The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-01-07
1HE CAUSES OF POVERTY

hesitation say that easily chief among
the causes of poverty is the hard con-
dition of the human lot as by nature
established. The prime reason why
bread must be so dear, and flesh and
blood so cheap, is that the ratio of ex-
change between the two has been fix
cd in the constitution of the earth,
mach to the disadvantage of the latter.
When it is written that God cursed
the ground and bade it to be unfruit-
ful, bringing forth briers and thorns,
that man should only eat his bread
with dripping brow, the Scripture
does not exceed the truth of the un-
ceasing and ever-painful struggle for
existence.
Taking it by and large, it is hard,
cold, and cruel world, in which little
is to be got except by toll and an
guish; and of that little not all can be
kept by any degree of care and pains.
There are, indeed, regions where the
earth spontaneously brings forth fruit
enough fora small population, ,and where
a moderate effort will largely increase
that product, while the climate is 80
benign that life is easily protected
from exposure. But these are not the
regions where man ever has, or seem.
ingly ever can, become noble being;
and even here, in the midst of tropical
plenty, the serpent stings the tiger
prowls at night around the village;
the earthquakes and the tornado work
their frightful mischief; cholera and
malaria kill their millions; while every
few years gaunt famine stalks over
the land, leaving it numbered with
corpses.
Throughout all the regions inhabit-
ed by our own race life is terribly
close and grinding struggle. From
four to seven months the earth lies
locked up in frost, and its wretched
inhabitants cover over the scanty fire
and try to outlast the winter. When
summer opens, it is to harsh soil
that the peasant resorts to win the
means, scanty at the best, of barely
preserving life.
Sterility is the rule among the soils
of earth, mountain and plain alike. The
exceptions are a comparatively few
fertile valleys in which are concen-
trated the productive essences of na-
turc. The literature of primitive pco-
pies is ever telling the story ofthis un-
ceasing wrestle with the hard condi-
tions of existence, and the same dreary
tale is repeated down to our own day
Alcman the Greek calls spring ''the
season Of short fare; and less than
forty years agothe Irish peasant spoke
of ''the starving season" which imme-
diatcly dreceded the harvest of the
year. If, then, you complaint ofpove-
ty, make your complaint manfully
and squarcly againt the Maker of the
earth, for poverty is largely his work.
The socialist is simply dishonest when
he charges human misery upon socie-
ty. Society has done vastly more to
relieve misery than to create 1t. $
The true predominant causes Of pau
pcrism, as of crime, have been strik-
ingly and painfully brought out in
tracing the history Of few families.
Three cascs will suffice. The reader
remembers the investigation of the
Jukes family in New York State. Mr..
Dugdale estimated that the members
of this family, descendants of one
worthless woman or intermarried with
her descendants, have in seventy-fvc
years cost the State, rs criminals and
paupcrs, a million and a quarter of dol
lars. The history of a Kentucky fam
lily founded in 1870 has been traced to
include the character and conduct of a
host of it's members by descent or sex
ual alliance, legitimate or illegitimate.
Among these have been one hundred
and twenty -one prostitutes. Thieving
and bcggary have made up the lives of
most of the remainder. Those. who
try to do something better for them
selves proved unable to perform hard
| labor or to endure severe weather.
They break down early and go easily
to the poorhousc or the hospital.
From Berlin we have the history of
another criminal and pauper family,
the descendants of two sisters who liv-
ed in the last century. The enumerated
posterity number S34. OF these the
history of 100 has been traced with
tolerable accuracy. These embrace
lO6 illegitimate children, l64 prosti-
tutes, II pimps, l42 beggars, 81 in
mates of poorhouscs, and 1G who have
| been guilty of serious crimes. Still
other instructive cases are given, in
one of which nearly all the inmates of
a county poorhouse have been found
to be related in blood The late Fran
: cis 4. Walker, IN the Century.
Mother-"I IOu must never put of