The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1877-08-23

they are gone, instead OF living to SUI
fer in these hard. times" "That's so"
answered the man with sigh; eve
have to feel, when one of our little
ones is:taken fromius, that.it's bless
ing-God forgive u.s."
No. 6 is a first-class company hand
who sees to repairs in the mine, fixes
the ventilating apparatus, &C., conse-
quently has more days work in a
month than most of the miners, and
makes better pay. His wages ran -
January, S27,92; February, S23,72; !;
March, S27.3S; April, s24.96; May,
S32.15; June, S33.16. In all last year
he earned $500. His income is now
looked upon by his neighbors as
princely, and he can keep his wife
and four children in comparative
comfort.
No. Z is a laborer in the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western breaker,
and gets eleven cents per hour for his
work. So he earns from % to G6 cents
per diem when he has work. If he
gets SIS for months toll he is doing
as we'll as he can now expect to. He
pays So per month for rent and on the
remainder keeps wife, five children
and helpless father-in-law. He buys
monthly one hundred pounds of flour,
two pounds of sugar and all the rest
of bis money is expended for corn
meal to make mush, which is the sta
pie diet of his family. He has not
been able to buy pound of meat OF
any kind this year.
No. s is labOrer in the Capouse
shaft, one of the Lackawanna Iron and
Coal Company's mines, and has been
earning S14 10 S23 per month; has to
paw 81 per month rent and support
family OF nine persons. lie and his
for the year past have been living al
most exclusively OH mush.
No. . is an old and skillful miner i'll
the employ of the Mount Pleasant
Coal Company, and made Ill the
month before the strikes what is pro-
nounced by the miners hcreabOut the
months work in the country within
a year. After paying all expenses
there was left for him $37.O2. and for
his 'laborcr S3l.51. Part Of this was
an allowance for driving ACROSS cut"
But his ordinary earnings are not
above $50 to so, and has been in
debt at the company's store for twelve
months was at the time of his max
ing that good month, still iD debt $SS.
81; and SO did not get a cent. Since
the strike began the cOmpany's store
will give him no more credit, and, as
he has not received dollar in money
within more than a year, he Is abso-
lutely without resources, and i'll dan
ger of starving. In good times he
bought little lumber and a lot, and
built house, mOrtgaging it to the
lumber dealer for his pay. Now the
mortgage is almost due, and his little
home will have to 60 to satisfy his
creditor. AS for meat be only knows
the color of it by seeing it in the
butchers stall.
No, 10 is u laborer in the employ of
the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Com.
pany, makes from as low as 81 to as
high as S2l, and, living OH mush,
manages to support family of five.
We can no longer bs strong or healthy
on such diet. but it is ell and hum
dreds, yes thousands, of others can
get. If man even allows himself
TO make full meal of dry bread or
cold mush in his dinner pail in the
mina, he must feel that he is robbing
his little ones at home.
These cases might be multiplied in
definitely. Nearly every ragged man
or woman in the mimi. suburbs of
ScrantOn-and they are all ragged
has similar story Of privation and
misery to tell. In the houses visited
by the repOrter-at least twenty in the
course of one fOrcnOon's walk, widely
scattered and taken at random-there
was not one that was not CHASTITY in its
squalid poverty. Bare floors, scant
furniture of the rudest kind, tattered
and comfortless bed clothing, and emp.
ty larders, were the rule, to which
there seemed no exceptions. In one
house, where a labOrcr, his six chill
dren-all under seven years Old-his
wife, and his aged mother, lived in
three rooms, the only food was three
and a half lOavcs of bread and less
than half peck OF potatoes. And, it
should be borne in mind, this man has
no more money coming to him, and
no chance of earning any at present.
In another house about ten pounds of
meat was all that stood between a fam
lily of seven and starvation. In still
another there was nothing but some
potatoes that the man had dug from his
little garden patch. Lie will probably
have five or six bushels to feed his five
children and wife on during an indcti-
mite time. A dozen poor mothers, in
attempting TO tell of their destitution
and struggles, looked about their chill
drcn, and overcome by their misery,
lost their voices in sObs and incoherent
appeals TO God for pity.
And what a terrible number of these
destitute beings there are! The Della
ware, Eackawanna and Western Com
pany OWNS eighteen mines, and ope-
rates seventeen more; the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company owns and
operates twenty; the Pennsylvania
Coal Company fifteen more. Each of
these mines employ on an average at
least $50 men and boys. This is below
rather than above the mark. Then the
Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company
employ 9, 200 men in their works; al.