The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-08
A WHOLE TOWN STARVING.
Pretty and Well Furnished Houses
Which Contain No Food.
FAMINE AND PESTTLENCE TN THE
MICHIGAN MINING REGION.

habitants, 1t Is Estimated that $500
Must Be Fed and Partially Clothed by
Charity During the WiDter-The Peo-
pie Are Proud and the Wolf Was at
the Door When They Appealed for
Help.
Ironwood, Mich, December 7.-One
year ago the wages of the day workers
OF this city OF 5000 inha bitants were $780,
600 per month. At the present time the
payrolls for the same number of people
Will Lot exceed 5000 month. This wage
money came entirely from the seven
mines of this city, and the mines are
closed down and only $50 men at work,
where formerly were employed several
Thousand. The fact that the mining in
dustries of the lake region are paralyzed
10 Known TO the commercial world, but
| the extent Of the suffering that has been
| caused by the closing down of these
mines is not SO generally appreciated.
This means that 5000 people of this city,
where the thermometer for weeks at a
time is fifteen and twenty below zero.
must be supported by charity. 1t means
that every man, woman and child in this
town must depend for food and clothing.
fos five months on savings of last year
or what is given them. No money is to
be earned, for there is no work to do.
During the summer and fall about 5
per cent of the miners sought work in
other mining districts. Work was almost
as hard to find in other districts as it
was here, and the men were able to send
little or no money home to the families
In short time these families were chari-
ty charges on the hands of the county.
Added to this number was the constantly
increasing list of those at home who had
exhausted. their credit and were without
the means of sustaining life.
There was one other distressing feature
| which has added greatly to the general
suffering. In the spring there was an
| epidemic OF typhoid fever The water
mains became contaminated, and before
| the seat OF trouble had been located and
| the cause removed one out of every
eight inhabitants of the city had been
| stricken by the disease OF the number
that had taken sick one out of ten died.
| Ihls scourge was fearful blow to the
city, coming as it did at a time when the
| people could scarcely bear the burdens OF
the increasing hard times The greater
portion of these sick were of the poorer
classes and the patients had to be cared
| for in the public institutions of the city
and paid for out of the general funds.
| There are in the city today sixty-fve
convalescents. The authorities of this
| city and county were able to keep their
| poverty stricken from suffering until
Decem ber1. The merchants and the
people still hugged to their hearts for
comfort and hope the deIusions that the
mines would soon start up and the men
be again earning good wages. The credit
which they had been compelled to deny
the miners they extended TO the poor
COMMISSIONERS of tie county and city.
They took their pay for the goods in
county orders without knowing when
they would be paid. Novem her IA there
occurred a big snow storm, which added
a new element of expense. The
bnti fuel to keep from freez-
ing. "a few ssdays ago the merchants
announced that they could no longer
bear the burden. They could not pay
their foreign bills with the county's
credit.
1t was this time that these proud and
resolute en- determined to throw aside
their pride and confess to the world that
they must have charitable aid or money
or their people would starve. The move
| ment to seek outside aid was bitterly
| fought by he people, and not until they
saw the hope.essness of doing otherwise
did they finally consent to an appeal to
the governor of Michigan.
This appeal has met prompt response
and relief committees are now at work
1t is estimated that there aress 200 people
in Ironwood alone who will have to be
fed and partially clothed during the
winter. These figures only include one
town of the Gogebic range and the COM
mittees have three others to visit.
The popular mind is apt to associate
extreme poverty with the evidences OF
destitution and squalor. The canvassers
here see but little signs of poverty, and
the stranger certainly would not suspect
that the people in these comfortable
homes were suffering from want of food.
Most of these men live in cozy four or
five room cottages, the more thrifty
having more pretentious homes. The
rooms are exceedingly neat. and where
there are no carpets woman with soap
and water has made the fioor clean
enough to knead bread on In the
kitchen the stove is polsed as bright as
new piano and the tinware shines in
way that would brin! Il smile of approval
to the face of New EGgland housekeep-
er. Everything is tidy an0 there is an air
OF good housewifery bout the place. 1t
is only when the visitor goes into the
pantry that he discovers that there ie
trouble in the household. Not in single
instance out of more, than dozen houses
visited was anything more than small
supply of flour, potatoes, pork and oc-
casionally some salt herring found. In
one case only the herring was found.