PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.
THOUSANDS of people, from the president down, who do not come in contact with the other side of life, have been congratulating themselves and the country on the abounding, extravagance-breeding, gambling-exciting prosperity. It is well for those who have regard for the future to take broader views—to look underneath, as it were, the veneer of “prosperity.” There is published in the great commercial metropolis of this country a little paper called the City Mission Monthly, edited by Dr. Schauffler. In its issue for April it has these facts to present, which we take from the Christian Advocate:— One intelligent young married woman, with a child to support, makes men's gingham shirts at twenty-seven cents a dozen. One man, with a wife and two children, occupying two rooms on a top-floor tenement, makes children's shoes at three cents a pair, hand-made. They used to get ten or twelve cents a pair, but gradually were cut down to this. His wife walked the floor, carrying the baby, and told how she tried to help along by making muffs. By working all day, and until late at night, she can finish one muff, for which she receives fifty cents. A woman in delicate health, who has a daughter very sick with cancer, makes men's pants at sixteen cents per dozen. This means the putting on of thirty-six yards of braid by hand, and sewing on one hundred and forty-four buttons. They have to work in a cold room, not being able to afford a fire. Another woman makes fine French violets at six cents a gross. By working from sunrise till late at night, she manages to earn thirty-six cents. A woman finishes men's fine coats, hemming down the linings, at seven cents apiece. Another makes cigar cases at one dollar a thousand. Another works on dress-shields for thirty-five cents per gross. The sickness of a day would make any of these paupers, and they are but specimens. Their children are deposited at the Virginia Day Nursery. Is it a wonder that the prophet of God, seeing these things before, declared: “Behold, the hire of ‘the laborers, . . . which is of you kept back by9‘fraud, crieth; and the cries . . . are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” James 5:4. And another prophet cries out: “Hear this, O ye ‘that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor ‘of the land to fail.” Amos 8:4. And yet another: “The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he, and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.” See Hab. 1:12 to 2:14.