The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-01-22
Unparalleled Suffering Among the
Poor.
People Dying from the Want of
Bread.
Efforts Of the More Fortunate to Relieve
Distress.
Excessive Cold Weather Adding 10 the
Misery Of the Destitute.

The new year has dawned upon desolate
England, desolate with almost the ashes of
desolation. The old year went out SO gloom
lily that the young vlgor OF the new has not
as vet been able to lift the dark pail that
seems to have fallen over major portion of
the United Kingdom. The home newspa-
pers are all teeming with the victories that
have been won by British arms in AT
ghanistan and of the ameer's flight. and
that Russia has Withdrawn her mis-
sion from Cabul, and that in spite OF the
continuous humiliations that Russia has re
ceived at the hands of Eogland, the cabinets
of London and st. Petersburg are on basis
of friendship and reciprocal confidence.
The Beaconsfield branch have gained many
achievements, and yet there is no joy in
England The one great voice one hears is
the people crying for bread. This is a sor-
rowful New Year in both palace and cottage.
The royal hearthstone is clouded by
mighty grief, and Its intensity recalls grief
of IL years ago that came to the royal house.
As viewed through the London prints, roy
atty moves through an atmosphere of love
and alteration; but one can not go into So
ciety, no matter of what standing, and ell.
gage in an hours conversation without
hearing choice batch of scandal that affects
some of the lights in power at or about
the throne; but it is never allowed
to go abroad. The queen is greatly
broken over the death of the Princess
Alice, and suffers just as all mothers suffer
who have lost dear daughter; but London
has almost forgotten it, and the country has
forgotten that such q parsonage ever existed.
A few days ago peer in Parliament touched
on the illness of the prince of Wales in 1873,
saying that all hopes of England seemed TO
rest at his bedside, yet every one knew that
if the prince had died England would have
gone on without a jar.
THE PEOPLE
are not sorrowing for the death of the Prin-
cess Alice, but for bread; they are starving
for lack of bread, and they, as well as Pdrlis-
ment, feel bitterly the fact that in the
queens last speech she did not o6ce refer to
their appalling condition A few nights
later one of the members in sympathy with
the ministry addressed question to the
home secretary of great moment, which l
here reproduce: 81 would like to ask, said
the gentleman, whether the home
secretary can correct or corroborate the re-
port that we are almost face to face with
such crisis of distress as this generation or
country has never known-a distress affect
ing even the metropolis, but operating with
even greater intensity in the cotton, coal
and iron districts?' The answer was not a
denial but an assurance that such was the
unhappy case. Mr.. Cross the home secre-
tary stated that there were two forms of
misery: the first general commercial dis
tress; the second, the usual distress which is
always found among the poor of great cities,
and which en- English statesman is not
ashamed to recognize and admit as con-
comitant of English civilization. Lord
Beaconsfeld SAID that the only hope of bet
ter times was in the hope of returning pros
perity in the United States as expressed by
President Hayes in his message to Congress.
This is great admission for England, for it
plainly reveals that the United States has so
far surpassed the mother country that the
latter's prosperity can only return with hers.
THE COLD SEASON.
This is the coolest season that has been
known in England for 16 years, and even
nature is in mutiny. In 1862. the winter of
our own terrible civil war, the cold was as
severe as now. 1t is terribly cold. Banks of
snow line the highway; the poor horses slip,
stumble and fall, their drivers not having
learned the art by which our horsemen at
home defy the snow. The Princess Louise,
locked up in her Canada palace, spending
her first New Year away from home-and a
sad New Year it will be for the poor woman,
with all these memories from Hesse Darn
stadt of the Princess Alice-need not envy
her cosy quarters in Kensington Palace. l
walked through Kensington on yesterday
morning. The cold winds came blowing
home looked bleak and desolate, the
poor duke Always striving to find
sunshine and comfort in Cannes, the
old palace, the palace of William Ill, and
where Colonel Esmond in Thackerays novel
made his gallant efforts to restore the Stu
-sf- ~ T. IA IL
and the lamps IN the streets were still burn
ing. Shivering sentinels stamped their feet
and tried to extract warmth from the ground
as they walked from post to post. All over
London was deep gloom, and during the
whole day the fog enclosed the city and the
frost locked the ground. The fog would be
nothing, and there would be little omen IN
the frost If over all England there were not
this deepest gloom, which no news of Afghan
victories can disperse. As you go into no.
tells and public places you see boxes for
collecting charity for the poor. The
English are a rich people and generous,
and will MAKE a noble effort to alleviate
THIS MISERY.
But what can any private enterprise, no
matter how brave, do towards meeting q
calamity which has fallen on the whole peo-
| pie and the extent of which is so alarming
| that even statesmen in Parliament stand
| aghast and look for help from over the sea
anu ma WORDS OF comfort IN our president
message? Csa any fact indicate more
strongly the relations between the two coun
| tries, which never grew 30 strong as in their
hours of trial7 Sixteen years ago when this
last frost fell on England there was unusual
/ prosperity here 1t came from our war. All
/ of the channels of American commerce bad
broken down, all of our wealth was rushing
| into English markets, our commercial SUI
| premacy was giving way to England
eager TO find her opportunity in ouI
calamity and her prosperity in oni
ram. But now how changed, and If we
cared to point moral what a lesson
| 1t would bel But looking out on the cold