Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-01-22
SOME OBSERVATIONS
eY A PERIPATETlc GENTLEMAN.
The f4oss Race-A Chance for Moral
improvement - Look TO Your
Clerks-A Mechanics
Soliloquy.

The Grand Rapids Driving Park Associa-
tion are going 10 make an effort 20 hold
horse meeting in this city next July. IL Is
legitimate amusement when legitimately
managed and free from the inhuence OF
gambling and pool selling. People have
lost confidence IN the best horses winning,
and the sport is considerably demoralized.
Give us an honest race if il is a possible
thing
The Peripatetic has heard much of the peo-
pie who patronizs the gambling establish
ments in this city, and has learned that the
game is not confined entirely to those per-
sons who make il a profession. Doctors,
lawyers and merchants may be seen there
nightly, also clerks who are employed IN
many OF our large concerns, who do not re-
ceive any more salary than what is needed
to keep them respectfully. They cannot
buck the tiger" without encoun-
tering strong temptations to dis
honesty. Not day passes bat accounts OF
defalcations are read in the newspapers, all
of which are traceable to passion for gam
bling. II might profit some of the promi-
nent merchants in Grand Rapids to visit the
gambling institutions occasionally. They
might run across some of their trusted en-
ployees.
Grand Rapids, like all thriving, prosper
Gus cities, has its share of immortality and
uicka1paaa Soma port;opo of tba c;ty ora
absolutely disgrace to it. For instance,
some Of the institutions on Calder and Sum-
NIT streets. These places are the habitation
of depraved people who ere so far gone i'll
sin that not a spark of principle or honesty
remains, and to them shame is only re-
membrance of the distant past. These
people are allowed TO live and
thrive on what they can fleece out of the un.
suspecting countryman. A stranger who
can enter these dens of iniquity without be-
ing deprived of his cash, by oftentimes quss-
tionable means, is an incident rarely heard
of. There should be some vigorous renovat-
ing undertaken in the portion of the city
mentioned, and the saloons with houses of
i'll repute attached closed up. This could
be easily effected if proper means were
adopted.
The peripathetic had q conversation
with several workmen in reference to the
question of wages, and the contentment of
mechanics with the present state of things.
They nearly all agreed that they we're salts
fed if wages were only adjusted more to the
proportion of the profits of the concerns who
employ men. Now" said one, "if manufac-
turing institution expends large amount of
money earned by the business in an outside
| speculation or investment, it is generally
| followed by cut in wages. We have con-
tributed toward earning that money, and it
doesn't seem fair to reduce our wages. We
don't demand anything that is not just or
equitable. We want fair play, that's all. and
| II our employer Is in close quarters we are
| willing to submit to the sacrifice of a
reduction and assist him to pull through.
1t is a mistaken idea to urge children
| to learn trade Better send them to school
| and allow them to acquire an education that
will enable them to become acquainted with
managing forces of a concern. They will
stand a much better show of Advancement.
| To put tools into their hands is to brand
them to be slaves of drudgery all their born
days, with no prospect of accumulating any
thing except Indebtedness and expense,
which requires constant struggle to keep
pace with. No mechanic will complain or
nnd fault where he feels that honest effort
and an unswerying interest in the advance
ment of the affairs of the employer is appre-
ciated and is rewarded by promotion. If
the mechanic has struggled and in that
struggle has advanced the interests of those
from whom he receives his wages, he feels
that he should be awarded O reasonable
share Of that success in some shape" Thus
soliloQuized the artizan.