Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1874-11-23
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
New YORK, Nov. 10th, 1874.

late into the season is of great benefit to
the poor, who have some weeks longer
to save the hard. earned dollars necessa-
~ for fuel and clothing. Relief socie-
ties 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 mentioned
as one of the kindliest, most active and
truly Christian charities in the city.
At these rooms, once week, ladies
of every circle in society meet to make
up clothes for the winter, which the
poorest of the poor are not able to make
for themselves For instance, there are
many women who support many children
by going out at days work, and who
can barely pull together enough to keep
roof over their 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 afford
to buy without literally going sleepless?
| Careworn mothers who find the sewing
and providing for their families an over
task for hand and brain, may consider
what they would do if in addition to
this, they were obliged to earn all the
groceries. the honse rent, and candle
ends from week to week. They will
know what blessed help is devised for
the poor when Roosevelts and the Liv-
ingstons come down with their gold
thimbles. in company with other unoc-
cupied young ladies under sixty, of diff
ferent parishes, who, half out of novelty
and half from thorough good will. de-
sert the park and promenade to sew on
gray flannel and red, ''unbleached' and
calico, in true Dorcas fashion. Done
by such careful hands, the sewing is of
the neatest order, | assure you, and
young ladies who scorn plain sewing for
their practising and German lessons,
might be put to blush by the exquisite
neatness of the commonest work done by
women whose wealth and position are
such as never to require them to touch a
needle for themselves. If there are
woman of leisure who, reading this.
would like to help in such work. l
would remind them that there may be
cases close about them where such skill
would not be undervalued. But if the
sister-in law with poor health, and the
minister's wife, and the neuralgia neigh
Dor across the way are provided for in
this respect, nothing is easier than to
make up plain, substantial clothing for
children of different ages, and send each
garment, closely tied in paper, through
The mail, at the expense of not over
twenty-five cents package, to any re.
lief society in New York.
THE MAIL PACKAGE BUSINESS.
By this way, this business of sending
packages by mail instead of express is
coming rapidly into favor. The dealers
in this city pay special attention to
sending orders in this way, and A. 7
Stewart & Co. tell me this branch Of
their business sprang in one month to
$4,000, and goes on with rapidity which
is surprising and delightful. A silk
dress pattern was sent from this city tc
San Francisco. by mail, for fifty cents
which would have cost FIVE dollars By
express. Families out West, who long
to avail themselves of the advantages Of
the city in shopping, should bear this il
mind. The rate of sending packages ex
acted by our paternal government is on
ly one cent for two ounces. and the firm
above named say they never yet los
anything sent in this way. l know of {
lady who proposes to keep her friend.
out West supplied with fresh oranges
, and the best of coffee by mail.
STRIKES.
1t is curious thing that plain labor
is the scarcest, and when the most mel
!, are out of employment that laborer
should undertake to force tie question
5 of wages, but so it is. With 10000
able bodied men outof employment in thi
city, with an ugly winter before them
. during which the stoppage of labor from
natural cause. will swell this army Il
t 10000, agitators are rushing strikes
4 No less than five are being organized a
: this time, which if carried out vii
! make bad work this winter. The long
e shoremen are organizing a strike agains
t the reduction of wages. which the steam
ship and other companies insist upon
! while the coopcrs are about to turn on
to oppose an edict of the bosses, that n
o man in there employ shall belong to
d Union. The others are of less impor
y lance, because there are less men engag
: ed in them; but every strike, howeve
e small, must result badly. The other
'e are not making money and to most Q
them an excuse to shut down is relic
rather than q damage. Therefore the
Is will not oppose strikes to any extent
l. but will permit them to 90 on. Tn
ID L.. nf r..o,,I. out Of ruork rnaln