Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-04-24
MRS. swrssHELM.
On the wickedness Of Pittsburg,
and Something About SENT
mental Swash" in General.


ity of our smoky city and its cure,
but seem to have no idea of the cause.
Please lie, me give you key to the
mystery. Many years ago Pittsburg
sent one of her boys to state prison
for thirty years for arson, when he
was but sixteen. At that age the
young reprobatc had burned 100000
worth of property and destroyed two
valuable lives. and among the good
folks, there was no word of sympa-
thy for Ibis poor MOTHER" because
"she was perfect slave TO her fami-
ly."
Follow up this trail and see if You
do not reach the fountain head of this
stream of iniquity! The ideal per-
lection of Pittsburg womanhood is
81 slave to her family" and what
does history teach us to expect of the
sons of slave mothers? What are we
to expect of boy running the street
while his slave mother ia painting I'M
der half bushel baskets of marketing,
cleaning pavements, washing and
ironing his clothes, cleaning his boots
and the floors he covers with mud,
cooking his food and washing the
dishes he soils!
| Did satan ever failt find work for
idle hands, and who but him gives
work to Pittsburg boy? In New
| England and all through the West,
| the boys of family do its chores but
| in Western Pennsylvania the woman
in the rural districts does the work of
man. a boy, a woman and a donkey,
/ ,.ns al. 1,l rxa ~ ol, md
to loaf, while their mothers, wives
and daughters milk, churn, chop
wood, carry coal, make pies, feed
pigs and poultry, while each one does
the work of three Kentucky slaves in
the palmy days of slavery. In Pitts
burg the coal smoke and the conscien-
tious scruples of street commissioners
against removing dirt from the streets
make housekeeping drudgery un-
dreamed of in any other part of the
world. All this drudgery is done by
the women. while the boys find EN-
ployment hanging around saloons
1t is highly probable there is not {
boy On your streets, or young maj
loafing around your saloons, whose
mother is not q slave, either to hel
family or some benevolent institution
on which the vagabonds of the city
have thrown the responsibility of sup
porting their families, or may be the,
are out praying that God will revers
His laws and send prosperity ant
purity to those who do not work TO
their bread.
If every boy in Pittsburg did hi
, honest share of the home work. W
would soon find 8 vast change in tn
, morals of our modern Sodom; bu
your oyerw orked women. not conten
with being slaves in the household
where they should be queens. mus
go out into the highways and byway
,, aud pray your loafers into respects
bility. If they refuse to be dragge
ont of the cutters we must cover theI
, up with flood of sentimental swas
and call it Christian charity Thi
. swash sinks the divine law OF individ
a ual accountability, and lays every
o body's sins on society and saloon
keepers.
a When the boys, brought up by thei
= slave mothers, come to be men the
a get them slave wives, and wheneve
they can find an excuse for DISAGREE
d ing with their employers they go OF
: on u strike and loaf while these slav
:. wives wash and beg to get Twin
J. for them. Fine ladies turn out
J. their diamonds and velyets and plo
h through the mud to take care OF til
y poor fellows aud their families
h They hire halls, pay gas bills, get u
o meetings and fill the whole air wit
p swash sympathy for the poor victim
8 of some other body's sin set lot {
Y dirty, lazy loafcrs to singing hymn
. signing pledges and insulting decen
j. industrious people by appearing Q
~ platforms AZ moral rcformers an
% monuments of grace and glory.
j. your benevolent people, winter b.
,e lore last, had put your loafers
:. cleaning the streets or carting II
manure of them into the exhauste
% lands which lie all around yonr cit
q instead of herding them in invent
N lated churches and halls, TO poisO
n the air and offend the nostrils of a
n decent people, while they kept up
n pious sniiile about repentance all viii
n ter long, we would not have had
IL riot last summer.
n Pittsburg has long been Athlete
o with the gaugrene of idleness AZ
/, benevolence, and is now slowly dyil
n Of it.
a II wealthy men do not cease hiriI
- servant girls to wait on their son
,ft and Faer men 10 not require theirs
+ do about one-haf the work now dor
n by their inothers and sisters ; If we d
= not stop building palaces for Grim
nails and paupers, and supportin
g them as workiugmen's families al
j. not supported if we do not quit ia,
o ing industry and economy for IL
q benefit of .dieness and wastefulncs'
OI if VIC do not reverse our preseI
!. standard of values, which pays a
t enormous premium on professions I
n faith, and takes good works at
@ heavy discount, we may ae we'll gi,
q it mp, move off and get scattere
q among communities with some con
/ mon sense, and let the owls aud ba
r move in and pay the Penn aven,
!. bonds. JANE GREY SwIssHELM.