The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1874-12-10
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
Publie BaIls---The Poor---Reduction Of
Wages OF Teachers---Business---
Rain at Last.

PUBLIC BALLS.
Full of significance for next winter, is
the falling off in the number of public
balls to be given. People have not the
money to spend on dress and entertain
ments. There used to be score OF balls
given by political clubs every season,
not one of which is on record for the
coming winter. The great annual mas
querade of the Arion Society OF rich
Germans, which used to count its guests
by thousands, is withdrawn from the
Academy of Music, to smaller hall,
significant triumph of prudence over
pride, for the rivalry has been high be-
tween this club and the Liederkranz as
to which should show the largest and
most brilliant house at their annual balls.
Very few military balls Will be given Ii
comparison with former seasons, and
cheap balls for the lower classes Will be
foregone indulgences. The thought in
every ones mind will be, not how to
dance, but how to dine, and there is
such prudent taking In of sail as makes
one of the most cheering indications for
the stormy season ahead. People are
not ashamed either to take or to practice
economy. The word is passed round
that such and such families do not en-
terrain this season, and no offence is
taken, and no dispersion of closeness
made.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE POOR
is a problem which wise heads are in
tensely occupied in solving. Not few
of the acknowledgement newspapers
finish 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 Oh the minds of
some respectable gentlemen, and not
those who contribute most to such char
ties, either. It is very well to say, If
any man viii not work, neither let him
eat; but what about the women and chill
dren, who are likely to starve when the
foundry door is closed, and the factory
turns off its hands before work can be
hunted up. Josiah Bounderby, of
Coketown, has large number of family
connections, who are busily crying down
the idea of relief, in the newspapers.
Every effort will be made by the bene-
VIOLENT to find work for those who want
it this season, but there must be piteous
suffering among the destitute, which on
ly the freely-given loaf and pail of soup,
and warm shelter, will prevent from
staining our civilization with wholesale
starvation, and deliberate murder. There
is not work enough for the thousands
who must have work whereby they may
earn their bread, and the bread must
come from somewhere.
The objection to soup-houses and
free distribution generally, which has
positive weight, is the fact that within a
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. III the luxurious idleness that such
men love. The number of great, stout,
big-Embed, 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 coun-
try. 1t is discouraging thing to lave
well-meant charity diverted from its
proper channels III this way; to have re-
lief intended to assist the deserving poor
made to foster professional beggary.
But what can be done? Because the
the thieves get the half of all that is
given, the honest poor cannot be allow
ed to starve. And SO, 1 presume, the
soup houses and free-lodging houses
will be opened again, and the just and
mi ust fed together.
REDUCTION OF WAGES OF TEACHERS.
There is trouble among the teachers.
The instructors III the public schools of
this city have always been paid just en-
ough to keep soul and body together,
that IS, If the body is strong enough
and the soul sufficiently subdued not to
require much for to keep them alive.
The average wages of the teachers in the
prlmary-schools was $500 per year, and
In the higher schools $3.50. Now no
body can get decent board in this city
for less than so per week, or $500 per
year, and the board got at that price
would not come under the head Of IN xuri
Gus by any means. Add to this the
cost of washing, of car-fare to and from
her school, and you can figure how much
the poor girl had left for clothes, to say
nothing of an occasional book, OF. any
thing in the way Of diversion.
What do you suppose the Board of
Apportionment of this great, rich city
propose to do, or rather have done?
They have deliberately struck off per
cent of these meagre salaries The
teachers demonstrate, but to no pJ1r-
pose. They are informed that thou
sands Of qualified people stand ready to
take their places, at even a greater re-
duction, and that the inevitable claw of
supply and demand must come in
here, as it does everywhere else; that
the Board is bound, by its duty to the
cheaniy rs # ean An M0f The P Roar5 as
after making this reply, probably
adjourned to supper that cost all it
had wrenched from the poor teachers
which you may be sure the taxpayers
pal Tor.
BUSINESS
steadily improves. The people seem to
have left up at last, and have exhaust