Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-20
Mean Wages. |.


 young man went to New York the other day and obtained employment on one of the elevated railroads in that city. He begins his days work at four o'clock in the morn ing works till eight o'clock in the evening, and not unfrequently an hour or two longer. He does this not only on week days but on Sundays also, and for this service of from sixteen to eighteen hours day, for seven days in the week, he receives ten dollars week! When the annual meeting of the road comes around the stockholders have a jolly time over the enormous earnings of the road, and then they go on for another year, laying burthens upon their employees, as to the hours of labor that no human endurance can sustain for any considerable length of time, and cut down their wages to the lowest possible point. It would be pleasant to see these wealthy, heartless men lose their prop erty and be compelled to work in this manner for their own support. AS we understand it, these roads were built on borrowed money entirely, the stock being divided between members of the ring gratuitously, and their object is to gain money rapidly by high fares and keep it by expressing their employees with long hours of service and stingy wages, to pay the bonds and then take large dividends on stock which cost them nothing We speak of the Irish landlords as a hard-heart- ed set of men, and mourn over the oppres- sions of the poor, but are they not liberal and merciful compared with the lords of these elevated railroads, who ought to be Boy cotted dozen times over before the Irish landlords are meddled with. Two sets of hands, working twelve hours each, might be tolerated on these roads, but the company ought to be prohibited by the Legislature, under severe penalties, from exacting longer service than that from the poor men whose necessities compel them to accept employ ment on such terms lot of greedy and heartless spectators may demand. One fact " xUa TCh fra aolIf fho att ,E working men is that though these men are required to work on Sunday, yet they do not receive any more pay than if they worked only six days in the week, and when the des- ecration of the Sabbath becomes general, as it is likely to be before many years, no more wages will be paid for seven days work than are now paid for six.
 Mir. George A. Pratt, of Norwich, died on Monday in his 69th year. He was a native of Deep River. Most of his business life was spent in Norwich, where he was engaged in various enterprises.
 The Capital City Electric Light company, the Williams Memorial Institute of Lon don with capital of $2O0, 900, and the Smith Memorial Home of New London with a capi- tai of $175,00o, have applied for charters.
 Marriages in Berlin, Ct., during the year 1880, IT. births, 43 deaths, 33; of the 43 children born 30 were males, 13 females of the deaths 19 were males IA females. There were six deaths of persons between 80 and 90 years of age.
 Woodbury in Litchfeld county has had a special town meeting which unanimously voted to instruct its representatives in the Legislature to support the project for the formation of Waterbury county, and has ap- propriated $200 for expenses.
 A meeting of the corporators of tho "Caps- well Horse Nail company WAS held at the office of James L. Howard SS Go, in Hart ford, Tuesday, and the company organized under the joint stock laws of Connecticut The capital of the company is $20O, 900, di- yidsd into two thousand shares at $100 each