The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-12-12
$50 QuieiIy"-A Prose Epic of the
Times.

ALBERT l.. WELLS.
$50 QuietIy"-A Prose Epic of the
Times.
"The Resum ption Act has been doing
It's work so quietly, and with so little dis
turbance OF trade or Industry that less
than one year ago they were calling 1t
sham."-N. y. Tribune.
Yes, resumption Is very quoting pro-
cess. For instance, the writer had occa-
sion lately to stop an hour st what had
been lively manufacturing village, on
New Jersey railroad. Its central in
dustry had been large factory, This
was closed, and the grass was growing
very quietly where the busy feet
of the workmen had for years al
lowed no growth of heritage. The
village was remarkably quiet.
The paint was wearing off from the
pretty cottages, which showed by their
ample proportions that the employees in
this factory had not been paid the pau
per wages of Europe. But now half the
houses were vacant and for sale. The
stores that had been doing good busl-
ness looked dingy and deserted. Freight
u
associate with activity and motion,
stood in the yard of the works, where
they had been rusting for years, and just
rs such cars now stand on the on y rail.
road in China. Children stole noiseless-
~ along with q scared, dazed look. They
were not playing in the tops OF all the
streets"
Yes, resumption is very quoting.
How intensely quiet everything is In
the home of the worthless worker shown
in the picture in the Trash World of No
vember Sd. The loudest sound is the
deep breathing OF the starving child
lying on the floor Next is heard the
faint lullaby OF the desparing mother
over her starving babe, to whom she can
no longer afford sufficient nourishmenL,
and who has, therefore, become very
quiet The husband and father aud re-
spOnslble bread winner, sitting there
with u lace of unutterabe woe, and wish
Jag that be had never been born, is
quetest Of all. The iron has entered
LIS soul" He does not even sigh. The
venerable mother, covering over the
dying embers, retains still the heroic
patience of the average distressed woman.
she vii. Idle and make no sOuLd.'
Oh how quietl
A Brooklyn paper lately described
quiet picture. 1t was that OF the clean
~ sad looking, would-be toilers coming
up To the corners OF the main streets AM
cooking wistfuily around" as though by
some chance they might encounter IN the
street that longed-ioT job that they had
failed TO lind IN the shops.
How quietly the foul stenches and mis-
asms steal into the cottage OF the dis
tres.ed worker who has been driven
from healthy and happy home to
some foul subur ban hut, where staSnant
pools, sinks. and cesspOOis, that sh, u!d
nave been removed by the town author
tiles send forth Odors that laugh at his
efforts to remedy them. Oh, ptliul
sight TO see the once thrifty housewife
enfeebled by want and disease, striving
with broom and scrubbing brush to drive
back the toul. irresistible tiCe OF death
that Assails her dsrlIngs
But that tide ls SO nUlseless and quiet
Yes; chaos and night, famine and Pasti-
lence are SO quietly "resumlng.
Here, again, Is a picture of resump-
ton, about which there Is 40 noise. A
skilltul mechanic has had his $1,000 laid
up-has been little TOO ambitious for
satetv-has bOugh. in 1872 y 81 500 sub
urban cottage tor his family, with nee
acre lot attached, Out Of work halt the
time since the panic; the $500 mort"'ge
took his place from him, and now he n"S
Presumed" his resIdeuce IN the hldeCus
tenement house, where 100 people are
| using the space and breathing the air
that should belong to ten people.
The space is mostly shut out from
| the hight OF heaven, and the ait
unspeakably foul. Never word says
the despairlng house-mother rs she sees
| the roses fading from the cheeks, and the
| brightness from the eyes OF the children,
! bat the tears steal down her cheeks space.
! The banker who lets her husband carry
! in the fifty tons of coal Tor winter use In
the grand mansion, tells him that 1t Is
all right; it has something to do with
getting down to hard pan" and being
"honest," The downtrodden listens
quietly to the down-t- esder, he wants to
I be honest, bat wonders whether hard pan
Is much harder than what he Is enduring.
How quietly that new-style American
iournevlnan, the tramp, who has not yet
become hummer, crawls under the Zee
of n stone wall these ulEhts, a.ter tne
ague rscked him All the morning, and he
sought IN vain Tor work all the afternoon.
How quietly the respectable city
tramp, ailer cringing and begging, eat
ing DIRT aid throwing over his last p1rtl-
Gle of manhood in the vain effort 10 get
employment, creeps IntO his wreiched
gsrret or cellar in the evcniI Z. Two
words Only pass between him and the
wife. T1ey are: "Anything?' "Noth-
ingp Then the quiet OF the grave steals
over that household. The black-eyed
boy in rags, who had been the pride o!
the school, and now cannot attend be-
cause of his torloTn appearance, looks up
IN silent astO ishment into the face OF
The father, OF whom he had been so PROUD,
AND who haG always been such ~ good
provider." The blue-eyed, faxen-halred
girl OF six, leans her mead upon her
mothers shoulder, and whispers:
Mamma, is God desd?"
How quiet are the broken savings
banks, except those that have become
groggeries. No cheerful, hopeful depos-
ilors pass up and down the steps. These
grand, treacherous buildings are the
gloomy mausoleums of their hopes.
These great frauds were part and parcel
OF the splendid fnsncis! system de-
vised by the great men of this country
for the general welfare.
1t is not at all with hssty, noisy step,