New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-09
"pIaY.PROpLRp AND CHARITY

There are some people born with so uneasy
a desire TO squabble, that if they were going
into the gate of Heaven they would manage
10 kick the shins of their fellow travellers
Ofthis disposition appear to be certain members
of the Philadelphia committee appointed last
week 10 raise contributions for the yellow
fever sufferers. Philadelphia, like other
cities. was coming up nobly to the work all
classes were pressing forward with warm
feeling to help, as they have done elsewhere;
for the most remarkable and touching feature
in this great work Of charity to which the
Nation has given itself lately. is the unanimity
with which men of all parties creeds and
trades, the rich and poor, the black and white,
children and old men. the Catholic, the
Protestant and the infdel, have stood side by
side and worked together to help their sick
and dying brothers. Ii is proof OF human
brotherhood which surely is well-pleasing in
Gods sight and we should suppose would be
so in that of every man OF ordinary humane
feeling.
The committee in Philadelphia, however, or
rather n certain member of it, named Welsh,
knows one class too degraded to join in this COM
mon work of humanity-th 'play-people," as he
STYLES them. When the actOrsand theatrical man
ayers in Philadelphia offered, as they have
done here and elsewhere, to give benefits for
the aid OF the Southern sufferers, this MIR.
Welsh refused promptly and peremptorily to
have anything to do with their efforts. " If
" the committee" he SAID, "Once opened its
doors to these play-people, there was no
knowing where it would land" The COM
mittee, dauntcd. probably, by the aggressive
virtue of Mr., Welsh, feebly assented, and the
play-people were turned ANONYMOUSLY from
its doors The whole affair was u most Gu
rious instance of the common mistake which
people make SO often between charity and aims
giving. Men who busy themselves all day in
urging their neighbors to help the South, and
who, at the same time, without any proyOca-
ton, can strike a savage blow at the reputa-
ton and feelings of hundreds of honorable
men and women through the country, seem
to limit the meaning of Christian charity to
the giving of somebody else's dollars and
cents.
1t is true that after public indignation at
this transaction had found n pretty hot ex-
preston some of the committee protested that
they had been misunderstood" and that
while they had refused to Endorse the pro-
posed dramatic entertainments by cooperating
in any way with the managers of them, they
did not refuse to take whatever money might
be offered, no matter where it came from.
In other words, they would shut their eyes
and let the purse be slipped into their hands,
We do not see that the explanation helps the
matter a Bit The blunder of Mr.. Welsh, as
anybody might guess who knows the temper of
the "play people," has not hIndered them
in their kindly purpose. Benefits for the yell
low fever sufferers are announced in the
principal theatres of Philadelphia this week.
and will be given, no doubt with much more
success for Mr.. Welshs opposition. The only
sufferers from the blunder in this case, as
usual, are those who made it and your intol-
Grant man is the one who, from his temper
ament, is most sensitive to public ridicule.
We should not have called attention to this
matter except to say that the time has gone
by for such bigotTy. The public is more in
teligent, just and Christian public than it was
hundred years ago. 1t judges of men as
men, not by their business or opinion. 1t does
not now roast Jews nor tie Baptists to the cart
tail. 1t will not make holocaust of Chinese
or capitalists even at Kearney's bidding. Coats
and liveries do not prejudice its vision as
they did q short time ago. Ii clergyman is
licentious or dishonest. his surplice or black
coat count for nothing; II an actor is q
good citizen, a clean liver and upright before
his God and bis fellow man, ii matters nothing
that he tricks himself out with spangles by
night TO earn his bread the public Is his