The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-11-02

While a thousand men in this city esti-
mate their wealth at over 81 900 200,
it can be safely said that there are 1O0,-
900 people in this city who are hungry
for bread every day in the year. The
number of people who sleep on boards,
and WHO drift from house with nowhere
to sleep, approximates 100000 daily.
The children of this generation OF paupers
seem to increase with greater rapidity
than the normal rate of the increase of
the average population Of the world.
HOPE.
While the evil elements of life have thus
been intensified, we take hape from the
fact that the better clements of life are
also being intensified. The heroism of
this life in its crying wants, its needs, is
as brilliant in its individual examples as
at any time in the history OF the world.
While crime and corruption and debauch-
cry have increased in the city, the army
of scf-sacrifcing men and women who
are willing to give their lives for the
bettcrment of mankind haily increases.
We have the meanest men in New York
in the world perhaps. We also have
some of the best men and women i'll New
York in the world. The intensifcatiOn
OF life in this century has introduced a
ment OF civilization which must in the
Immediate future tell as it has not in the
past.
WOMEN WORKERS.
The number of women that have poured
their lives into the current stream of
active endeavor has been, within the last
20 years, increasing as never before in
the history of the human race. Accord
ing to the report of the census of 1880,
there We're in America among women who
earned their daily bread outside OF do
mestic service the following numbers in
different professions: ITO lawyers, go
ministers, 800 authors, 5SS journalists,
2,OG1 artists, ., 1876 architects, chemists,
pharmacists, 2,1O6 stock raisers and
ranchers, >, 14o government clerks, ,43S
physicians and surgeons, 13, 1872 probes
siOnal musicians, $500 farmers and
planters, II ,O72 clerks and bookkeepers,
IA 400 heads OF commercial houses, 100,
900 public school teachers.
This was by the census of 1880, but by
| the report of the last census of 1890
| there is received the remarkable fact that
| in these 10 years the army OfWOmen who
| earn their daily bread outside of their
| homes now reaches the enOrmus total
| of :, 700 900.
or the llrSJ lllllc III lllc history Oh
| economies woman has entered as an &C
| tive factor Her influence in developing
| the history of the next generation can
| but be marvellous Her influence in mold
ing and fashioning the life Of society
! when thus brought in active contact
| with its working force can not be less
than it has been in other spheres where
| WOman'S influence has been felt when
woman's position is recognized as it
| should be in the world of economics.
We stand upon the threshold of an
! economic evolution, OF a new social order
| 1t means, sooner or later, that woman
| will be emancipated from the slavery
in which she has labored in the past,
in an unequal struggle with man, and
that society in its working force will be
elevated and refined and humanized by
her touch, her sympathies and her life.
POLITICAL EQUITY OF THE COMMON
PEOPLE.
| Third-The rise of the common people
to political equality in government with
| the traditional ruling classes has been
but the beginning of a revolution that
is not yet accomplished. Robert Mac
kenzie says: "Sixty years ago Europe
was an aggregate of despOtic powers,
| dispOsng at their own pleasure of The
lives and porperty of their subjects. To
day the men OF western Europe govern
, themselves" Popular suffrage, more OF
, less closely approaching universal
, | chooses the governing power, and b!
methods more { less effective dictate
! its policy.
One hundred and eighty million Euro
peans have risen from q degraded anC
, | ever dissatisfied vassalage to the rank O
:, | free and self governing men. This ha
> | been an accomplishment which has sim
y ! ply put into the hands OF the common
people the weapons with which they viii
q fight their battles is the twentieth cen
. fury. The battles are yet to be fought
8 the revolution is yet to be accomplished
They have simply been given the ballot
. and the consciousness of their power ha
i only begun to dawn upon them.
In the early part of the twentieth Gel
fury we may surely look for q suffcen
6 diffusion of intelligence to bring thi
u tremendous mass into the aggressive as
. sertiOn of the fullest rights of manhood
" Hitherto they have been dominated b,
i bosses, by tricky politicians and the
have followed skillful leaders blindy.
= AN EXPLOSION IMMINENT.
&c So intense are becoming these element
l. of corruption that it can not continu
+ longer without an explosion. The lam
g has been lit, and it has been left burning
Y \ woman in a western home during til
e war sent Il servant into the cellar wit
l. a lighted candle to look for some objec
IS The servant returned without the cand
t The housewife asked where she had lie
II it. She said that she had left it in
n. barrel of sand in the cellar. The hous
n wife remembeIed that there was barr
IN OF powder standing open in the cellar
re Without a moments hesitation ST
rushed below and found that the ign
rant girl had thrust the cOndle dow
!; into the loose powder and left it burnin;
"a She lifted it carefully and eXtinguishe
~ it.
j The moment for universal suffrage
80 this century has placed the candle
~ knowledge, without candlestick, in Il
- loose powder OF the common peopl
" This light of knowledge is burning clos,
- and closer, and the heat is bccOmir
~ more and more intense with each M
"A ment. There Ii no power on earth, und
ha the earth or above the earth that ca
~, remove that candle from its positio
. BY law as sure as the law of grayit
10 ton, the flame is approaching the po
,c | dti, ll'ttI u anu every uuA. W III
- it reaches the end-that is, tie point
-, actual, conscious contact with the
80 mind-there will be an explosion TIL
-, will unsettle thrones and tradition
- whether occupied by the car OF Russ
o or Richard Croker OF New York.
INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION.
lr. FOurth-The universally OF educati,
it is a factor in the closing OF the nineteen
or century which must make a new wor
wv i'll the twentieth.
n We have now entered upon the demo
he racy OF letters. Hitherto in the histo
Mt OF mankind knowledge was confined
ed the few. The higher professions We
st open only to the sons OF distinguish
is men. Now they are opened to the chi
Ms OF the state born and reared in obscuri
al and disgrace and poverty. There is
at limitation to the possibilities of hum
endeavOr, because education has be
De- brought within the reach of all.
OF America We have -, 600, 900 children
Id our public schools. This means tn