The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1894-03-23
THE POVERTY OF CITIES.

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country people. The man who stands
behind thecounteror desk; wears good
clothes, and gets go week seems tol
a 'countryhan to have pretty good
thing, and he thinksif l only had q i
$1,000 year how we'll l could live. Sol
the countryman could, II he had his
country farm, his home, his garden,
his cows, and the $1,000. The farmer
who rarely and very briefly handles
cash thinks 1900 a large sum OF money
and tits, as surplus. Hut when every.
thing. food, water, fire and shelter
costs money and costs high prices, $1,000
isn't large sum. We have taken the
$1,000 clerk as sample. Tit very few
of the great army Of wage earners get
that much. Aud thousands OF them
live, and raise families, on u daily
grind, under hard bosses, year after
year, thanking their stars IL they
keep their health, lucky indeed ri
they save little for that last sickness
which Is sure to come, and have q
little left over Tor the helpless family
after the are gone.
Most of the workers live In the city,
near their work us possible. This
means however perhaps i mile or
more away. In one sense they may
be comfortable, clean aud we'll furnish.
ed. But Is narrow tcnement Or
a fiat" of two, three Or four rooms.
That is alI, any more would mean q
rent beyond their means. Not 4 foot
of outdoors Is theirs except the side.
walk, the street or dirty courtyard
shared with any number Of other
families. The water e, mes into the
house, or on the corner from the water
works, but 1t is warm, insipid, roily
and lucky IL not full Of disease germs.
The smell Of sewer gas, the Thousand
filthy odors Of the city are always pre-.
sent. In summer. the heat is over
towering, no fresh air, and In the win.
ter the bricks and stones are colder
then the atmosphere. Strange IS it
may appear, these families crowded
together, In the same house or block
may and often live this near for years
and hardly know each other. Some.
times the better paid clerk goes into
suburbs to live. Here he does get
fresh air and some room. But1tmeans
an hour earlier il the morning, an
hour later at night, going aud coming
on the cars. the expense for car fare
and the lunch In the city at noon.
Many of these men hardly know what
their families look like by daylight
except OH Sunday.
liza man has plenty Of money, the
suburbs Of large city, make an ideal
place to live. for the man Of leisure
can find much to enjoy in the city,
while his suburban home gives him the
pleasures Of the country; but he who
depends largely on his ilylabor for q !
living, has many. advantages In the
country, that even money cannot buy
IN the city.
There are tens Of thousands Of
these Woodworking toilers Of the city,
living from hand to. mouth, raising
families on the sidewalks, whose lot
would be improved o hundred.fold in
a sod shanty with all the hardships of
frontier prairie life, with its poverty
and privations. With less money they
would be far more independent, with
neighbors living perhaps miles away
they would yet be more nelRAb0rly,
pure water and fresh air would come
gratis and possible, and thel. would
be an almost certain prospect Of at
least living and q home. |
And yet these poor wretches clIsg to !
a plank in the city with the .teiacity
of a drowning man, and it's Of no avail
to tell them that the hard bottom Of
country soil can be touched with their |
feet il they will only try for 1t. They |
all think they would starve in thel
country, where starvation is almost un.
known while in the city IT is common. |