The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-08-05


If there were no such thing as ex-
rravagance, every man might have a
sbanty of his own, wife, some children,
COW giving milk, 500 in the bank,
and ham and -four enough to DO him all
summer, and no man might be under
the necessity of using clay pipe, or OF
smoking some other mans tobacco; nor
might man be brought so low in the
world as to have reason to wish that he
could sell his wife and all her relations
for $50 apiece, cash down.
If there were no such thing as ex-
travagance there would be no strikes,
no Knights of Labor, no monopolists
poor-houses would be unknown, and
the word hunger" might be so rarely
used that the man who didn't read
much might have to look in the diction-
airy to see what it means.
If there were no such thing as ex-
travagance there would be common
possession of wealth, and writer's of
every class might write all they had a
mind TO without using the word
monopoly" when referring to the
"root of all evil" Jay Gould would be
a railroad conductor, or he would own
a small farm, and help the wife to feed
the hens, milk the cows, make soap,
and do lots of things around the house
or he would keep small store and
take in eggs, wheat, potatoes, butter,
and coon skins in exchange for tea,
sugar, hardware, and saleratus. Old
Mackay, too, could get along without a
top buggy and silver-plated harness.
He could go to church in clean, patched
overalls, and wipe his face with a red
cotton handkerchief, and feel every
inch as near heaven as he does now !;
and as between him and his fellow
mortals there would be no abyss of
social difference; he could afford to be
afiable, so that if he came to Newberry
and met Tim O'Hagen, he could stand
and talk about the war that was to be,
the price of iron, take a "chaw, and
ask Tim to take another.
1t is extravaganza that makes some
comparatively rich and keeps thousands
comparatively poor. A man works
hard for 80 or so; then in an hour OF
vice and dissipation he filings it all
away. His appearance becomes loath-
some, and he is despised on every hand.
His gaunt and starving wife in some
black and lonely howell looks in the
cupboard and sees no bread. She
hears her naked children cry, Mamma,
/ am hungry her heart breaks, she
sighs for the grave, she wishes she were
there and her children with her.
Heaven views the scene and weeps,;
hell views it and rejoices But in the
meantime, through the extravaganza
of that man, and others of his class,
the wealth of somebody else is increas
ing, and the daughters of that SONG
body else plays the piano, and puts on
style, and turn up their noses at rags
and poverty when they meet them on
the street.
Through tae extravaganza and prod
igality of ten thousand men, one man
becomes secure of prodigious wealth.
He builds fon himself d palace rich and
grand He drives prancing steeds.
His equipages seem royal, magnificent
as those of Caesar and Marius. His
wife and daughters shine In all the
splendor of superGbundant wealth.
Every thing around him is superb,
voluptuous, affecting, noble. He is
raised TO golden height, and groWsling
mortals lock up and think HIM great
But where are they through whom
all these were secured? Left home
less and vagrant on the rude rocks of
indulgence and distress! L see. them
now; along they come, CHASTITY train,
like the phantoms of some wreSched
dream. Oh, the CLASSY eyes,. the gaunt,
cadaverous jaws; the pinched and hun
CRY looks; the foulsome rags; che shak-
ing limbs; the low, monotcnOus whines
of distress.
One of them tells me his story. The
story of the rest is the same in sub
stance. He says: Il was once well
enough off had a home; enough to
eat; enough to drink; enough TO wear;
but / was wreckless and eXtravagant.
1t never occurred to me then that L
might some day be old, or sick, or in
firm, or decrepit and helpless. Would
you give me- ten cents? Ii would buy
me loaf. l have had nothing to eat
for twenty-four hours. "-ChriStOpher
Grip, IN Marquette Journal.
Wompn and Men