Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-07-28
1.-The Rich are Growing Richer
and the Poor Poorer"

legislation has l-ru carried 81 lar that II .
has become almost ideal-imagiuatiyr.
1t has gone 80 far that an equal distri .
button Of property, privileges, brains and .
capacity for happiness or woe has been
seriously proposed. Now it is not the /
natural impulse of mankind to have this .
So nor do men and women naturally 7
contribute to such results. Assistance /.
is not naturally given to the most needy. I
Let young man OF integrity and merit /
start in the world and if he is without .
means hc is in touch with nobody. Let
him begin 10 achieve success and friends .
and assistance will keep pace with it.
Let public interest become ccntercd ON
some object OF charity and the latter will
often become surfeited with aims, while
another, in full view, more needy and
deserving, viii remain unnoticed. 1t is
the natural tendency of human beings
to follow the successful man in prosper
itv and to desert him in adversely as
rats do 4 sinking ship. But the rats act
from the higher motives. Man deserts
his fellow man from choice; the rats de-
Sert the ship in self defence or to pre-
serve their lives. The very fact that one
man is more successful than another de-
termines very often his prcferment to a
more deserving competitor. So don't
blame the fates, nor the laws, nor yet the
conventional rules of society because the
rich are growing richer or that the pros
porous are growing more prosperous
while the tendencies of all our natures
are to contribute to that result.
To illustrate this look at the examples
in the heroic features of the times. \
man is brave, defends his country, comes
home, strikes fortunate vein, and as
soon as the prestige of success is cstab-
lished he is covered with wealth and sur
rounded by luXuries. He is not wanting
for attention and favors. This is all
right, but you who are the authors of the
pessimistic cry which heads this article
must not complain for that is Just the
man You are running after and heaping
favors upon while yet at your very doors
is a man among many others who suf-
fered every hardship and dared every
/ danger and returning with a broken
constitution barely suhSists on pension
of $3.50 a month, and yet is one whom
you join the prosperous one in treating
with contempt. Look at the genutiec
tions and apothcosis of the whole couL-
try and even we might say the whole
world in this age of the worship of sue
cess. Contributions Of lands and houses
and monuments to those who fight for
country and glory is all right, but to do
these things in forgetfulness or con-
tempt of those who fought for country
with no hope of glory is all wrong.
If you who are grumbling about UNI
equal conditions would spend half the
time You spend in fawnings and tatter-
les and sickly adulations ON those to
whom they are perhaps bore nrcgar1-
ing those who really need encourage
ment and assistance you would be con-
tributing to reform condition of things
which no legislation can change and to
which human nature has most if not
entirely contributed. If you want to
level up give to the needy Of your as
sistance, your influence and your means
and don't carry to Others in hopes of
patronizing returns, for if you do ravens
will croak your pessimistic cry over your
graves.
True heroes desire the love, gratitude,
respect, esteem and honor of their coun-
trymen bestowed justly and with dis
elimination, and deSpise though they
cannot rebuke sickly attempts to apo
theosize them The woman who was
taken in the very act Of kissing IlobSon
had no love worthy the hero and none
that he would not look upon with pity
and contempt, and yet she ought not tc
be stoned for being a lite i'll advance OF
those who ridicule her and who if told
to let him among them who was with
out her impulses and inclinations cast
the first stone would have gone out zone
, by one, beginning at the eldest even unto
the last"