The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-25
The Meeting at
Greenvil1e Crossing

but in these pioneer times, when wealth
was so widely divided that either every
body, or every body's next friend, had a
goodly share, charity could be omnipres-
ent as the air, easy almost as breathing,
and, above all, owing to the peculiar con-
ditoins of boon com panions ship then prev
alent lis acceptance was more of an I'M
mixed pleasure t5an it can be made now.
When wealth was held in the hands OF
the whole population and boarding
seemed needless, because of the conf
dence that the morrow would bring its
own abundance with it, then, although in
order that the Scriptures might be full
filled, the pioneers had to have the poor
with them, yet in one sense it might be
said there was no poverty.
For there was no want in the pitiful
sense of that word, and no one need suf-
fer where hearty willingness gave riches
wings to fly on errands of sweet charity.
Mr.. Kelly says it was very improb able
that in those flush early days there were
even those now unreachable cases where
pride conceals want and shuts the door
against all human help. because in those
days equality and fraternity were very
have made concealment of pressing want
almost impossible.
1t would be like wearing motley for a
man to 60 out now to take up collection
for any purpose that might be com parable
to the excessive Observation-Disclosures that
Mr.. Kelly pictures, when money is so
scarce that the widow and the orphan
get the minimum of life's necessities. To
tell that there ever was, or will be, time
of charity so truly catholic as that to
which Mr.. Kelly alludes sounds like
fairy tale. Fancy the issuance of such
call for donations in the days of San Fran
cisco's golden youth, and having them
pour in until poor puss became rich ''be.
yond the dreams OF avariee." A physi-
clan might have been called in, some
great specialist, as fine as those times af-
forded, to feel pussy's pulse and study her
symptoms. If the treatment prescribed
were sun baths she could have front
room with bay-windows to the south, so
she could bask there and be safe from
chilling winds. She could lap her cream
from gilded china, and if her desire was
for birds, costly canaries could be slaugh-
tered to tempt the appetite OF the inter-
esting invalid. If change of air were
needed, a trip to the Orient with cabin
passage would not be beyond her means
All the conditions of feline felicity which
can be imagined as necessary to produce
the most contented OF purring and paw
stretching would have been bestowed
upon this lucky cat. Contrast that with
the possibilities OF help Tor many poor
woman and child in the crowded cities of
to-day. The figure of speech means that
none such, no matter how insignificant or
sadly at fault they had been, would have
been left to suffer in that time of so much
money and kindness.
Christmas is fitting time to bring
these things to attention, so that the
memory OF what was fair in the olden
time may be perpeUuated from generation
to generation, and falling from the lips of
elders fond OF the bright side of bygone
days, they should rouse in the hearts of
younger people the ambition to make it
part of progress to bring back and con-
serve what is sweetest in such recollec- |
tons. So that the moral OF Mr.. Kelly's |
tale Is to strive to be Industrious and in |
telligent enough to create lavish abun-
lance and to use the harvest with such
broad generosity that it may be said that
scarcely in San Francisco would sick cat
appeal for charity in vain.
In the wide extension OF friendly efforts
% make the millennium come by persist
mt pulling at 1t, perhaps even the ex-
lggeration of this fgurative expression
nay change into a literal truth, for in this
mysterious creation we know not by what
ponds of responsibility we may be united
o the beasts, and there may be some
mystic meaning not yet fully compre-
lended in that saying of the sacred Scrip
ures that the vol shall dwell in peace
With the lamb and the leopard lie down
With the kid, and a little child shall lead
hat king of cats, the lion. Perhaps there
s something symbolic in nature being
red in tooth and claw" and our human
moral mending may be the needfuI thing
hat keeps waiting the fuifliment of Isa-
abs prophecy.