The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-05-12

termed the froth of society, that is, the
weaIth-laden idlers, who five chiefly
for themselves, for the petty triumphs
in fashions hollow life; those who en-
! JOY the superficial and artificial life of
what is known as society, when mil
lions of their fellOw-men are being
forcedato the depths of want, and often
into crime. Millions Of their brothers
and sisters are starving, or stealing
that they may not ~.starve, who might
be saved. who would be redeemed, if
a small part of this wealth-laden circle
in every metropolis would work in
concert, and intelligently expend a
liberal portion Of the immense riches
that they annually waste, and which
few, if any of them, have created by
t the labor of their own hands, or by
personal exertion apart from specula-
ton.
After examining Nj. McAllister's
book for a picture of life at Newport,
and a pen-sketch of a te~n-thousand dol
lar banquet given to seventy-two of
the elite at Delmonico's, [ could not
but contrast them with the awful facts,
that out of 80, $40 deaths in New York
City in 1889, 1853 died in the hospitals,
insane asylums and warehouses, and
3,S19 of these were thrown into the
PoUter's field, too. poor for decent
burial. In the ~presence'Of such fright
full facts, the heartless selfishness
which ~characterizes the reckless eX-
t~ravagance of the society of which Mr..
MeAAister writes, assumes criminal
proportions. But this is by no means
the only evil which attends such life.
The very atmosphere cannot fail to
stifle the highest nature in man., to
dwarf, shrivel and kill the true ethical,
spiritual essence of his being, which
instinctively turns to humanity miser-
ables with soul overlooking with love,
which ever shrinks from a mere selfish
butterfly existence, as one shrinks from
an adder, knowing it will poison unto
death the highest attributes of the
soul.
From this pitiful picture O fife which
is worse than a failure, of the froth on
humanity's bosom, where riches are
! squandered, while manhood is ener-
waited; where the nOblest ideals are
eclipsed by life devoted to the gratif-
cation of the lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of life, we
turn to that other view of our civiliza-
ton as pictured in Darkest England"
In this volume we have a vivid picture
: of society, as General Booth has found
it. Here a colossal figure looms up in
q world of darkness; a voice comes
from the brink of the abyss, speaks in
tones that ring around the globe, a
clarion voice pleading in humanity's
name for the submerged millions. On
the verge of the social pit the eye of
the looker-on dilates with horror, the
voice is hushed, the heart sickens. AS
one decends, it grows darker. Here
society exists in strata.
In London alone there are more than
three hundred thousand souls who are
hanging on the edge of the abyss,
whose every heartbeat thrills with
fear, whose lifelong nightmare is the
dread that the little den they call home
may be taken from them. Beneath
them, at the door of starvation, are
lives; still further down we find three
handred thousand in the stratum of
starving, in the realm where hunger
gnaws night and day, where every
second Of every minute, of every hour,
of every day is crowded with agony.
Below the starving are the homeless;
they who have nothing with which to
buy a lodging in the worst quarters;
they who sleep out the year round;
hundreds of whom may be found any
night on the cold stone steps along the
Thames embankment. This army of
/ absolutely homeless in London numbers
thirtysthree thousand.
Below these bells we find others still
more terrible-the bells of vice and
crime. = In Great Britain alone are one
hundred thousand prostitutes, and
General Booth estimates at least a
hundred thousand more women whom
poverty has driven to increase their
earnings by their shame.
There are twenty-five thousand
juvenile thieves. There are thirty
two thousand nine hundred and ten
reputed thieves out of prison, and
thirty-two thousand in Jail. There are
half a million drunkards in Great
Rritnin Il ic Estimated that civtr