The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-05-07
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Mr.. HOWELLS> AND THE CAT.
Is "a Hazard of New Fortunes" Single
Tax Tract in Disguise7

Tax Tract in Disguise9
The novelists are beginning TO see
that all is not we'll. Two years or more
ago Mr.. Howells, in ''Annie Kilburn,"
sent cold SILVER down the back OF those
lazy pious people who wrap themselves
in a 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 irreverent vein In
"a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
Court, as the columns Of The Standard
have shown; and now Mr.. Howells again
jars the proprieties by talking high
treason against the sacredness Of things
as they are. In "a Hazard of New For
tunes, part 2, chapter IL, occur these
words in answer to the question, Chow
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 at the highest rate
that exceptional genius could Justly de-
mand from those who have worked for
their money, could ever earn million
dollars. 1t 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 MIL
lions, but no man earns them. What
artist, what physician, what scientist,
what poet was ever a millionaire?
The last sentence of book Q, chaptei
3, Progress and Poverty" is "How
many men are there who fairly earn a
million dollars?" If this little sermon
of Mr.. Howell's, from the lips OF Lin.
dan, were not directly inspired by
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
sporadically in the air and takes root at
the same time in many places.
The further elaborat ton of the senti.
ment quoted has curiously 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 poorl
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 g, part 5, 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 inflexible in human
affairs as the order Of day and night in
the physical world, that If man will
work he shall both rest and eat and
shall not be harrassed with any ques-
tion as 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 it. may have my
work taken away from me at any mo-
menu Dy Ine caprice, tne mOOQ, the IN.
digestion of man who has not the quail.
ification for knowing whether do it
well or Ill. Atmy time OF life-atevery
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 az
things are now; and SO we 60 on, push
ing and pulling, climbing and crawling,
thrusting aside and trampling under.
foot, lying cheating, stealing; and when
we get to the end, covered with blood
and dirt and sin and shame, and look
back over the way we've come to pail
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, is it permissible to
suspect that Mr.. Howells has seen the
cat? DAVID L. THOMPSON.
Plaindeld, N. J.
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