Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-02-16
Was She to be Commended /?

A religious newspaper lately went into
pious ecstacies over a young girl who,
though compelled to earn her living by
hard work at machine sewing, yet con
rrived by dint of denying herself all but
the barest necessaries Of life, to contribute
! quite literally to fund for the erection
of a church edifce. The periodical
aforesaid praised the girl most lavishly
and held her up as an example worthy of
| imitation.
question whether she ought not to
| be severely censured for such course of
conduct. Girls who support themselves
by taking in sewing do not fare at all
sumptuously if thev have work all the
year round (Which is of rare occurrence)
and when they expend all their meagre
earnings on themselves. To say of girl
of this class that she confines her expen-
ditures to3''bare necessities" means that
she lives on bread and tea, goes without
proper under-clothing, and denies herself
the comfortable wrap which she needs to
protect her from cold and storms. She
moreover leaves herself without any re-
serve fund, and when work is slack, or
when it stops altogether, how is she to
subsist? 1t sickness overtakes her she is
compelled to go to the hospital and
add one more to the host who, through
Ignorance, vice and Incidence have be-
come burdens on the public. Burdens
which you, my thrifty frienGs, are taxed
to support. It is the self-respecting, self
denying and frugal in the community
who are taxed for the maintenance of
hospitals, prisons and alms-houses. Has
any one right to increase the pauper
class or to recommend measures which
will land those who adopt them in
eleemosynary institutions? Besides being
burden the poor girl will not have the
care and attention she would receive at a
private house. She will be very much at
the mercy Of doctors and nurses, who are
not always the most humane of people.
Most likely she will be experimental on
by half-fledged physicis MS, and subjected
to treatment which, although perfectly
legitimate, cannot fail to be extremely
dlstasteful to woman, however low in
the scale of refinement she may be. And
the object of all this self-sacrifce is what?
To clothe the naked Or feed the starving?
No, it is that certain congregation may
have fine building in which to hold it's
service. And then they have the
etfrontery to call this ''giving to the Lord
Where IN the Bible is it comm ended or
ven intimated that costly churches arc
necessity or that they are particularly
desirable; and where is the chapter and
verse wherein we are enjoined to reduce
ourselves to abject poverty in order
that the Temple CT the Lord" may be
beautifed? Solving to the Lord" in
deed It's vanity and pride and not
righteousness which dedicates piles of
marble and stone that cost from fifty
thousand to one million dollars to the
service of God.
Christ could be content with supper
rooms," but we Of this century must have
our marble tronted buildings finished
with stained-glass windows, costly altar
pieces and expensive uphclstry. We
count it, too, as u thing worthy of all
commentator that the poor should starve
their bodies ans their minds in order
that our church edifices may be artistical-
ly frescoed and provided with ali the
modern requirements of elegant worship.
g Giving to the Lord!" It's rank bias
phemY to say that.