The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-02-05
POVERTY'S TROUBLES
Starvation viii Claim Thousands Of
Victims in the Metropolis Dur
ing the Winter.
Let the Farmer Contemplate the Awful
Need Of AfIiliatiOn Between City
and Country.

bowling about the parsimony of con-
gress, and the infamy of the Holman
resolution, in our own favored land
people are starving to death. Contri-
buttons and appropriations for starv-
ing Russian peasants we would not
discourage, but why not remember the
suffering at our doorP This would not
do however it would be an admission
of facts alleged by "calamity howlers. "
The New York Press says:
On the authority of the general man
ager of one of the largest charity Or
CARNATIONS in the country it can be
stated that this winter will be an I'M
usually trying one for the unfortunate
poor of New York.
The crowded sections of the tene-
ment districts are more crowded than
ever, and an ever increasing stream of
impoverished humanity from across
the ocean has poured into the east side
for the past sick months. More than
10000 Russian Jews says Superintend-
ant Blake, of the city's outdoor poor
department, have been added to the
tenement population, Never in all his
experience has Superintendent Blake
seen such restitution as exists now.
Up on Fourth avenue, at 70, are the
rooms of the New York association for
improving the condition of the poor
All day long and far into the night
the applicants for aid climb the steps
to No. 70 and tell their tale of woe
The deserving applicant is quickly
recognized and the impostOr is quickly
detected by the keen eyed agents of
the association.
A Press reporter has investigated
many of the most striking cases that
have come to the society recently and
has found the greater part of them to
be as stated to the society.
Thomas Jackson had been employed
for number of years in a butcher
shop. but his employer having failed,
he lost his position. He had II wife
and ten children. With little money
he had saved up he went into business
for himself, The Undertaking was I'M
successful, for his capital was too
small. Two of the girls in the family
secured employment in cigar factory
ten honrs days work, ut 81 week
each, thus making the weekly income
for this large family only 81 per week.
After time Jackson found employ
ment, though at only S. week, but
then unexpectedly the girls were
thrown out of employment owing to
the dizziness of trade, and II little later
the father was taken down with pneu-
monia. Without friends or means of
any kind starvation was nigh. The
agents of the association for improv-
ing the condition of the poor rendered
assistance just in time to keep death
away.
A few days ago the reporter found
on the top floor of the tenement at IS
Mulberry street family that had ap-
piled to the association for aid. The
family consisted of seven-husband,
wife and five children. James Mill
gan, the father, was a hard working,
sober man, kind to his wife and child
rem, and had been employed as driver
for a business house for two years, but
had, unfortunately, with twenty-five
other employees, been laid off from
slackness Of work. The wife and
mother had tramped the streets day
after day, seeking in vain for any kind
of employment, and the only depend
ance and support of the entire family
was the frail young girl of IA, who
could only earn, even by the closest
application, the small sum of $3.50 a
week, on which they tried to exist
Down in the slums in the ricketY
tenement at "a Hester street is case
of misery almost beyond belief in a
christian city. The family of John
Norris lived there, consisting of mother
and four children, an old grandmother
and also sister of the wife, some
t''enty-four years of age, who was ill
with consumption and confined to her
bed.
This family of eight was crowded
together in the wretched rooms with
out fuel or food. The children were
all i'll from breathing the poisoned air
of the poorly ventilated apartments.
For lays the family had had nothing
to eat but crisps of bread, a little
cheese, and scrap of meat that a
neighbor had taken from her own
poorly supplied table to give the starry
ing ones
At 10 Cherry street was another
most deplorable case of poverty and
suffering. Archibald. Thompson and
his wife and three children were found
shiveringin a garrett room, through the
roof Of which the pitiless wind whis-
tied. The room was barren Of furni-
ture. the parents slept on the floor. the
elder children in boxes and the baby
was swung in an old shawl attached to
the rafters by cords.
The father was seaman, but had
been obliged to give up that calling
because he was suffering from con-
sumption, and was earning precari-