Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-03

himself 1t is drink that thus makes brutes
and fends out of the sons of
God. If we want to help the
poor we will help all efforts that are made
to kill the poor mans adversary. Those
efforts have not as yet amounted to much.
In spite even of the Brooks law, the con-
| sumption of strong poisons is increasing.
| Every day, even in Pittsburg, human sacri-
| fees are offered to Bacchus in his licensed
temples. And these sacrifices are mostly
chosen from the children of poverty.
Still another way to help the poor is to
see that every poor man has chance to
work, and to see that he is not taken adj
vantage of by reason of his poverty, is not
given scant wages, is not overtasked, is not
kept at his labor so many hours that he has
no time to be anything but dull machine.
Every employer of labor has his answer to
the question, how to help the poor, marked
out plain enough before him. The poor, so
rar as he is concerned, are his own men.
The kind of philanthropy that we need to-
day is the philanthropy of practical fair
dealing!
The Poor Need Sympathy.
And from all of Us the poor need SYM
pathy. The rich and the poor alike need to
kno0 each other better Genuine help
comes along the way of personal acquain-
tance. Jesus Eelped the poor, not by giving
them money, for he had none to give, but
by giving them his time, his attention, and
his love. Every Christian family ought to
have some neighbor of theirs, who is not
so plentifully supplied as they are with the
blessings which 60 along with money, whom
they are helping, and helping not in any
spirit OF condescension, not with any taint
OF the pernicious heresy which persuades
people that the possession of handbook is
a certificate of character, and that one who
is rich is. by reason of riches, better In any
sort OF way than one who is poor-not in
that unchristian spirit, but with real inter-
est, and personal friendship, and delight in
giving pleasure.
We make mistake if we think that the
poor are able to appreciate only the neces-
sarles OF life. We expect them, 1 am afraid.
to be quite unreasonably grateful for gifts
OF cast-of clothing, We would do we'll to
minister more than we do to the pleasures
OF the poor. To give really good framed
photograph of some fine picture to be hung
on the bare walls of our neighbours dingy
living room, is to bestow gift that will
last longer and do more real good than half
a dozen last years dresses
Other Ways of Doing Good.
To subscribe for one of the illustrated
magazines for father or mother who can
read, and care to read, or for st. Nicholas or
some other of the children's periodicals for
the growing boys and girls whose parents
cannot afford these luxuries, is piece of
thoughtfulness which will no. cost very
much, but will yield great return of pleas
ure. Or really delicate and pretty cup
and saucer, decorated by skillful fingers, as
gift for the old grandmother who drinks her
tea out of cracked bowl; why not give that?
Or. tickets to a play or concert, or lee
ture-why not help the intellectual hunger
of the poor? Why not remember the shah
by little people, who have to say with the
small child in Faith Gartney's Girlhood":
There's lots of good times in the world,
but 1 amt never in emp
1t seems to be that such ministration as
this to the pleasure of the poor might be a
genuine help and uplifting. At any rate,
it would be sign of what is better far than
pity-it would be q mark of friendship.
Christ is our example. Let us try to help
the poor as we know we would have His ap-
proval. Then will we help the poor, in
deed. GEORGE HODGES.