The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-10


Observation-Disclosures of Mrs. Day, Mrs.
CoyIe and Others.
The W. L. U. afternoon at the Second
Advent church Saturday, was devoted to
the subject of Philanthropy. There
was very large attendance, every seat
being taken, both on the floor and in the
galleries. 1t was ths largest meeting
ever held.
Mrs. John B. Colye, president of the
". L. u, opened the meeting by intro
ducing Mrs. Frank Clark, chairman of
the committee il charge of the pro-
gramme. Mrs. Clark made brief introduce
tory remarks, including the statement
that The subject of the afternoons dis
oussion, Philanthr opy, surpassed all
Others in Importance. Music was always
an important feature of these W. L. U.
afternoons. They would open the pro-
gramme by piano duett, by Mrs. Smith
and Mrs. Johnson.
After tho duett, Mrs. Clark intro
duoed
MRS. JAMES P. BAXTER,
who would give her views upon the sub
jsct, ''True Philanthropy. What Is
It?''
Mrs. iEaxter said that the subject had
yexed the wise and good Of all ages.
She supposed that sin and misery would
trouble mankind till the millennium,
but that was So far off that we needn It
consider it. Philanthropy she defined as
love to everybody. Heaven differs from
earth in that there everybody is consid-
ering the welfare Of everybody else.
We may well believe that God has
planned this world to be ultimately a
great cooperative community Modern
philanthropy SO differs from that of the
old pagan type and even Of Gods own
people, the Jews. that it may well be
styled Christian Philanthropy.
There are in Portland today two dis
tinct classes, the rich and the poor, more
clearly defined and farther apart the
pessimist says than ever before, but we
do not believe it. 1t only seems SO; it is
an optical illusion, because we see them
contrasted in the near foreground of the
present; while we view the actors of the
past in the mists of the background, and
as the distance increases differences of
outline and proportionate values become
less defined Thus it is that only by
close scanning and intimate acquaint t.
ince with the times and their peculiar
environment we can tit our eyes with
backward lenses to justly estimate and
compare the relative characteristics of the
poor of the past with the same class of
today.
Let US indicate if we can a few of the
good points and faults in these two class
es, the rich and the poor, that we may
learn some reasons why they are ever
drawing apart, when they ought to pull
together and help each other to carry his
load up the hill, for neither back has to
bear all the burden. By the rich, mean
the rich in mental gifts, rich in gracious
manners. rich in education and oppor-
tunity. rich in lessons and examples of
history, rich in Incredibly if you please
in money too-and rich in the greatest of
earthly blessings in having been born in
this age, the best the sun ever shone upon,
and this land, the paradise of all the
eartk; these are the rich, and there is
sess fair share, yes, an abundance of
these riches, talents entrusted with you
to use or abuse at your own choosing
Before we introduce to You the poor, who
are for our inspection today, we would
exclude from our view a remnant whom
for his goodness extends aliks over all
his children, yet who are certainly his
poor in d peculiar sense; if we ould, we
would not presume to search out the rea-
son why he Laws his Christening rod so
heavily upon come and sinks them often
into the deepest valley of hum iliation.
Each one of us knows few such chill
dren whose relations with their heavenly
parent are SO sacred and tender that we
dare not intFude within the veil which
shields them from our. view From these
We have Or might receive tenfold more
than it has been our privilege to give;
indeed, however hard their lot, we might
often count ourselves happy to exchange
places with such. The poor whom we
would study here are the poor in capac-
lty, pnor in moral perception, poor in
distorted visions of their, relations to the
world, poor in uncomfortable DISPOSE
tons, poor in will power. poor in purse,
poor in heritage, and most difficult of all
to reach and uplift, the poor in having
been born in pagan or fraudulent Chris
saan lands
We do not claim to be so progressive
and wise above the an,ients as to entie-
IL ignore or despise thu wisdom and ex-
perience of cur predecessors, neither
would we be so rigidly Conservative as to
condemn all the theories and new meth
eds OF the most advanced, yet sometimes
we wonder what will be the end of our
most modern methods of charity. Things
are done on such grand scale, in these
days, erecting immense structures,
founding organizations, institutions of re-
lief, homes and asylums, that there is
neither time, strength. nor money left for
the untrammeled hand to hand. heart to
heart, charities of gone days. One