The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-22
Our Children of Want



always in this world. While under
the Gospel of the Redeemer this has
been preached to a sin-cursed world
there has been a great movement for
she relief of the destitute of the ma
sions. vast deal of suffering con-
tinues. tremendous responsibilities rest
upon the enlightened and prosperous,
and q great work of benevolence and
nelp remains to be bestowed. In this
wide, boastful country, holding on as
net to come of the traditions of the
more gifted fathers, ana stiii reverence
bag more or less the great Charter of
our Liberties, there are far more of
poverty and its bitter consequences
remaining than is supposed by the
alleged leaders or the more prosperous
IArtIon of the American people.
Mere were never before Sc many des-
ttute suffering peop-e in any decade,
in this ordinarily estimated Land OF
Goshen" and overlooking country OF
fnateralism and mighty grail and
greed, as in the present decade begin
ming with 1895. 1t is not surprising
that thoughtful discerning people
should begin to study the statistics of
poverty and seriously to contemplate
the ruin, the great sufferings ana the
hopelessness of SO many millions OF
the inhabitants of these favored
solute poverty and the crying demand
for help and amelioration, are appall-
ing to those who love their fellow
man, and would extend to their
"neighbors'' the hand Of sympathy and
re ief.
new and important Work--an oc-
tavo OF 3S2 pageS--has Just been Is
sued from the press With the staring.
glaring, frightfui title, Poverty.
1t is by Robert Hunter, and is pub
lished by the prominent Macmillan
Company-London and New York
at $3.50. l wish 70 draw upon 1t for
some statistics and quotations.
wish to do good by it, and help to
awaken more than ever the real
phiIanthropists in North Carolina.
The Christian church may we'll
study the facts and figures with as
constituent, with pain and perhaps
with disrnay. Our supposed rich,
proud. confident glory seeking, amhl-
tious, aggressive land may well h1de
hts face and wrap about itself the
garment of sack-cloth and ashes: The
story presented by Mr.. Hunter is one
of blackness, of wide suffering and
hope ess Drivation. Of sorrow and
cryings, of degradation and misery,
with grim, gaunt. ghostly Famlne
stalking in it's midst The facts pre-
scented are well based and trustworthy
arrogant, enterprisinS, vast country
there are all of ten millions OF men,
women and children who are hungry
and poorly clothed, wemay Well
stop and consider. In this land
of the free and home of the
brave" there are 100000 IN ex-
IRENE poverty--hrngry, suffering,
hopeless. perhaps or worse. and it is
enough to shame the well-to-do and
the rich who rol! in rrofusion and
waste Mr. Edwin Markham writing
in review of this appa ling Book on
Poverty" says in the New York Sat
urday Review"
'And Mr.. Hunter speaks with au-
thority; he has not gone to any man
for his CHIEF facts. He las gotten
them at first hand. fer he has been
an earnest worker for many years
among the tribes of poverty. 1t is
well then. that Mr.. Hunter comes 20
revive for the actors in the grim
drama of poverty, setting before us the
Pa,I3er. the Vagrant, the sick. the
Immigrant, the p1teoUs and pcrtentous
child"
These has been great deal said
i'm the pulpit in the religious press,
and by enthusiasts at large about the
marvellous progress and tremendous
benefactions, and stupendous results
i'm the field of benevolence and
mercy. But facts rise up and stare
YOU in the face while you brag OF the
benovelencr and generosity OF hu-
mainly, and the immense benefactions
bestowed upon the poor. But the
world is full of misery ana sufierlllg,
end "Grizzly Shapes proWl about
and consume and fail very close IN
the track of Prosperity. L now
quote from the author 81
the important, moving book
There are many people in Inc
world who believe that the provisions
of charity in the present day are SO
generous and varied that no one neeo
suffer, but, even if this were true, II
would not materially lessen the sor
row of the Door. To thousands ana
thousands OF workingmen the dread
of public pauperism is the agony or
their, lives When the poor
face the necessity of becoming pau
pers. when they must apply for CHAR
sty if they are to live at all, many
desert their families and enter the
ranks of vagrancy: others drink them
selves insensible; some go insane ana
still others commit suicide"
There are great districts in all the
larger cities in this and all lands, IN
which the poor and Responding I'VE
and suffer and die. Mr.. Hunter names
many of this kind. He writes that the
Lowest level of humanity is reached
cities, negroes, whites, Chinese, Next
cans. half-breeds. Americans, irish,
and others are indiscriminately housed
together in the same tenements ano
even in the same rooms. The pima
the crippled, the consumptiNe. the
aged-the ragged ends of life; tht
babies. the children, the half-starved-
UNDERGRAD beginnings in life, all hud-
died together. waiting, drifting. TINS.
is paupersm.
Think of the vice, immortality, socia!
degradation, appalling suffering and
misery in such conditions and sur
roundings-how helpless, how hope
less, | quote further:
s'The more fortunate of the laborers
are but a few weeks from actual dis
tI.ess when the machines are stopped.
Upon the unskilled masses want is con-
stantly pressing. AS soon as employ
ment ceases suffering stares them in
the face. They are the actual pro-
ducers of wealth. who have no home
nor any bit of soil which they may
call their own They are the millions
who possess no tools and can work only
by permission of another. In the
main. they live miserably, they know
not why They work sore. yet gain
L no ma inc NJ