The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-02-16
OUR NIW YORK LETTER.
THE eFFCC OF AN OPEN WINTER
ON WAGE WORKERS.

u IL IA Blessing Ia Promcnadcrs. but Dis
as,ru,, 10 the Poor Trades Injured by
ItLc,, selling Of stoves, Coal. shoes
Rubber aud Heavy Clothing.
Special Correspondence
NEW YORK, Feb l. This open winter
has been very enjoyable for New York prom
enalcrs and shoppers; but it has knocked the
financial stuilinS out Of many trades aud oc
equations Things which cold weather sells
won't sell when there is little or no cold
weather Occupations which demand cold
weather won't flourish if warm or mild
weather holds instead Of cold weather There
is the ice cutting business. Thousands of men
usually employed in it have remained idle 50
far this winter Then usual wages have not
been paid them. Some drift away to other
places and empoyments. Some remain and
get all the credit they can from their local
storekecpcr It is the local country store
keeper who most suffers through these causes
His credit is impaired, and the city wholesale
merchant must know him ut present for an
AL man before he gives him credit.
The results of a warm winter reach way
down into the receSSes and intricacieS of life
and business The laboring man in the city
has less snow to shovel A heavy snowfall
results in the employment of an army of men
by the city in clearing it from the streets.
So much this winter has been taken out OF
the laboring mans income. He is cramped
~
employment reaches along the line and affects
even the sale OF honey A wholesaler in
honey tells me that his business languishes,
and attributes it to this cause. a proportion
of laboring men are deprived Of certain en-
Payments, necessary in a severe winter and
unnecessary in mild one. Result, they can
earn barely enough to buy -four and meat,
much less luxuries. Luxures for this class
of small wage earners sometimes mean lots
of things which the women especially Will
buy when there is dollar or two to spare,
such rs gimcracks-cheap linery and cheap
jewelry A. now they do not find 1t so easy
to buy the gimcraclis, so there is IA lessenng
of the demand for gimcrackS, cheap iinery
and cheap jeweIry
This winter has been a very dry as well rs
mild one. This has seriously affected the
shoe trade. Thousands of people have kept
on wearing their old shoes with one or more
rips IN sole or upper, because the stern neces-
sity Of prolonged wet or slushy period has
not compelled them to buy new ones Go
into city Shoe store on II rainy day and You
will find 1t full of people, who need the com
pulaIon of wet feet 10 drive them into buying
a whole pair Of shoes. \ great many men
and women have no systcmatized idea of buy
ing what II is absolutely necessary to buy.
When they have the money in hand and it is
not, as they hold 1t, an absolute necessity to
buy any article Of clothing, they go without
buying because they hate TO part with the
money in lump. Result, they keep it and
part with it in driblets us the whin takes
them. Ten cents out of two dollars
seems but Il trile as expended for
"A trine. Then another ten cents is
sliced Off for another trille and another
and another until there isn't enough left of
the - thalf the price OF "A good pair of shoes
to make it worth the saving, and SO it goes
and half your pair of shoes is
gone with it.
All this is bad for the shoe dealer, but good
for the driblet and tribe dealer In the list
of drblets and ten or five cent triles should
include beer The saloon business is the last
to anguish, and ilourishes almost as well for
IA period in duh rs IN flush times, because
when u man or at least some men have very
little money even for the necesSaries Of life,
they often feel glass of beer as a greater ne
cessty than ever \ man feels at times that
he must and will have beer when it pains
him to buy bread Some people think this
very wrong So it may be, but there are
some excuses TO be made for the demands i'll
human nature When the blues are on good
Judgment isn't always within easy reach, and
when man is melancholy for cause from
scarcity Of work and greater scarcity of
wages, it's amy port ina storm for bringing
reiief | know how it is. | have
been there myself
The sale of canned vegetables has suffered
the city market gardeners are abe, under
their glass frames and even in the open air,
to raise SO much more green truck" than
usual. The curled cabbage known rs ''kale' is
being brought to town in very large quaint
ties OF course people will buy the fresh
vegetable III preference TO the canned article.
An immense amount of canned corn, to-
matoes, asparagus and peas now remains I'M
sold which is usually worked Off by February
and March The store trade suffers. Less
indoor heat is needed, less stove repair, less
demand for stoves There is also less de-
mand for coal. The market mems interests
are injured. Fowl and game cannot be car
ried in frozen state for hundreds of miles to
this market. Meat and fowl spoil on their way
hither. Buyers must keep "A keen lookout for
tainted chicken Thousands of rubber shoes re-
main unsold because SO few people have so lit
tie sluSh to wade through. AT least one third
less heavy winter overcoats have been sold
than usual Manufactures of heavy wooden