Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-03-14
A LAY SERMON.
THE CIVILIZATION THAT rs AND THE
CIVILIZATION THAT OUaHT TO BE.
A Forcibie Presentation Of Some of the Sins
aud Shortcomings Of society--Lifc In the
Great Clties-Crime and squaior in
the shadow of the Churches.

When we think Of the civilization that |
might be, how poor and pitiful, how little /
better than utter barbarism seems this civili- |
zation of which we boast Even here, where
IL has had the freest field and fullest de- elop-
ment! Even here!
| This is broad land and a rich land. How |
wide il Is, how rich IL Is, how tho fifty mil |
lions of us already here are but. beginning to |
scratch it, man can not begin to realize, till |
| he docs some thousands of miles of travelling |
over it, There are q school and church and |
anewspaper in every hamlet we have no |
| privileged orders, no legacies of antiquated
| institutions, no strong and covertly hostile |
| neighbors, who In fancy or reality oblige us
to keep up great standing Armies. We have
| had the experience of all other nations to
guide us in selecting what is good and reject
ing what is bad. In politics, in religion, i'm
science, in mechanism, everything shows
| the safest improvements. We think we
stand and in fact we do stand, in the very
van of civilization. Food here is cheaper,
wages higher, than anywhere else. There is
here higher average of education, of intel
ligence, of material comfort, and of indvid-
al opportunity, than among any other of the
| great civilized nations. Here modern ciyiliza-
ton is at its very best Yet even here
Last winter was in San Francisco. There
are i'm San Francisco citizens who can build
themselves houses that cost million and a
half; citizens who can give each of their
children two millions of registered United
States bonds for a Christmas present citizens
who can send their wives to Paris TO keep
house there, or rather to "keep palace" in q
style that outdoes the lavishness of Russian
grand dukes citizens whose daughters are
golden prizes TO the bluest blooded OF English
aristocrats citizens who can buy seats in the
| United states Senate and leave them empty,
just to show their grandeur. There are,
also, in San Francisco other citizens. Last
winter l could hardly walk a block without
meeting citizen begging for ten cents. And,
= when charity fund was raised to give work,
with pick and shovel to such as would
rather work than beg, the applications
| were so numerous that, to make the
r charity fund go as far as possible, one set of
men was discharged after having been given
a few days work, in order to make room for
another set This and much else of the same
sort l saw in San Francisco last winter.
T Likewise in Sacramento, and in other towns
: Last summer, on the plains, l took from
its tired mother, and held in my arms, lit
tie sun.browned baby, the youngest of a fam
; lily of the sturdy and keen Western New
@ England stock, who alone i'm their two
4 wagons had Travelled near three thousand
. miles looking for some place to locate and
) finding none, and who were now returning
k To where the father and his biggest boy could
go to work on a railroad, what they had got
by the sale of their Nebraska farm all gone.
a And walked awhile by the side of long,
lank Southwestern men who, after similar
fruitlGss journeyings way up into Washing
n ton territory, were going back 10 the Choctaw
v nation
If IN THE GREAT CIyIEs.
~ This winter have been in New York.
!, New York is the greatest and richest OF
American cities-the third city of the modern
- world, and moving steadily toward the first
" place. This is a time of great prosperity
| E,
sold, much business done Rea
. estate is advancing with big jumps, anc
u within the last few months many fortune,
y have been made in buying and selling vacan
lots Landlords nearly everywhere are de
manding increased rents; asking in some O
III the business quarters an increase of thre,
~ hundred per cent Money is so plenty tina
he government four per cents sell for ia, and
ie bill is passing Congress for refundjnp tn,
,e maturing national debt at three per cent, pc
IN annum, q rate that awhile ago In Californii
" was not thought exorbitant per month AL
T. sorts of shares and bonds have been going NJ
ee and up. You can sell almost any thing il vol
H. give it high-sounding corporate name an,
"a issue well-printed shares OF stock. Seats il
y" the board of brokers are worth thirt,
ie thousand dollars, and are cheap at that
V, There are citizens who rake in millions at
,e single operation with az much ease as
:, faro dealer rakes i'll a handful of chips
y Nor Is this the mere seeming prosperity o
nj leNerlSn speculation. Inc country really
r. prosperous. The crops have been enormous
IN the demand Unsuitable. We have at last
sound currency; gold has been pouring in
y The railroads have been choked with pro
of duce, steel rails are being laid faster THAI
RI ever before all sorts of factories running
80 full time or overtime. So prosperous Is tn
country, SO good are the times. that, at tn,
II presidential election few months since, thu
ie determining argument was that we could no
n afford to take the chance of disturbing 81
. much material prosperity by a politica
. change
~ THE SORROWS OF THE POOR
:. Nevertheless, prosperous as are thes
times, citizens of the United States beg you oI
Vi the streets for ten cents and five cents ant
Is although you know that there are IL
b. this city two hundred charitable societies, al
re though you realize that on general principle
IN to give money in this way is TO do evil rathe
Is than good, you are afraid to refuse then
20 when you read of men in this great cit,
at freezing to death and starving to death
, Prosperous as are these times women ar
making overalls for sixty cents a Dozen an,
u you can hire citizens for trivial sums to pa
u rade up and down the streets all day will
T. advertising placards on their backs. get OF
a horsecar and ride with the driver He i
to evidently sober, steady man, as intelligen
as a man can be who drives a horse-car al
the time he is not asleep or eating his meals
ne tells me ne mas vile ant
@. four children. He gets home q
II couple of rooms can be called
home, at two o'clock in the morning; he ha
~ to be back on his car at nine. Sunda,
- :, he has a couple of hours more, which he hal
to put in sleep, else, as he says he woul,
utterly break down. His children he never
70 sees, save when one of them comes at moor
y or supper time to the horse.car route will
something for him to eat i'm tin pail. Ill
Of gets one dollar and seventy-five cents pc
We day Ohat will buy at Delmonicos a beet
T. steak and cup of coffee). / say to him tina
il must be pretty hard to pay rent and keel
no six persons one dollar and seventy-fivi
a cents day. He says it Is that he has beer
a trying for month to get enough ahead I,
= buy new pair of shoes, but he hasn't We
succeeded. ask why he does not leave suci
10 job. He says, "What can 1 do? Their,
=, are thousand men ready TO step into m,
10 place :! And so, in this time of prosperity h'
is chained to his car. The horses that he
h drives, they are changed six times dur
nj ing his working day They have lots
il OF time TO stretch themselves and rest them
O. selves and eat in peace their plentiful meals
for they are worth from one to two hundred
,r dollars each, and it would be a loss to th'
y company for them to fall i'll. But this driver
,r this citizen of the United States, he may
,s fall i'll or drop dead, and the com pany
would not lose a cent To judge be
,, tween him and the beasts he drives, am in
)f clined to think that this most prosperous ers
v Is more prosperous for horses than for men