The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-08-06
A Story Without q Moral.

A story has gone the ROUNDS OF the
papers about a certain good-hearted
Young fellow named Skinner, who, ten
years ago, was kind to az unknown man
from Antigua. The other day this
stranger died, leaving to John Skinner
$3.50, 900. Another story, which we be-
lieve to be true, was told lately of a
Young female school teacher who was
travelling two years ago on the Pennsyl-
yania railroad, when another woman,
apparently as poor rs herself, was sud-
denly taken i'll. The girl delayed her
Journey for a day or two to nurse the
stranger at an inn, and then went on her
way, and heard of the incident no more
until last September, when she received
information that she was the heir to a
fortune which would make her CON-
Portable for the rest of her life.
The newspapers have been passing
around these cheering anecdotes as
stories with a moral. We are not quite
sure what the moral is. If it is that we
are all to become amiable or benevolent
in the certainty of a good fat annuity
from fate in hard dollars, the moral is a
delusion and a snare. Your lucky Skin
ner is one white elephant in a herd Of a
million. The good Samaritan paid cash
for the oil and wine, and was by so much
out of pocket; but we are not told that
his neighbor whom he succored ever re-
imbursed him for the same. We are not
even told that he paid him by a decent
amount of gratitude. If we should hold
up John SINNERS good luck to our
readers as specimen of the ordinary
dealings of destiny with the charitable.
every one of them would produce 100
good fellows he knows with big hearts,
open hands and lean pockets. HE that
giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord"
we all know; but it would be bad policy
to invest in charity with the expectation
that payment would be made in cash,
and with SINNERS 10000 or so per cent.
at that.
Look about in any village, and it is
your old Griper who owns the control
ling shares of the bank stock and the
heavy end OF the local railway. Money
making chances come to him as nevis
drift to the big limpet in the pool. Take
his neighbor, the man best known for
benevoIence in the town, and where are
his shares of bank or railway stock!
Who leaves him legacy? The very
qualities which make him genial, credu.
lous, generous, render him a bad busi.
ness man. His is one of those families
which money seems to shun; his sons
turn out half-starved clergymen; his
daughters marry into houses bare o.
everything but love; it is on the farm
next to his that oil IS struck; he inva'
riably Just grazes good fortune, but III
never hits it. Yet the public draw OF
him as freely as they would from th'
town pump. Every case of misery o.
want in the county comes straight K
him, to drain on his sympathy ant
purse. This mans lot is the one to holt
up to boys as the result of Good Samari
tanism; not the mythical SINNERS, will
his gorged pockets. .
To show it TO them fairly, though, i
is just to state that this man is neve
forsaken, never comes to want; his chill
dren never beg their bread. So far tn
promise of Holy Writ is passed to hin
who lends to the poor. You must sbov
them, too. the real possession which i
given to him in lieu of Griper's stock
and bonds. You will find no trace of i
in his bare house or shabby clothes; bu
it is limited in the tones of his voice
The content of this great possession is j
his dead face, as he lies with his oil
friends about him-the widow and tn
fatherless and the poor that he has de
livered. The payment made to sucl
men is intangible; holds no place in th
market; yet the splendor Of it shines il
their homes and out of their graves lik
a light in dark place; it has made tina
little deed of the Good Samaritan
beacon through all the ages; tis all tina
makes house, or village, or the worl'
itself a happy home for human being
instead of den of greedy, selfish beasts
Let us teach charity, good fellowship
care for our fellows, to our children; bu
let US teach them, too, what the rewar'
is to be; not SINNERS, but pric
which makes his paltry thousands .
matter of indifference. -New Yor'
| Tribune.