The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-06-08
IN MODERN BABYLON.
THE CURSE OF POVERTY IN A CITY OF
TO-DAY.

The Seventh Of Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s,
Powerful Sermons on the Gates Of He'll
of the Present TIme--Men and Women
i Dead TO Hopc.
New YoRR, June 4.-Rev. Thomas
Dixon. Jr., preached today the seventh
of the series of sermons on the "Gates Of
He'll In Modern Babylon" The subject
of today's sermon was "The Curse %
Poverty In the Modern City" The text
chosen was from Proverbs xxx. 8, o.:
"Give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for
me, lest l be full, and deny thee, and say,
Who is the Lord2 or lest / be poor, and
steal, and use profanely the name Of my
God" .a.
There is poverty that is respectable.
There is o poverty that is the mother Of
greatness. 1t is not of this poverty that
1 speak today. The cradles Of the poor
have been those that have rocked the
greatest men of the earth. But by this
we mean decent poverty in which there
has been coarse food and coarse cloth
ing and yet food enough to keep hun
ger from the door, clothes enough to
keep the cold from the body. Poverty
that means hunger and cold and naked
ness and rags is curse and only curse
II is this shadow that falls across the
streets of the city as nowhere else on the
earth today There are poor people in
the country, but they are millionaires in
all that constitutes life as compared
with the poor of the city.
It is o continuous alnazement to me
that people should leave the country and
crowd into the city, the city which Car
lyle graphically described, "The great,
foul city, rafting, crawling, smoking,
sinking, q ghastly heat of fermented
brick work, pouring out poison at every
pore" And yet they come in tens, in
hundreds, in thousands, in tens of thou
sands every year, crowding the already
crowded trades, crowding the already
crowded dens in which human beings
live like beasts. They leave clear skies.
They leave pure air. They leave kindly
friends, sympathetic neighbors. They
leave earth, in other words, for hell, and
still they come.
Could not some kind angel whisper to
them when they make up their minds to
leave the old country home that they
are taking their departure from earth
and hope and descending to the lower
regions3 The only possible explanation
is that they are ignorant. They do not
know the city. They do not know what
it is. They do not understand until it is
too late to retrace their steps. 1t is sim
ply impossible with language to ade-
quately convey to the average mind the
facts in the condition of the life of the
thousands who live in our cities. Their
poverty is indescribable; their wretched.
ness something unthinkable.
The poverty Of the city is an open door
10 the deepest hell, and through it daily
'crotcd countless thousands.
First-Because poverty in the city
means loss Of a home. Therei is no home
life among the poor Of the great city
The word home is stricken from the Ian.
guage of man. The poor live in q den
They exist in q tenement, and the tene,
ment life, with its attendant horrors, il
constantly on the increase in our great
cities. In New York cityit has swallow
ed up all the other life practically. The
tenement has, like huge monster, de,
voured the home. 1t may be said that
New York city lives in the tenement
that New York city lives in the second
and third class tenements. One million
three hundred thousand people in this
city exist in second and third class ten
ements. This constitutes the people
The landlords are an insignificant fac
ton. People who live in separate houses
are not Of the people; they are the ex
ception. To every so called house il
the city OF New York there is an average
Of 10 dwellers. London averages seven
In what is known rs the tenement house
district there are no fewer than 276, COX
families packed together. In this quarter
it goes without saying that the deatf
rate reaches its most horrible height
and public morality touches depth Of
degradation before which philanthro
pists and Christians and evangelist
crime are the portion of these people.
Second-Such poverty is the open door
to theft because the wages are so low
that the temptation to wrongdoing i:
well nigh resistless. "Give me not pov
ertyp cries the ancient seer, "lest
steal" How hundreds and thousands OF
people in the cities, with their wages
can keep from stealing is miracle. Peo
pie are entitled to bread. A man is Ger
tainly entitled to existence. He is en-
titled to bread TO eat. He is entitled t.
enough clothes TO keep him from freez
ing. He is entitled to house 20 cover
his head, and he has a right to work
But these things are denied hundreds
and thousands of people today in the
city. Awomaa was discovered the other
day who had starved to death. Hen
commit crime daily that they may get
the comforts of penitentiaTy, the lux.
ury of stay on Blachwells island.
Shopgirls enter their life full Of vain
hopes. They do not expect to be drudges
all their lives. They work during the
leisure season from to 13 hours day
many of them in Easements lighted by
gas and electricity. In the crowded sea
sons they put on blue glasses. The only
comfort they have is the fact that they
have company in their misery. During
the busy season they work regularly II
and 19 hours, and during the rush till 10
and II o'clock at night. The shopgirls
income is barely enough to furnish food.
1t 10 not enough to furnish clothes. She
does her best to initiate the rich whom
she sees. The fine lady who bends over