Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-10
H0MESTEAD'S WOMEN.
They Are the Greatest Sufferers
From the Trouble in the Mill.
VISITS TO THE DESOLATED HOMES
Many Mother Who Hasn't Had the Care
She Ought to Have Had.
CASES WHERE WAGES WERE WASTED

| fcoRREsPoNpENcE OF THE prsPAEcH.l
HOMESTEAD, JULY 9.-Were you
ever so overpoweped with a grief or
! weight of woe that the very sun
shine seemed hateful aud the singing of
birds or children's happy laughter the
greatest meckery? When nature herself
you to tantalize, and in contrast to it's
smiling, bring out in darker hue the grief
of a breaking haart9
Something Of that contrariety which
shines upon funerals and grief and rains
upon weddings and jollity was experienced
at Homestead during the unhappy week
just gone. Clouds dark and lowering,
thunder loud and prolonged would have
been strictly in accord with the spirit of the
time; en- rapport with the general gloom
and wretchednesa But instead of adjust
ing itself sympathetically to the sorrowful
moods of Respondent people, it continued
tantalizingly fair.
'Oh, if the sun only would not shine
and the children would keep quiet could
bear it better" .naoaned one poor woman
upon whom the hand of misfortune had
fallen with crushing weight. :....
Tho Family Of Poor Tom Weldon.
This was Tom Wsldon's widow, the
mother of five children, graded like stair
steps and in hourly expectancy of adding
sixth to the numbes Although in both
physical and mental travail she could not
be induced to quit the room wherein was all
that was left other poor Tom" Around and
around the coffin she wandered in half
demented way making no outcry, yet wall
ing in way that was heartbreaking to hear.
No tears came to relieve her surcharged
heart and the stony, awful stare in her eyes
and the drawn, tortured expression of the
face, from which all hope had fed, will
b haunt me to my dying hour The uncon-
scious children played joyously about the
door, coming in occasionally to admire the
tall candles burning at papa's head and to
inquire what was the matter with him that
he laid so still
This was only one house out of several it |
these trying days. As the guest Of DR.
John Purmsn, one of the most popular
young physicians of Homestead, I was |
especially favored in personally meeting |
and talking with the workers families. I |
went with the doctor upon his round Of |
visits and in this way saw these wretched |
people In their own wretched homes. The |
experience was q nelve-racking one, but |
just such as needed.
Homes Whore Poverty Dwelt.
That people could live in such squalor I |
had always before then doubted. There is
nothing more true than that one-haf the |
world does not know how the other half |
lives We, of the other bali, are too prone |
a. .sI1 1-~I-
as much distance between us and the other |
half a. possible, and in . measure forget, or
for this very reason fail to realize that these
people are as human - ourselves.
The question OF labor and capital, like
every other, can be reasonably argued both
ways, but am not the one to argue 1t either
way. Without expressing an opinion as to
the right or the wrong of this last dreadful
contest, I can but lament the '.inhumanity
to man that makes countless thousands
msurl." especially since 50 many of the
thousands are helpless women and children
to whom the world-the man world-owes
ita tenderest protection. hold it to be =
sin and shame that women have to enter
the sordid grind of life. Whether Swede,
Hungarian, Psle, Irish, German, American
or Of whatever tongue, Q woman's woman
for q that and q that, in paraphrase, and
there is q living that Is hers and which she
should get without .overwork or worry.
Tho Women Who Were in tho Fight.
Woman as originally planned was deli
cate creation, intended to hold within her
self all capabilities Of good cheer, tender
ness and grace, put the women at Home
stead who felt called upon to get out and
fight like men for what they felt was theirs
for tho earning, have become sadly per-
verted from the primal idea. That is
not what heaven meant vomankind to
be, and this is not the fault Of the women
themsely0 You or In their place would
have done as they did, while they in our
place would do as, We do, which too fire.
quently is to live without thought Of less
fortunate sisters. - ,..... 81.
These women are not ignorant and stupid
by any means. I, met several who were
about the ordinary, and who, with the ad-
vantages that the money they fought for
might bring, could fill your place Or mine.
One of the calls made with Dr.. PuTman was
to dress the wounds of Harry Hughes, a
bright-faced young man who, having the
elasticity of spirits natural to youth, was
cheerfply even in the face of the probable
loss of limb But the young wife with
baby in, her arms had not yet recovered from
the shock Of th. night before
whom her husband had bsen