The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-01-12

anu Bduul, anu pdAC, dhu "Sof>f osNN
ing around in cold rooms, or pitching
pennies on the street corners, and
munching a slice of unbuttered bread
when they can get it. sworn at by pass
ers-b by because they do not get out of the
way, kicked onward toward manhood
or womanhood, for which they have no
preparation, except depraved appe-
tite and frail constitution, candidates
for aims house and penitentiary. What
ever other causes of poverty may fail,
the saloon may be depended on to fur
nish an ever-increasiDg throng of pau
pers There is no danger of this liquor
business failing. All other styles of
business at times fail. Dry goods stores
go under Hardware stores go under.
Grocery stores go under. Harness
makers fail, druggists fail, bankers fail,
butchers fail, bakers fail, confection-
ers fail, but the liquor dealers never.
1t is the only secure business know of.
Another warranty that my text will
prove true in the perpetual poverty of
the world is the wicked spirit of inn
providence. A vast number of people
have such small incomes that they can
not lay by in savings bank or life in
surance one cent a year. 1t takes
every farthing they can earn to spread
the table and clothe the family and
educate the children, and if you blame
such people for improvidence, you
enact a cruelty. On such salary as
many clerks and employees and minis
tiers of religion live, and on such wages
as many workmen receive, they can
not, in twenty years, lay up twenty
cents But you know and l know many
who have competent income and could
provide somewhat for the future, who
live up every dollar. and when they die
their children go to the poor house or
on the street. BY the time the wife
gets the husband buried, she is in debt
to the undertaken and grave digger for
that which she can never pay.
While the man lived he had
his wine parties and fairly stunk
with tobacco, and then expired, leaving
his family upon the charities of the
world. Do not send for me to come and
conduct the obsequies and read over
such a carcass the beautiful liturgy,
Blessed are the dead who die in the
lord for, instead of that, | will turn
over the leaves of the Bible to First
Timothy V. IS, where it SAYS: If any
provide not for his own, and especially
for those of his own house, he hath de-
MED the faith, and is worse than an in
fidel," or | will turn to jeremiah. xxi.
10, where it says: He shall be buried
with the burial of an ass, drawn and
cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusa
lem" ] cannot imagine any more I'M
fair or meaner thing than for man to
get his sins pardoned at the last min
ute, and then go to Heaven and live in
mansion, and go riding about in
golden chariot over the golden streets,
while his wife and children, whom he
might have provided for, are begging
for cold victuals at the basement door
of an earthly city.
1t seems to me there ought to be a
poor house somewhere on the outskirts
of Heaven where those guilty of such
improvidence should be kept on thin
soup and gristle, instead of sitting
down at the Kings banquet l have
known men who have had an income
of SIS, 600, $4,000, 5000 year, who did
not leave one farthine to the surviving
household. Now that mans death is
defalcation, an outrage, a swindle. He
did not die; he absconded. There are
a hundred thousand people in America
to-day a-hungered through the sin of
improvidence.
beginning my life's work on the mu-
nifcent salary of $500 a year and a
parsonage, and when the call was
placed in my hands l did not know how
in the world / would ever be able to
spend that amount of money, and l re-
member indulging in devout wish
that might not be led into worldli-
ness and prodigality by such an over
plus of resources, and at time when
articles of food and clothing were
higher than they are now, / felt it a re-
ligious duty to get my life insured. and
l presented myself at an Office of one
of the great companies, and / stood
pale and nervous lest the medical ex-
aminer might have to declare that
had consumption and heart disease
and a half dozen mortal ailments,
but when got the document, which
have yet in full force, felt a sense of
manliness and confidence and quietude
and Reinforcement, which is a good
thing for any young man to have. For
the lack of that feeling there are
thousands of men to-day in Greenwood
and Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn.
who might as well have been alive and
well and supporting their families.
They got little sick, and they were so
worried about what would become of
their households in case of their de-
mise that their agitations overcame the
skill of the physicians and the died
for fear of dying.
Another face that you may depend
upon for perpetual poverty is the inca
pacity of many to achieve a livelihood
You can go through any community
and find good people with more than
usual mental caliber, who never have
been able to support themselves and
their households. They are a mystery
to us, and we say: Il do not know
what is the matter of them, but there
| is a screw loose somewhere" Some of
these persons have more brain
than thousands who make a
splendid success. Some are too
sanguine of temperament, and
they see bargains where there are
none A common minnow is to them a
goldfish, and quail famingo, and a
blind mule on a tow-path Bucephalus-
They buy when things are highest and
sell when things are lowest They are
good, honest, brilliant failures. They
die poor, and leave nothing to their
! families but model of some invention