The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-04-05
UNDER FREE TRADE.
How Horace Greeley Pictured the
Distress in 1855,

from the Netp York 7sSbvns Jan. Is. 1850
Who Is hungry Go and see. You
that are fulfilled, and known not what It
is to be hungry-perhaps never saw q
hungry mango and see thousands. men
and women, boys and girls, old and young,
black and white, of all nations, crowding
and jostling each other, almost fighting
for q first chance, acting more like hun-
CRY wolves than human beings in q land
OF plenty. 1t is only by the continuous
can be kept in order, or made to wait till
the food is ready for distribution. Such
IA scene may be seen every day between II
and IL o'clock aroun the corner OF
Orange and Chatham streets, where
charity gives a dinner to the poor, and
soup and bread to others to carry to their
On Sunday we spent an hour there at
the hour Of high tide. We have never
seen anything like 1t before. Upward OF
1000 people were fed with a plate Of soup,
a piece OF meat and a piece OF bread, and q
piece of meat on the premises, and In all
more than ], 800. On the same day 1,l3O
portions of soup were dealt out from
Stewards ''soup Kitchen" in the rear of
the great store, corner Of Reade street and
Broadway. At the rooms on Duane
street for the relief OF the poor, on the
same day, they gave food TO 2,o56. In the
Sixth Ward alone, over 5000 persons were
this Is only one day in OF ward. Mean
while scenes OF a like nature are being EN-.
acted all over the city. a procession or
several thousand persons kept marching
about the streets yesterday, with hags
and banners which bore such inscriptions
as Hunger Is a Sharp Thorn" 1.-THE Last
Recourse" Live and Let Live" 1--WE
Want Work. etc.
Such are the scenes that are being en-
acted daily before our eyes, while the cry
of hard times reaches us from every part
of the country. The making Of roads Is
stopped. factories are closed, and houses
and ships are no longer being built. Fac
tory hands, road makers. carpenters:
bricklayers and laborers are idle, and
paralysis is rapidly embracing every pur-
suit In the country. The cause of all this
.stoppage Of circulation is to be found in
the steady outflow of gold to pay foreign
and the other things that could be pro-
duced by American labor, but which can
not be so produced under our present
revenue system. The convulsion would
have come upon us sooner but for the ex-
t%raordinary demand in Europe for
f6 a%;nss groSM; S wa out i saa hS Sgs
for the dazzling and MAGNIFICENT dis
covery OF gold mines in. California, by
which hard money sufficient to buy an
empire has been called into existence and
exported to Europe. IL we could stop the
import Of the foreign articles the gold
would cease to flow out to pay for them,
and money would then become more album
dant, labor would then again be In de-
mand; shoes. clothing and other commodi-
ties would then again be in demand and
men would then cease TO starve in the
streets of our towns and cities. II il be
not stopped the gold must continue to go
abroad and employment must become
from day to day more scarce, until, where
there are now many thousands, we shall
see tens of thousands of men everywhere
crying: ''Give me work. Only give me
work. Make your own terms my wife
and children nave nothing to eat"