The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-01-16
WOE IN BRITAIN.
A Picture of the Distress Which Prevails in
the City of Sheffield-Instances of Fright
FIJI

[Shefield Cor. OF the London Daily News
Whatever the eause may be, there can
be no question of the severity of
the deeadence of trade which has
brought many thousand skilled work
men to the verge of destruction. At
present the most highly-ski]led men are
not actually begging their bread, al
though many of them are in almost as
evil a case, for there are exceptions to
the stagnation which Expresses the
greater part of the town. Many old
established houses, famous for their
special productions, are still working
full time or nearly full time, and their
workmen continue as prosperous as ever,
as do some of those employed in the
manufacture of Bessemer steel. But
the body of puddlers and other iron
workers are driven to terrible straits.
Their case is not that of men who, hay
ing enjoyed period of prosperity, are
suddenly deprived of income, and COM
PEELED to fall back on the little store of
accumulated earnings which would keep
them going till times grow better. It is
far worse than this with the Hallamshire
operatives, who, instead of being strick-
en- down with sudden blow, have seen
their resources gradually drained from
them.
1t is now about two years and a half
since the depression of the iron trade
set in seriously. Wages, after some
little resistance, fell, but this change
proved only the forerunner of greater
misfortune. Another decline in wages
was quickly followed by decline in
the quantity Of work. For while en-
ployers strove to keep their work going
in the hope that trade would mend, but
at last found that they must put their
men upon half time This was borne
bravely enough by all but the most i'm
provident, but when the three working
days per week were reduced to two, and
at last to one, it became no longer pos
sible to support life on the meager earn
ings. Bit by bit furniture and clothes
went their way to the pawnbroker's, I'M
til at last the iron worker, reduced to
one days work per week, found himself
face to face with gaunt specter of
wife, with barely rags enough to suffice
for decency, hungry brood of chill
dren, and bare walls. Terrible stories
are told of the privations endured during
the bitter weather of the last few weeks.
A hideous, but apparently well-author
lied, account appears in the Sheffield
Independent of family at Hillsbor-
ough actually stealing grains from cart
and devouring them, narrative which
recalls the CHASTITY stories of restitution
in France toward the close of the old
regime. Nothing quite so shocking as
this has yet come under my notice, al
though have seen signs to-day in the
district named, as if in mockery,
Brightside, as much calculated to ex-
cite surprise as pity.
In one house I visited I found
widow absolutely in rags. The skirt of
what was once gown was vandyked, as
it were, round the bottom, her feet pro-
truded through her wretched boots, and
a few Jumps of coal only added to the
chilly look of the stone floor, and the
walls and windows stripped of every
vestige of blind or curtain. Two little
children were finishing mess of cold
boiled rice, and third was huddled up
close to the mockery of fire. Yet
there were signs that the cottage had
once been at least comfortable. On a
table, which, besides a stool, comprised
the entire furniture of the parlor or
kitchen, the dwelling-room of the cot
tage, were few of those garish and
hideous articles that English work
people either buy at fairs Or make for
themselves with crewel or chenille.
These poor so-called ornaments the
pawnbroker had refused to have Tany-
thing to do with. They represented no
Ineligible sum of money, and like one
or two framed prints of equal value
served to render emptiness more
CHASTITY. The sole resource of the en-
tire household was the labor OF the eld-
est son, whose earnings last week
reached Is. 3D., of which IS. Sd. was re-
quired for rent. In a neighboring
house, in Carlisle street East, I found
sad sight indeed. Five little children,
of whom the eldest was hardly9 years
old, and the youngest baby, were
here alone. The father had gone on
some errand, and is the man on whose
wife an inquest was held some days
since, and whose case excited profound
sympathy. Itseems that the poor, half
starved woman, who was sucking the
wan and leaden-looking baby I saw laid
on table out of the reach of the
younger children, received news of some
work for her husband, and flew to meet
him with the joyful news, but, having
reached the last stage of exhaustion,
sank down in the street. Succor was
promptly afforded, but too late, for the
poor creatore ultimately died, as the
jury decided, of starvation" The
husband has, I believe, work now, and
the appearance of all the children ex-
cept the bahv testi6es to the self-deny-
ing care Of the mother they have lost,
and also to the efficiency of the means
taken to afford help to the children by
the authorities of the town.
Round the corner from Carlisle strnot