The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-11-11

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wan. and wasted, and half suffocated
and infuriated. said to the men
How do you stand it here?" Goo
knows" said one man. I'VE have tc
stand it." Oh, they will pay you wher
they get out! Where they burned
down one house, they will burn three
They will strike deeper the assassin's
knife. They are this minute plotting
worse burglaries. Many of the Jail:
are the best place know of to man,
ufacture footpads, vagabonds and cut.
throats.
Among the uprooting and devourine
classes in our midst are the idle. OF
course do not refer to the people who
are getting old or to the sick or tc
those who cannot get work, but tel
you to look out for those athletic men
and women who will not work. When
the French nobleman was asked why
he kept busy when he had so large a
property, he said, Il keep on engrav-
ing so may not hang myself" l dc
not care who the man is, he cannot af-
ford to be idle. 1t is from the idle
classes that the criminal classes are
made up. Character, like water, gets
putrid If it stands still too long. Who
can wonder that in this world, where
there is so much to do and all thc
hosts of earth and heaven and i ~
are plunging into the conflict and
angels are flying and God is at work
and the universe is a-quake with the
marching and countermarching, God
let's his indignation fall upon a maa
who chooses idleness? | have watch
ed these do-nothings who spend their
time stroking their beard and retouch-
ing their toilet and criticsing indus
terious people and pass their days and
nights in barrooms and clubhouses,
lounging and smoking and chewing
and card playing. They are not only
useless, but they are dangerous. How
hard it is for them to while away the
hours.
Alas, for them! If they do not know
how to while away an hour, what will
they do when they have all eternity on
their hands? These men for awhile
smoke the best cigars and wear the
best broadcloth and move in the high.
est spheres, but l have noticed that
very soon they come down to the pris-
on, the almshouse or stop at the gal.
lows.
They afs- pest Of society, and
they stand in the way Of the Lords
poor, who ought to be helped, and will
be helped. While there are thousands
Of industrious men who cannot get any
work, these men who do not want any
work come in and make that plea.
Sleeping at night at public expense in
the station house, during the day, get.
ting their food at your doorstep. I'm
prisonment does not scare them. They
would. like 1t. Blackwell's Island OF
Moyamensing prison would be com
Portable home for them. They would
have no objection to the almshouse,
for they like thin soup, II they cannot
get mock turtle.
l like for that class of people the
scant bill Of fare that Paul wrote out
for the Thessalonian loafers, "If any
work not neither should he eat" BY
what law of God or man is it right
that you and | should toll day in and
day out until our hands are blistered
and our arms ache and our brain gets
numb, and then be called upon to sup
port what in the United States are
about 100000 loafers! They are
very dangerous class. Let the public
authorities keep their eyes on them.
Among the uprooting classes | place
the oppressed poor. Poverty to a Ger.
tain extent is Christening. But after
and he hears his children cry in vain
for bread, it sometimes makes him
desperate. | think that there are
thousands of honest men lacerated in.
to vagabondism. There are men crush.
ed under burdens for which they are
not half paid. While there is no eX
cuse for criminality, even in oppres
sion, ] state it as a simple fact that
much of the scoundrelism of the com
munity is consequent upon i'll treat.
ment. There are many men and wo.
men battered and bruised and stung
until the hour of despair has come,
and they sound with the ferocity Of
wild beast, which pursued until it can
run no longer, turns round, foamine
and bleeding, to fight the hounds.
There is a vast underground city
life that is appalling and shameful. II
wallows and steams with putrefaction
You go down the stairs, which are wet
and decayed with filth, and at the bot.
tom you find the poor victims on the
floor cold, sick, three-fourths dead
sinking into a still darker corner un
der the CLEAN of the lantern Of tht
police. There has not been breath OF
fresh air in that room for five years
literally. There they are-men, wo.
men, children; blacks, whites; Mary
Magdalene without her repentance and