San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-08-23
TRAMP! TRAMPN TRAMPn!

TRAMP! TRAMP!! TRAMP"
Not the tramp tramp! tramp!!! the
boys are marching, of the old UuiOn
song in which the Grand Army of the
Nation moved on its trials and its
triumphs, fair as the moon, clear as
the sun and terrible as an army with
banners. Not that tramp, tramp,
tramp, but the heavy and spiritless
movement of that great army of the
unoccupied, the idle or the unfortun-
ate, which is covering the land as the
ancient locusts covered the land of
Egypt. Every day brings to our no.
tice, to our doors, to our charities, the
the members of this innumerable
army. Their voices are raised for
bread and their emaciated faces and
evident want, appeal to the kind-heart-
ed of every class. This is not an e.
as an occasion for charity which now
presents itself, and this sermon is not
so much how to abate the evil as to
look upon it as an occasion for the Sc
verest test of our own charity of spir-
it and hand as well.
Beloved, suffer the word of exhor,
ton uncomplainingly this morning, for
it is the last of these summer SER
mons for little space, after which
+hoxy xxv;Il no n oa;u ,acumad IF iS NOT
an inquiry as to how this grand army
of idleness may he mustered out of
service, or transferred as recruits into
the ranks of the happily and profit
ably employed, that this subject is
. brought to your notice today, but that
in the contrast of these lives with
your own happier lot, genuine CRATE
fulness may arise in your hearts, warm
your breasts and send out your
Hgths and sympathies in kindly
leration for these, whose lot in
$50 deplorable. It is that out
misfortunes may be born in
>Ger~nreaning of the right
Il Hfe1 greater respect for that
sood ont of which is born your
lterness and profound conception
Of that necessity which at times is
stronger than all human effort.
All, me! How full the world is of
the sons of misfortune and of the
daughters of sorrow. How the same
blessed sunshine falls on the novels
of the poor and upon the palaces of
the princes. 1t is the same rain that
blesses the field of the provident and
drips throgh the roof of the IMPROVE
dent upon the shivering sons and sis
tiers of want. Crowding together in
the slums of our great cities, eIbowing
one another in the towns and villages,
thew now stream out upon these dusty
highways and punctuate the drouth
and business of the country with I'M
picturesquesness of their appearance
and the squalor so evident in many of
their faces. Here and there a we'll
fed, strong, athletic fellow will be
found among them, but the army is
in one sense well conditioned one,
and the commiserat is fearfully de-
pleted
Who are the members of this great
army of the unwashed? From what
. lands have they strayed? Out of what
homes of cleanliness and plenty have
! many of them come? What started
them out upon this bootless quest for
bread upon the great highway of
non-employment? What adverse fate
has planned such life for so many
evidently born to better things?
What demon of unrest has cast them
at to swell the ranks of an army al
a1yf-swollen to proportions that
challenges the attention of the phil
anthrophist and the humanitarian and
the moralist and the domestic econ
omist and the pietist and the states
man? Not all these are vicious. Many
! may be. Most of them are the vic
tins of misfortune, and the greater
misfortune, the weakness that can
not command fortune to come at it's
bidding, or defy misfortune TO do its
worst.
These questions we may not ans
wer. 1t is not ours to enquire with
impeH rlStiGuniptQ- the secret
- neadful