Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-08-30
VISITS PULLMAN.
Gov. Altgeld Boards Destitution
in It's Den.
Hs Inspects the City Of Pullman-His visit
TO The Homes of the Idle Workers
Shows Sickness and starva-
tiOn on All sides.
oN 4 TouR b I.,vEsrlaArIoN.

On A TOUR OF INVESTIGATION.
CHICAGO, Aug. 21.-Gov. Altgeld went
to Pullman Monday a little in doubt
as to the truth Of the relief commit
tees statement that 1000 families in
the model town were literally starry
ing in their homes He didn't think
that such a condition could possibly
exist in Chicago. After he had spent an
hour or two in Fulton street among the
tenement blocks and in the shanty
districts of the briclzyards, and found
every man, woman and child in des-
perate straits for want of fuel, food
ana clothing, he was satisfied that the
time for immediate relief had come.
There is no doubt" he said. about
the absolute distress and want in Pull
MAJ. Relief has got to come from
some source. and come soon"
Urged to DO Something.
1t was after this investigation into
the physical condition of the town
had been made that the governor met
Manager Middleton, of the Pullman
company, and the two did little tigur-
ing. When they had finished the gov
ernor said:
The situation as / find it is just this; Here
are 500 families practically GU the verge OF
starvation In the city there are many more
destitute families but when you find one
family in want you hnd neighbor next door
who has food and help 20 give IL. The locality
more or less takes care OF itself Here your
oestitutes are all punched The families out
OF work have nothing and their neigh bors who
have gone TO work are themselves without
money and only able TO get food through the
credit which the fact that they are again at
work gives them. You should alternate the
work SO that all the men can get a little OF it,
and absolute starvation be avoided.
Mr.. Middleton said he didn't see how
the company could change its present
plans, and SO far as he could see there
was no way that he could prevent the
people from starving to death.
Told Their Needs.
The governor made his tour of in
spection at the head of an army of
curious women and children who
thronged around him eager to at
tact his attention. Scantily clad
mothers with their babes in their
arms edged their way through
the crowd and begged that they
might be allowed to pour out their
stories of suffering. Disheartened
strikers, who had seated themselves
with their families only few hours
before and consumed the last morsel
Of food in the house, told their needs
with trembling lips and tears in their
eyes.
sad Scenes.
In one of the houses which the gov
ernor visited widow lay dying of
consumption, and she related, between
paroxysms of coughing, how it had
been impossible to get the bare neces-
stiles of life, to say nothing of the del
icacies which her state of health de-
manded. She said she had done her
best to get her boy back into the shops,
that he might earn enough to keep
her while she lived. but the foremen
had gruffly turned hlm away. At an
other home blind woman was found
securing the stove in her kitchen, al
though it had been a long time since
she had had any coal or wood to put in
to it. The governor asked her how she
supported herself. ION misery" she
answered.
A pale, barefooted woman with a
wan-faced baby on her arm and an
other Juggling at her gown said that
her name was Mrs. John O'Connor and
that her husband had been refused
work in the company's shops
again and again. Up to within
the last two weeks the family had
been able to get enough from the
relief committee to live on, but for a
few days the three little children had
been hungry all the time and there
was no chance of getting anything for
them to eat. Alexander Erickson, of
30l Fulton street said he had tried to
make application for work a num-
Der of times. but the watch
men would not let him through
the shop gates. At the time the
strike began he had some money
saved up, but it was all gone long ago.
Besides not having cent in the
house he had nothing TO eat except
little flour, which he could not bake
into bread for want Of fuel. He has a
family of six.
Otto Wolf, who lives with his wife
and six children at room ~, block h,
told with sob, which shook his whole
body, how he and his family had only
had one piece of dry bread to eat dur
ing the day. On Saturday the relief
committee had given him two pounds
each of cornmeal and oatmeal, anu he
said that if they hadn't done SO his
children would have died.
Surprised at the squaIor.
Thus it was throughout the whole
tour The governor expressed him
self as much surprised at the squalor
of the brickyard shanties. lie had
not thought that such a spot existed
within the limits of the model town. Z"
He was told that the residents of each
of the dingy, half-lighted three-room
shanties paid rental of eight dollars
q month. He made a note of it.