Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-02-19
wednesday Evening. Feb, 10, 1879.
Mant in Washington.
Washington Capitol

Washington Capitol
There is probably no place on earth
where there is such abject want, such
hopeless poverty as at our national
capital.
In other places, whatever the fnan-
cial depression may be, there is some
work to which an unfortunate may
turn to secure at least food and cloth
ing. But with us all business pur-
suits are ~overcrowded, and if one fails
to secure employment from the gov
eminent such unfortunate is literally
stranded upon the curb.
How many hundreds there are to-
day of educated and refined people
who are actually suffering for food and
clothes will probably never be known.
for they are of a class that die and
make no signs.
A pitiful story is told of a clergy
man in some part of Canada, we for
get where, who turned over his pitiful
salary to his family and then quietly
starved to death. One can scarcely
realize this in a land where, for a cen
fury, we have boosted of our abund-
dance-a land where the laborer was
not only insured a supper, but, with
industry and economy, an indepen-
dence.
A lady called on us the other day
to solicit our supposed influence in
her behalf. She now holds a tempo
rary position, dependent on %appropria-
tiOns, and she wished to have herself
transferred to a permanent place. She
is an accomplished, cultured woman,
of a family well known to the more
refined social circles of the country.
Her brother gave his life to his coun-
try in the late war, and, unmarried.
has a mother and two younger sisters
10 support.
II get it, as it is, by the hardest
work" she said, " but 81 a day. This
ceases when | am sick and terminates
finally when the appropriations are
exhausted. God alone knows what
will become of Us then. All last sum
mer and part of the autumn, after |
lost my place. we lived on one loaf of
bread a day. We could not sleep for
hunger, and every day we expected
the supply of bread to cease. for we
could not pay for it; but God made
the baker kind enough to continue our
last dependence.
Many and many a day / went sick
and dizzy TO the department, 70 wait
in the ante-chamber hour after hour
10 see the secretary, who would not
see me, and when | actually crawled
home / was 50 hungryI could scarcely
refrain from seizIng on the food put
upon the tables at the department or
in the shops | would pass, and eating
1t like a half starved beast. Oh how
[ was tempted to hold out my hand
and beg Of passers-by for a dime to
get something to eat, as the poor boys
do.
We had but one pair Of shoes
among US at all fit to wear, and these
| would put on when | went out, and
carefully take of and put away when
| returned.
You cannot know what it il TO
suffer from hunger. The longing for
food grows more and more intense.
1t is not only a pain, but the appetite
gets painful in its intensity. One can
not keep ones mind from dwelling on
food, and when sleep comes at last
from sheer exhaustion. the dreams
are all Of feasts-feasts. feasts without
end-nothing but gorgeous banquets
at which one cats and eats Withou.
ever being satisfied.
The most sickening thing occurre,
to my poor sister. She is only fifteen
and coming home one evening from
house where she had been solicitin
work, and had been delayed in eettin
the refusal until it vas dark. she wa
accosted by a creature in human shape
Poor - told me this, crying on m
bosom as if her heart would breal
She was weak from fright, and ther
as the wretch put his arm about he.
the thought flashed through her min
hat she might saw us from starry;
ton. Trembling from head to foo
she permitted the rufian to lead he
beneath a lamp, and he laughed
coarse laugh as he gazed at her hollo
cheeks and sunken eyes, and said, wit
an oath, pushing her from him, 'Yo
are filter for a coffin than a man, an
went away. The poor child chung
the lamp-post, more dead than aliv
And now | actually owe for tn.
bread but God bless the baker f
his kind heart, for he is content
take a little, as | can pay from tin
to time. But | have other credito
not considerate, who follow me to Il
department, and threaten to have n
dismissed"
And while such misery as this G.
lists among US, how many are the
who 20 well fed and clad to churc
aud really believe hat they are Chri
tians because they are respectful
More than half the distance to heay,
is over that road called charity. Chr
left the poor ever with us, and '
cannot escape that responsibility a
receive the reward held for the kin
hearted in heaven.
No, Bob, it will not do. We mt
have a hell hereafter to equal
things.
0na az tbo naw amino oolnrq