Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1885-01-03

to the country Il, during her next de.
cade, the maloonients Of Europe
would stay at home, or turn the tide OF
immigration toward Australia OF the
North Pole Maima, II. BoyHJr1
JHforfHHafes sn Whom sympathy 10
Wasted
The pain which overrehned feeling
inflicts on us in our everyday life is
through the unnecessary calls II subjects
our sympathy to. We are too easily
effected 10y the so apparent sufferings of
others whom wejudge by our own stand
ard, Most refined and sensitive wo-
men are panied to see old beggers in
the street, especially after dark and in
cold or wet weather or by the grief
OF poor old woman or man who has
lost son or a daughter in the prime OF
life They measure all these things by
themselves, thinking how they would
suffer il they were in the same situation.
Almost invariably these kind emo
tons are misplaced The sensibilties
OF the old man or woman dressed in
rags and vile with dirt are not the least
hurt by those elements ofhis or her con
dition. They mind the cold and wet,
and they don't like to be hungry; but
they rarely mind anything else 1t is
considered brutal to throw them money
and then let them slip from ones mind.
But they don't care. All they want,
even the worthiest OF them, those who
would work if they had chance, is the
money or aid that gives them shelter
or food. They don't lik c unkind words;
but they do not miss kind ones. They
are eminently practical; they should be
treated practically and without emo
ton.
In like manner a great deal of use
less lament is heard over the wre,ched
condition OF people in tenement houses.
Philantrophists worry to see these poor
beings cooped up in few rooms, get
ting along on the bare nccessanes OF
life, with no pleasures (such as refined
people like), and totally lacking in their
surroundings, those things which intelli-
gent and cultivated people feel nee
essary to bare existence. This is
measuring their misery by too high a
standard. So long as these people have
enough to eat, place to sleep and
something to we ar-that is, so long as
they do not feel actual discomfort they
do not mind their surroundings. Practi-
cal workers among the poor constantly
run across men and women who prefer
poor city homes to decent ones in the
country. This is due to the fact that
most poor people-the lower classes, as
we call them-have no fine sensibilities.
That may be fortunate or it may not be
SO. The fact remains the same.
The Writer'S attention was called to
this lack OF moral sensibility among
poor people, or more properly, ignorant
and poor people, by his experience
after the burning of the Brooklyn
Theatre some years ago. He had &C.
casion to visit many of the families who
had lost members in that terrible
calamity Those who died were almost
exclusively young men they were in
the gallery upon whom mothers or
sisters depended for partial support.
The burden Of lament among the
mourners was all in this strain ; "We
have lost the one who helped us make
a comfortable living" We never heard
a word OF horror for the way in which
these wretched beings died-smoth-
cred by smoke and fame, or sufoca-
ted beneath heaps of struggling fellow
creatures To a sensitive organiza-
ton the thought Of the moment or two
OF suffering endured before death by
the loved one would have been simply
frightful, and tenfold worse than any
possible resulting pecuniary loss.
To our mind, therefore, the fact of
this lack OF sensibility among the poor
is the principal justification Of the
scientific mode of administering charity
which prevails in this day. Such
charity often seems hard and cold but
it certainly wastes no strength or time
in sorrowful expressions for the poor
who never realize the worth Of such
feeling The miserable beings who
need food and shelter do not care
about anything else, and the more
mechanically or intellectually we re-
gard them, the more can We accomplish
toward their elevation. We waste no
strength in fearful sympathy, and so
We shall las, longer to do them practi.
cal good. Moreover, We can take
more comfort in life by avoiding har-
rowing up our feelings, and since this
life is all that our modern thinkers say
We can be sure Of it, i, is just as well
not to be ripped up and torn to pieces
by emotions that really are unoaled
for.--NSU York Hour
The "comiss Gsasss" a Soeiaiis&