The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-12-04
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
NEW YORK, November 80, 1874
PUBLIC BALLS

one of which is on record for the COMING
winter. The great annual masquerade
of the Arion Society. of rich Germans.
which used to count its guests BY thous-
ands, Is withdrawn from the Academy
OF Music. to 4 smaller hall. a Significant
triumph Of prudence over pride. for the
rivalry has been high between this club
and the LiederkTanz, as TO which should
show the largest and most brilliant
house at their annual balls Very few
military balls will be given in cOmpari-
son with former seasons. and cheap balls.
for the lower classes. viii be fOregone
indulgences. The thought in everyone's
mind will be, not how 70 dance, but how
TO dine, and there is such a prudent tax
ing-in of sail as makes one OF the most
cheering indications for the stormy sea-
sons ahead. People are not ashamed
either to talk or practice economy. The
word is passed round that such and such
families do not entertain this season. hand
no offence is taken, and no aspersion OF
closeness made
WHAT TO DO WITH THE POOR
Is problem which wise heads are in
tensely occupied in solving. Not a few
OF the radically disposed newspapers fin
lsh the question in a sufficiently easy
way to themselves by denouncing all
plans of relief, and all charities except
the offer of work The dread of draw
| ing paupers from outside of the city, BY
! the idea of soup-houses and free lOdg-
ings, weighs heavily ON the minds OF
| some respectable gentlemen, and not
those who contribute most to such char
ities, either. 1t is very well to say, Il
any man viii not work, neither let them
I h.rT 81,
| children, who are likely to starve when
the foundry door is closed, and the fac
tory turns eff its hands before work can
be hunted up. Josiah Bounderby, of
Coketown, has large number of famiiv
connections, who are busily crying down
the idea of relief, in the newspapers.
Every effort viii be make by the benev-
olent to find work for those who want
it, this season, but there must be pite-
Gus suffering among the destitute, which
only the freely-given loaf and pail Of
soup, and warm shelter, will prevent
from staining our civilization with whole
sale starvation. and deliberate murder.
There is not work enough for the thous-
ands who must have work whereby they
may earn their bread, and the bread
must come from somewhere.
The objection to Soup-bUuses and free
distribution generally, which has posi-
tive weight is the fact that, within
week after the Inauguration Of any free
system of charity, which gives food and
shelter to all who ask, every lazy cur in
the country makes his way, somehow,to
the city; and lives here till the charities
close. in the luxurious idleness that such
men love. The number of great, stout,
big limbed, healthy men who haunt the
soup-houses and the free lodging houses
would surprise you. They come by the
thousands the moment the cold weather
prevents them from sleeping in barns,
and living by beggary and theft in the
country lt is discOuraging thing 10
have well-meant charity diverted from
its proper channels in this way; to have
relief, intended to assist the deserving
poor, made to foster professional beg
gary. But what can be done! Because
the thieves get the half of all that Is Civ
en-, the honest poor cannot be allowed to
starye. And so l presume, the soup
houses and free lodging houses will b.
opened again, and the just and tie un-
just fed together
REDUCTION OF WAGES OF TEACHERS
There is trouble among the teachers
The instructors in the public schools. Of
this city, have always been paid Just
enough to keep soul and body together;
that is, if the body is strong enough, and
the soul sufficiently subdued, not to re-
quire much to keep them alive. The
average wages of the teachers in the
primary schools was $3.50 per 80 tar..and
and in the higher schools $3.50 Now
nobody can get decent board in this
city for less than SO per week. or SjZ0
per year, and tine board you get at that
price would not cOmc under the head or
luxurious, by any means. Add to this
the cost of washing. of ear-fare to and
from her school, and you can figure nov
much the poor girl had left for clothes.
TO say nothing of an occasional book, or
a concert, or anything in the way of di-
version.
What do you suppose the Board OF
AppOrtionment of this great, rich city
propose to do, or rather have donel
They have deliberately struck off seven
per cent. of these meagre salaries Think
of il, Tine teachers demonstrate, but to
no purpose. They are informed that
thousands of qualified people stand
ready to take their places, at even n
greater reduction, and that the newt
able law of supply and demand" must
come IN here, as it does everywhere else;
that the Board is bound, By its duty to
the taxpayers, to get its work done as
cheaply as it can. And tie Board, after
making this reply, probably adjourned
to supper that cost all it had Wrenehed
from the poor teachers which you may
be sure the taxpayers bs.;G for.
How naturally it is to- pass from ti,i5
statement of oppression to n picture that
followed it, namely
THE RAID UPON HOUSES OF ILL-FAME.
that took place Saturday night. This
was curious scene. The police were
put into plain clothes, so us not to alarm
their intended game. and an indiscrini-
mate raid was made upon gambling
dens, houses of prostitution, and street
walkers. In one greasy den sixty-twO
men and women were arrested, all Of
them playing policy" Thirty one hous-
es were pulled, the arrests numbering
over a thousand; then operations We're
commenced on the street walkers. OFF
GERS We're instructed to gObble every wO-
man of bad repute on Broadway, and
the streets leading from it, and in less
than two hours three hundred were safe
ly slowed away in safety. 1t was n sad
sight, those persons on Sunday morning
I cared nothing for the men, but M
heart bled for the women. There were
among them hundreds of modest, limo
cent-lookinS girls, who bore upon their
faces only tine slightest traces Of sin, who
were, Enthusiastically, the victims OF cir
eumstanees. These wept bitterly at the
exposure of their degradation, many
keeping their faces to ne walls, or hid
den in their hands, that they might not
be seen. Possibly the next raid vii.
catch some of the very teachers whose
salaries well-fed and comfortable board
cut down 20 below the starvation point.
Who knows. Necessity drove half the
girls, captured last Saturday night, 10
evil courses, and every such action
swells tine ranks Of the vicious. II n
girls love for life is stronger than her
power of endurance, when hunger and
cold and despair have conquered her
sense of shame, it is a very short step
from virtue to vice, and an easy one.
The girls who hid their faces, Sunday
morning, from shame will, after one o.
two more arrests, look out squarely and
brazenly in your face. and laugh at your
plying looks. After this stage there
comes about a year Of wild riot and
then some morning the body IS taken
out Of the river, and, without identit-
cation, buried in pOtter's field But
the fat, sleek Board, every member liy-
ing in good houses, and feeding well
every day, with daughters carefully look
edafter cutg off seven Der cent. Of the al