New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-12-14
a better appreciation and u more hearty sup
port than they have yet received from the
entire community.
or THE MIDDLE TEMPLE. ESQ.


Considering that we must all live Cor die).
and further considering how many are won
dcrfully incapable Of selfsupport, il ~ Curl
GUS that there should be such small num-
ber comparatively, Of exits by suicide or by
starvation. We have a physical apparatus
which seems to he equal TO the digestion ana
assimilation Of almost anything; and anal0-
gous to this is the talent Of majority OF the
human race for getting through narrow straits
by mere stiffness But often our attention IL
called to the exceptiOn-to the man or woman
who, after an effort more OF less energetic, Ia
mentally breaks down and gives up the LABOR
of living IA hopeless. The London news
papers record and comment upon the death OF
n Mr. John Haddy, barrister at law, who was
| " simply starved to death,n not of his own
will, but literally for want of something
to eat which he could not get. He
died in the Strand Workhouse, being too
| nearly gone for medical or alimentary recupe-
ration when he was brought there, and quite
past the bath, the beef tea, and the brandy
and water. Now, nine readers out OF ten Will
say at once that this poor man was drunkard,
! for that is the readiest if not the most charl-
table reason which can be assigned in such
cases, only in this it would not happen to be
| the true one, since it was in evidence That
| John Haddy, barrister at law, was partcu-
| arly abstinent man. He had been at the bar
| for sixteen years but he could get no business,
and could not afford to hire chambers. lie
was an excellent scholar and n gentleman by
act of Parliament, but he lived in a penny
| lodging house, and had his letters sent to the
porter's lodge of the Middle Temple. The man
| il described as "by nature an orator." and he
sometimes earned meal by taking the chair
at some one of the Fleet-st debating clubs.
After an absence of six weeks, he returned to
his lodging on Saturday evening; was found
there destitute and dying; was conveyed to
the workhouse, where his miseries ended on
| Monday.
| The world, we viii do it the justice to say,
i, not, upon the whole, a hard or uncharitable
| one and is willing enough to give relief III
cases of great emergency without asking many
censorious questions. Unfortunately, the want
which huddIes itself in some hiding place and
is too proud to ask for aims, is left without
succor merely because we are ignorant of its
existence 1t is true that the needy are some
times sought for, but it is evident that quest
of this kind must, on the whole, be inadequate.
! This il sad but it is sadder still to be forced
TO the conviction that there are 80 many who,
with the best intentions, and from no moral
fault of their own, are incapable of doing that
which life demands. Some men never succeed.
They have no yices-they do nothing WHICH
the moral code says they must not do-they
are given neither to dicing nor to debauchery
when haply they find anything TO do, they
! do it with such might IA they can muster
! but, as the phrase is, they never get along"
| Sometimes we call this bad luck, fatal
| ity, destiny or by some other insuf-
iiCient name, for want of a better /;
it makes. little difference 10y what
name we call 1.-THE melancholy fact remains.
Successful men naturally find ii difficult to
account for the want of success IN others, ana
though nothing could be falser, we continue
ally repeat the old formula: "Wbat man has
" done man can do again. If in this world
there is spectacle calculated to move our
pity and Indignation, it is that of a hard
purse-prOud fortunate man of whom timid
shrinking, sensitive, and needy fellOw-creature
is asking aid, seldom given, or given grudg
ingly. There may be no help for it; achieve
ment will be proud and unreasonable, and
failure tnid, helpless, and depressed. Until
the last spark of self-respcct is extinguished
in the breast, no one prays for or wants what
we usually call pity. To relieve without
wounding, requires rare tact and delicate
talent, of which everybody Is by no means
possessed. We all need help in this world,
and if not mans help, then Gods; and if we
could but accustOm ourselves to the truth
that every life, by comparison, ia failure,
we might have more of that true charity
without which nothing profteth.
Perhaps it would be Of little avail to con-
slider whether society is in an artificial con-
dition OF not but it is certain that many
members of society are often not at all fitted
for that phase of it in which their lot is cast.
They Try and fail, they try and fail again; or
perhaps they are incapable of trying which ii
only the same inefficiency in different form.
They are paralyzed so to speak upon one side,
while the other may be vital; they have the
faculties which are Improbable in abundance;
only the faculties which fill the stomach and
cover the back are denied them, What are
we to do with themf Alas what are we to
do with so much else in this world, which
offends our sense of the right and the justf