The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-21
HUNGER FORCES
CHILD WEDDINGS
IN RUINED CITY
Case of Girl, IS, Who Be-
came Wife Of Man, Sc,
Typical of What Happens
Under StarVation'S Lash.
BY Times stan Correspondent

CLINTON, Ind, Jan. 20.-Soup-
bone Hollow, in Clinton, might well
be called Tragedy Gulch.
Here, on winding lane which In
habitants call Poverty Row, is the
backwash of more than year of
business depression.
Implanted, dilapidated shacks, the
gaping holes in their warped boards
stuffed with rags or covered with
pieces of tin, old boxes, scraps of
linoleum or even ~wads of paper,
line both sides of the unpaved,
muddy street.
Rusty stove pipes jut their way
from rooftopS, Haunting a smoky
banner that is the last gesture of
defiance to an uncaring world.
There isn't brick chimney to the
block.
One sign Of plenty can be
found in Soupbone Hollow; the piles
Of coal which litter the ground in
front of each of these homes. 1t is
coal that Clinton can't sell that
they might work to mine more coal
and eat.
Cast willy-nilly into the glare of
legislative inquiry through their
utter need, a need that is there de-
spite statements that there is no
restitution in Indiana, one finds the
inhabitants of these shabby homes
still clinging to the last remnants of
the Scotch pride which was theirs
in times of less advei sity than now.
For each of these families once
was prosperous. Even today they
don't like investigators poking
around their homes. They don't
like to exhibit poverty. 1t is
through no desire for charity that
they have reported their condition
to township officials or various or
CARNATIONS. It is a question of
starvation; they want work.
To patrol Soupbone Hollow with
a Clinton expert on poverty-for
most OF the people in Clinton today
are experts in poverty-is to realize
the straits to which this once thirty
ing community has come.
Girls Marry to Live
Stories of girls of IA, IS, is, who
have married or have been married
to immature youths who had a Job
or elderly men who had a home to
offer are plentiful here.
In one case of a 15-year-old girl.
the marriage was to boy who was
working for So a week. He lost his
job the next week, and both are on
the county. Another case is that of
15-year-old girl who was married
to a 56-year-old man with four
children. Two of the children were
older than she was. But she has a
home, warm clothing, plenty to eat.
Such is their desperation.
Take the case of Thomas Lawyer,
a World war veteran, who was
wounded in action.
He has two children; both girls.
His major pride is that both these
girls passed their classes in school
with the highest Of averages. But
he hasn't any school books for them
for the next term: He has no work;
he has no income, the family is des-
titute.
Wounded Veteran Suffers
He would go away and try to find
work, he said, if he had a good pair
of shoes and some chance of trans
portation. But without either he
must stay and suffer
Clinton coal must be sold" is
the answer of bankers, merchants,
lawyers and even the large number
Of bankrupts in this Vermilion
county town. until it is sold, there
isn't any hope, because it is the
sole source of Clinton.
Talk of continuing relief from
our township authorities is useless.
There isn't any money, because no
one can pay taxes. We have lost
5000 Of our 10000 population in two
years. Unless something happens,
the exodus this spring will be in the
form of evacuation, for people can
not live on nothing"