The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-06-20
SEEING A SIGN.
No Beggars Wanted Where There is
Money.
kambie OF Rural Rooster I'm the Carp
ftai Cfy-A Sharp Fellow on
the Rampage. t


GREENcAsTLE, June IL, 1877.
To the Editor of the Sentinel:
sIR-The writer was in your beautiful
city some days since. In my wanderings
along its beautiful avenues and business
thoroughfares, often stopped to admire the
palatial residences of the rich, the monu-
ments that wealth had erected. lam not a
member of the Y. NJ c. A. God help me.
| am not member of any church. Theo-
logically am padding my own canoe. But
still am Christian, and often read the
Biblo, the "old fashioned Bible that lay on
the stand" All, yes; remember the time
when father and mother and children gath
cred around the family altar. morn
ing and evening, the sacred page was
DEAD, and all bowed while a gray
haired sire offered sweet invocation"
and the family formed choral union and
sang praises to God. But enough of this.
You doubtless recall the visit of Paul to
Athens. The old apostle, in wandering
about that heather city, stumbled upon an
altar with this inscription: ITO
THE unknown Con" l was equal
ly fortunate or unfortunate in
Indianapolis, for in my travels 1 found
not an altar but temple erected to man.
mon. Grand and gorgeous-every archi-
tectural adornment spoke audibly,
Money" Outside was money; inside was
money. The entire establishment was
eloquent interest and exchange. Being
Christian (?) and Bible reader thought
OF the palace Of Dives and the poor man
at his gate. Indeed thought all along of
that graphic account as it is related by one
of the Eyangelsts-the sores, the dogs, the
rags. the angels, in the one case; the purple
and fine linen in the other. And still on
beyond that hell and cold water and all of
this train of thought grew out of the sign
on this temple of mammon, mo beggars
wanted here" l thought it was an instance
of remarkably SHARPE practice; too Sharpe for
this world and these hard times. went off
into a train of thought about Stdrps and
sharpers and Shdrps as bankers, and sharpers
who do not want beggars about them, and
then i thought of Dives again and cold
water and hell and torment, OF Lazarus the
beggar, of the dogs that licked his sores IL
felt kindly towards the dogsl of the
angels that came down and sung sweet melo-
dies in the ears of the beggar, poised on their
wings and waiting until starvation had
done its worst, and with its rusty knife cut
the thread of life and let the soul of poor
heaven and placed gently in Abraham's
bosom. Dives, like the banker did not
want beggars about him, not much; in fact,
not at all; and in my fancy saw him on his
couch of down; his silk robes We're hanging
on the back of costly upholstered Tose-
wood chair. The curtains around his bed
were sumptuous, silk and gold, and numerous
servants waited without / thought of Mrs
Dives, poor, broken-hearted woman, and
thought l heard a rustling behind the
curtains where death and the devil
were after the rich man who
wanted no beggar at his gate In this
mood / thought the rich man, who taboOd
beggars, walked up one sultry morning in
hell, where there was such scarcity of wa
ter that he would have given his Jerusalem
palace for one drop, and then | concluded
that there such a thing as being too
SHARPE The fact is, Mr.. Editor, that large
per cent. of the people are poor Many are
beggars by necessity. 1t is with them, beg
or starve-for there Is no work. There are
few places where beggars are welcome. The
grave takes them kindly, the dark =
waves enfold them affectionately, and>
they have place in heaven.
That is to say, Lazarus was
one place in your town, so says the placard,
where they are not wanted. Mr.. Editor, did
you ever stop to think a little about beg
CARS? They have souls-they are immortal
there is not very wide difference between
beggar and a millionaire; in fact, so far
God is concerned, none at all One is
clothed and fed the other is naked and
hungry. Jesus Christ was particularly in
terested in the poor, the halt, the blind. the
outcasts, the beggars, the people whom the
Pharisees oppressed. So much so indeed
that his Messiahship was at one time proved
by his devotion TO the poor, and il is safe to
assume that if Jesus Christ had at any time
observed a placard in Jerusalem on
bankers door, mo BEGGARs WANTED HERE"
he would have denounced the banker as a
Sharper and too SHARPE by half for Phar-
isee, Sadusee, Scribe or Herodian, and would
have ordered the sign pulled down.
indianapolis is a beautiful city. Mr.. Edi-
tor, the capital city of a great and growing
commonwealth; some of its citizens have
made money by their own exertions, some
have inherited it, but indianapolis can not
afford to placard its monuments OF wealth
by intimating that its poor must starve-
The great world will tolerate no such Sharpe
practices as that Teeny Young is dead,
others are dying, poverty is on all
the highways of all our cities, hum
ger is eating like a cancer in hundreds
of homes, little children are crying for
bread, andi the parental anguish now ex-
listing could be wrought into one great wall
it would startle heaven In such time the
man who could placard a temple of man.
mon,'"No Beggars Wanted Here" adds
Sharpe-er pang to hunger and intensifies
the anguish of poverty. ,ff 1920 ta
Mr. Editor, do not know that these RAM
bling thoughts are worth printing; ii they
are they are at your service. ~ Discount.
Hate not 8 1t is not worth while. Your
life is not long enough to make it pay to
cherish i'll win or hard thoughts toward any
one What il that man has cheated YOU. or