The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-08-19
THE CUBAN ORPHANS.

over 10000 orphan children in Cuba,
who are destitute, and suffering. Path
etic stories are told of boys and girls
not over eight years of age, wander
ing about in search of food for younger
brothers and sisters. One cOrreSpOn-
dent of an eastern journal says that he
saw a small boy, a mere child, trying
to cook some food in an old tin can
which he had set up over a couple or
stones in a small forest grove. He
was bright eyed, ragged and dirty.
Two small, haggard looking com
paniOns sat by him hungry, patiently
waiting for him to make the water
boil. This correspondent says that if
a picture of the scene were boldly put
on canvass, and it was exhibited
secure large contributions to the Gu
ban Orphan Fund. The sight of suffer-
ing and misery stimulates sympathy.
Several of the leading American
journals comment ON the small contri-
buttons made for the relief of the suf-
fering children of Cuba. Not a voice
has been raised in opposition to the
scheme for aid. Miss Clara Barton
and the newspaper correspondents urge
in the strongest language the relief of
these suffering little waits, but only
the sum of $1,000 has been furnished
up to the 1st of August, and only few
people, hardly a hundred, have contri-
buted this amount
The American people cannot be
accused of lacking generosity.
They responded richly to the claims
from Johnstown, when only few hun
dred suffered from the flood They
more than compensated the sufferers
from the earthquake IN Charleston by
sending them about 81 000,0 900, and over
one million of dollars was given to
the starving peasants of Russia.
But public sympathy is quick
sympathy 1t gives instantly or not at
the highest order of charity, because
it lis not the act of we'll regulated minds
with steady habits of giving.
The nation gave three hundred mil
lions of dollars, for the sake Of
humanity by driving out the Span
iards from Cuba. No citizen paid
directly into the fund one dollar. But
after the nation has done it's work,
the duty of the i"dividual citizen
Us apparent 1t begins with the after
Of p1,t
have the curious phenomena in the
case OF Cuba. that a generous people
permit these orphan children, together
with the sick ard decrepit to suffer
when almost within sight of The rich
est nation on earth.
The same strange moral phenomena
appeared after the Civil war. One of
those who gave themselves to the work
of e1evating the negro, often said
defy analysis. For, the Constitution
had protected slavery, and under the
slave codes of the Southern States, the
old, the infirm, the disabled, and the
children were cared for by the slave
owners, and as rule. they were we'll
cared for, and the cost Of this care
made slavery an expensive affair.
Then the sword freed the slave, and
absolved the ruined master from all
legal obligation to maintain the dis
abled The nation that freed the slaves
then turned them, landless, ignorant,
penniless and disorganized out into the
woods to shift for themselves. The
story of the sufferings of the aged, the
sick and the helpless children has never
been adequately told. The Freedmans
Bank, organized under the authority of
the Federal government, gathered in
about So 900 900 of the money of the
emancipated slaves. and then went into
bankruptcy.
At the same time, the American peO-
pie were generous and sympathetic.
Four years of war had however dead
ened the feelings of the people. The
law of the survival of the fittest worked
with terrible energy. No doubt, large
numbers of negroes suffered and
died through want, caused by the act
of Emancipation.
But the story of human suffering was
an old one, and the quick sympathy
died out.
1t it not the gift of the waste drops
from the cup overlooking" that reaches
che ideal charity. 1t is the gift that
comes from the best measure OF re-
sources and duty. 1t is perhaps for
tunate that Nature gives but little sus-
tanning power to these toddling Cuban
infants, wandering about the highways
and towns Their sufferings are sooner
ended and the hand of the Master