The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-02-22
BENEVOLENT POVERTY,
Nobody Growing Rich, but Many Scrou
Ing to Keep UP Appearances.
From Mc .alnntn C1nstil,liou.

don't hear of many folks getting rich.
don't know Of but few who are making
more than good fair living, and there's
ten to one who are powerfully scrouped
20 DO that. The majority Of marLind
are always on strain. Most Of EN- work
hard enough, but somehow or somehow
other, they can't get ahead, and a good
many are in old Plunket's fix who said
he was even with the world for he owed
about ~ much rs he dident owe. The
average family man is hard run. There,
nobody pershing or freezing in this sun.
ny land, aud very few folks boarding at
the poor house, but still there is eon.
cral struggle going on in the town and
the country. Most everybody is in debt
more or less, and what one crop don't
pay has to lap over on the next. The
merchants say that money is awful tight
right now, and reckon it is. I'm soPry
for the merchants, for as a general
thing money is their sole dependence.
II he hasent got money he is busted
institution, and that is where the a;,yan.
tage of being farmer comes in. He
can be out of money and still squeeze
! along i0T ho has corn and wheat and
sheep and hogs and chickens, and don't
nave 10 wear store clothes to any great
! old ones long time and 20 bare headed
and bare footed when there's no companv
; around. Town folks have to dress better
and dress oftener, whether they can nav
for 'em or not. But it IL hard time ali
around to make living, and l don't
know exactly what is the matter. The
average family is not extravagant. They
understand the situation at home and try
to conform, but it looks like they are
Just obliged to fudge little and 20 in
debt, and then the misery begins. When
the good man gets his mail from the
| post office, he is most afraid to open IL
tor fear of dun. These darned little
just debts, as Sam McCarney used to
call EN-, hang around him like shadow.
The four D's are mighty close kin-debt.
duns, death and the devil-and one ia
nearly rs welcome as the other. A man
who was born rich and managed to keen
30 or n man who was born poor and has
gotten rich don't know much about the
horror of debt and hasent got much sym
pathy for the debtor class and is very apk
to lay it all to their imprudence or bad
management but the fact is most of our
rich men got start before the war or
built up on the ruins of it before society
with It's extrnvagance got hold of EN-.
They confident do it now. I know lots of
rich men who If they were to lose their
fortunes couldent start now and make
another. They think they could, but
thcy conldent; mankind are too smart
and too sharp now for an old. fashioned
man 20 stand any chance. He would
get licked up in his first experiment
Money makes money and money can
keep money after it is made, but there is
slim chance now for young man to
make money and save it and keep in
gun'shot OF society. He can bottle him.
sell up and remain bachelor and turn
his back on society and accumulate n
fortune, hut the trouble is that most of
EN- want to marry and ought to marry.
and II he bottles himself up and spends
nothing and dresses common he il not
the sort Of IL man the girls are waiting
for. And SO il he spends freely and
rides around, he is apt to get married,
and then comes house rent and servants
hire and clothes according, and he
squeczes along and is always on strain.
There arc mighty few getting rich now
a-day, but when man does get
start, he can get richer than
they used to. A half million now
is about what fifty thousand dollars used
TO be. But the average man is not going
to get rich, and reckon it is the COM
mon lot, and therefore it is all right.
Nobody ought to distress himself about
1t, or banker after money, but somehow
can can't help wishing that our com.
mon people were little better off. T
wish they we're out of debt and had lii.
tie nlead-just start. Why the very
best people know are about the poorest
according to their position in society.
Look at our preachers. They don't
banker after money nor luxuries, but
they are entitled to reasonable living.
| told man the other day about a man
who had got rich, and he said he always
knowed that he was shifty cuss. They
are not shifty. 1 wonder what is tho
matter with the churches. They are
always behind. 1t amt one in ten that
pays the preacher what they promise.
There is always balance to lap over,
and the laps arc never paid. The
church wants repairs, and there is no
money to do it with. l don't know
much about the cities nor about all the
towns In the State, but know of but one
town that has nice churches all paid for
and we'll furnished and that pays the
preachers all they promise, and that town
Is the nee little village of Acworth. All
the rest that know are struggling along,
oc6SAhB ouu pleduluS anu hoping 70 90
better next year. know that it is
mighty hard to keep up four or FIVE
churches in little town and psy
four or five preachers. I was reading
about this the other day in .Scribner's
Magazine-about the new church in Con-
necticut that has absorbed all the others.
They call it the Christian League, and
it includes Methodists and Baptists and
Presbyt, rians aud Episcopalians and has
but one cleed and that is the apostles
creed. Towns that had four churches
and four preachers to pay have consoli-
dated into one, and everybody goes there
and helps to build it up. This movement
begun in New Albion, three years ago,
city of thirteen thousand inhabitants, and
has spread all over the State until, as the
article said, every town in the State has
followed suit. This is new departure
shore enough, and if it is all true is the
biggest thing have read about in a long
time. heard an old man say the other
day tha: church money was the hardest
money in the world to raise, and he was
in favor of changing the constitution of
tho United States and have the govern
ment to pay the preachers, like they do
in England, for, says he, it gets no bet
ter, but worse; and if it wasent for the
women the preachers would perish to
death. He told me about member
who got mad with another member and
wanted him turned out of the church,
nd thnsv l. IA L 4