The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-02-24
THE IION OF Pow.
ERTI.

1t is disgusting to note how the
leading daily papers Of the country la
ment over the tact that some society
| women have by failure of inves tmentS
/! be, obliged to earn their own living,
and yet they can with mplacency
| uphold a system which forces tender
women to toll in factories for long
hours for little pay, or else compels
them to sell their virtue for the price
Of bread.-Silver Knight.
The great poet said:
plate sin with gold
And the strong lance Of justice hurtless
breaks.
Clothe it In rags pigmys straw can pierce
it,
We instinctively feel more sympathy
with the sorrows of well-dressed
woman than we do with the griefs Of
a beggar. Charles Sumner told the
truth when he said:-"a queen on the
sca1fold is not 50 sad sight as wom-
an on the auction block" and yet
more tears have been shed over Marie
Antoinettes bloody corpse than over
all the black women that have been
sold into slavery in hundred years.
The well-to-do have great sympathy
for the well-to-do: but it is difficult
for their hearts to expand beyond
their class. The poor would probably
be equally selfish if they changed
places with the rich The story is
told Of the beggar woman who sat by
a ditch in Ireland with her brat"
along side Of her, while near at hand
fo, Goi
their humble tenement for non-pay-
ment Of rent. The old woman's heart
was touched by the sad scene, and
turning to her boy she said:
Johnny dear, when you grow up
and become rich man, and have
houses and lands to rent, you will not
treat the poor in that way; will you,
my dear?"
The little raggamuffin smote his
thigh savagely and cried out:
LET them pay me on the day
Them
He felt the aristocratic sentiment
expanding in his half-starved, meagre
figure. He was a type Of the new
rich.
The injustice of society degrades
men to depths Of wretchedness, and
then their very degradation is used to
Justify the oppression.
Only the gospel of Christ, or the
guidance of broad, honest thoughts,
can hold men fast to the sense of the
universal brotherhood.
Robert Burns was once walking
| with a nobleman when he paused to
speak to poor ragged acquaintance.
Why" said the nobleman,a as Burns
resumed his place by his side. that
man had hardly clothes enough TO
cover him."
The great poet Of the people re-
piled:
81 did not speak, my Lord, to the
clothes, but the mnn.'
1t was this same spirit that made
him write:
''Ye see You birkey, called Il Lord.
Who struts and stares and a that;
Though thousands worship a. his word,
He's but a coof for a that;
For n that and IA that
His garter star and a that
The man of indie pc dent mind
He looks and laughs at a that.
And agaiI:
THE honest man, though eer so poor,
Is king of men for 4 that
And again he said:
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man the gold for Il that
And again:
Then let pray that come it may,
AS come it will for a that,
That m IN 10 man the whole world Ger
Shall urO theirs be for a that"
God sent Burns to give voice to the
great thoughts which underlie the
foundations OF this republic. Beside
them how mean, how vile, how con-
temptible, how dirty, how degrading
appears the shallow aristocracy of
thievery which now dominates this
land! One noble. generous, gracious
thought Of the great Scotch poet Is
worth more to the world than all New
York'S ssf0Jlr hund rnd ,, apJ oil that.