Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1877 — Dying at Starvation. [ARTICLE]

Dying at Starvation.

A case of destitution in a thickly-popu-lated portion of this city came to the knowledge of the police yesterday, which, in the distressing character of its details, almost surpasses belief.' In a; house on Twenty-fourth street a family have for four days lingered between life tad death without a bite of food, and this has only been the termination of a long period of wretchedness and privation. Their story is a common one. Seven months ago John Brown came to this country from England, with his wife and two Children. He was in quest of employment, and he located in No. 318 East Twenty-fourth street, under the belief that in this city a man of robust health and good adaptability for business would not fail to prosper. Months passed, however, ana no opportunity for an engagement presented itself. His little means gradually dwindled away, and then, when he had become weary of seeking for work in vain, and was driven to despair at the thought of his wife and little one waiting for the change in his prospects which never appeared, be shut himself up with them and awaited with resignation the fate that seemed inevitable. The family had no friends to appeal to, and, like many, they shrank from begging with A hdrror that even the pangs of hunger could not overcome. For the last four days not a morsel has entered the mouth of any of the family, tad it was only when the little child, two years old, was found dead in its bed yesterday that the story of these people’s distress became known. The police were notified and camp to their apartments — poor ones they were—and there they found a haggard man hatching over a wan, starying woman, who could, pot move, but Who looked with a mother’s instincts still upon the poor pallet where the Utt e famished child, and one, |hat still lingered between life and death, were lying. The woman and thfe living child had to be removed to Bellevue Hospital, where they lie pow; jn a critical condition, and the husband’s Wants were attended to.— N. F. Herald. . ; \ ; , r "