Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-05-01

food arhOuSe doors, stealing what they can
Law their hands on in the front basement
while the servant is spreading the bread in
the back basement. They viii not WORK
Time and again, In the country districts
they have wanted hundreds and thousands
Of laborers. These men will not 90. They
do not want to work. l have tried them.
have set them to saving wood IN my cellar
TO see whether they wanted TO work / Of
fered TO pay them well for it. have heard
the saw going for about three minutes, and
then I " ent down and 10, the wood, bat no
saw: They are the pest of society, and they
stand IN the way of the Lords poor who
who ought to be helped, and must be helped,
and will be helped.
While there are thousands Of industrious
men who cannot get any work, these men
who GO not want any work come in and
make that plea. I am in favor of the res
toration of the old fashioned whipping post
for just this one class of mel who will not
work-sieeping at night at public ex.
pense in the station house; during The day
getting their food at your doorstep. I'm
prisonment does Let scare them. They
would like it. Blackwelrs Island or Sing
Sing would be comfortable home for them.
They would have no objection to the aims
house. for they like thin soup if they can
not get mock turtle.
propose this for them: On one side OF
them put some healthy work; on the other
side put a rawhide and let them take theil
choice I like for that class OF people the
the Thessalonian loafers, If any work not
neither should he eat" BY what law o.
God or man is it right that you and shoult
toll day in and day out, until our hands ar
blistered and our arms ache and our braiI
gets numb, and then he called upon to sup
port what in the United States are abou
two million loafers. They are very danger
Gus class. Let the public authorities keel
their ewes on them.
Again, among the uprooting classes I plac<
ha 70 q toiF
extent is Christening, but after that, when il
drives a man to the wall, and he hears his
children CRY in vain for bread, it sometimes
makes him desperate. l think that there arr
thousands of honest men lacarated into vaga
bondism. There are men crushed under
burdens for which they are not half paid.
While there is no excuse for criminality,
even in oppression, l state it simple fact
that much of the scoundrelism of the com
munity is consequent upon ill-treatment.
There are many men and women battered
and bruised and Stung until the hour of de
sDair has come and they stand with the
ferocity of a wild beast which, pursued until
it can run no longer, turns round, foamine
and bleeding, to fight the hounds.
There is a vast underground New York
and Brooklyn life that is appalling and
shameful. 1t wallows and steams with putre-
faction. You go down the stairs, which are
wet and decayed with filth, and at the bot
tom you find the poor victims on the floor,
cold sick, three-fourths dead, Sinking into q
still darker corner under the CLEAN of the
lantern of the police. There has not been
breath of fresh air in that room for five
years, literally. The broken sewer empties
its contents upon them and they lie at night
in the swimming filth. There they are, men,
women, children; black, whites; Mary Mag
dalen without her repentance, and Lazarus
without his God. These are ''the dives into
which the pickpockets and the thieves go. as
well as q great many who would like a differ
emit life but cannot get 1t.
These places are the sores of the city,
which bleed perpetual corruption. They are
the underlying volcano that threatens us
with Caracas earthquake. 1t rolls and
roars and surges and heaves and rocks and
blasphemes and dies, and there are only two
outlets for 1.-THE police court and the Pot
ter's field. In other words, they must either
90 to prison or to hell. Oh, you never saw
It, you say. You never will see it until on
the day when those staggering wretches
shall come ND in the light Of the judgm
throne, and while ali hearts are being re-
vealed, God will ask you what you did to
help them.
There is another layer of poverty and des-
titution not so squalid, but almost as help
less. You hear the incessant wailing for
bread and clothes and fire. Their eyes are
sunken. Their cheek bones stand ouG. Their
hands are damp with slow consumption.
Their flesh is pulled up with dropsies. Their
breath is like that of the charnel house.
They hear the roar Of the wheels Of fashion
overhead and the gay laughter of men and
maidens and wonder why God gave to others
so much and to them so little. Some of them
thrust into an infdel1ty like that of the poor
German girl who when told in the midst of
her wretchedness that God was good, said {:
mo; no good God. Just look at me. No
good God"
In this cluster of cities whose cry of want
I interpret there are Sald to be- as far as
can figure it up from the reports about
three hundred thousand honest poor whoare
dependent upon individual, city and State
charities Ii all their voices could come up
at once it would be a groan that would shake
the foundations OF the city and bring all
earth and heaven to the rescue. But for the
rnost part it suffers unexpressed. It sits in
silence gnashing its teeth and sucking the
blood Of its own arteries waiting for the
Judgment day. Oh, l should not wonder If
on that day it would be found out that some
of US had some things that belonged to them,
some extra garment which might have made
them comfortable in cold days; some bread
thrust into the ash barrel that might have ap-
peased their hunger for little while; some
wasted candle or gas jet that might have kin
died up their darkness some fresco on the
ceiling that would have given them roof;
some jewel which, brought to that orphan
girl in time, might have kept her from being
crowded off the precipices to an unclean life;
some New Testament that would have told
them of Him who ''came to seek that which
was lost"
Oh, this wave OF vagrancy and hunger and
nakeduess that dashes against our front
door step! If the roofs of all the houses Of
restitution could bs lifted so we could look
down into them just as God looks, whose
nerves would be strong enough to stand it?
And yet there they are. The fifty thousand
sewing women in these three cities, some Of
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