Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-03-28
HOW SOME MEN GET RICH.

During the labor troubles at Punxsu-
tawney the New York World sent a
special correspondent there to investigate
matter. This is a sample story of what
he found:
| wanted to see, row that the strike is
fully on, how the strikers are really far
ing in what sort of condition they were
starting of upon this new test of endur-
ance. So in the afternoon set off on foot,
with the master workman, to visit the
huts where some of the strikers had taken
shelter. Out over roads where the mud
and water stood half knee deep we climb
ed, and reaching the open country cut
into the fields, where the snow lay.
At red house on the skirt of a
wood, we stopped. Within the shabby
house was tall old woman, with herl
widowed daughter and two grandchildren.
The old lady had the accent o. Durham
and Northumberland, and from her fiery
talk and exultation when told that the
men, in meeting, had decided not to back
down, learned that it isn't the men who
are the backbone of the Buffalo, Rochest-
er and Pittsburg strike. Her son, she
said, had died from miners consumption,
and now that her old husband was out on
strike all they had was 81 week for the
| five of them. The last wages the old
man drew, she said, was Sl2.40 for fifteen
days work. 1--WE came here in July,
an promise we we hain't had 81 in cash
a-comin at pay days altogether. The.
last two times there was nothin, at all,
an we may be sure yell get no goods at
| the companys stores unless ye've the coal
already to show for 'em. Many's the
| ones gone after little sugar or tea before
the strike, and been told they couldn't
| get it--theTe was nolhin' comm to EN-.
| We had to pay So for our wee bit house,
and then the hospital and doctor
there was a $1.10 for nothin'. We
never saw the doctor. and if my man was
sick dye think I'd let him go to the
'ospital? No says ]. keep him here and
care fol him myself. Why, sir, only one
man ever came out of the 'ospital alive"
In the next house, half mile away
lived young fellow and his wife. They
were sitting before the cook stove in the
one room they could call theirs. There
was no carpet on the floor, but it was
neat and clean. There were cracks be-
tween the boards on the outside of the
house, through which, as | sat there,
could see the blue sky and the waving
branches of the pines IN the wood hard
| by. The cold wind came up brskly
through the flooring, and | believed the
young miner when he told me the 'ouse
was kinder cold"
| The small housewife, when asked what
sort of fliving they had been able to make
out, said it was pretty slim, but that there
being only two of them they did better
than others who had big families.
But the mine people tell me the men
can average from S65 to 500 a month";
The young fellow and his wife both
looked at each other and laughed feebly
in derison.
Wen, he SAID, figures won't lie,
especially when they're in the cOmpanys
writing. Here's something that'll come
near showin' the truth"
He pulled from the cupboard lot of
checks OF the semi-monthly payments ut
the mine. These dirty scraps of paper
showed the amount he had earned and
the sum that had been paid him in cash
out of it. One two weeks when he had
earned SS, there had been 81 05 remain
ing out OF it to be paid in currency; out
of $l7.30, a balance of 81 9j; out of So 46,
So IS; out of 1892, $tS2; out of 1880,
So 35 out of S11.70, nothing. That last
is what they called )" blacksnake"
On up the snowy road. Wilson, "
said |, "a man told me yesterday that he
had made manya meal, since the Strike,
of bread and water.
- Well" the young leader answered,
that's not uncommon. You will find
that there are a sight of strikers who have
been dong hat Turn to the right here"
There was a low one-story building,
unpaintcd aud stormbeaten, which
was half like a tenement and half like
the bOilerhouse at an oil well. Two or
three chickens were picking in the dirt
before the door, and there were scraps of
broken furniture and crockery and few
bits of coal. In this little shed---for
that was all it amounted to---there were
two families quartered, ana under its low
roof saw sight which could not fail to
inspire pity. In one room, and a cup
board which passed under the name of
bedroom, woman, shabbily dressed and
with worn, tired face, sat nursing from
the breast babe born since the beginning
of the strike. About her were six other
children, all girls, ragged and wan. The
eldest could not have been more than
eleven, and, except some photographs
taken during famine in India and the
horrid pictures which hang on the walls
at the rooms of the s. p. G. c., on
Twenty-third street, have never seen
more wretched emaciatiOn. OF the other
children two were simply beautiful.
"The strike Is hard on the. children,
said the woman, looking around upon her
flock.
"There are great many things they
ought to have, but which we can't get for
them. They need clothes and they need
milk. We are virtually starving to death
here"
The woman's voice, her appearance
and the wretched room where they were
told sad story of utter want, detection
and despair,
There was stove, a table, a wash
bench, two chairs and a box on which
the children sat, feebly amusing them
selves with the tattered covers-the covers
merely-of an old picture-book. A
scant fire was in the stove. | asked the
woman where her husband was.
80, " she said, " he only comes home
to sleep. We have so little food that it's
not enough for the children and me, let
alone the man. He's good soul, and he
manages to get meal of some sort away
somewhere, so as to let us have all the
relief committee furnishes"