Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-12-10
Correspondence.


their ful6lIment
Our annual Thanksgiving day has
come and gone, with its usual amount
of newspaper eulogies. feastings and
family reunions. leaving bright page
! in the book of life, not only to the
philanthropist but also the misanthrop-
list. for while the former participates in
joys and festivities. the latter, though
only an observer, is often charmed, ani
thus betrayed into a desire for like
pleasure.
Some little connection was excited
among the newspaper critiques by the
unusual wording of the President S
proclamation, but all seems quiet again.
! The hoary old winter king is fast APP
preaching. His breath has already
passed over cur beautiful green forests,
and they are not The trees so lately
! freighted with treir wreaths of almost
living green and gold, now point their
bare brown arms heavenward, like some
ghoul froln the land of phantoms. And
| they are not without their lesson to the
! human soul. Already the giant arms
and skeleton faces of the hosts of Suf-
fering humanity throughout the coun-
try that will be raised to heaven in their
last appeal for bread and fuel, pass, as
in vision. before US.
One calamity follows quickly upon
the footsteps of another. War, fire,
peStilence, grasshopper scourge, and
+; last. but not least, state of national
affairs which, unless some arm APP
pointed from heaven can stay its course,
I bids fair to oyerwhelm thousands, who
in a less rough sea could sail on in perfect
safety | allude to the present fnan-
cial difficulties which, to many, will
prove total eclipse, without the hope
that like that phenomena it will soon
pass away If failure involved only one
! family, we could look with a lesser de
gree Of anxiety upon it, but too often
the victims Of misplaced commercial
confidence can be counted by scores,
while the dependent, the working man,
sees only want, dire Uant, staring him
in the face
Dover, the point from which l write,
has about :, SEQ inhabitants, and is sit
uatcd in the region Of the iron mines
! OF Morris County in many of which
! the miners, from the state of the mar
ket, are compelled to submit to re
i duction Of wages. Being on a direct
route to and from New York City. and
connected to various mining regions by
railroad, there is tidal wave Of min
ers and other tramps going through
! the country, many in search of en-
ployment, and failing in that. find them
selves penniless and triendless, with
hunger gnawing at their vitals. Thus
we are almost daily called upon to
. feed the hungry and clothe the ma
ked." No doubt that in their ranks
may be found those to whom to give is
not a charity, but who Of us is will
ling to Judge We only know that a
human being is suffering hunger, and
remembering the " golden rule. give.
The station house furnishes them lodg-
ing, and the feasibility of starting a
soup mousse in connection with it, has
, been discussed, with the decision that
it is better to feed them at the door, as
in the former case many would be at
tracted here from other places by the
good Accommodations afforded them, and
it would thus become burden to the
city which really has all it ought to dc
in supplying its own poor. For the
: children Of the latter class, a night
: school, under the auspices Of the Y
NJ. c. A, has been in progress during
the winter for about three years. some
sccount Of which I will give in a future
writing.
: One has only to watch the tide q
Immigration and Immigration to marx
the condition of affairs among the
: working classes. Thousands who have
: come to US from across the waters are
: returning to their mother countries
preferring penny there to the uncer
tainty Of 4 shilling here Nowhere il
, our country will the scarcity of labor
and money be more felt than in the
overcrowded eastern cities and states