The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-06-26
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
HE DILATES UPON THE RARITY
OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY.
The "Song of tho Shirt" and "rhe
Baili1's Sale" Draw Love and
Praise.

Ii ICruOn NOeI f1Crtel never writes
anything more, "The Bailiff's Sale, "is
sufficient to draw love and praise from
all good people. 1t has kindled kind
ly feeling toward him, and what is
better, it has warmed our pity and en-
listed our sympathy for the suffering
poor. How easy it is for hearts to get
hard and charity to grow cold. The
sale of the poor tenants household
goods to pay the landlords rent is
much more common thing than is sup
posed. The picture is not overdrawn.
If it is not sold by the constable it is
by the auctioneer. fnever pass an
auction sale of old furniture but what
1 linger and look and ponder. There
is an unwritten chapter of want and
misery in every old bureau and sofa
aud chair. There are hearts aching
somewhere. There is sadness under
some roof. If the sale paid the debt
there would be some comfort, but the
costs of court, the drayage and COM
missions, takes about all-for, as Mr..
Hurtel says:
''Such worthless old rubbish will go
for a song"
'Alas for the rarity of Christian
has to spend her last quarter to buy in
her dead baby's chair. If that did not
really happen, something akin to it is
happening every day in our crowded
cities. What we see when we visit
them is only the sunshine and glitter
that wealth has brought to the favored
few. We walk or ride on Peachtree
and wonder and admire, but who seeks
the dark alleys where the poor congre-
gate? Judge Bleckley wrote beauti-
full poem, called "a Tale of Two Cities
the City of Life and the City of
Death"-Atlanta and it's cemetery; and
his contrast between their inhabitants
is wonderfully graphic and true. But
there is a more pathetic contrast be-
tween the very rich and the very poor
in every crowded metropolis. Some
times we condone our neglect
of poverty and suffering by saying
they are not worth befriendipg-the
are ungrateful-they brought their
misery upon themselves-or, il you
feed them and set them up for today
they will want more tomorrow. Some
folks say that private charity is against
public policy, but my experience and
observation is that the best way to
quiet our consciences is to help them
give help in some way. There are a
few professional beggars, but not
enough to impoverish anybody in this
southern country. But those who are
really poor and do actually suffer for
good shelter, good food and comforta-
BILE clothing are many and are increas-
ing in numbers every day.
- My wife cut out those touching
verses about the baiiff's sale and says
they remind her of Tom Hoods "Sone
of the Shirt"
"Oh, for one short hour
To feel as used to feel
Before knew the woes of want,
Or the work that costs meal"
That "Song of the Shirt" awakened
all London to the sufferings Of poor
women, and it has come down to us
along the corridors of time and quick
ened our sympathics and enlarged our
charities. Oh, that our rich people
would sometimes read it and drop q
tear of sympathy and then go out into
the by-ways and 10 something for hui
manity's sake. Rockefeller is a great
philanthropist in his way, but George
Peabody will outrank him in the an
nails of history and the judgment of
heaven. Why does not some multi
millionaire follow his example and pro-
vide cheap homes for the poor of our
cities? 1 have heard it said that it was
Tom Hoods poem that first inspired
him to build cheap lodgings for the
poor Of London. His plans for so do
ing were not Carried out for severa!
years, but he could not erase from his
memory the lines:
''That shattered roof this naked foor,
table-a broken chair,
And wall SO blank my shadow l thank
For sometimes falling there"
he spent three millions on those
lodging houses and they are ,till q
comfort tC the thousands who occupy
them. Human nature is not SO mean
and selfish as it is thoughtless and for
getful. Onr best emotions need re-
minders. Every now and then pa
thetic picture must be drawn,a a t.nder
poem must be written. We must see the
poor woman with the faded shaw
"As she wipes with its fringes tear fron her
eye"
Many a man has pity in his bpsst
and charity in his heart, but it sllm-
bers because it does not see the miery
of the unfortunate. Poverty shrnks
from the public gaze. 1t hides itelf
and suffers and waits, and hence we
see large sums of money gathered in
the churches to be sent to those Gar
of when there is more need of it at
home. Starving people do not goto
church nor will they go half clad in
unseemly garments. The best reliRi