The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-23

eign missions. People who have money
have right to give it away to whom
they choose, but, personally, hate to
see 1t wasted in this fashion. The yisi-
BILE effect of foreign missions is to give
a number of ardent people job, to
stir up among the heather a spirit Of
discomfort, to lay the foundation for in
ternational disturbance. Occasionally
the missionaries marry so Judiciously
and multiply so rapidly that in time
they rise up and possess the land they
went to redeem. In such instances, Of
course, the money is well invested. l
do not wish to be understood as speak
ing lightly of worthy men and women
who go afar in the sincere hope OF bet
tering the condition of the cannibal and
the fire gods followers. 1t merely
strikes me as pitiful that they should
waste their lives in vain endeayor.
Let the heather alone until they get
in the way of civilization, which will
crowd them into the jungle and on the
earth. We are not responsible for
them. If good were accomplished by
appealing to them with the melancholy
tract and the Illuminated text, all right.
When people in church get so excited
that they snatch off their gewgaws ana
throw them into the contribution plate
they ought to remember the worthy
near home, even to the exclusion of
the naked and alluring savage. They
ought to think of the thousands kept
from school by the necessity of earn
ing bread, the pallid workers OF the
sweat shops, the honest tramps whose
hands can find nothing to do Phey
ought to think of the sick, the loWiy,
the illiterate, the helpless of their own
land. They might profitaly turn their
minds to the traps set for the young,
the crowded quarters where vice and
disease and penury breed. Then, when
misery has been banished, when there
is everywhere in this fair domain peace
and happiness, when hunger no. longer
cries for a loaf, and the babe of pow
erty has ceased to nurse at fount run
dry. will be time to think of the
heather. AS matter of fact, we are
in some respects worse than the So
called heather now, for We cannot
plead ignorance. We murder and steal
and SANDER, bear false witness. If We
err and are undetected we are bitter
in denouncing the one who errs and Is
caught We observe another on the
way to the devil and give him kick.
We have reached a stage where wealth
opens every door and the rich scoun-
drel is received in the household where
knowledge of his character has pre-
ceded him In all barbaric rite there
is nothing more brutal than the
methods of money getting, the heart
lessness with which competitors are
crushed, mortgages foreclosed, the or
phan and widow turned into the street.
Our statesmen are elected not Tor their
worth, but according to their wiling
ness to pay the price. They 90 not
legisIate for the common good. They
father shameless jobs. We have
great war, and incompetency has an
Alger to send 1t to the front and the
pay chest. We bicker and ngnt, per-
NIT yellow journals to exist. The noiy
men Of the pulpit quarrel, hear a can
where the salary is largest. ana nave
among them too many {. y. Browns.
Our aristocratic girls are on the mar
ket and are sold for less Inan
they are really worth. Some other
girls among us wear belts made from
the. pelts of the pauper dead Alto
gether we are a pretty lot to be trying
to give pointers to the heather and
throwing gold in his direction. Mr.
Solomon. now deceased, but in his gem
Grafton reputed to be wise, once said
something about first setting ones own
house in order.
Much has been said about young
Gould and the probability that he will
forfeit SIS O0O. 900 through his marriage
to the woman of his choice. I do not
Ieare whether or not he loses this sum,
but. as q matter of justice. he ought
not to be fined for doing the only manly
thing there was for him to do. Mar
riage is mostly the business OF the