The daily gazette., 1877-07-25
BREAD AND WATER.

Mr.. Baecher is so much in the habit
OF emptyinR his large can Of oil on
troubled waters that It IS as surprising
as 1t Is unedifying to see hi N tip it over
on the hre that is now making the com
munity unconfortably warm. 1t must
be exceedingly irritating to men who
are struggling to make respectable
living to be told, as Mr. Beecher told
tn en- IN his sermon in Plymouth Church
last Sunday evening, that "a man who
can live on bread is not fit to live,"
and that family live, laugh, love and
be happy that eats bread and good wa
ter In the morning. water and good
bread at noon, and good "bread and wa
ter at night" Even had such a remark
been just, it would have been uncalled
for and ontof place. What good pur-
pose can be served by asking, "Is not
q dollar a day enough to buy breadP" it
is hard to understand. Surely that
amount of money will buy bread enough
to subsist two parents and half dozen
children for twenty -four hours. During
the recent famines in India and Persia
many family has lived on much less,
as in Ireland it has done before now,
and when the worst csmes to the worst
people can die of starvation; but what
is the use of saying such a thing now2
1t IS lncendiary TO do so, and the folly
OF Mr.. Beecher Is immeasurable. His
sermon made ITS hearers laugh, but that
is a matter Of small moment; they
laugh at everything, except when they
Cry for nothing.
Aside from its unwisdom, there is not a
particle Of essential truth in what Mr..
Beeher said. Many of the men of whom
he was speaking have not dollar day
to support their families with. but if
they all had as much as that, though it
might be sufficient to "buy bread" it
could hardly be stretched to cover fuel,
light, clothes and house>rent for ten or
twelve persons and yet these are as tru-
~ necessities of life as bread and water.
Bread is only the staff of life. What
wou d be thought of men who would
walk into Plymouth Church, for exam
pie, dressed only with a cane?
OF course there is no possible excuse
for the mob of wretches who have al
ready wrought such destruction of life
and property as would have been
thought impossible short time ago, but
it is worse than futile to speak of them
| in Mr.. BeecheI's vein. 1t is right to
shoot them for rioting, but suicidal and
| the part OF a lunatic to t,ihe with and
| taunt them into riot, as is the obvious
tendency Of such language at the pres
enJ time. One Of the greatest supposed
grievances OF poor men now is that they
must compare their own lamentable for
tune with the enormous wealth of few
,, men and the ease of the well-to-do. Mr..
Beecher has taken pains to make the
contrast more glaring. When the burly
fishwife in Paris yelled out to mob of
which she was leader that ''these SOL
diers and aristocrats care not if we poor
people starve so long as they grow fat"
| the young and shadowy Napoleon could
say with good grace, Look at me, my
good woman, and tell me which is the
fatter, you or l." In similar circum-
stances Mr.. Beecher would have no such
resource, and it is highly qn ,stionable
that If mob should catch him and put
him upon prison fare he would thrive or
stu love to, speak touchlngly of tho
! twining tendril and the expanding leaf
of his more glorious day. It would have
been wiser in him him had he thought
of something better to say in his late
sermon on the present crisis.-H. Y.
World