Western Reserve Chronicle

An' many a lip aft curl'd to cry,

With smiles will wreath

Then fare ye well, i' your new bourne,

Heaven grant ye never may return

Until we for your presence yearn'd,

Wi' hangin' head.

An' in our pray'rs, "baith night an' morn,"



Lamont ye, dead.

Wi' joy we see the curse depart,

An' glad news beams fra ilka heart.

An' ilka tongue wad fainly start,

The loud huzzas.

Till shady nook an' busy mart.

Should ken the cause

PER CONTRA

But, stop; can I believe my sight?

An' are my sons a' aright?

Or, is that some infernal sprite

From Hades driv'n?

No! plain as Truth, an' clear as Sight,

Auld Income's livin':

Tax Glex.

Warbey, O.

A Visitor's View of Warren, etc.

CLEVELAND, July 8, 1870.

EDITOR CHRONICLE:--Having been a sojourner in your beautiful city for a few days, and meeting with many pleasant and social acquaintances while there, I cannot refrain from expressing to you the pleasure derived from so short an acquaintance.

Warren is truly a pleasant old town, susceptible of being made one of the prettiest cities in Ohio, and your people have got tolerably well started in some respects, in that direction. No town can boast of a finer located public square; handsomely decorated with trees, and skirting a beautiful sheet of water-the pool of the Mahoning above the lower mill dam. Then your business blocks are well filled, many of them very fine specimens; would do credit to any city in the State. The two bank buildings would do credit to any city, one of which can hardly find its equal in the State, outside of the cities of Cleveland or Cincinnati.

Then your system of sewerage, now extending over some three or four miles of street, is much better than can be found in many cities twice the size of Warren.

You have commenced the work of paving your streets, and with the fine paving stone so near to you and so easily obtained, it is a work I think you will continue until all of your main streets are completed.

Then your flax mill, employing some 100 hands and turning out 10,000 yards of cloth per week, under the energetic management of Messrs. Camp & Randall, gives much life and activity to the north part of your city.

Then your furnace and rolling mill, now progressing so rapidly towards completion. The workmanship under the energetic and experienced proprietor, Wm. Richards, Esq., will compare favorably with any work of the kind in the State.

Then your machine shops, founderies, oil and flouring mills, &c., &c., give life and energy to the place, and afford pleasure to the observer during the business hours of the day.

Still your beautiful city is not without its plague spots, some of which it would seem to be hard to bear.

And first: "Trumbull County" (once covering the whole of the Reserve, but now somewhat reduced in territory but not in wealth or population,) tenaciously holds on to her old County jail, constructed some 45 years ago, then regarded as tolerable for the time, but now, with a population five times as great as then, subject to the decay of time and depredations of prisoners, has become a nest not fit to harbor an inmate from the vilest brothel in the land-and still I am told that the citizens of this old county on every opportunity of voting on the question, show their bowels of compassion by voting a continuance of the nuisance.

The front of the building will not, in appearance, command respect among the common and ordinary doggeries of the town, and the rear punched through and through by prisoners, is plastered up only to be opened by persons sufficiently steeped in crime to induce them to pick out the brick and mortar, which is an easy task. If a prisoner is, from the enormity of his crime, worthy of a better place, you march him to Ravenna, at the expense of your worthy tax payers, where he remains until the sitting of Court, when he is returned to the Trumbull County safety valve, and if the inducements are sufficient, without a guard he easily finds his way out to commence his work anew. This is a beautiful institution of which the voters of Trumbull County may claim its paternity.

Another feature of your city is the bad occupancy of some of the best property in it. Dog in the manger like, the owners will neither sell nor occupy it for any decent business themselves, and what is very remarkable, the city fathers give aid and comfort to owners of such property by suffering it to go free from doing its part in making the necessary grading and side-walks to improve the street, while the energetic builder, the moment his new structure is in shape is called upon to at once put down his side-walk to correspond with his building. This beautiful arrangement I am told has been of long standing.

That venerable body I am told has entered upon a new branch of business, or it may be are making it more successful than under former administrations. The city being possessed of a piece of ground (a Park of some three acres) west of the river, the city fathers have it in charge and regularly at every freshet ship tons of that beautiful park down the river to enable our southern brethren to re-construct those levees that General Grant made such havoc with during the war; and the business is becoming so pleasant to that body that it has been proposed in Council to deposit on their dirt wharves west of the river, the earth from the Park east of the river, for shipment at the earliest freshet. I trust such stupidity will not for a moment be tolerated. You have the material for a beautiful town and you had better hold on to it than to dispose of it to southern planters. It may cost you a little money to save it, but no citizen can in any way so well appropriate his proper proportion of tax as in protecting and beautifying that river park.

Your city contains many other objects of interest that might be noted to its credit, with others that do not reflect much credit, but enough from me at this time has probably been said, (of the latter especially) to satisfy.

Yours, truly,

Q