The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-30
Brazil and Its Social Conditions.

To the Editor Of the Indianapolis Journals
The citizens of this town were surprised on
perusipg their valued Sunday Journal to read an
article setting forth the drunkenness, wicked
ness, rioting and general degradation of their
busy, thriving little city. They have been so
pleased and proud lately by the growth and in
creasing wealth and Importance of this center Of
the great coal region of Indiana so encouraged
by the excellence of her schools, the growth and
prosperity of her churches the marks of indus
try, thrift and advancing wealth displayed On
every side. that it was shock to see Brazil
painted in such lurid colors by no less person
. than the president of the w. c. T. U. of Indi-
ana. Mrs. Nichols has been in our city twice
this fall and winter She has surely boon misin-
formed, or has misconstrued her information in
regard to mining population, when she
makes the sweeping and shameful assertion that,
on pay-days hundreds of drunken miners are
rioting on the Streets" that. women are afraid
, to venture abroad, and that mining officials dare
not show themselves" for fear of violence.
have lived in Brazil twenty three years,
Main street, and have yet to see riot Of drunken
/. miners any other men, There never has been
a riot. There has never been time when
women were afraid to be out the city streets
for fear of insult. l have belonged for eight
years nearly TO a literary society that meets
from p. NJ. till Top. NJ Ladies from all parts
of the city attend the meetings, unaccompanied
by gentlemen escorts, and no one has ever been
annoyed by drunken miners or, in fact, by any
drunken or sober person.
On pay-days the streets are thronged with
women. many of them the wives of miners, who
almost invariably take sole charge of the
months pay. These women have plenty Of
money, and they lay in most bountiful supplies
of all articles of necessity and luxury. Wives,
sisters and daughters of coal operators bankers,
npfo 1ax n6oxrsn
and rollin g mill men minge in the busy throng.
Every store and grocery is filed with eager Gus
toners, buying the best and choicest articles in
generous profusion. and no sign of woe or
wretchedness is visible. People go home loaded
with bundles. On Monday after each pay
Saturday the delivery wagons, high
piled with groceries, furniture cloth
ing and hardware are busy from
goods to these same destitute. starving miners
whose families, Mrs. Nichols assures us, are
often dependent on the charity of the coal COM
panies and citizens. feel confident that there
is not case to-day of restitution in city,
i, least of all among the miners. There may be
sickness, but the miners are proverbially gener-
GUS to ono another, and give to each one who
needs literally, and without loud boasting of the
fact
Some of the miners drink, so do some of our
farmers, lawyers, doctors, clerks and mechanics.
There are fewer drinking men among the min
ers in proportion to their number than among
0tfer classes OF cltlZeOS. AS III all our Clues
and towns, there is too much money worse than
wasted in liquor but the miners do not drink it
oil by any means new railroad is being built
here, and some Of of the laborers employed from
d distance drink and are boisterous and quarrel
some in their cups, but no one, to my knowledge,
has been injured in a brawl.
Very many OF our miners receive for their diff
,fcult, dangerous and honorable labor good
wages and have pleasant and comfortable homes,
with nice furniture. carpets, books musical in
struments, etc. They are regular attendants
Mt church, their children, nicely clad, attend
school and Sabbath-school and are as bright
happy and unsconscleus of misery and degrade
ton as any persons children These things
know. / see the children pass daily to school.
but a few steps from my house see them
every Sunday thronging to Sabbath school, and
their dress, bearing and general intelligence
would make a creditabe showing even in In
danapois.
prominent lawyer of our city, senator from
y our county, assures me that in cases coming be-
fore the mayors court which he visits every
morning, not one man in ten arrested for drunk
cnness or disorder is miner In proportion to
our population we have no more drunken
ness than Terre Haute, Indianapolis, Green
castle or Rockville, and from other offenses
against morality and order we are remarkably
free
There is often delay about shipping coal. This
Is not caused, as Mrs. Nichols asserts, by the
drinking of miners and railroad EMPLOYEES but
by lack of coal fats, and the difficulty arising
from lack Of adequate railroad transportation 1t
10 preposterous to charge the delay to drunken
miners. have been member of the W. c. r.
IT, OF this city ever since its organization and it
pains mo to think the president of SO noble a
body Of women in Indiana should in the widely
read columns OF the Journal publish such q