The herald., 1897-04-27

the very large cities the bootblack was
! then unknown. and even there the busi-
ness was done by few small boys with
| boxes on their backs. Gentlemen who
could not afford to keep help blacked
their own boots, just as many one who
could afford help carried his own basket
to market and carried it home. while
the man who now runs delivery wagon
was working. perhaps, on a farm.
Since then, and especially since the
war there has been vast Increase
in the number of those who live solely
by providing luxuries of one kind or
another for their fellows. Some. like
the number Of musicians who now play
in saloons and restaurants, are the nat
ural outgrowth of old conditions. 9th
ers. like the exhibitors of the phono-
graph, are the creation largely of new
inventions. The origin of the able
bodied man who stands in white gloves
cracking candy along the street is
somewhat like that of the bootblack
who is stout enough to be hoeing corn.
Cripples first undertook the business,
and then people able to work thought
is quite as comfortable as working.
The religious non-producer is a modern
invention. In the library of most any
of our cities you may find numbers of
stout young men at IL in the morning
annotating Bibles and looking up ref
erences, others writing articles of va
ried religious tenor. as youmay readily
see from the book from which they are
drawing the inspiration. Scarcely less
remarkable has been the growth of the
electric doctor, the magnetic healer, the
small tobacco-stall man-not to men,
ton the real-estate man and the pro-
moter all of whom have increased in
enormous proportion. The list would
be quite astounding to anyone who will
take the trouble to carry it out on these
lines.
OF course all these people must crowd
into cities, for outside there is little for
them to do. There they increase the
discomfort of the farmer and his boys,
who think they are all having a fine.
easy life. with plenty of society and
city pleasures, while the farmers are
debarred from all joy. They increase
the whirl and dust and racket Of the
city, and make it look more business
like than it really is; raise rents while
contributing nothing that enables peo-
pie to pay them, and elevate expecta-
tions while doing nothing to justify
them.
What proportion of such non-pro-
6ucers can a country stand? 1t Is bad
enough to have to take care of those
who have brains and contribute to the
polish and culture of a country, if Moth
ing else. The sick and the infirm the
country must take care of, with a GER
tain percentage of genteel loafers who
cannot very we'll be killed. But when
we have the proportion of these that the
rest of the world carries, have we not
about enough? Surely no other part of
the world has as many drones as we
have, and nowhere else has there been
any increase such as we have seen.
In other countries most of them recog-
nize the fact that they are parasites,
ard are cheerfully content with crumbs,
but ours think themselves par excel
ience 1.-The people," and want roast tur-
key and champagne. 1t is not possible
in ordinary times for any country to
provide for so many of such a class
such a living as they think their tai
ents entitle them to. Yet there are
none who so quickly become discon-
tented if they do not have what they
want, and each one thinks that as an
American citizen he should have the
best there is.