The age-herald., 1897-11-25
ETCHINGS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS,

syst m of the co omtfy by the no.ed eTan- gellst, Rev. Sam Jones. was ill-timed, and unbecomtng. MT. Jones claims that the providing of an education for the children of America, free of cosR encourages a certain degree of faz'ness and causes the men of the country, whose children attend the public schools to lose their self-respeet.
 This Is a very unique and radical view of the matter. and is the more remarka-' ble coming, as it does. from a man who is generally regarded as the champion of the people, and in sympathy with the poorer clasees.
 It begins to look as If the wealth acI quired by Rev. Sam Jones, as a preachsr of sensational sermons, is rendering him indifferent to the necessities of the great masses, who can barely feed and clotheT their little children.
 It Is a very simple matter to sit in great luxurious chairs, in richly fur nished apartments, with all the comz foulbs of life at command and then utter platitudes about political and domestic economy.
 
 There is mo especial reason, that a rich man should net patronize the publi6 schools, yet a large inconie provides ths necessary means to select amy kind of educational system deemed meSt deSirar- ble.
 The free schools of the country were not established for the children of tf1e wealthy citizens, but for the children of those men, whose aimited incomes pre- clude everything in the home, but the barest necessities. Unless the children of the poor are furnished with educae- tional advantages by the stalte or murfi- pal authorities they will grow up in dense ignorance, not because tflsir par- ents lack ambition, or desire to have them instructed. but, for the pitiful nea- son that every hardly learned dollar must be spent for fdold, fuel and clothes. Noth- ing is left of the scanty wages of the average poor man after purchasing the esaseu1tiads of life, for even the most rudi- mentauy instruction of his children,
 Sam Jones seems to have fallen into the error that comes so frequently to the newly-T'ich. He has forgotten the grinding, humiliatng conditions of early poverty and because he can now gratify hiS tastes in the expenditure of money he unfortunately fails to remember how other men suffer for lack of means, and how dependent their children are upon the free schools of the country, for amy hope of am education.
 The celebrated evangelist generality leads in matters of progress and reform. Thus far he has been outspoloen on the peoples side, but he has committed a serious blunder when he takes his stand against free schools. Progress Is the fundamental law of the universe and there can be no matertai progression, no permanent advancement, unless the chila dren of the United States are provided with schools absolutely "without money, and without price," There can come no abiding good to amy people who grow up in ignorance, no matter how fertile the fields or how valuable the mineral resources.
 There are very few men in any section, who have been endowed with such mar- velous money getting talents, as Rev. Sam Jones' He has made his preach ing pay, and pay handsomely. His ar- taclns upon the world, the flesh and the deviP' have yielded him many of those things, which he has condemned with all the power of a1is eloquence, on his evangelistic tours. He has laughed at and abused the mem and women of wealth and his vltuparation and wit have drawn great crowds together, which | contributed Mberally, towards the fortune he now enjoys
 Rev. Sam Jones has been making faces and shaking his fist, figurative1y, at society" ever since he began to preach, and now that he has grown rich from | such preaching, he is beginning to affecn | a certain kind of social notoriety. Money has frequently the power to change the l faith of a life time, and to level the prej, | udices of tht greatest extremist. It cer. /, tainly is unexpected and surprising that one of the genius of Rev. Sam Jones | should oppose the free school system of | the country He is one of the very great preachers of the century and his Influence should always be thrown on 1 the side of the education of the children of all classes and all grades. Very few l men possess his financial ability and | the good fortune which has come to him l from the sensational presentation of ! great trutlhs should make him very l considelrate of the misfortunes of less | successful men. BALL 1