The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-01-01

How many OF our readers know there
are families in our midst who are actually
suffering for food? How many OF you
whose tables are loade with food know
there are families In our city who have
not the bare neoessaries of life? There are
men In our midst who have wives and
children depending on them for support,
and they are unable to get any work by
which they can earn the money to put
bread in their mouths The cold winds of
winter blow through the cracks in the
walls of their houses, and the few ben
clothes which they possess afford their
bodies but little protection against II.
True, the man could beg, but would he
receive a~nythins7 How many tramps do
you turn away from your door in the
course of a year2 Do you know anything
about these men? Do you know that many
of them, perhaps, were driven to their
present way of living, or rather existing,
by just such want as is in our city today7
The copdition of one family in particular
bas come to our notice in the last few
days. The man, an honest laborer, has
been unable to get work for some time.
BY working at odd jobs by which he
occasionally earned q dollar, he has man
aged to secure enough food to keep life in
the bodies OF himself, wife and children.
The last work he had was several weeks
ago., when be made three dollars by
pulling corn. This money was spent for
bread and meat, but II did not last long.
His wife was taken sick with pueu-
monia and he Is now compelled to stay at
home with her. There was no medicine
In the house to give her and no money
with which to buy. He has a large family
OF little children, and they were soon cry
ing for food. Not q morsel Of bread to
give them to keep them alive; no medi-
cine to give his sick wife, not even a piece
OF bread to offer her. And this was all
happening at glad Christmas TINA, when
we were sitting at our tables with more
than enough to feed two families before
Us. In this Christian age, when we are
sending thousands of dollars to foreign
countries to help spread the religion OF
God before the heather races, can we not
give the bread and meat which is every
day left over from our well supplied tables
to lessen the sufferings OF such families as
this. They would be most thankful for
the dry bread which is thrown away at
your house every day. To their starved
palates 1t would have been as acceptable
on Christmas day as the rich food which
you enjoyed was to you 1t might then
have been possible for them to have
realized the mission of the Savior on
earth. 1t might then be possible for them
to know there was a merciful and loving
God watching over them.
We send our money abroad to enlIehten
the heather races, which is right. But
while we are ministering to their spiritual
welfare, let us not forget the suffering
which Ia going on at our door. Raise the
heather all over the world and let the
glorious light Of salvation shine In
through the dark clouds which have for
ages thown a shade over their souls, but
while we are engaged in this grand and
work let us not overlook the
smaller work which lies nearer our hands
We say we do not know where to find
these families who are suffering In our
city. Have we ever made any effort to
end them-or have we waited for their
to be brought to US printed on a
neat card and carried OF a silver waiter9