The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-07-18
A CHEERFUL GlvER.
Novelist HOwels Describes His Tribu-
latiOns.

| through downtown street on nv
way to the elevated station, l saw a
man sitting on the steps of house. He
seemed to be resting his elbows on his
knees, and holding out both his hands.
AS came nearer l preceived that he
had no hands, but only stumps, where
the fingers had been cut off close to
the palms, and that il was these
stumps he was holding out in the mute
appeal which was his form of begging.
Otherwise he did not ask charity.
When / approached him he did not
look UP, and when stopped in front of
him he did not speak. l thought this
rather fine, in its way; except for his
mutilation, which the man really
could not help, there was nothing to
offend the taste; and his immobile
silence ives certainly impressive.
l decided at once to give him some
thing; for when am in the presence
Of want, or even the appearance of
want, there is something that says to
me: Give to him that asketh," and l
have to give, or else go away with
bad conscience-a thing l hate OF
course l do not give much, for ! wish
to be good citizen as well as good
| Christian; and as soon as obey that
voice which l cannot disobey hear
another voice reproaching me for en-
couraging street beggary. l have
been taught that street beggary is
wrong, and when have to unbutton
two coats and go through three or four
| pockets before l can reach the small
coin mean to give in compliance with
that imperative voice, l certainly feel
it to be wrong. So l compromise, and
| am never able to make sure that
either of these voices is satisfied with
me. / am not even satisfied with nv
self; but | am better satisfied than if
gave nothing. That was the selfish
reason l now had for deciding to yield
to my better nature, and to obey the
voice which babe me give to him that
asketh;" for, as 1 said, l hate bad
| conscience, and of two bad consciences
always choose the least, which, in q
case like this, is one that incensed DO
litical economy gives me.
put my hand into my hip-poclset
where l keep my silver and found
at once changed the whole current of
| my feelings; and it was not chill penury
that repressed my noble rage, but
chill afhuence. 1t was manifestly
wrong to give half dollar to a man
| who had no hands, or to any sort of
| beggar. l was willing to commit a
small act of incivism, but had not the
| courage to hout political economy to
the extent of fifty cents; and l felt
| that when | was hidden: "Give to him
| that asketh," l was never meant to
| give SO much as half-dollar, but a
cent, or half-dime, or at the most a
| quarter. | wished 1 had a quarter l
would gladly have given a quarter,
| but there was nothing in my pocket
| but that fatal, that inexorably indivis-
IDLE half-dollar, the continent of two
| quarters, but not practically a quarter.
l would have asked anybody in sight
| to change it for me, but there was no
one passing; it was quiet street of
brownstone dwellings, and not a
thronged thoroughfare at any time
| AT that hour of the late afternoon it
was deserted, except for the beggar
and myself; and l am not sure that he
had any business to be sitting there,
on the steps of another mans house, or
that had the right to encourage his
invasion by giving him anything. For
moment | did not know quite what
| to do. To be sure, was not bound to
the man in any way. He had not
asked me for charity, and had barely
paused before him, could go on, and
| ignore the incident. l thought of do
ing this, but then thought of the bad
conscience should be certain to have,
and l could not go on. l glanced
across the street, and near the corner
l saw decent-loohing restaurant; and
s. wait minute" l said to the man, as
if he were likely to go away, and ran
across to get my half-dollar changed
at the restaurant.
was now quite resolved to give him
a quarter, and be done with it; the
thing was getting to be a bore But
when entered the restaurant saw no
one there but young man quite at the
end of u long room; ana when he had
| come all the way forward to find what
| wanted l was ashamed to ask him to
change my half-dollar, and 1 pretended
that | wanted package of Sweet
Caporal cigarettes, which l did not
want, and which it was a pure waste
for me to buy, since l do not smoke,
though doubtless it was better to buy
them and encourage commerce than to
! give the half-dollar and encourage beg
| gary. AT any rate, / instinctively felt
that / had political economy on my
side in the transaction, and made
haste to go back to the man on the
steps, and secure myself with Christian
charity too. On the way over to him,
however, decided that l would not
give him quarter, and | ended by
poising fifteen cents on one of his OUT
stretched stumps.-W. d. Howells, in
Century.
California wines are making
L l.