Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1895-07-11

q downtown street on my way 10 the
elevated station, | saw a man sitting on
the steps of a house. He seemed to be
resting his elbows on his knees, and
holding out both his hands. AS l
came nearer perceived that he had no
hands, but only stumps, where the fin
gers had been cut off close to the palms,
and that it was these stumps he was
holding out in the mute appeal which
was his form Of begging. Otherwise he
did not ask charity. When APP
preached him he did not look up, and
when stopped in front Of him he did
not speak. 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 immobie silence was certainly
impressive / decided at once to give
him something; for when | am in the
presence Of want, or even the appear
ance Of want, there is something that
says to me, "Give to him that asketh, "
and | have to give, or else go away
with bad conscience--a thing l hate.
OF course do not give much, for wish
to be good citizen as well as good
Christian; and as soon as | obey that
voice which | cannot disobey, | hear
another voice reproaching me for en-
Couraging street beggary. | have been
taught that street beggary is wrong,
aid when / have to unbutton two coats
and go through three or four pockets
before can reach the small coin |
mean to give in compliance with that
imperative voice, l certainly feel 1t to
be wrong. So compromise, and l am
never able to make sure that either Of
those voices is satisfied with me. am
not even satisfied with myself; but l
am better satisfied than If gave moth
ing. That was the selfish reason | now
had for deciding to yield to my better
nature, and to obey the voice which
bade me Give to him that asketh;" for,
as | said, hate bad conscience, and
Of two bad consciences always choose
the least, which, in case like this, is
the one that incensed political economy
gives me. put my hand into my hip
pocket where l keep my silver, and
found nothing there but half dollar.
This at once changed the whole current
Of my feelings; and it was not chill pen
ury that repressed my noble rage, but
chill affluence. 1t was manifestly wrong
to give half a dollar to a man who had
no hands, or to any sort of beggar.
was willing to commit a small act of
incivism, but had not the courage to
flout political economy to the extent of
fifty cents; and felt that when | was
hidden "Give to him that asketh," l
was never meant to give so much as a
half dollar, but cent, or a half-dime,
or at the most quarter. | wished
had a quarter. l would gladly have
given quarter, but there was nothing
in my pocket but that fatal, that mex
orably indivisible half-dollar, the con-
tinent Of two quarters, but not practi-
cally a quarter. 1 would have asked
anybody in sight to change it for me-
but there was no one passing; it was a
quiet street of brownstone dwellings,
and not thronged thoroughfare at any
time. At that hour Of the late after
noon 1t 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 l had the right to en-
courage his invasion by giving him
anything. For moment l 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. l could
go on, and ignore the incident.
thought of doing this, but then
thought of the bad conscience l should
be certain to have, and l could not go
on. | glanced across the street, and
near the corner | saw decent-looking
restaurant; and wait a minute" |
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 bore But when |
entered the restaurant I saw no one
| there but a young man quite at the end
OF a long room; and when he had come
all the way forward to find what
: wanted, was ashamed to ask him to
change my half dollar, and pretended
that l wanted package of Sweet Cap
oral cigarettes, which l did not want
and which it was pure waste for me
to buy, since do not smoke, though
doubtless 1t was better to buy
them and encourage commerce thar
TO give the half-dollar and en-,
courage beggary. At any rate,
instinctively felt that l had politica
economy on my side in the transaction
and made haste to go back to the
man on the steps, and secure mysel
with Christian charity too. On the wa!
over to him, however, decided that
would not give him quarter, and
ended by poising fifteen cents on on
Of his outstretched stumps.
l No 10 - 7 al. IT, me-