The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-05-15
Our Broadbrin Letters.
The Check in Prosperity First Of May
Imports Old Ocean -Unrequited Love
and its Consequences, Etc, Etc.

NEW YORK, May 8, 1880.
EDITOR CHIEF:
The unexampled prosperity whicl
it has been our pleasure to record fol
the past year seems to have received
severe, if not a permanent check. II
is true that the tide of emigration
still rolls in upon us like the waters
of mighty river; bnt the golden
current that gave such activity to
business few months ago, no Longer
flows towards the west, and we seem
to be drifting into the same wild vor-
tex of extravaganza which engulfed
us some years ago. The virus seems
to have inncculated all classes. Boot.
blacks and bankers, clergymen and
hod- carriers, are each adding an item
to the general accoant. From a state
of prosperity such as the country had
not known for a quarter Of a century,
in a few short months we find our
selves face to face with hard times
Some branches of trade are still ac-
tive; but even among the most fortu-
nate are germs of discomfort, which
angers i'll for the laboring classes and
their employers. There is none OF
the old time friendshi and fellowship
that used to distinguish them years
ago. A wide gulf separates the en-
ployers and the employed the chasm
grows wider every day. In the coun-
try this evil is felt only to limited
extent but in a great city like New
York, the lines are tightly drawn, and
there are men here worth millions,
aud employing hundreds of hands,
who are as powerless as the btggars
at their doors to place an apprentice
in their own factories, which they
have reared at a cost of hundreds of
| thousands of dollars. The whole of
our American labor system has been
upset by European communism, till
at last the servants are the masters
| and the masters are the servants.
! With this has come the most inflated
notion of individual values, till the
servant who scrubs your kitchen or
ruins your yictuals in the cooking,
imagiues herself as justly entitled to
diamond earrings and camel's hair
shawls as her mistress.
The LIST of May has sadly disar-
ranged us nobody feels iu good hu-
NOR for a month after, for that is the
day when all New York INDUCES in
the general misery of move. For
weeks after it is impossible to find
nything. You ask for your razor,
and the servant tells you that she
hasn't seen it since she left the house,
where she used it to splita little kind
ling wood. Your boot jack was used
to kindIe fire III the new house; your
hat box is smashed; two legs are
broken out of your easy chair all
sorts of domestic sutferings come down
on you like an avalanche, and to cap
the climax of your misfortune, you
were compelled to change servants
when you moved. 1t is true the one
YOU lost did not amount to much, but
you could have got along with her
but, alas III an evil hour she became
enamo,ed OF the s~illman, OF he of
her, and she got married. the new
girl ia tirst-cla in her charges, and
you soon begin to realize that if there
is famine in Ireland, their relatives
in America are not likely to suffer.
As | said before, the times are hard,
very hard laboring men are walking
about the streets with nothing to do,
and yet there has been 10 time since
the war that the demands of domes-
tic servants have been 50 impptlent
and Orbitant. An Association of
Ladies has been formed here, .for the
purpose of resisting this imposition,
and another society has just been in
augurated, for the purpose Of proper
ly training domestic servants. Both
of them have the very best wishes of
all who have the welfare of the coun-
try at heart, and we sincerely wish
them Godspeed.
Every week shows an increase of
imports over the same week last year,
and if we except the article of rail-
road iron, which is coming in by
thousands of tons, most of the imports
represent articles of luxury, or at
least things that we ought to manu-
facture ourselves, or get along with
out 1t seems almost like a national
disgrace that the United States should
be impo1 ting railroad iron, from
abroad. Aud this reminds me that
VIM. H. Vanderbilt and family de-
parted for Europe few days ago.
Ostensib)y the trip is for pleasure,
after investing $50, ,OOO, 600 in Govern
ment bonds, so as to be sure of his
personal expenses while abroad, he