Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-04-27
Hugh o. Pentecost on the Social
Question.


American Citizen
stake two pictures. A workman
comes home at night, tired and seek
ing rest and quiet. He lives in three |
small compartments in a tenement
house. His parlOr is also kitchen,
dining room, laundry and cellar. 1t
is filled with smoke; all his children
are there under the heels of his wife,
who is also his cook, laundress and
scullery maid. If she is not untidy
and cross she is more than human.
The children quarrel, or fight, or play
boisterously. The whole house is a
pandemonium of discOrdant sounds
and a reservoir Of old and new smells.
Musical instruments and pet birds
and animals add to the maddening
din. Perhaps he stumbled over a
drunken man or woman on the
stairs. What chance.has such a man
to be anything? There is no quiet in
which to read, no retirement in
which to think, no freedom for his
wife by which she might sweeten
him and be sweetened herself by
love. This is not a home. This is
not home. This is not to live.
There is nothing here to feed his
heart or brain. That such a man
does not drown himself or get drunk,
or become disconnected or criminal,
is to be accounted for only because
his brain become stupids and he re-
verts to anirnalhood. That poverty
benumbs as we'll as debases is some
thing for which organized society
should be profoundly thankful,
otherwise every tenement house
would soon become a lunatic asylum
or dynamite bomb factory.
Reverse the picture. Here is a
competency. A family of five live
in nine or ten rooms with windows
and closets and cellar. The house is
cool in summer and warm in winter.
When the man comes home he closes
the door upon his neighbors, good
and bad. His wife is waiting for
him with welcome kiss. His petty
rooms beautiful, because he has
money and she has leisure and taste,
are open on either side of him with
blazing fires and shaded lamps. His
wife is more charming by the added
grace of womanhood than the girl he
loved in his youth. His table is
spread with abundance prepared by
an inmate of his home whose part Of
the household labor it is to cook, and
wash, and scrub. When his appetite
is appeased with well cooked and
politely served food, he and his
family repair to their cosy sitting
room, his least one of the two OF
three childred climbs into his lar
and prattles of her love to him. His
evening is spent in quietude anC
peace in an atmosphere that is balm
to the tired brain and tonic to {
fainting heart. Is it any wondel
that when he falls asleep at nigh
the care-lines have been smoothed
from his face? Is it any wonder
that he takes up his task next day
with a spring in his step and courage
in his breast? The world hold
something for such a man. He il
content. He believes in things al
they are. 1t ought to be easy fo
him to be sober and law abiding
Everything tempts him to be goot
and tender man. These are condi
tons, and conditions make the man
What 1 hope to show you is that tn
way which leads to that happy con
dition is already open, and you ma,
walk in it if you will, reaching tn
end Of the journey step by ste
through an everincreasingly pleasan
country; that no shot need be fire,
and no useful thing destroyed on tn
way. 1t is simply a question of re
moving, one after another, thos
laws which deprive us of equal op
nnrfnnifins To lafnr nnd 10 liz I,