The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-22
The City Poor ana the Agitstors-
CITY Charities.

Incendiary speeches are freely made at pub
lie gatherings in this city, where the unem-
ployed poor are excited by the agitators of
dangerous theories. Agitation of this sort is
effective in proportion rs the field is prepared
for it by real aud widespread distress among
the people. So long as the intelligent mo
chanios and industrious laborers of every
sort in our midst have regular occupation and
duly receive earnings that will support their
families with more OF less comfort they pay
little attention to theorists and spouters.
| They have paid habitually far less attention to
spouters than that class of creatures has re-
ceived in other great cities Workingmen's
clubs for the purpose Of hearing weekly
dribble of incendiary balderdash such
as are common in all the great
cities of France and are well known in Ger
many, have never fourished here, though
some of our imported Jail birds brought the
seed Neither do the more practical discus
sions over beer and pipes that are common at
many great industrial centres in England find
this soil congenial. And the reasons are OBJ
vious. Our workingman has always few
superhuous coppers, and he buys paper.
BE is well nigh the only daily laborer in the
world to whom few coppers every Cay do not
make all the difference between bread and no
bread He buysa paper and reads it and does
not need to go to the gathering of the work.
ingmen for the news, and does not care to go
for anything else, as, thanks to his paper, he
is generally sufficiently well informed to be
mt mt re 10
what the spouters usually deal in. So the
club, if it is started, dies from want Of
attendance, and the workingman thrives
in the cultivation of contented mind and in
dustrious habits. But the loss of employment,
the failure of the little stream of ready money
that kept up the regular supply Of the homely
board around which the comely wife and
bright-faced little ones gathered. may change
all that For the loss Of the sense of his
personal independence the sentiment of
wounded pride that goes with the conscious
ness of inability to perform the simplest human
duty of getting bread for his little ones, the
actual sight OF the little ones in want or beg
ging the feeling of hunger itself-all this
shakes the most sturdy and upright spirit
Andin the condition of mind that comes with
such distress, in the loss of morale
that is the first result of misery, he is ready to
listen to any voice that pretends to point
a way out of his troubles. Then it is that
the agitator becomes truly dangerous; for the
workingman is ready to believe then with any
theorist who denounces the restraints that
keep the bakers window sacred from the
hungry passer-by; he has returned for the
time to the primitive condition and is disposed
to recognize only force as reason why he
should respect the rights of those who have
plenty when he has nothing. He is ready for
any wild theory or any wild act; for no event
can aggravate his condition.
What are the provisions made in this city
to meet such possibilities in the condition Of
the nottingham as may throw him into the
camp of the enemies of society For with q
large number of unemployed workingmen in
our midst with the worst of the winter COM
ing and with ''citizen'' orators who urge that
a great city may be fred with salutary
results and that they are fools who
are penniless in the midst of plum
der, it should be publicly known what
is the condition of the people with regard to
public assistance and what are the exact re-
sources Of our charities and benevolent as
sociations and various organizations that
gather money all the year round to dispense
to the necessitous. Half the population of
this city lives in rather less than one-third of
the houses and these are the so-called ''tene-
ments' but there is considerable
vagrant population without any domi-
Gle whatever. One hundred and forty
thousand persons havingno homes were lodged
in the station houses during the year 1873;
twenty-five thousand persons were granted
outdoor relief by the Board of Public Chair
ties; our asylums, hospitals and prisons are
regularly occupied by about eight thousand
persons, and it is estimated that ten thousand
children wander in the streets. But the
return Of persons relieved is very made
quate indication Of the number in want It
was late in the year before the financial
trouble was seriously felt by the people here,
and even when the pressure came it did not
Immediately throw the unemployed and
their families upon public assistance.
Many had little stores laid by and
many were kept up awhile by rela-
tives more fortunate than themselves
Thus the statistics of charity bestowed for
1873 represent perhaps not much more than
the regular resident Indebtedness. For the
thirty thousand relieved in and out Of the
asylums it would be safe to count the number
much nearer to hundred Thousand, while Of
those who get food in one way or another
during the day and appeal for lodging at the
stations the number constantly exceeds very
greatly the capacity OF that branch of the pub
lie service.
Our statistics given in On article in another
column show that two and half million dol
Lara were COLLECTED in the mama Of fho Moor An