The Progress., 1893-06-10

misery il 81 week And half of this
is take, to pay for ,hc miserable den in
which the work is done Two families
live in single rooms Twelve people are
found sometimes in room l3 3font square
Many of the women who work in this
underworld of horror are dying 10 hope
and when woman with her ccasplCss
passion OF hfc. her undyiug love. with
her qucuChicss h"roism. ceases to hope
it Is time for vour social economist. it is
time for your preacher. your politician,
Your philosopher, to hasten 10 find the
cause. One of this army of a quarter of
million women recently said to Mrs
Campbell:
Il don't see how anybody can much
longer keep soul and body together"
I'VE don't" said one of the other wo-
men. turning suddenly. IL got rid of
my soul long ago. such as it was who's
go. time 10 think about souls. grinding
away here II hours day To turn ont
contract goods? 'Tain't souls that count.
It's bodies that can be driven and half
starved and driven still till they drop
in their tracks. would try the river If
! was not driving to pay doctors bill
for my thrc> that went with the fever
Before that | was driving To put food in
To their mouths. Inevcr owed a cent to no
man. have been honest and paid rs
went and done n good turn when |
could. Had ! chosen the other thing
while had a pretty face of my own
would have had ease and comfort and n
quick death. The rivers the best place.
I'm thinking for them that wants ease
Such life as this il not living"
"She don't mean it. the first speaker
said ALPHABETICALLY; she knows there il
better times ahead"
Yes. the kind YOU will find in the
next room. Take Il look in there. man.
and then tell me what we are going TO
do"
In the next room was found panta-
loon maker, huddled in an old shawl,
finishing the last of a dozen. which. when
taken back. would give her money for
fire and food. She had been i'll for three
days. The bed was an old mattress on
dry goods box in the corner, and save for
the chair on which she sat and the stove
the room was empty. "Even that. she
said. with glance at the miserable bed,
''is more than | had for long while. !
pawncd everything before ray husband
died, except the machine"
SIXTY THOUSAND HOMELESS
Do not believe that these i7Ee excep-
tional cases. They arV typical specimens
from this vast army Of this dark under
world. There are GO O0O homeless men
and women in tho city of New York
aloDe-an army of G0.00O that 6p not
know where they will lay their bc;uts to-
night. read the other day of man
who m u 6i of insanity murdered his
wife and three children. How do we
know 1T wa, insanity? Tiny say he be-
came n maniac And vet che poet tells
us of how the old hero Nirginius could
slay his child rather than see her dis
honored- L. it not possible: in vieyV of
these frequent horrors. they have ken
prompted not by insanity, but by the de-
spair of lsHe, by the father and mother
that stood on tho brink and peered over
the awful abyss and preferred to lill
their OWN rather than to deliver them to
the hell tsu'y saw open befoIsthem.
Such poverty IS necessarily the mother
of despair-despair grim and sullen and
stnpefying, The man who fights with
hunger becomes an animal Is it not 5ct
ter to diea MAN than to die ;abrute? Shall
these desperate people reason? Suicide
becomes a luxury. The death of child
under spch conditions is joy, not n sor.
row. They are gathered TO the potter's
field. but they rest. They are crowded
one on top ~ the other in the great
black trenches. but they will not be
reused i'll the gray twilight of the morn
ing to duh. ceascless toll. Their little
bodies moldcr together in the grave, but
their little stomachs do not cry for bread
and for meat and for drink. Their little
faces do not grow piached and wan any
longer. There are some things worse
than death. There are some things worse
than the potter's field. 1t is the living
potter's field-it is the living death.
A pitiful case of desti,ution recently
came to light near New York. A police
man of the Thirty-third precinct was pa
trolling his beat on the outskirts of the
city when in n lonely spot in the woods
near Hunts point he came upon mSn
and woman and three children stretched
on the bare ground. The man and the
woman were asleep, but the children
were awake and groaning.
When the man was awakened, he said
he had no home, no means of subsistence.
During the winter and spring ne had
earned n scanty living as an oyster open-
er, but at the close of the season was
thrown out of work. He fell sick, and
the little money he had saved was soon
spent. Then the owner of the house in
which he lived turned him out. He
tramped round, trying to find work. but
failed. His wife and children had no
shelter, and he had not cent to find
them lodging. Not knowing where to
go, they went into the woods, where
they slept for three nights 1t was three
days since thpv had eaten n scran of food