Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-06-28
eos. Poor. III. Oev,r. Poor, IN. posr Devil.
Rev. Alex Bealer, in the Atlanta Sunday
Journal

oou huoW WuetneT OF nOI you
have ever thought about it, said the
philosopher, but / have reached the
conclusion that there are three kinds
of poor in this world. There's Gods
poor, the devils poor and the poor
devil. BY Gods poor I mean the
man who works all the time, who is
honest and God fearing, who is
Christian, who is respected by every
body and yet he is poor and is never
able to accumulate anything.
"By the DEVILS poor mean the
man who is wicked and poor at the
same time. He does nothing for the
upbuiIdipg OF the community and
has little respect for God or man.
He is naturally ruean along with his
poverty and the world would be bet
ter off without him
"By the poor devil mean the fell
low the negroes nsed TO call the poor
buckra, or the poor white trash. He
is The fellow who has nothing but
children and does not lead strenu-
ous life in caring for them, who wants
nothing, and who spends his time in
trying to beat somebody out of liv-
ing. l have had many of them to
deal with and / often wonder what
place they fill in the economy of God
unless it is to keep working men
worrying all the time. They are like
David Harum's f1eas, l reckon, those
that kept his dog from brooding over
the fact that he was a dog. Those
poor devils keep a man from brood
ing over bigger troubles. recall a
specimen with whom / had to deal.
1t was at a time when cotton was
down to nothing, when lumber had
struck bottom and when there was
next to no demand for labor. He
came TO me and asked me if had
any work could give him to do.
He said he had been offered eight
dollars a month to be paid at the end
of the year, but he had no rations
and he could not afford to live on
that. / told him would try him for
a month and would pay him nine
dollars and give him house to live
in and furnish him a team to use in
moving. He accepted the place and
brought his family over that after
noon. / had TO start him out with
something to eat. At the end of the
year he had fed his family and l owed
him about thirty dollars. l raised
his wages to twelve dollars month
and gave him two COWS to use and
furnished him with lot of chickens.
He came out with nothing to his
credit. The next year l raised his
wages again, and gave him some syrup
and lot of meat. He grew 30 trihing
that could not stand him, he came
out in debt to me, debt he never
paid. He left me and went over to
a neighbor. There he deserted his
wife and children, whole house full,
and l bad to help in feeding them to
keep them from starving to death.
I respect and love Gods poor,
have little use for the DEVILS poor,
but in the language of the prayer
book, from the poor devil, "Good
Lord deliver mel"
"The Prodisal Son."
otis funny how things will cling
to man," continued the philosopher,
after he had filled and lighted bis
pipe, "but they do and it looks at
times as if he cannot get rid of them.
Now last year my wife concluded
that l was wandering off from my
religious duty, and l guess l was.
She called me the prodigal son and
she guyed me good deal about it.
Finally agreed to go to church, and
much to my discomfort the preacher
took for his theme the parable of the
prodigal son. l said little, but you
may be sure that it did not lessen the
amount of guying that fell to my lot.
| reckon it was a month before went
again. slipped into the night SER
vice and to my chagrin the preacher
talked upon the prodigal's brother.
There was a long interregnum with