Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1903-02-02
THESE PROSPEROUS TIMES.
How Would One of the Fellows With
n Bank Account Like to De PoOrf

How Would One of the Fellows With
n Bank Account Like to De Poorf
You who are well housed, well fed,
well clad and in possession of a bank
account that banishes from your future
all fear of want find this world, with
all its drawbacks, not bad place to
live in.
But what would you think of the
world If you were young man with a
wife and baby to support and unable to
get work, with no coal or food in the
house and the thermometer down near
zero?
And what would the world seem like
to you If you were dying with con-
sumption and your wife went out to
work each day to support you and
your four children, earning SO little,
poor thing, that coal could not be
bought at trust prices or the rent be
paid, so that the landlord had served n
dispossess notice on you?
The Rev. Louis Albert Banks, who
on Monday night placed where it would
do the most good some money with
which the American supplied him,
found the two families described and
others not less near the edge of de-
spair's precipice.
How would you like to be Mrs. Sea-
terio of 43 Oliver street, where there
was no food or fuel? She and her chill
dren were starving and freezing when
Captain Johnson of the Salvation Ar
my, taking relief from the American,
visited this home of want and misery.
How would you like to share the fate
Of these fellow creatures of yours re-
ported by the same Salvatlonist?
Mr.. and Mrs. Golden of 10 Hamilton
street had not eaten yesterday. There
was no fuel. Mr.. Golden is blind
Mr.. Martin of COS Water street is ly-
ing In bed with consumption. Mrs.
Martins father, who lives with them,
is blind, and only little while ago
Mrs. Martin had one of her arms am
coal brought happiness to this poor
family, and when promised more coal
for tomorrow Mrs Martin fell on her
knees and prayed.
There never were such general suf-
fering and extreme poverty as this win
ter" said the Rev. Father Tewes in ac-
knowledging money for his poor from
the American. I'VE have children that
l know of without shoes and stockings.
1t Is almost impossible to buy clothing,
so scanty are the earnings Of many.
Coal is impossible. They must live in
cold rooms"
Thin clothes and ragged clothes, poor
food and little of 1t, and Icy air to sit
and shiver in while you watch your suf
fering wife and blue Tipped, hungry
children-that is what life means for
thousands these days in this rich and
Christian city.
And the people who live this life are
fellow beings, human creatures just
like yourself, with the same capacity
wife and little ones.
Your instinct is to turn away from
such misery and shut your mind
against it, not because you are hard
hearted, but because the mass Of
wretchedness is so vast that you feel
helpless to do anything adequate to-
ward its relief.
But you have no right to turn away
from 1t. 1t is your duty to think about
and do what you can to lessen this
mass of misery.
You can open your heart and put your
hand in your pocket. When you do that,
you feed some hungry child, bring hope
again to some agonized mothers breast
and save some man from desperation.
When you are face to face with dire
human distress, it is no time to philoso-
phize about the failure of charity to
cure poverty, or about the pernicious
effects of almsgiving.
Help the miserable first and philoso-
phize afterward. Be human being be-
fore you are a political economist. Obey
your heart 1t is better a wiser guide
than your head ninety-nine times in a
hundred.
Don't even stop to reflect that you
can't give dollar to buy few bucket
fuls of coal or few pounds of meat for
a perishing family without the coal
trust and the food trust stealing half
thS ihOhOJs
The thing to do Is to give while this
frightful weather is with us.
Look at the crowds which gather
around the Americans free coffee and
sandwich wagons every night, and you
will get vision of human need that
must keep you awake in your warm
bed If you haven't done your duty as
man.
Send bill or a check to the nearest
clergyman-never mind the denomina-
tion-with a note asking him to use it
for the relief of the worst case of pow
erty he knows, and you will make no
mistake.
The poor are your brothers and sis
ters. Remember the words of Jesus:
'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one Of
these my brethren, even these least, ye
did it unto me."-New York American.
LondOn's Unemployed.
When interrogated lately In the house