Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-06-12

= Lazy VINO Does Not Regard All ~ nee1-
Ing Men as aArrant EDWARDS"
To the Editor Of the Register.
Sir:-I notice that the Intelligencer
OF Saturday contains a letter signed
"Citizeness,' which contains reflection
unmerited, in my case, at least, that the
gentlemen of Wheeling are s'arrant
towards, and as | am married wo-
man-married to a husband that /
greatly esteemI naturally do not rel
lsh the idea of having the term cow
ard applied to him, particularly as it
is unjust and undeserved. 1t is true
that he does not patronize the street
car company at present, for several
reasons, one of which will be sufficient:
he does not wish to, and the remain
ing reasons, such as my fear that he
may trust his valued person to the
hands of careless and incompetent mo-
tormen, etc., ETC., it is totally unneceS-
sary to enumerate. | am quite sure
that If he wished to ride, he would not
ask either the consent or dissent of
"Citizeness" on the subject. Ii the
gentlemen friends of "Citizeness" are
"arrant towards" she certainly has my
sympathy.
A lady whose acquaintance with gem
of "Citizeness' who can only number
among her acquaintance and friends
a lot of 'arrant cowards.' not one
brave or true man in the whole lot
deserves my profoundest and deepest
commiseration, which | beg that cit
izeness will accept. The fact that 1
tender it in print should not be con-
strued to cast doubt upon its sincerity,
10 hau ho Of
her personal acquaintance and as she
has not furnished us the number of her
street and house, she precludes the pos
sibility of my sending her this COM
municat#on, without your gentlemanly
aid, Mr. Editor, for l much fear that,
were this maiden effort of mine to be
sent to rCitizeness'' in care of the edi-
tor of the Intelligencer, it would only
find its way into his waste basket, and
do not wish my first and only effort for
editorial consideration to find such an
inglorious ending as it would receive
among it's surroundings in "Intelligen-
GER" waste basket.
1t has not been secret to me nor
to any reader of the Intelligencer dur
ing the street car strike, to know which
side of the controversy the 1ntelligen-
Ger takes 1t has been consistently
against the workingman from the be-
ginning. As to the conduct of the Reg
lister toward the street car company
and its striking employees, it at least
has not been extensively abusive of the
workingmen; and it is probable that it
desires to see the men win the battle
for what men call living wage" AS
to the views of the News between its
adulations of Stephen B. Elkins and its
abuse of Governor Atkinson, and its
numerous engagements to blow its own
trumpet, it has not much time left to
devote to the interests of the laboring
man. 1t was only on Saturday last
| that the Intelligencer mentioned with
glowing eulogy, Edwin Markham's
poem "The Man With the Hoe"-com
pairing it with Kipling's "Recessional."
| 1t is so much the fashion now to praise
| Kipling, but, Mr. Editor, kindly bear
| with me: There were great men before
Agamemnon, and so there were great
| men before Kipling, whose shoes he is
not worthy to unloose. This poem was
printed in the Intelligencer of last Sat
urday, under much commendatory Ian
guage Kindly grant me space to insert
its concluding verse:
| 80 masters. lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this
How answer his brute question in that
hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the
How will it be with Kingdoms and with
| With those who shaped him to the thing
| When this dumb terror shall reply to God,
| After the silence of the centur.es?
| How does this grand poem of Mark
| hams Ito be found in the May NC
| Clure,' accompanied by an engraving
| of Millet's famous painting)-how does
| it happen to be found in the Intelli-
| gencer? 1t is there, / think, for bun
| combe or gammon-perhaps oily gam
mon would be more appropriate. The
| Intelligencer has no sympathy with the
| toilers in this struggle, and would be
| glad to have the men throw IN the
! sponge, alleging that the company can
not afford to pay the men what they
| ask. Mr. Editor if am right. the men
| offer to work for 1Sc an hour, the COM
| pany offer 171a cents. The difference
| between the two propositions would
amount to $1,100 year, or 1912 day.
| The Street Car Company cannot pay
| 1912 a day over the amount of their
offer, but can afford to lose a revenue
of $500 a day for nine weeks thus far.
amounting to S31,500, and will keep
on their course all summer and all
winter also, rather than give the work.
ingman living wage, with an oppor
tunity to stand erect. man such as
Holy Writ speaks of. God made man
in his own image; in the image of God
made He him. How much, now, does
the bowed form and brutalized features
of Millet's Man With the Hoe" re-
semble the man made in Gods own
image? And yet the Intelligencer
would furnish the laboring man with
two hoes. and think the recipient
should thank him on Bonded knees for
the favor extended.
To close, would it not be we'll for our
City Fathers to consider the POSSIBLE
ity of the city of Wheeling at this time
acquiring the street railway property?
We might, if we had a Pingree in
Wheeling-have three-cent fairs, with
transfers instead of five cents for very
short rides and no transfers; but. of
course, municipal ownership of street