Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-04-11
OUR GOTHAM LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

THE BETTER SIDE OF NEW YORK.
While the tenement house tells the stOry
OF the Dives and Lazarus of the nineteenth
century, let It not be supposed that only
Dives inhabit yOnder brnwu-stnne row,
Neither should yOu infer from our gamh.
ling dens, brutal walking matches, drink.
ing holes, and Haunting social evil" that
New York is a modern Sodom Thank
heaven, this is out the heather side of what
called in an earlier letter the ''most
| Christian and most heather city west of the
Atlantic
The rich centurion, and Dorcas, and
! Cornelius, all live Just across Fifth Avenue
from Dives, but all the synagOgues they
have built, all the poor people clad, and all
the aims bestowed by them have made less
noise in the world than the blind beggar,
full Of sores, lying dt Dives gate. Fair
play, gentlemen.
| HOW THE WEALTH OF NEW YORK IS GIVEN.
This city has nearly five hundred church
es and chapeis, costing forty millions dol
lars to build, aud five millions more per
| aunum to keep them going. We have fifty
nine hospitals and ayslums for the sick,
| aged, blind, deaf and dumb, lunatics, in
| ebriates, orphans, and soldiers, which have
| cost twenty millions to build. and require
| five millions year to sustain. The public
! school edifices have cost six millions, and
| four millions a year to operate. The
amount spent in private charaties no man
can estimate, but it must be several mil
lions. The beautiful city of Elizabeth,
containing twenty-eight thousand inhabit.
| ant, is valued at $4,000, O00-and the an
nual benefactiOns of New York, not count
ing private charities amount to over S1S,-
OOO, OO0-that's "biz."
WHAT THIS MONEY DOES.
don't know how many missionaries
there may be in Japan, but do know how
many are at work in the slums, and among
the Arabs of this city. Before you read
further, Just stop and guess how many
there are. l asked a hard-working Presby-
terlan deacon, this morning, and he guessed
twenty-five" That was a miserable guess.
IOllng among the tenement houses, sail
ors' boarding houses, ten cent lodging
houses, and along wharf and street, day
and night, are no less than two hundred
and slxty-Six city missionaries. 1t is
doubtful if any missionary field in the
world can show two hundred and sixty-six
labOrerS to a million of population. The
forty-three missionaries employed by the
City Missions alone held three thousand
seven hundred religious meetings last year,
IN the worst sections of the city, and gave
pecuniary aid to six thousand people. This
regiment of untiring workers visit and care
for the sick, read the Bible to those who
Will listen, organize prayer meetings in
tenement houses, on street corners and
shlpboard, and every day and every night
hold meetings in their 40 mission churches
This money support, besides, 10 churches
for seamen, sailors reading rooms, 16
other free reading rooms, coffee houses. |
and ''tiOwer mission" through which the
sweet fragrance and beauty o. rose and lily, |
hellotrOpe and geranium, are brought into
thousands Of sick rooms in hospitals and |
tenement houses. Those blessed dollars |
sustain a whole corps Oftrained missionary
nurses, giving them preliminary instruction
in a Nurses Training School; they support |
an Infants Day Nursery for children of
working mothers, where the little one is
tenderly cared for while the mother is out !
at work, and a cheap lodging house for !
women. How often this house, with its |
healthful moral atmosphere, has stood be- |
tween homeless girl and perdition only |
the last great day will unfold. Besides |
these there is Workingmen's Club, which |
IS about self-supporting, designed as an off |
set to the drinking saloon, and the "Mid- |
night Mission for the rescue Of girls from
a life of shame
TEMPERANCE WORK.
The 5000 drinking h
genius of Chancellor Cr
ly transfor.
ing it all =
days
sever
this
alc-