The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1886-03-13
A PiTiFUL STORY.
The Terrible Poverty Existing Among the
LabOrers in Cities.

The Terrible Poverty Existing Among the
LabOrers in Cities.
The superintendent of the Pittsburgh
Bethel, an institution which furnishes
cheap meals to workingmen, tells some
pitiful stories to reporter. He says:
"a few weeks ago man came to me.
He drives an oil wagon and gets 81 per
day. He was paying $3.50 for board at
clearinghouse. He has wife and
child in West Penn Hospital, and he
was disbeartened and discouraged be-
cause he could not make enough to
keep them there till they were well.
told him to try the home. He is now
with us steadily, and as regular as Sat
urday night comes his money goes to
his wife.
Zone day young fellow, a CONNER
cial traveller, came to me with tears in
his eyes. He said he wanted to pay
mans board for two weeks. He was
passing down Duquesne Way, he said,
near the hotel, where lot of men were
putting down pipe. Hang you!
yelled the big red-faced foreman to one
of the men. why don't you liftP'
"'Indeed, sor, an | can't lift it. I'm
too wake
"'What is the matter with your said
the foreman.
Sure. sor, an it's two wakes olive
been attn nothn' but foive-cent males,
an Dive no strength left.
"'Well, why don't you get better
meals, then?' said the foreman.
Indeed. sor," replied the man, II
can't; I've wife and six babies ave me
own in Cleveland, an it's all can doto
kape them from starvation, sor. If !
should take any thing better than do,
sure an the faces ave every one of them
would be lookin' up at me from the very
plate was attn FROM"
1.-The drummer bought two weeks
supply of tickets for the man, and ten
cent meals at that. The story was
true one, and the man is working in
the city yet, earning dollar day,
and sending four dollars week of it
home. | tell you these stories to illus
trate the statements | made that these
men are not tramps or Outcasts. The
majority of them are sober and indus
trous men; men who are willing to
work, and who do work But they are
better off than the men who can't get
work. Have you ever noticed load
of coal going through the streets, and
from two to half dozen seedy-look-
ing men following it, walking mile
or two, may be, to earn ten or twenty
cents to buy themselves mealP There
are hundreds of such men who are
anxious to work that come to us every
week. Lots of men are now with us
whose families live out in these coun-
try towns, and who have come here to
work on pipe lines, etc. We know, for
many of them bring their money to us
to send to their families. There is no
doubt but that many of these men owe
their condition to liquor, but not a ma
jority of them, and nearly all are
anxious to work; but there is no work
to do"
"How about the tramps?'
1.-The tramp, as he existed five or six
years ago, is thing of the past. They
have died, got into prisons and work
houses, and otherwise disappeared.
There are but a few of them left, and
while the number of men out of employ
ment and in need is on the increase, the
tramps are decreasing. | don't know
why it is but find such to be the case.
| suggest no remedies, but | merely
state the facts as find them. Every
year finds the number of men out OF
employment largely on the increase,
and growing desperate and disheart.
ened. 1t is question which must be
taken into serious consideration sooner
or later. "-Pittsburgh Dispatch.