The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-07-14

HUN ouOh JuuDS ueu anu WOIueu do
these
Who, while their companions slept
Were toiling upward in the night"
~
And the sweetest and most touch
ing part of such stories is The part
that never comes to light.
! Find one of these hard
working and poorly dressed pupils
and make little inquiry, and you
will fird that back at home, on the
farm, there are two who need the
strong young hands at home, but who
have willingly sent them away to
delve in other fields. The father
scarce knows how to get along with
out the son that was such help TO him.
Every year the work lows harder for
him, and he can fee! his strength slip
ping away; but never mind, he must
give the boy a chance-ard under his
homely jacket is heart that beats
high with hope for the young
student who is away at school, doing
his very best. And some day, while
the gallant boy with the intel.
ligent face and the flush
of victory on his countenance stands
up to deliver his graduating speech,
there are two plain old people, away
back in the audience, that can scarce
ly see him for their tears. How they
have worked and saved and economic
ed for this! How unutterably proud
and happy they are! Oh, if the world
could only know and appreciate the
very sublimity of self-sacrifice, it
would stand bare-headed in the pres
ence of these plain old country people
whose sons and daughters are the
young "hayseeds" of the schools and
universities.
~
Once upon time, the Home Corner
was called to look upon the spectacle
of a man who had great wealth, who
dwelt in a palace fit for a king, and
who lived a life of most luxurious ease.
In his great mills, thousands of work
men toiled, till their hands were
hardened and their shoulders bowed;
for the wheels must be kept turning,
that they might grind out greater and
still greater wealth for their owner.
And among the horde of workmen
was not one who could hope to edu-
cate his children, or lay up a little
sum for old age, or put decent fare
upon his table; for the wheels, which
ground out wealth into the trimming
Golfers of the wealthy man, ground
only the barest and most unattractive
poverty into the lives of the tolers
who kept them turning. But even this
could be endured, and more; for one
day the word came from the palace,
"Cut all the wages down." And cries
of despair went up, but no one needed
them; and every man saw poorer and
still poorer fare upon his table, and
saw his wife and children grow gaunt
and hollow eyed. And then another
message came, "Cut the wages down
again!' and still amid groans and
anguished cries, the wheels ground on,
and the children of the household,
even down to the babe, were put into
the shops and factories, to grow thin
and old, doing the work of the world.
And so the messages still came, and
one day the men arose and were like
demons in an instant, and the wheels
stopped. And the man to whom the
wheels belonged, and who had crush
ed human lives with them and used
them to cement his fortunes began to
astonish the world with mighty char
tiles, and scattered his millions among
asylums and colleges, homes for the
Door and friendless, and churches.
The world applauded with such en-
thusiasm as it might. but wherever he
went, the muttered curses of the poor
followed him. He could not travel
fast enough to outrun them. He could
not scatter money enough in charity
to rid himself of the ghostly wrecks of
ruined lives that haunted his path
way. The monument that will cover
his ashes some day will doubtless be
magnificent one, but let him read
his epitaph in the hate of the poor
whom he has driven to madness.
JULIA TRUITT BISHOP.