The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-01-03
OUR LETTER FROM BRoADeR,M.

OOH LETTER FROM BROADBRIM.
Early Morning Travel on the Elevated
Railroads.&c. Couple of sluggers Acquit-
ted-Interesting Church fight In Brook
Johns Home, Etc.
| NEW YORK, Dec. q, 1884.
EDITOR CHIEF:
It is 6 o'clock in the morning, the sky is
dark. the air is cold and chilly, yet the
trains that come down on the elevated road
! are crowded. Every seat occupied and
men and women standing in the aisles.
There is no gallantry on the early morning
trains. Boys II, IA and 16 years of age sit
anxiously devouring the latest dime novel,
while gray haired men and women are stand
ing. Let the people who live at their ease
and who never know what labor or sacrifice
is look at the lives of these poor bread win
ners. They live nearly seven or eight miles
from their workshops, and to reach them
involves getting up at 5 o'clock in the morn
ing, and the day is begun with tie most
miserable apology for a breakfast. Each one
has little paper parcel, small enough, God
knows, but that contains the dinner. And
though no artist may be there to paint
them, among these poor wage winners are
lives of the noblest and most heroic sacri-
fee.
Among the throng on Wednesday morn
ing I saw a woman whose history have
known for many years. There were two
sisters, and their father, who had been
prosperous merchant, at his death left
them about $4,000. The husband of the
younger girl became the executor of the
estate. He ventured into Wall street, and
In less than year he was fugitive from
justice, and was never heard of after. The
young wife waited and watched for five
weary years, and then died broken hearted,
leaving her three little orphans to her sis
ter's care. At this time the sister was a
bright, handsome young woman as one
would wish to see, and she was engaged to
a young merchant down town, whose pros
poets were most fattering. The engage
ment was broken off at once, that she
might devote her life to the care of her sis
ter's orphans. Years rolled on and the
handsome, gay young girl became care
worn, pale faced, middle aged woman.
For fifteen years she has fought life's bat
tie for children who never will appreciate
the terrible sacrifice she has made. The
eldest boy is almost young man, but like
thousands Of others, he is utterly insensible
of any obligation. And the girls, too, see
Aunt Esther go ont morning after morning
in the summers heat and the winters
cold, never dreaming of the tremendous
sacrifice she has made. But her case is
only one of the thousands seen on these
early morning trains.
It is instructive to stand at the Chatham
Square station when the two human tides
meet, one going up and the other coming
down town. Mingled cries of "Harlem,"
" Forty second street," "South Ferry"
Getty Hall" and Second avenue to the
right" fill the air. Men and women rush
for the different trains. Before daylight
dawns ten or twelve thousand people have
been conveyed over those roads. One of
the results of our elevated railroad system
has been the rapid increase of building in
the upper part of the island. A few years
ago there we're long stretches of vacant
lots, and now it is one continuous line of
buildings from the Battery to Harlem
Bridge, and the only mystery is how We
could ever have got along without them.
We have settled the question legally as to
what constitutes an assault or { breach of
the peace. A couple of ruf6ans, John L.
Sullivan and ALI Greenfield, were indicted
for breach of tho peace at Madison
Square Garden. It was not pretended that
the encounter between these blackguards
was any worse than dozens of others that
had taken place in the self same spot.
When Sullivan met Tug Wilson, the re-
ceipts we're over $4,000, for the reason
that the audience collected on that occa-
sion expected to see Tug Wilson killed, but
Tug had come out from Hingland for a
special purpose. He did not care straw
about knocking Sullivan out. His main
care was to see that he did not get knocked