Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-11-28
DIR NEW YORK LETTER.
Public BaIIs-The POOr-ReductIOn OF
Wages OfTeaehers-Rafdu upon HOu-
ses Of me-Business-Rain at


. FnIl of significance for next winter, L
4 the falling off IN tie number of public
halls to be given. People have not thu
, money to spend on dress and entertain
, ments. There used to be a score of balls
given by political clubs every season, no
one of which is on record for the coming
winter. The great annual masquerade oI
the Arion Society of rich Germans, which
used to count it's guests by thousands, is
Withdrawn from the Academy of Music
10 a smaller hall, a significant tr riumph oi
prudence over pride, for the rivalry has
been high between this club and the Lei
derkranz as to which should show the
largest and most brilliant houses at their
annual balls. Very few military balls
will be given in 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 10 dine, and there
is such a prudent taking in of sails as
makes one of the most ch eering indica-
tions for the stormy season ahead. Peo-
pie are not ashamed either to talk or to
practice economy. The word is passed
round that such and such families do not
entertain this season, and no offence is
taken, and no aspersion of closeness
made.
| WHAT To DO WITH THE POOR
is a problem which wise heads are in
tensly solving. Not few of the radio
ally disposed newspapers finish the ques-
ton in a sufficiently easy way to them
selves by denonuncing all plans of relief,
and all charities except to offer work.
The dread of drawing paupeIs from out
side of the city, by the idea of soup
houses and free lodgings, weigh heavily
on the minds of some respectable gentle
men, and not those who contribute most
to such charities, either. 1t is very well
to say, if any man will not work, neither
let him eat but what about the women
and children, VINO are likely to starye
! when the foundry door is closed, and the
factory turns off its hands before work
can be hunted up. Every effort will be
made by the benevolent TO fi1d work for
those who want it this season, but there
must be piteous suffering among the des-
titute, which only 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
he bread must come from somewhere.
REDUCTION WAGES OF TEACHERS
There is trouble among the teachers.
The instructors of the public schools o I
this city have always been paid just
enough to keep soul and body together,
that is, if the body is strong enough and
the soul sufficien tly subdued not TO re-
quire much TO keep them alive. The av-
erage wages of the teachers in the prima-
ry schools was $650.per year, and in til
high schools $3.50. Now no body can get
decent board in this city for less than ten
dollar rs week OF five hundred and twen-
ty per year, and the board y ou get at that
price would not come under the head of
luxurious by iany means Add 10 thist
the cost of washing, of car fare to and
from her school, and you can figure how
much the poor girl has left for clothes, 10
al
concert, Or anything in t,s way of diver
sion.
Further than this, the Board OF Ap por-
tionment propose to strike off per
cent of these meagre salaries Think
of it The teachers demonstrate but TO
no purpose.
RAID UPON HOUs Es OF ILL FAME
took place Saturday night. This was
curious seen e. The police were put into
plain clothes, so as not TO alarm their
inten ded game, and an indiscriminate
raid was made upon gambling ems,
houses of prostitution, and street-wal kers.
In one greasy den sixiy-two men and
women were arrested, all of them playing
policy" Thirty one houses were pull
d." the arrests numbering over thou
sand, then operations were commenced on
the street walkers Officers were instruct
ed TO gobble every woman of bad rcput e
on Broadway and the streets leading from
it, and in less than two hours, III rec
hundred were safely slowed away in safe
ty. 1t was a sad sig ht, those persons on
Sunday morning. l cared nothing for
the men, but my heart bled for the wo-
men. There were among them hun
dreds ofinnocent looking girls, who bore
upon their faces only the slightest traces
ofsin, who were Enthusiastically the victims
of circumstances. These wept bit terly at
the exposure of their degradation, many
keeping their faces to the walls or hidden
in their hands, that they might not be
seen. If a girls love for life is stronger
than her power of endurance, when hun
ger and cold and despair have conqu cred
her sense ofshame it is a very short step
from virtue to vice, and an easy on e.
The girls who hid their faces Sunday
morning from shame will, after one or
two more arrests, look out SOU arely
and brazenly In your face, and laugh at
your plying looks. Ate this stage, there
comes about year of wild riot, and then
some morning the body is taken out of
the river, and, without identlf cation, bu-
ried in Potter's field.
BUSINESS
steadily improves. For this, New York
is thankful. The West is buying quite
freely, and the South IS doing much bet
ter than we had any right to expect The
prospect IS getting better and better, and
some insist that the year is not going 10
foot up SO badly, after all.
THE WEATHER
has shifted, and it rains-in torrents, the
streets are slushy, and the city is as disa-
greeable as possible. But we want the
rain and go we take it pleasantly.
FIETRo.
New York, Nov. gath. 1874
A sprightly and instructive letter from
our old California friend-ED, will be
found in this paper. His pen is a facile
one, and he gathers up the points that
take hold of the nODular mind We ex-