Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-09

ana some desire 10 be known aOrohu as one
/. who loves his fellow-men;" and through the
joint influence Of the two sentiments, insti-
tutions for tho benefit of the poorer the per-
ishing and dangerous the fallen the friend
less, and other classes are founded and sup
ported. A majority of the people would
willingly remove all the evil out of the world
if they could do SO without any trouble or
expense to themselves. A few would readily
advance q considerable sum of money to ac-
complish SO desirable an object, provided
their munifcence were duly heralded in the
newspapers. Some are prepared to give their
valuable services to any institution designed
to promote individual or collective reform,
for very reasonable considerations while
others are always ready to aid every desira-
hle enterprise for the improvement of man
kind, by the constant expression of their
adherence of unrepented sin and impenitent
sinners of every kind and description. Under
the united impulse of all these, society moves
forward, institutions arise, and humanity
gets no worse, if it does not grow greatly
better. Pive Ia Charitei Vhe Ia 5ogotelle.
We go by fits and starts. Two years ago
we had the Park disease. Breathing places
for the million was the cry. A sense of suffo-
cation seized upon the people at large--at
least there was q vicarious smothering of
which the seat was in the City Council, rem
dering it necessary to turn the cemeteries into
reservoirs Of the atmosphere fluid, as soon as
possible. Ejectment was served at once upon
the Pioneers. The dead fathers of the city
were huddled hastily out of their fee simples
for the benefits of.the lungs of the living
ones nor did the enthusiasm abate until
Gods acre" was turned into Golgotha alb
horent to God and man-which il remains
We have narrowly escaped two or three
other epidemics; and now it would seem as
if the Home of the Friendless was about to
take the form of a prevailing complaint. Do
we oppose Homes of the Friendless? No, by
no manner Of meansl Every house oughtto
be home of the friendless; every heart the
janitor and custodian of an institution dedi-
cated'to the memory of the Good Samaritan.
Not only are splendid edi6ces proper, and
munifcent endowments, with Boards of we'll
fed Directors, after all due deliberation and
full examination of credentials formally to
open the valves of corporate bosoms, and,
with dignifed complacency, to say "go," or
as the case may be, "come, and sin no more"
but living men and women, with hearts
rightly fixed, morally and anatomically,
should always be repeating the same blessed
invitation. 1t is more profitable to give than
it is to receive. There is an enrichng of the
soul. The human nature becomes glorifed,
and the deity within peeps out at the eyes
when the right hand distributes and the left
remains ignorant of the benefaction.
Let him or her who is without sin cast
the first stone" How many people would
get stoned if this rule were enforced in spirit
and in strictness? What good, happy, COM
Portable world this would be if the relations
of society were conducted in accordance with
it'll There would be no need of institutions;
for all mankind would be an institution.
There would be no need of "Homes of the
Friendless;" for there would be no other.
But the world is imperfect yet; and institu-
tutions must be permitted to do what the
christian in his blindness is not vet pre-
pared to undertake individually. So let
there be "Home of the Friendless.'
But let the epidemic be avoided and the
enthusiasm put down, SO that reason may
govern and good be done. What is proposed?
1t is not enough to say: Lo, there is a great
evil In the world; go to now, let US build an
institution, and straightway it shall be re-
moved. The means must be adapted to the end.
That which is to be eradicated must first
be surveyed; and when it is fully measured, 7
and all its elements understood, there will |
be some hope of good from the devices that
are called into existence to perform the nee
essary labor.
In the first place il must not be forgotten |
that the parties to be acted upon are human
beings. They are sinners now; and-like |
everybody else-they will continue sinners
TO the end of their lives. To make them
saints is out of the question: there are no
saints in or out of Homes of the Friendless.
They have also passions, ambitions, tastes,
choices, loves and hates, just like the rest of
mankind; and these villas in the case of
everybody else-be continually struggling to
express themselves in action. To turn them
into automata, to herd them like sheep, mar
shall them like recruits, or move them like
pieces of machinery, will do no good. The
of constraint is no reformation,
while the constraint itself is the most terrible
of all punishments.
Gomes of the Friendless can therefore only
be temporary residences-places where is pro-
vided sort of substitute for that personal |
sympathy which should be found wherever
suffering and homelessness exists. They
should be-not herding-places-but starting
places, from whence the inmates may 20
Forth with new hope, or new health, or new
to battle with the vicssitudes OF |
The great wide world, in which every body
belongs, and from which nobody should be
exiled. E -T.
The idea should be to make people better
by making them more comfortable. Hu-
nanity rapidly degenerates in extreme
misery. Good clothes and wholesome food.
aot only In the estimation of the world, but
% considerable degree, in fact, turn extreme
rice and desperate ill-desert into that which
Ioes by the milder names of error and
Let there be no glaring proc.
Amations of reforms Effected thing with