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1829.]

REMINISCENCES-PUBLIC CHARITIES OF PHILADELPHIA.

PUBLIC CHARITIES.

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Extracts from Essays on the Public Charities of Philadel phia-Respectfully addressed to the serious consideration of the benevolent, who have "hearts to feel and hands to bestow.-Dec. 29, 1828.

No. I.

I wish to call the attention of the public to the state of some of our institutions, which owe their origin to benevolent motives. Of these there are three species, Beneficial-Religious-and those intended wholly for Charitable purposes, apart from all considerations of religion.

The first, merely private, confine their aid and comfort wholly to the individual members. With them the public at large have no right to interfere. For the second, the spirit of the times makes ample provision; I shall therefore for the present pass them over-and confine the discussion to some of the third description.These are of three sorts-those for the promotion of education-those intended for reformation—and those intended to relieve physical wants.

They are very numerous, and have reflected great credit on the city, and tended to confirm its claim to the honourable designation bestowed on it by its illustrious founder. There is reason to believe, however, that no small degree of error prevails on this subject, as regards the extent of the support they receive, and their resources, which has a pernicious operation, and ought to be corrected. If the error were harmless, it might be allowed to pass without notice: but unfortunately this is by no means the case.

was then called, was the business of an afternoon; to reach the Schuylkill never entered the imagination of the pedestrian, at least of the females. This, however, is not wonderful, when it is considered that neither pavement nor avenue invited the rambler. A road leading from Market street must have been open, for there was a road to Lancaster, of which we sometimes heard as a place "far in the wilds remote from public view," which might be reached in a three days journey; nor was this neighbouring town ever spoken of familiarly, until some of our public bodies, and many of the affrighted citizens, fled thither, for safety, on the approach of a British army in 1775. The mention of that sad day brings back its terrors with the freshness of yesterday. The British had penetrated into New Jersey as far as Princeton; and massacre and starvation chilled the blood in every vein! Where shall we go; how shall we get out of town? was the universal cry. Carriages of every description were few, and all were anxiously sought. No blessed steamboats to waft their thousands from Indies to the Pole!" No friendly hacks to drag us from the scene of dismay; wealthy merchants kept a one horse chair, but what was this to the conveyance of a whole household? A coach was here and there kept by the higher order, but these were not in requisition; these belonged chiefly to the officers of the royal government, who fearing no violence from their brethren, had determined to abide the visit. But great was the scramble among this scanty state of means. Happy was he, who could press a market wagon; or a milk cart, to bear off his little ones! My family, together with that of a friend, who had been obliged to abscond with the city council, were stowed, women, children and servants, counting in number more than a score, into a small river craft, called a wood-flat, whose smokey cabin did not permit the ladies, with infants in their arms, to sit quite upright. The smoke, however, was intolerable, and we girls, whose young hearts shrunk from no inconvenience or danger, made our beds with blankets upon the deck; from this then enviable station we were driven, by a heavy fall of snow, into the hold of the boat, and there we slept soundly on the few tables and chairs, which our hurry had enabled us to carry with us. Innumerable were the hardships, and much would you wonder, could I tell you, what the scattered Philadelphians endured at that trying season; thankful, if they could find a hut or a barn, in any region of security! The complaints to which I have alluded, cannot apply Sometimes those who had never spoken together in the to donations or bequests, which, being entirely spontacity would meet in their wanderings, and then all dis-neous, create no murmuring. They refer wholly to the tinctions of rank were forgotten, and they were a band of brothers. Some who had made a lodgement between the Delaware and the Chesapeake, were driven in the following summer, from their temporary asylums, on the march of the enemy from the latter direction; and when we afterwards met at our homes, marvellous and amusing were the adventures recounted at our happy fire sides. "Sir," said a gentleman, whose name was eminent among the patriots of that period, "these stories will be told by our children when we are dead and gone."

I thought of nothing more, when I took up my pen, than correcting the error of the "Old Philadelphian." He says "Mrs. Manly kept the first large retail shoe store in Market street.' Many years before that period, and probably before the knowledge of my junior laborer, a store of that description was kept in 2d near Market st. by Mr. Wallace. His shoes were of worsted, which was the only material then used by the ladies, excepting satin or brocade for full dress. You see how the fascinations of my youth have irresistibly drawn me on! I will trouble you no longer.

H. T.
[Aurora & Penn. Gaz.

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It is assumed by many persons that those institutions are very burdensome to our citizens-that the stated contributions for their support are enormously and unnecessarily great-that they encourage idleness and dissipation, and a reliance on charity instead of industry,— and hence we every day hear loud complaints on the subject, and in consequence many benevolent, worthy, and wealthy citizens are discouraged from affording that patronage which they would otherwise cheerfully give, and which these institutions may fairly claim. Thus the current of public charity is arrested in its course, to the manifest injury of the suffering poor, for whose relief they were instituted.

annual subscriptions, to which, therefore, my observations shall be chiefly confined--and I hope to make it appear that no general clamour or complaint, was ever much more unfounded. Let me observe, en passant, that those who are the largest contributors, make the fewest complaints. Indeed, I believe I might say, they never complain.

Before I proceed to the details to which the subject necessarily leads, I beg leave to notice a collateral error, producing similar consequences.

Many citizens entertain an idea that in the present state of society in this city, every person able and willing to work, may procure employment; that all those who are thus employed, may earn a decent and comfortable support; and that if not the whole, at least the chief part of the distress of the poor, arises from idleness, dissipation and worthlessness Alas, nothing can be much farther from the truth, and nothing can have a greater tendency to harden the hearts of those who have the means to afford relief to the distressed, rendering them indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow mortals. There cannot be a doubt that it has produced this indifference to a great extent, and paralized the hands of charity and beneficence. It is an error, therefore, which loudly calls for refutation.

trades and occupations that are depressed, in which In the most prosperous times there are always some there is a deficiency of employment, and consequently

where the earnings of former days, laid up by the frugal and industrious, are consumed, and pinching distress is the result. There is almost always a superabundance in this city in some occupations, particularly clerks and shopkeepers. At some trades, employers take too many apprentices, and dismiss them as soon as their apprenticeships expire, when they frequently find it difficult to procure employment. General depression, moreover, occasionally takes place, in which there is a redundance of hands at almost all occupations. These facts, which are of public notoriety, ought to silence the unmeaning cry, so often reiterated-that "nobody need be idle, who is willing to work."

That among the poor, there are dissipated, idle, and profligate persons, [are there not among the rich?] cannot be denied. But the proportion is small-much smaller than might be reasonably supposed, from the various disadvantages and discouragements under which that class labours. The worthless and profligate meet the public eye in our streets, on the wharves, and, occasionally, stretched in a state of intoxication on the pavements and are brought before the mayor's court, where their profligacy is made conspicuous. The numbers are magnified tenfold by the imaginations of the spectators. Whereas the thousands and tens of thousands, who are industriously employed, early and late, to make a sorry subsistence, at a miserable pittance, pass wholly unnoticed. Who can think without sympathy for the sufferers, and regret for such a state of society, when he is informed of the appalling fact, that there are thousands of seamstresses in this city, who, by the utmost industry and skill, cannot earn above a dollar and a quarter or a dollar and a half per week! Competition has reduced the price of making soldiers', and lop shop shirts and pantaloons to twelve and a half cts. each! At this paltry price, whenever they are to be given out, the applications are too numerous to be supplied, and the work is sought after with as much avidity as if it afforded a liberal support: At certain seasons even this sort of work is very scarce, and numbers of the poor women are wholly unemployed!

At the first establishment of the Provident Society, the applications for work so far exceeded the quantity to be given out, that the Society could not afford full employment to most of the applicants, who, of course, could not earn more than seventy-five cents or a dollar per week. And numbers went through snow and rain for eight and ten squares for it, and were thankful to receive it!!

to work. Hundreds are swept off annually, many of
them leaving numerous and helpless families. Not-
withstanding their wretched fate, their places are quick-
ly supplied by others, although death stares them in the
face. Hundreds are most laboriously employed on
turnpikes, working from morning till night at from half
a dollar to three quarters per day, exposed to the broil-
ing sun in summer, and all the inclemency of our severe
winters. There is always a redundance of wood pilers
in our cities, whose wages are so low, that their utmost
efforts do not enable them to earn more than from 35 to
50 cents per day--and finally there is no employment
whatever, how disagreeable, or loathsome, or danger
ous, or deleterious socver it may be, or however reduced
the wages, that fails to find persons willing to follow it,
rather than beg or steal. With respect to females, we
know, as I have stated, and shall dilate on more at length
in the sequel, that there are thousands of them who ea-
gerly seek after and gladly and thankfully accept em-
ployment, at which their utmost industry and skill can-
not possibly enable them to earn more than from a dol-
lar to a dollar and a half per week, making no allow-
ance for sickness. Surely these facts are overwhelm-
ing, and ought to rescue the character of the labouring
classes from the mass of obloquy too often thrown upon
them.

One word more. There are from 15 to 20,000 operatives and labourers in this city, of whom probably not more than 4 or 500 are dissipated--to which many of them are driven by distress and misery, and desperate circumstances.

Nov. 7, 1828.

HAMILTON.

PORT OF LANCASTER.

LANCASTER, Dec. 23. Since our last, the ark George Louis Mayer, captain Ohmet, laden with 35 hogsheads of whiskey, a quantity of flour, tallow, lard, &c. cleared for Baltimore.

Arrived, Ark Susquehanna, Mullison, with coal from Wilkesbarre, will load for Baltimore as soon as the wea ther will permit.

Below, An ark laden with North Branch coal, will ascend the first thaw.

Thirty arks of coal would not supply the immediate demand; and applications have already been made by a number of distillers offering all their whiskey, as soon as vessels can be ready, to convey it to Baltimore.

A very skilful woman unburdened with a family, can scarcely make two shirts per day--with a family, which many of them have, the greatest number will be eight or ten per week! When we take into view, rent, occasional want of employment, sickness, and the support of children, we shall have some slight idea of the dis-Harbour, on the Susquehanna, a distance of eighteen tress of the numerous widows, who are devoted to this most miserable of employments. May I not ask, who, duly weighing these things, will have the hardness of heart, to involve in one general, sweeping denunciation, the distressed poor, as if their sufferings were the penalties of their idleness and dissipation?

Although I know how extremely difficult it is to eradicate inveterate prejudices, such as many of our citizens entertain on this subject, yet I fondly hope those prejudices will lose much of their weight and influence, when the following facts are calmly and dispassionately

considered.

Thousands of our labouring people travel hundreds of miles in quest of employment on canals, at 623, 75, and 873 cents per day, paying a dollar and a half or two dollars per week for board, and leaving families behind, depending on them for support. They labour frequently in marshy grounds, where they inhale pestiferous miasmata, which destroy their health, often irrecoverably. They return to their poor families, broken hearted, and with ruined constitutions, with a sorry pittance, so laboriously earned, and take to their beds, sick, and unable

From the above, our friends on the Susquehanna, and in Baltimore, will perceive that the spirit of enterprise which led a few citizens of Lancaster to attempt rendering the river Conestoga navigable has been crowned with success. The navigation is now perfect from Reigart's landing, within the bounds of the city, to Safe miles, and was effected by a succession of dams and locks, nine in number, the ponds or dams varying in length from one to three miles, and preserving a breadth of from 250 to 350 feet, with a depth in the channel of never less than four feet, presenting a beautiful sheet of water. The towing path is on the left bank of the river. The locks are 100 feet by 22 in the chamber, sufficiently large for arks or boats of ninety feet in length, and for platforms of boards or timber of like dimensions. The lifts vary from seven to nine feet. The whole cost about $4000 per mile, leaving at the disposal of the company at each dam a water power, which it is believed will prove a source of considerable profit, and at the same time be valuable to the surrounding country.

The time occupied by an ark in ascending from Safe Harbour to the South Bridge, is found to be from six to eight hours. The ark George Louis Mayer passed lock No. 3 in 63 minutes. One horse only has been employed in towing.

The completion of this work is to us a source of great satisfaction; for independent of its importance to the country generally, and its being the most perfect and

1829.]

PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

beautiful specimen of inland navigation in the United States, effected at a trifling expense, it has relieved its friends from a load of anxiety for its success, and from the jeers and prophecies of the herd of worldly-wise lookers-on, who believe every thing impossible which they cannot comprehend, and every man a fool or a madman, who embarked in a project of which their grandfathers had left no memorial; and many of the rich who made all they are worth among us, hugged their dollars in fancied security, and laughed and scoffed at those who ventured a little for the general good-shook their heads when some trifling accident occurred, and gravely said, "I told you so I was'nt going to be taken in-I was'nt such a fool."

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supported wholly, or in part by the institution; the re-
maining thirteen are paid for by their friends.
Since our last report an act has been passed by the
legislature of Maryland, honourable alike to that body
and to the reputation and confidence established by this
institution, which makes an appropriation for the edu-
cation of the deaf and dumb of that state in this institu-
tion, at the same rate for each pupil, as is paid for the
pupils supported by this state,

Notwithstanding the exertions of the board and the economy exercised in every department of the institution, its funds are still very inadequate to the beneyolent objects of its foundation.

The act of assembly for its endowment is almost expiring. Upon the continuance of the legislative aid depends the duration of the institution, whose benefits have been so long and so clearly displayed as to need no further illustration. A memorial has been presented to your honorable body, for the renewal of this grant, and the board feel every confidence in the acquiescence of the legislature in the request of the memorialists.

The completion of this work assures a prosperity to the city of Lancaster, which without it she never could have reached. She must become the depot for the whiskey, flour, bacon, butter, lard, &c. &c. of the surrounding country, and at the same time will be enabled to supply lumber, coal, salt, and the produce of the West Indies and the Susquehanna trade. It also assures the further improvement of the Susquehanna; so that there shall be no interruption to an ascending as well as descending trade with the bay, by locks, on a scale not inferior to those on the Conestoga, so that locked boats of from 60 to 100 tons, drawing three feet water, built for river and bay trade, may load at Lancas-turned to his friends. ter and navigate the Chesapeake with as much security as any other vessels.

In closing this article we beg leave to state to our Baltimore friends, that much exception has been taken to the toll exacted for passing the Maryland Canal. We are informed that arks are charged ten dollars, whether heavily or lightly laden. This is considered a grievance both in amount and manner of exaction.-Lan. Gaz.

REPORT OF THE

Since our last report Mr. George Comstock has from ill health resigned his situation as a teacher in the institution. The two pupils who were retained as monitors have also left it; one has been placed as an apprentice with a respectable printer of the city, the other has re

To supply these vacancies, the board have engaged, as a teacher, Mr. George S. Whitehill, a native of Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Dickinson College, who furnished the most respectable testimonials of ability and good character. No other material change has occurred since the last report.

The board are gratified again to express their entire satisfaction with the attention and ability of the principal and his assistants.

The manufactures are continued with advantage to the pupils. The domestic arrangement of the house is

PENNSYLVANIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF still under the charge of Mary Cowgill, who has super

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1829.]

PHILADELPHIA AND COLUMBIA RAIL ROAD.

PHILADELPHIA AND COLUMBIA RAIL ROAD.

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point possessing no advantages but the protection of a corporation; to a point reached neither by the population of the city nor by its trade.

Mr. POWELL'S REMARKS in the Senate, upon the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: The canal commissioners have not decided to take the "Resolved, That the committee on roads, bridges, rail road over the Schuylkill opposite to Belmont farm, and inland navigation, be instructed to inquire into the but they have wisely resolved to put under contract the expediency of reporting a bill giving to the canal com- road formation of the line only from that point westward missioners, authority to construct the rail road from the-leaving to the legislature to determine whether the stationary engine near Judge Peters' farm, 'to some interests of the commonwealth-the objects of the farpoint on the Schuylkill, affording a complete communi- mers-the purposes of the traders, and the wishes of the cation with the ocean,' and following the western side of friends of internal improvements, will be best met, by the river, but leaving to the community the option of giving direct means of communication with the ocean, crossing at the said point, or at some other point be- through a navigable river, by affording landing places tween the upper bridge and Market street, by means of on the western side of the town where property is bridges to be constructed by companies to be duly con- cheap, or by carrying the produce to a greater distance stituted by law." to a point in its centre, where ground is much more dear; thus running from a navigable river, at the time we are expending millions for the sake of a navigable canal.

I am aware of the difficulties which must be met, in moving a resolution directly involving the interests and prejudices of a respectable body of men. And, sir, I am not unmindful of the grounds of accusation which fretful malice, or sordid calumny may assume, to defeat me in the path, wherein I am sustained alike, by sense of duty to my constituents, regard for consistency, and devotion to the public weal.

I am interested, I have said so, throughout. But no man will attempt to prove, that by interest, I have ever been made to swerve from my duty, or to clandestinely urge any private or political end.

Let it be remembered, that it was I, who in direct opposition to my interest, caused the amendment to be introduced, making it imperative upon the commissioners to carry the rail road to the city, thus forcing it from the district wherein my property lies. I then voted, as I shall again vote, to advance the interests of the stateto promote the objects of my constituents, requiring that it shall not stop on the western side of the Schuylkill, but be so continued, that the country may be

served.

Which of us is not directly or indirectly interested in this question? My excellent friend, the chairman of the committee on Inland Navigation, who reported the bill in the other House which I caused to be so amended, is a director of the Union Canal Company, and he has a large quantity of ground, in the county, which would be most advantageously affected by the proposed circuitous route. Yet sir, I have never insinuated-no man ought to insinuate that this honourable gentleman has been influenced in his opinions, or directed in his movements, by any sordid or selfish view.

How many of us are elected purposely to press appropriations, avowedly to urge public measures to promote sectional objects, wherein as representatives of districts, we must be directly or indirectly concerned. It is difficult to draw the line, and more difficult to pursue it without conflict in practice, in political, as well as in private life.

It is so evident that competition among purchasers on the seaboard, warehouse holders, and the proprietors of wharves, promotes the interests of the farmers, and inhabitants of the interior, however it may detract from the profits of the few, that it would be futile to enlarge upon this point.

The canal commissioners at their last session, appointed a committee to investigate various routes, which had been suggested; after mature deliberation they reported to the board, among other things:

"It is not conceived that the termination of the rail road, at one territorial point, unconnected by a branch or branches reaching navigation, (and the larger front the better,) can accommodate the road. The committee conceive that a branch from the lower level at Belmont down to tide water opposite, (i. e. to the city) will be absolutely necessary to accommodate the trade which may be expected to pass over the line.

"The committee do not wish to interfere with the confirmation of the line to Broad street by a bridge over the Schuylkill, but they do not apprehend they can commit an error in estimating the branch down the Schuylkill from Belmont, as entitled to the earliest consideration"-Making thus this route the one which requires attention before all others.

Well might they condemn the termination at "one territorial point," anticipating as they do, that this rail road will conduct to market, quite as much produce as the Union Canal, and no doubt believing that it is not less important to the interests of Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, and all the western counties; however powerful the means which have been found to frustrate the wishes, or to render abortive the efforts of those who think that all portions of the state ought to be consulted, in matters wherein all are alike concerned.

The commissioners were told that if the rail road crossed the Schuylkill between the Fair-mount dam He whose prospects are founded on political advance- and the permanent bridge, that the improvements on ment—he whose vocation is politics-he whose pursuits, the eastern side of the river as well as the regulation whose rewards, whose hopes, and whose fears, rest on of the streets near to its margin, would make such locathe voice of his constituents, may be more sordid in press-tion ineligible, if not impracticable and absurd. ing a definite object, to satisfy the cravings, or appease The statement of the city regulator, Samuel Hains, the jealousies of a few leading men, than he who should directly, but indiscreetly, vote for the improvement of his property, much less important to his happiness, and ulterior objects, than the plans of a demagogue, courting popularity by extraordinary means, 1 shall give no such vote.

Thus much for taunts on the grounds of interest, by which any honest and fearless legislator may be assailed from those, who knowing well, that where there is danger of being overwhelmed by detection, safety may be found in the storms of passion, excited by gross insinuation, harsh invective, or slanderous abuse.

I appeal to you as the guardians of the public weal, as the representatives of this commonwealth, engaged in a stupendous work destined to carry the products of this great state to a maritime port, not to a territorial

the formal opinion of William Strickland-and the letter of Canvass White, both accomplished engineers, prove that they were led into error, and it may be shown hereafter, that this misapprehension misled the commissioners in their report, notwithstanding the integrity and zeal with which it is believed they and their engineer performed their arduous tasks.

They have not said where the bridge shall be located. It is well known to all persons, who are intimate with the proceedings of the board of commissioners, that the terms "confirmation" and "location," are mere words of form not obligatory upon them-intended but as declaratory of their view at the time, subject to their future decision, and open, not only to the direction of the legislature, but to the objections and cavils of all persons who shall be concerned.

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