Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-10-03
The Pauper Poison.

iHc oiu ucdu-nedu system OH the
railroads, not entirely done away with
now, was only branch of pauperism,
and it is astonishing to see how many
people there are to-day who are willing
to part with self-respect i'm order to get
a free pass on railroad or steamboat.
To enjoy ride, the expense of which
comes out of somebody else, is, to the
ordinary human soul, exceedingly
sweet. If the willing and rejoicing
dead-head is to be found plentifully
scattered through good society, it must
not be wondered at that among the
humber classes his equivalent is met
with at every turn. This whole matter
of tipping" walters, and of walters
expecting to be clipped" is very
marked manifestation of the poison of
pauperism. A man steps into restau-
rant to purchase and consume a meal.
He finds waiter at his side whose bus
mess IL is TO wait upon him. 1t was for
this service that he was hired by the
proprietor, and he is paid for it what
| vice is reckoned into the bill of the Gus
toner, and when that bill is paid, the
customers obligations are all dis
charged. Nevertheless, there stands
the expectant waiter, who hopes to be
twice paid for his work, or, rather,
hopes to receive something for nothing.
The whole army of walters have be-
come, in their souls, beggars. Their
little arts of extra attentiveness are the
arts of beggary and nothing else. Their
practical and obtrusive pauperism is
nuisance to the community, as well AS a
curse to them. Manhood goes out as
the fee, unearned, comes in. Manhood
stays out of one whose expectation is
always hankering for a tip.
We have said that the waiter is paid
for his service by his employer, but this
is not always so. The proprietor him
self is often a pauper. He tries to get
something for nothing. He charges |
full price for his food, and cheats the |
waiter out of his wages, and he may |
toners. He not only practices the arts
of a pauper himself, but he actually |
forces his walters into practical pauper-
ism.
The spoils doctrine, as it has been |
held and practiced i'm party politics for !
the last thirty years, is pauper doc
trine. Ii has grown out of the almost |
universal wish to get living, or to get
rich, at the public expense. To get a
chance at the public money, men have
been willing to sell their independence,
to do the ''dirty work" of ambitious
politicians, and to become morally de-
based to an utterly hopeless extent.
Men have hung to corporations in the
same way, and they cannot yet be
shaken off from them. To get some
thing for nothing-to get something for
less than it is worth-to get something
without paying for it its equivalent in
good, honest work, especially ifit could
be taken from the government or a cor
has been the shameful
greed of the age, and it is only pauper-
ism. Ii comes from the genuine poi
son. 1t is direct and legitimate devel-
Dpment of the moral scrofula which
taints the blood of the country.
The signs of the poison are everywhere.
They are notably wherever there is
/ spirit of speculation. Wall street is
he very paradise or its hell, it matters
little which. Wherever there is a man
who is getting something for nothing
receiving it, not as a dire necessity. but ,
gladly and as matter of policy-there
5 pauper. There are multitudes of
that insist that their ministers
hall be paupers. They never establish
thorough business relation between ,
themselves and their teachers, but il is :
gift by whatsoever the latter may be
benefited. Unhappily, there are too
gladly. OF course there is vital dis
inction between the gifts that flow
oward public teacher as manifesto
ions of the popular affection, and gifts
uoith Vut W DttstbNt II
hought that he needs them. The first
an be received with honor; but the
econd cannot be received, in any case
where the money has been honestly
armed, without the disgrace of the re-
ipient and the moral damage of the
onor. But it happens that multitudes
f ministers are actually trained for
auperism. In certain notable theo-
Dgical school, which now contains one
undred and ten students, there are
inety young men who are receiving
i'll. What method is it possible to pur
ne with these men so sure to destroy 4
heir independence and manliness as c
his ?-.ScriJner. c