Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-11-20
NEW York, Nor. Il, 1874.
ONE SWEET CHARITY,

W iiiI-it-bbSiNJ>Ss
NEW YORK, NOr. Il, 1874.
ONE SWEET CHARITY.
The mild weather which holds so late
into the season is Of great benefit TO the
poor, who have some weeks longer to save
the hard-eavncd dollars necessary for fuel
and clothing Relief societies are taking
hold of the work in time. Perhaps one Of
the pleasantest sights in the city, to an eye
which looks beyond the surface of things,
is the meeting to sew for the poor, held
every Thursday afternoon at the rooms of
st. Johns Guild, which have before men,
and truly Christian charities in the city.
At these rooms, once, 4 week, ladies Of
every circle III society meet to make up
clothes for winter, which the poorest of the
poor are not able to make for themselves.
For instance, there are many women who
support small children by going out at days
work, and who can barely pull together
enough to keep q roof over .heir heads and
coarse food in their mouths by shaving early
and late, and how can such find time to
make up such clothes as they could not af
ford to buy without literally going sleep
less Careworn mothers who find the
sewing and providing for their families an
| overtask for hand and brain, may consider
| what they would do if, in addition 20 this,
they were obliged to earn all the groceries,
| the house rent, and candle ends from week
to week. They will know what blessed
help is devised for the poor, when the
| Roosevelts and the LivingsJons come down
with their gold thimbles, in company with
| other unOccupied young ladies' under sixty,
| Of different parishes. who. halfOut of novel
| the park and promenade to sew Oh gray
| flannel and red, ''unbleacheG'' and calico,
in true Dorcas fashion. Done by such care
| ful hands, the sewing is of the neatest or
der, ] assure you, and young ladies who
| scOrn plain sewing for their practising
and German lessons, might be put to blush
/
work done by women whose wealth and po-
| sition are such as never to require them to
! touch needle for themselves. If there are
women Of leisure who, reading this, would
! like to help in such work, would remind
them where such skill would not be under
/ valued. But if the sister-in-law with poor
| health, and the minister's wife, and the neu-
! ralgic neighbor across the way are provided
/ for in this respect, nothing is easier than to
make up plain, substantial clothing for chill.
! dren of different ages, and send each gar
ment, closely tied in paper, through the
mail, at an expense of not over twenty-five
cents package, to any relief society in
/ New York.
THE MAIL PACKAGE BUSINESS.
! BY the way, this business of sending
/ packages by mail instead Of express is COM
! ing rapidly into favor. The dealers in this
wav. and 4. T. Stewart & Co. tell me this
! branch of their business sprang i'll one
month to $4,000, and goes OF with rapidity
which is surprising and delightful. \ silk
! dress pattern was sent from this city to San
Francisco, by mail, for fifty cents, which
! would have cost five dollars by express.
I Families out West, who long to avail thein-
( selves Of the advantages of the city in shop
ping, should bear this in mind. The rate
I for sending packages eXacted by our pater-
/ nal government is only one cent for each
; two ounces, and the firm above named say
Z they have never yet lost anything sent in
. this way. know Of a lady who proposes
I to keep her friends out West supplied with
, fresh oranges and the best of coffee by mail.
There is something in this, as ali who
! have tried TO find nice groceries in small
! country places will bear witness. y great
| deal of fun has been made of Mr.. John
Ruskin, the celebrated English writer on
Art, for setting up pensiOner Of his i'll a
shop, and send out advertisements of it
with copies of his last new book to let the
, poor know where they can get pure tea and
( coffee. | wish some of our reformers and
Wis Onaries had the sense to undertake any
thing rs practically good.
STRIKES.
1t is Il curious thing that plain labor is
| the scarcest, and when the most men are
out Of employment that laborers should un-
dertake to force the question of wages, but
! so it is. With 80, 900 able bodied men out
of employment in this city, with an ugly
winter before them, during which the stop
page of labor from natural causes will swell
this army to 60,000, agitatOrs are pushing
strikes. No less than five are being organ
lied at this time, which if carried out will
make bad work this winter. This long
shoremen are organizing strike against
reduction OF WAGES, which the steamship
and other companies insist upon; while
the coopers are about to turn out TO oppose
an edict of the bosses, that no man in their
employ shall belong to a Union. The
others are of less Importance, because there
are less men engaged in them but every
strike. however small, must result badly.
The employers are not making money :;
and to most of them an excuse to shut down
is Il relief rather than n damage. There
fore they will not oppose strikes to any ex-
tent, but permit them to 90 on. The num-
Der of people out of work makes it easy to
get labor enough to do all they want to
keep up a show of business, and to be ready
for operations when business resumes.
There will be intense suffering in the city
this winter.
TRADE.
Very few men are making money at all
in New York, especially those in legitimate
merchandise. The daily sales of merchan-
disc in the city foot up &l5,O00,0OO; and
one would suppose there ought to be some
money made out Of this sum total of trade,
but there is not. The expenses of running
a jobbing trade are enormous and it takes
an immense trade to deep it going. In
respectable store, the item OF Gas alone
amounts TO 5000 per annum. Then the