The McArthur enquirer. (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1873-1884, 1873-07-23
Hercules Helps When you Put your
own Shoulder to the Wheel,
BY r. o J. D. t L

"Never give to a beggar," said
Poor Richard, "for, if you pay a
man to do nothing, he will do it"
) Luxury" said gruff DIR. john
son, sis better than charity, for lux
ury feeds the industrious, but char
ity the idle; and the industrious
improve, while the idle deteriorate."
Through disregard of these So
cial laws, the doles dispensed in
medieval inconsistencies proved a
parent-principle of modern pau
perism,
We cannot overrate the strength
Of laziness in one who has all his
lifetime lived in beggary. Hepce,
when | told a veteran mendicant / !
wondered that so able-bodied a man
as he would beg, it was perfectly
natural for him to answer, "You
would not wonder at all, if you only
knew how lazy I am"
But, In helplng q man, you always
hurt him, whenever you do not
make him help himself. This was
the spirit of Moses-bidding the
Jew not to reap the corners of his
field, and to let some handfuls fall
on purpose, and to leave them for
the poor to CLEAN. 1t was the
spirit of Christ, who only twice fed
the hungfy-but times without
number healed the sick, enabling
them to rise and earn bread for
themselves, iJd
Acting on a similar principle with
regard to paupers, and helping most
those who most helped themselves,
Massachusetts, has lessened their
number in her territory by fifteen
per cent. within the last ten years,
and that while her population has
been fast increasing.
In like manner, those safe from
pauperism are lifted still higher.
Steamers and railroads, bringing
immigrants by millions into the
Mississippi Valley, have done them
good just in proportion as their
new opportunities have stimulated
them to make the most of them
selves.
Presumption and homestead laws
aim SC to bestow the public domain
that it shall become a public disci-
pine. Both require a man to make
a journey to his farm-both teach ,
him to prize it, the former by max
ing him pay something for it, and
the latter by making him till it.
When the public land near towns !
and navigable streams was all oc- {
cupied, Congress enabled farm hun {
tiers to reach other lands and bro't
their produce nearer markets, by
the only means in its power, name {
ly, land grants to railroad com l
{
1t is fashionable to condemn those {
both in Iowa and elsewhere, !,
but let it be remembered that they !
have cost the United States moth {
ing, since as many acres have been V
sold at double price as have been a
given away-thatthey have brought o
millions Of acres under State and .
local taxation sooner than they .
would otherwise have been subject I
it; that they have rendered rail ]
road acres, and others near them, /
so desirable that they are bought
up at a cost several times greater |
han would secure LANDS equally /
good further from ra.iiiroads.
A railroad depending for divi-
lends on o local traffic which ce.o.
not exist without the DEVELOPMENT
the country through which it t
'uns, is not likely to charge exor, ]
1itant prices for its land. The {
Burlington and Missouri River !
Railroad, consenting,t to be paid for :
in installments, extending {
through half a life time, with moth,
OF the principal in the first {
our years---and asking only six ]
'er cent, interest, grant terms ,
which thrill with hopes of ow ming ,
arms, tenants, mechanics an la
'orers who were sinking in despair !
over our older States. Their {
learts with glad surprise to higher ,
evels rise. o. !
The advance guard in the emf
rant host from those regions have !
lready, within thirty-three months '
ciong the B. & Nj. Rail t
DAD, either in Iowa or Nebraska, I
EARNS, containing 478, 1888 ,
cree, More than $4,000 home !
leaders and pre-emptors have tax !
n land In the same region. A I
is a fifth gospel to agricultu- {
laborers, who are a majority in (
very community. Behold, how the !
nance it offers electrifies land :
,vers J
"Fast they c one, fast they come;
soc how. they gather; .ltI|..