Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-04
FIFTY YEARS Ago
In THE STAR

In The STAk
Washington suffered from a winter
of exceptional severity fifty years ago.
and as a result many peo-
Caring for pie were dependent upon
A.. ~. charity for their suste-
January 80. 1857. is this item:
"As usual, during the winter season,
Washington is again visited by a null
titude of wanderers. seeking comfort
and shelter in tho station houses
Many. without doubt. like Cain, are
fugitives and vagabonds on the earth
because Of their iniquity. but 1t is hard
to distinguish between them and the
unfortunate, especially when they ap-
peal to our humanity Washington has
had to take care Of paupers sent here
from other cities. Our citizens have
complained anu protested against it
without avail. until they have had to
adopt measures for self-protection. The
deserving poor has never been turned
away. and even the worthless vaga-
bonds are made comfortable, at least
for night. and admonished to depart
speedily for chimes where they can live
without work. or prepare for term
OF service at the city farm to pay the
cost of their maintenance during the
winter. Some of our stations are 80
popular as lodging places that Migrants
apply In advance for soft plank to
sleep on at night, but generally they
are notified that two or three nights
they can sleep at a station and then
they must be transferred to the work
house. This has the effect to keep the
worthless away. The better class sell
dom ask more than a single night"
After several weeks of cold weather,
which caused freezing of the Poto-
mac from shore to shore, a
Sudden thaw set in about this time
NIX fifty years ago. and, with
Ao"' rains threatening. there were
fears of a sudden breaking of the ice
and a consequent gorging of the chan
mel, causing an inundation of the lower
part of the city, as had happened be-
fore. Apprehensions were expressed in
The Star of February 2. 1867. In the
same issue is the following admonition:
Now that the snow and ice are melt
ing rapidly and the opportunity Is Of
fered for a general cleansing of the
sidewalks and drains, it will be of ad-
vantage to various LOCALITIES IL the
housekeepers will open the drains and
allow the water to pass through them
to the sewers. 1t will not only add to
the cleanly appearance of the streets.
but will save considerable expense to
the corporation for the cleansing of the
streets in the coming spring. In many
localities this method has been adopted
by the housekeepers, but in other parts
the drains are filled with ice. mixed
with straw, coal ashes. ETC.. and the
sidewalks are covered with water and
mud Within a few years the drainage
and sewerage of the city have been
pense, and the public should not be de-
prived of the benefit Of the improve
ment"
The problem of labor in the south was
becoming more acute fifty years ago.
and apprehension was
Tohor prohJame felt that the reha-
Utilization Of that sec
IN the oouth. ton would be serious
ly checked in consequence. In The Star
Of February 4. 1867. is this expression:
There must be something wrong In
those districts in the south where con-
tinual complaints are being made as to
the scarcity of labor, while at the same
time able-bodied negroes are emigrat-
ing to other sections. The colored race
are naturally attached to the places
where they were born and reared, and
would not abandon their homes II there
was any alternative but starvation. 1t
is useless for the people in the dis
tricts being depopulated to talk of en-
couraging white immigration, as the
colored laborers have fewer wants than
the white, and If the freedmen's wages
are not remunerative and their posi-
lions unsatisfactory there would be
still greater complaints from white
immigrants. Liberal wages and prompt
payments are the only remedies for
this DISCRIMINATION of labor. and the
sooner southern capitalists realize 1t
the better for them. The most indus
trious and intelligent of the freedmen
are now looking out for homes and
planting colonies in those localities
where they will have most security in
working for their own benefit. and it
behooves the non-laboring whites to
this subject, the Charleston News
estimates the number of negro farm
hands that have left South Caro-
lima for Mississippi. Louisiana. Ar
kansas. Texas and Florida at $4,000.
From Georgia the emigration is still
larger though no eSliIldte VI the WHOIe
has vet appeared. But every
few days mention is made of the de-
parture of six, seven or eight hundred
freedmen from Savannah by steamer to
Florida. They are going also by land.
and late Townsville, Ga. paper says
that trains of carts, wagons and other
are constantly passing through
that town on the way to Florida. There
is also an extensive movement toward
the west. in which there are many
whites as well as negroes. They are
in search of new homes west
Of the Mississippi. But in most cases
the negroes migrating in that direction
have been engaged by agents from the
southwest to work on the plantations.
These movements will have a material
effect upon the southern states, and
they should be active competitors for
the labor thus going a-begging."
The U. S. S. Swatara was on it's way
to this country from Egypt fifty years
ago, conveying John
John n. Surratt H. surratt as a
prisoner. In The
AnoASteu. Star of February 4,
1867, is the news of his indictment for
in the Lincoln assassination:
This afternoon the grand jury,
their foreman, d. V. Burr, esq,
presented an indictment against John
Fl. Surratt The Indictment is accom-
panied by a presentment charging John
Wilkes Booth with the muir n of Abra-
nam Lincoln and John H. Surratt, David
E. Herold. Lewis Payne and Georre A.