Smyrna times., 1874-03-11
Gods Poor, the DEVILS Poor and the
Poor Devils.


On Sunday last Rev. j. J. Keane, assistant
pastor of st. Patrick church, Washington,
ID. g., delivered lecture at Lincoln Hall on
the somewhat novel and interesting subject
Gods Poor, the Devils Poor, and the Poor |
Devils. La the course of his remarks he |
said:
GODS POOR.
There we're three kinds of poor-Gods poor, !
the deviIs poor, and the poor devils. Oi God S
poor We were bound in charity to take care OF
the devils poor his satanic majesty would take
care, unless they mended their ways, and OF
the poor devils, why they were expected to
take care Of themselves. Gods poor had a
right to be poor, and widows and orphans,
aged and cripples, there would always be. The
cunning OF man could not prevent it. PhilQso
pliers and statesmen may try, bat they cannot
stop these things. They may organize and
they may relieve, but they cannot stop the
sources of this poverty. God does not will
poverty it was one Of the ad unets of death,
which same into the world by sin The poor
and bereaved are Gods special wards. Pow
erty was one of the living monuments of mans
fallen condition; it teaches us OF the stable,
the carpenter shop, and the sorrows of the
maR God, and it brings beautiful virtues into
! the world.
THE DEVILS POOR
are those who have no right to be poor, be-
cause they are people made poor by their own
vices They are degraded poor, which God
poor never are. Some might suppose that
when they desert God they would get good
wages, but they only got hard knocks. They
had, like the prOdigal son, to come down to
husks. In their whole appearance was mental,
moral and physical degradation. Some had
spent their whole lives in vice others deli
c'tey trained, had given up all to crime but
some had heart enough left to be moved to
tears-years that might wash away the stains
from their sOuls-but they were too often
merely transient emotions. There were some
who were often at our doors asking for that
which, if given, would be used only for sinful
purposes. They could be found in novels of
filth and abOdes of lust, where many poor
creature, although tired Of her miserable ex,
istence, goes down to the lowest level of the
devils poor They are found in drinking
saloons, and illustrate the truth that drunken
ness is the parent OF innumerabe vices they
are found in the alS and work houses, and are
finally laid in Potter's field Wherever the
devils poor are we see three great 0vis--they
are always running themselves, preventing
others from giving to the deserving, and bv
their bad example dragging others down to theiI
own degraded level
Now, what was to be done to remedy these
= evils? For we must remember that we cannot
transfer our responsibility for the devil poor
; to the devils shoulders. The chief care o.
the devil poor falls to the State but the State
has never bOen able to remedy the evil-to cor
( rect the vicious ha' its of the devils poor
We may imagine Utopians-men of large
heart, who would like to do something to bet
ter the condition of the devils poor, but thc
II success has not yet been heard Of under STATE
= auspices. The lecturer had lately read a rep0r
{ of one of the houses of correction. 1t show
the beauties of tho State system. There wer
: $50 men and 9,006 women committed fo
drunkenness. OF the men 26 of them were
q committed twenty times over, and one of then
u one hundred times. OF the women 90 wer
:. . committed thirty times and 20 of them one
! hundred times. No wonder State institution
u were failures. BY shutting up the devil
u u poor they prevented crime for time, and n
! one was ever made better by such punishment
. The State has tried to cure the evil Of drunk
enneSs by a prOhibtory law. The State ha
It never made an advance step by attempting
{ such reforms without incurring clamors iron
people who imagined that their liberties wer
about to be restricted. But that the State ha
= a right to arrest m evil which was rohbing an
: degrading the people was proposition tina
r could not be Justly denied by any right think
i ing man. He did not refer to any particua
. law. But that the State had the right to pas
some law to stop this evil Of intempcrance
). THE POOR DEVILS.
,, The term the poor devils" was not pre-
fame expression, nor one of reprOach. 1t wa
> a term of pity. " hen we see a fellow in
.e fix it is natural to say the poor devil.
le He may be defined to be the victim of crcum
/. stances, which, like facts, were often stuhhor
Is things The adage says that the roOrdeviS hav
Of to take care Of themselves. As there was "a
ID endless variety of circumstances, SO there was
ID great variety of poor devils. They were q
is numerous as the variety of humming birds, O
m which the Duke Of Argyle said there wer
l. four hundred and thirty. Looking out upO
ID our streets we wonder at the achievements
it the board of public works In one place "
Is see mansion high and dry in air, with tn
K street ten feet below. Yet we do not call tn
H. owner a poor devil, but wonder how niue
" money it will cost him to lift it up or let
I'd down, and we also wonder how he will hav
his next reception. Then we look at the cabi
of the poor man. There stands the poor fe
low with his hands in his breeches pocket, an
,v nothing in them; with an improvement bill
- h. tNOokof sorat0hin0 hiS hand on