The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

| unless some one had to suffer. God pity | the poor sewing girls whose needles made l those cheap garments. God pity the | wrecked business out of which those bar 1 gain counters have been lifted. God l pity the men and the women who for i years have had to labor and yet all their 1 labor go for naught Do you and I want
 to make a profit out of such tragedies?
 The Bargain Counter and Crime. But, though it is hard to starve and to
 wear ragged clothes and go to the poor house, yet there are even worse results 1 from the bargain counter than those. Pow erty is hard enough. But, though pow erty dresses in rags. poverty too often has
 q handmaid ready to run at her beck and call. Poverty's handmaid Is crime, and
 crimes name can be spelled in many diff ferent ways Sometimes it is called inn morality. sometimes theft, sometimes
 drunkenness, sometimes forgery, some- times wrecked and dismantled homes. It
 Is easy enough for some of us to be good when we have full stomachs and are sitting with our dear ones before the grate in the cheerful library but it Is another thing for some of us to be good when we are hungry and cold and are
 hearing our little ones cry for their daily
 bread. Yes, the bargain counter nearly
 always means poverty. And, alas. pow erty too often means crime.
 The history of the bargain counter Is ruinous everywhere. It means poverty
 and poverty too often means crime See that young girl leading a life of shame. The bargain counter may have made her do it. See that forger behind iron bars.
 The bargain counter may have made him dip the false pen into the ink. See that drunkard. The bargain counter may have II the intoxicating cup to his lips. You cannot buy something for less than
 cost unless some one is being pushed to I the financial wall. The bargain counter always means pecuniary loss somewhere. and the loser is driven by poverty and crime to take the cup of despair and drink it to the bitter dregs.
 Now, there are two great practical ap- plications of this subjct. Never let your
 children become the victims of the bar gain counters tyrannies. Never start your own loved ones forth into the bat tie of life unless they are mentally and 1 physically trained to do one thing we'll so that by their own skill they are able to earn decent living. The direct cause of the bargain counter is that this world is flooded with unsklled labor. Those
 unskilled laborers are almost entirely at the mercy of the interruptions. who say
 to the poor needlewoman, Make these shirts at so much day or starve," and
 there Is no redress. The unsklled work
 men have to labor at starvation wages
 The goods mostly found upon the bar l gain counter are the products of such | labor. Never let your children grow up 1 to join the pathetic army of unskilled
 laborers. Make them learn to do well
 some one thing by which they can earn
 an honest livelihood if there should ever 1 be a necessity for it. And this warning ] applies just as much to what you shall | do for your girls as for your boys.
 The Turn of Fortune.
 l oh but you say you do not know
 who I am. I am not a pauper. I am l one of the leading business men in this