The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1875-09-22
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CLASSES ACTUALLY NEG
LECTED!
BY REV. E. P. ROGERS, D. D.


We beg leave to ask, "Who are
the neglected classes in our
city,"
The answer will perhaps be,
"They are the poor, the ignorant,
the degraded, the vicious" who
crowd tenement houses, burrow
in cellars, herd in quarters where
filth and squalor reign: where
honest industry and sobriety are
strangers and the decent and vir-
tuous are rarely yseen. The neglec-
ted classes are said to be those
who beg in the public streets, or
live by petty thieving, who patron
ize our lowest dram shops, and
figure most extensively IN our
police records. "These," say a
thousand voices, "these are the
neglected classes"
With all due Difference, we bog
leave to dissent from this state
ment. We do not deny the exis-
tence, we do not extenuate the
vices, we do not depreciate the
misery Of these classes. Neither
do we question at all our obliga-
tion to provide for their temporal
and spiritualimprovement But we
deny that these are par excellence,
"the neglected classes" They are
not neglected. Very many agen'
cies are always at work in their be-
half: A great army Of institutions,
OF laborers, and of givers, make
them their special care. Our So
cieties for the relief of the poor,
our Children's Aid Societies, our
Homes for Little Wanderers, our
Five Points Missions, our Juvenile
Asylums, and Homes for the
Friendless; our Dispensaries and
Nurseries, and Hospitals; our free
schools and colleges, are only q
few Of the agencies sustained, on
o scale of great liberality, for the
temporal benefit of just these
classes, while a great deal is done
for their spiritual benefit. In ad-
dition to our public institutions,
such as the city Mission and tract
Society, with its free places of
worship and it's devoted male and
female missionaries who give
their entire time to labors for
these classes ; every church has
it's mission chapel and schools, its
Bible reader and visitor, it's bands
of teachers and workers, who free
ly give their best time and much
Of their money, their sympathies
and their prayers, for the relig-
ious teachings and training of
these same classes. If all the time
that is spent for them, if all the
money that is given,if all the zeal
that is expended, and ifall the work
and prayer that are consecrated
to the best interests Of this class,
could be fully summed up, and ac-
curately estimated, it would be a
most astonishing exhibit, and
would confirm and illustrate the
position which we take, that the
poor are not "the neglected Glass;"
Who, then, are they? Where
shall we find them? We shall find
them on our fashionable avenues,
and our most respectable streets.
We shall find them in brown stone
dwellings,, in first class boarding
houses, and in palatial hotels
Many of them ride in luxurious
carriages, are ''clothed in purple
and fine linen and fare sumptuously
every day" Many Of them have
ample credit at stores and banks,
and are we'll known at Saratoga
and Newport, in London and in
Paris. None of them are poor
all of them are what is called res
pectable; all Of them have a
comfortable share Of the good
things Of this life. They fire.
quent the Park, they patronize
the theatre, they are at home
at the opera, they give handsome
entertainments to their friends
they are looked up to with envy
by multitudes who regard them as
the highest and bappiest class.
But these are the neglected classes!
They are farther removed, prac'
tically, from tbe'inAuences of Chris
tianity than the poor and the
vicious. Multitudes of them have
no connection with the Christian
church, either as communicates,
pewholders, or even as hatitual
worshippers. Multitudes of them
do MT nunohar q Christian nastOr