The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1890-07-05
Mr.. HowELLs AND THE CAT.


IL "a Hassrd Of New Fortunes" sinsls
Tax Tract In Distuisef
The novelists are beginning TO SEQ
that all is not well. Two years OF more
ago Mr.. Howells, in "Annie Kilburn,"
sent cold shiver down the back OF thoss
lazy pious people who wrap themselves
in q mantle OF selfish comfort and excuse
themselves from the labor of thinking
by parroting The poor ye have always
with you" Mark Twain dropped re-
Gently into the same irretetent vein In
IA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthuf'1
Court, !" Is the columns Of The Standard
have shown; and now Mr.. Howells again
jars the prophecies by talking high
treason against the sscredness Of things
as they are. In "A Hazard OF New For
tunes," part 2, chapter IL, occur these
words in answer to the question, "How
much money can man honestly earn
without wronging or Expressing some
other man?"
Not the most gifted man that ever
lived, in the practice Of any art or
science, and paid ct the highest rate
that exceptional genius could justly de-
mand from those who have worked for
their money, could ever earn q million
dollars. It Is the landlord and the mer.
chant princes, the railroad kings and
the coal barons (the oppressors whom
you instinctively give the titles of ty.
rants)-it is these that make the mill
lions, but no man earns them. What
artist, what physician, what scientist,
what poet was ever millionaire?
The last sentence Of book Q, chapter
8, progress and Poverty" is "How
many men are there who fairly earn .
million dollars?" If this little sermon
Of Mr.. Howell's, from the lips Of Lin
dan, were not directly inspired by Z
reading Of the text quoted from PRO
gress and Poverty, then the coincidence
is merely fresh illustration Of the
often-noticed fact that when the world
is ready for new truth, it is present
sporadicslly In the air and takes root at
the same time in many places.
The further elaboration of the senti-
ment quoted has obviously familiar
sound:
Yes, when they have gathered their
millions together from the hunger and
cold and nakedness and miro and de-
spair o. hundreds of thousands of other
men, they give work" to the poort
They give work. They allow their
helpless brothers to earn enough to
keep life in them! They give work.
Who is it gives toll, and where will
your rich men be when once the poor
shall refuse to give toll?
And again in chapter 9. part s, March
says:
But what object to is this economic
chanceworld in which we live, and
which we men seem to have created. It
ought to be law, as infexible in human
Affairs as the order Of day and night in
the physical world, that II man will
work he shall both rest and eat and
shall not be harrassed with any ques-
ton IS to how his repose and provisions
shall come. Nothing less ideal than
this satisfies the reason. But in our
state of things no one is secure of this.
No one Is sure Of finding work; no one
is sure of not losing 1t. / may have my
work token away from me at any mo-
ment by the caprice, the mood, the in-
digestion OF . man who has not the quail
ificstion for knowing whether / do IL
we'll or i'll. Atmy time Of life-at every
time Of life-a man ought to feel that II
he will keep ON doing his duty he shall
not suffer in himself or in those who are
dear to him, except through natural
causes. But no man can feel this q
things are now; and 90 we 20 on, push
ing and pulling, climbing and crawling,
thrusting aside and trsmpling under.
foot, lying ,cheating, stealing; and whom
we get to the end, covered with blood
and dirt and sin and shame, and look
back over the way we've come to pal
ace Of our own, or the poor house-which
is about the only possession we can
claim in common with our brother men
don't think the retrospect can be
pleasing.
After the above, 10 1t permissible 70
suspect that Mr.. Howells has seen the
cat? DAVID l.. TnoxPsoN.
Plainheld, N. J.