Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-03-08
THE RICH AND POOR.
Bill Arp ON Bank Accounts I'm This World
aud the Next.


Riches are blessing and comfort
when used Alright but man who
boards his money and Is all bottled up
with his own solfishness Is n fool and
fraud. Nobody cares whether he lives
or dies. In fact, they would rather he
should die. Neither God nor men are
his friends. The nation moaned for
Peabody. but who moaned for A. L.
Stewart? Now is the time to start n
good bank account In the next world.
To money %Sas r honestly gained. 10000
Cr.-By charities TO the poor. :. $40. 900
Balance To be accounted for
But with most of the millionaires 1t
stands:
To money gained by sharp practices. .ti 900. 900
No credit except the gifts contained
In his will. Excuses rendered,
1.-THE poor have no gratitude"
'"rhe poor are lazy and might be
better OF II they would work"
never knew stingy. selfish man
who didn't roll those excuses under his
tongue. John Brown was riding along
one cold morning and saw poor wom-
an picking up scraps at "A lumber yard
TO make u fire, but it was nothing to
him. ST. Peter was looking down and
charged him up with wood and cloth
ing for that woman and her children,
and he is charging up something to us
almost every day 1t troubles me, and
am afraid to see that book. Some
poor folks are not grateful, know,
but most OF them are. That was a true
and beautiful verse that Lady Dufferin
wrote in the Irish Immigrants La
ment:"
am very lonely now, Mary,
For the poor make no new friends:
But OH they love the better still
The few our Father sends.
The trouble with many of our rich
people is they don't know the wants of
the poor. They never sec them. Their
daily journey is from their beautiful
home to the counting room and from
the counting-room to their home again.
They never 60 about the homes OF pow
erty, nor see the rented cabins with
broken windows and cracks in the floor
and the scanty covering on a scanty
bed and, as Tom Hood said:
wall so blank my shadow thank
For sometimes falling there.
London did not know she had poor
people until Hood wrote that Song Of
the Shirt" and all OF sudden London
began to weep with pity and was
aroused, and did more for the suffer-
ing, starving thousands in one month
than she had done for ten years before.
| never did believe that human
nature was innately, radically. incor-
rightly mean. 1t is selfish and thought
less. but just let a tender, touching
case come right up square before a
man and he will surrender. One time
l saw a reckless, god-forsaken man
Jump into mad, swollen, rushing river
TO save poor boy from drowning, and
he saved him at the peril OF his own
life In 1854 l saw man lodged on
the end of a log that had been caught
among the rocks just above the brink
of Niagara Falls.
For thirty-six hours the people had
been trying to rescue him, and thou
sands had congregated there from
neighboring cities. All efforts had
failed, and his wife and children were
weeping upon the bank. Suddenly n
man mounted upon box and shouted
with appraised arms II will give $10,-
900 to any body who will save that
man. Here is my check for the
money" and he handed his check to
the mayor. "Who is that MANI" /
inquired, and the answer was: He is
the meanest man in Buffalo" There
is tender spot in most every heart.
But still these spasmodic charities
won't do to rely on. 1t is systematic
charity that keeps the world alive.
There was an old gentleman in Rome,
Ga, who was banker, and he laid
aside 81 out of every $40 that he made.
That was the Lords money, he
said, and he gave it to the churches.
He kept it in n different drawer
in the iron safe. He would not use it
for any other purpose. Outside of
that he gave literally to public chart
ties. He said: II owe to tho Lord
one-tenth, but what give TO the poor
lend to the Lord. He pays good in
terest and won't plead usury, or take a
homestead on me-. Down here when I
lend money l take security and make
them sign iron-clad notes that waive
homestead, and agree to pay all ex-
penses of collection, and even then
they get me sometimes; but take no
note from the Lord. I don't even
charge it up to Him. He keeps the