The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1900-09-06
THE BALM IN BEING POOR.

Chas. NJ Skinner, i'll Saturday Evening Post.
Tie Pleasures OF Hope is not much
read II our day, though 1t was esteem
ed an important poem in its time. Yet
the joys it celebrates are none the less
potent than when its author wrote it.
Hope, indeed, l., vital factor in the
lie OF every creature. There is no
question that the animals share it !;
and as to men, we use the phrase,
"hopeless" to apply to any Of them
whose outlook on the world is biacken-
ed by suffering or despair. It is hope
that seftens pain, lets light through
clouds Of grief, shortens the conyict's
sentence and makes poverty endurabie.
The keeping before the victim OF ad-
verse circumstance belief in better
things enables him to live III that
future where there shall be no sorrow
and no reverse.
Judged by common social standards
most men are poor. The bitterness Of
poverty is often intensified by viewing
the successes and luxurles of the rich.
They Of the submerged tenth know
tt at some Of those best favored b. for
tune haye attained their position with
oat personal worth or personal effort !;
that they lack an education which
would enable them to enjoy CT use to
the full the benefits of money and
prestige; hence the poor Will often
lower themselves deeper into poverty
by envy OF the rich, forgetting that,
after all, life to them, as to others, is in
a majority OF instances but a natter Of
feeding and clothing and shelter, and
that The great things of life are not
things Of money. Hence, too, the
schemes tor upsetting the so-called
order of society, for distributing wealth
anew, for equalizing all mems access to
natural resources; hence the more
ruffian!y but more radical schemes Of
the anarchists, who would not reform
bat destroy, that they might have a
clear field for the reorganization OF
society. But in all devices tor the
lettering of the race, for the distribu-
ton of happiness, the annlmatlng
principle is hope.
That the joy OF hope can be as keen
as realization, under that grand law OF
compensation which Emerson formula
ted is conceded to the poor to at least
as great an extent as to the rich. The
poor have fewer responsibilities than
the rich they have no costly show
to maintain they can apportion their
way ct lite to their income; their be-
havior can be free and natural !; especi-
ally they have something to which
they can look with expectation, instead
OF turning their eyes regretfully on
past adyanta ges-something to which
| they can shape their work something
that will lift them eyer higher; some
thing that holds in itself the key to all
success and greatness hope.
Poverty is an incentive and a d:sc!-
pine. If most of Us were rich AID
had nothing to work for, the world
would be lazy and degenerate, softened
with luxury, spoiled by lack OF health
full opposition. Any condition tha. de-
priyss us of hope is condition OF llv.
Ing death but poverty that makes
us industrious, resolute. hasdens orr
bodies and sharpens oar wits Is far
from unfortunate, for it contains with
in itself the element Of cure, and prime
among its happy attributes is that
Heaven-sent faculty of living il fut
ure that has no offset to its perlectness
the faculty OF hope.