quarters that make the huts of the peasants of Europe seem actually
inviting, constitute the vast majority.

The most prosperous business of the town outside of the Coal industry,
which is, of course, monopolized by the magnates, is the Undertaking
business. There are almost as many establishments for the burial of man
as there are saloons to cater to his cheer. In contradistinction to the
custom in this country, the business has been taken up by others than
the worthy order of sextons. That this condition should be, is accounted
for by the fact that there is a paucity of churches in the town, and
that the sextons were unable to accomplish the work that devolved upon
their craft. Death is not attributable, in the main, to natural causes
in Wilkes-Barre; it is brought about by the engines of destruction which
the magnates are pleased to term, Modern Machinery.

Association makes the mind incapable of appreciating nice distinctions
in regard to familiar objects or persons. Thus to the residents of the
town there is nothing abnormal in their condition. It is only to the
observer from without that the horrors of the Pennsylvania town are
apparent. That such a spot should develop in a State high in rank, and
among the oldest of those comprising the greatest republic, seems
incomprehensible. In the very State where the Declaration of
Independence was sent to the world, proclaiming that men are created
free and equal, and that the right of the majority is the supreme law,
how comes it that a settlement can be maintained where the rights of the
majority can be ignored and suppressed at the point of the bayonet? For
an answer to this question, comes the monosyllable--Trusts!

Wilkes-Barre is a typical specimen community which may be taken as the
sample unit for a microscopic investigation of the conditions that have