Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-06-13

upon thousands of mechanics of this class
and laborers out of employment OF
course their places were Immediately fill.
ed by the starving thousands, and the
strikers will take their places in the ranks
of the hungry.
The present ghost that haunts the Amer
lean laborer is the
ITALIAN.
Within a few years there has been an
enormous influx of Italians to this coun-
try. and the bulk of them stop in this
city. We have been in the habit of consid-
ering the Italian as dark skin red swarthy
man, who could exert himselfjust enough
to play the harp, guitar or violin, and eat
macearoni, when he could get it-a man
who would work when absolutely COM
PEELED to. This impression is just as erro-
neous as popul ar impressions gener ally
are. The italian is a most excellent
worker. He will pl6d along at his Ia
=, | Dor ten. tw elve, fifteen hours "a day, as
NAV be required of him, and do it as pa
tienty and quiet as any ma n. And there
will be found among them very large
amount of skilled labor. There are ex-
cellent cabinet makers, cOOpers, shoe-ma-
kers, harness makers, among them, while
in finer mechanism, such as work upon
musical instruments, watches, &c. they
have but few equals.
There are over 600 able-bodied Ital-
, ians here now, and every steamer and
sailing vessels brings recruits. They are
very poor-all without m cans. Conse-
queutly they take any work that offers at
the price offered. The brigade that
sweeps the streets nights are Italians, and
whenever working men of any kind have
been idioiic enough to strike, Italians
have been the first TO offer to take their
places. But there is another class of Ital-
ians, of whom your readers have had
some experience namely,
STREET MUSICIANS AND BEGGARs.
The streets Of New York are filed with
ragged boys and equally ragged girls,
who play the most doleful music upon the
most wretched harps and violins. and
live by what may be called forced con-
tributions, which is to say, people give
them coppers or nickles, partly out of
pity and partly that they may move out
of ear shot with their internal noise. The
children are as a rule, sold by their pa
rents in the Italian cities to men called pa
drOnes who bring them over and operate
them. The little waits are completely in
the power of the padrone, who compells |
them to bring him each night so much |
money, the penalty being starvation and |
most uumerciful beating. The authori- |
ties determined to break it up, and the |
Italian consul in this city gave the author
ties the most cordial cooperation. On |
Friday of last week, all these children on
the street were arrested and declared va
grants, and were treated as such. The
padrones protested, but the authorities
were firm. The children will be placed
in the position to make useful men and
women Ofthem, and the government will
take steps to prevent a continuance of the
business of bringing them here. Speaking
of
STRIKES,
the coopers' strike has resulted in two
very serious affairs. One was peculiarly
tragic. A cooper vino belonged to the
union, and knocked of work with his
fellows, came home TO find his larder
empty, and his wife and children really
suffering for want of food. In the morning
his wife implored him to take work, but
he replied he could not desert his COM
RAIDS, and went away. He came home at
night to find his wife and three chill
dren dead. The poor woman hGd gone
crazy, and killed her children and then
herself
The other tragedy occ urred Thursday
night Four union coopers attacked one
who persisted in continuing at work, and
in self-defense he shot two of them, one
dying from the wound. The labor ques-
ton is one that is going to make great
deal of trouble here.
POLITICS
Politics in New York is quite differ
ent thing from what is in the country
With you it. runs in well defined grooves.
If man is Republic an, he is Republi-
can, and if he is Democrat, he is DEM
ocrat But in New York you have to ask
what kind of Democrat Oh. what kind of
a Republican a man is. He m sy be q
Tammany Democrat, an Apollo Hall
Democrat, or any one of dozen other
kinds of Democrat And the Republi-
can party is made up of quite as many
factions, there being this difference how
ever: The Democratic factions are all
after plunder, and each strive to get su-
preme control of the money bags of the
great corporation. The Republican. party
being in a minority, cannot steal directly.
that is of the city; but the wicked portion
of them ally themselves to whatever fac
ton of the Democracy they think will
win, and join in the plumber. It is all a
game OF stealing. Tweed got some of his
best support from Republicans, both, in
and out of the city.
But the Republicans,get their innings in
the Federal offices, which do not depend
upon the will of the people The offices
are the bones over which they wrangle
and growl and bark and bite. The Gus
tom House gives places to many hundreds
ofpeople. The Post-ofice is an excellent
shelter for spawned political hacks, and
there are other offices of equal feeding
capacity. the struggle tor these places ef-
fects just as many DIVISIONS in the Repub-
lican party as the city plunder does in the
Democratic. The "ou;s fight the ins;"
they get in, and then the conditions are
reversed.
Therefore, political expression from the
metropolis has no significance whatever.
Those people whose voices would be
worth the hearing never speak those who
are heard, speak from interest If loud
mouthed brawle- denounces the Admin