with an earnest gaze, AS If he expected the
dinner to pop out ready to De eaten. Inc LADY
in charge, wiry looking person, with pierre
inq black eve, explained every thing that John
nv said. her explanation being chiefly to The
effect tina. he was we'll satisfied with his condi-
ton, statement that Johnny with the phantom
shoe still in his hand, and his eye gazing hxedly
on the lid of the pot, did not seem disposed to
contradict. Poor fellow, the bright sunshine out
side was nothing to him, nor could ne ever get
to see the green trees again, and all he had to do
was to sit still ia his dark room and listen 10 the
laughter of the romping children In the neigh
boring street which he shall never see, until some
night he shall get into his little narrow bed, old
and lame, and detormed, and blind, and shall
wake up where all is sunshine, and there art
green trees and bright flowers, and where there
shall be children he see and hear, for he shall
be one of them. A I'D it shall be very small
matter as he looks back that he shall see his ug
ly deformed body, hauled out OF tine dark room
through the muddy alley and to the "Potter's
field" for burial.
AT another place We went to, there was q
mother and ave children, in single room, with
not one particle of furniture and on the floor in
one corner some straw scantly covered with q
Counterpart Huddled around a little FIRE. made
of wool furnished by the city, was the whole
family, ons child being sick was trying to get q
slight additional warmth by backing himself IL
against the side of the chimney. The mother
100 was sick When asked why she did no
have better fire she said with a wan smile
that she was ''tryiug to make the wood last ss
long as it would" This woman, as the gentle
imam who accompanied US said, was willing Il
work when she was WE'LL
SEND THEM TO JAIL.
Not long since, there was put off the ars her
a, respectable workingman Of Appomattox Co.
ho was fatally Ill of typhoid fever The over
seer whose attention was called to the case
could get no one to take him in, and he was b.
permit 7sion Of the kind he.rted ailor, sent to tn
CITY i4il Wheu his mother came to witness hi
last no YRS, she was escorted to the prison
When his body WAS put on the Cars to be sen
home, it was carried out of prison, and whe
his soul went forth to appear before Him VIII
said 1.-THE poor ye have always with you"
went through the bars OF prison window-thi
man who had committed no crime save bein
poor.
THE SYSTEM AS IT NOW Is.
One would think after reading these staemen is
,uhi oh org L. ,f hat W