The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-26
MRs. sAnEL,s DANCE.
THE GREAT QUEsTfoN.

The Circle, modern department magazine for all people, in It's Decem- Der number publishes most inter- egting symposium entitled, What Could He Dor which is, in fact, a Christmas conundrum. The question is evolved from the following situa- ton:
 A man--an ordinary sort of man this Christmas ts unable to get home to spend the day with his family, and on Christmas Eve is eating hts dinner alone n a hotel. The thought has come to him before, when dining alone, that 1t Is little unfair to have a
 larger meal befere him than he can
 possibly eat, when there Is. as likely
 as not, a man within. easy reach who | Is starving. Tonight the thought is more persistent and troublesome. What
 can he doss He Is not a professional l philanth ropist, and has no time to l take from his business to study out the means of helping the man who needs ! help. Yet here is this man, standing
 outside the window, looking at his
 back, and needing his dinner more than ne needs 1t himself.
 What shall'he dor What is wrong? Why are there seme on Christmas day who have too Much and others who have not enough? And what could that man door any man--who wanted to help the man who had too little, and the other thousands like him?
 The authors who contributed 10 opin- ion on the subject were Jacob A. Riis, who Sees the solution in treating the man outside the window as a brother. Edwin Markham, author of The Man With the Hoe," suggests that the man Inside invite his unfortunate brother to share his dinner with him. Cynthia Westover Alden says: "Let each help khAa nCN at L OvA Josiah Strong declares that Tt Is not enough to pity. He must love. help him.
 As there is no larger theme for thought than the ssocialistic problems of our times and lnasmuch as the altruistic spirit of the twentieth cen- tury Is 90 burdened with the very questions that are ,germain to The Circles Christmas conundrum, two of the distinguished wriers referred to are quoted in full;
 Jacob 4. Riis.
 What is wr0ng? He is wrong, for one thing. What Is troubling your lonely diner Is how he can fine some way of making tardy atonement for second hand. He can't. He can find ways If dispensing his charity. Such ways have been provided, lots of them, and he will not be wasting his money. But it does not make atonement; not any of them, or all of them, can do that--not in full Something more is wanted; he Is wanted.
 The man outside the window can use his money: yes, and sometimes may do him good. sometimes harm. But what he really needs is him. Then no harm comes. For the man who gives himself-that Is, who g0es. to his broth- CT, intent on doing him goodwill. when he has fed him, next concern himself about what ails him that he was hungry. And then he win find that which money cannot always reach. Perhaps he has lost courage and hope, lost his grip A boost Is good for a man ln such case. But once the man who gives 1t has got a near view of the brother he helpel, he Is not apt to let go. He will feel like walking alongside Q spell, seeing to 1t that his friend keeps the road and does not go astray again. And before he knows it has has got the real brother feeling, and that which he began as a duty has become aSjoy. Then his moneey will count for twice what 1t did before. and he himself for three times the | ing. F
 ESQ that Is what mean by saying l that the man Is wrong 80 long as he | contents himself with merely the hu- | man impulse which the sight of the | hungry man outside aroused in him. He Is on the right road. but the | hasn't got there yet. It Is the dlsincli- | nation to so all the way on that road | at Is responsible for So much of cur trouble, so many of our social Ills. | am not sure that it isn't responsible | for all of them.
 T remember how impressed I was when I found that in Germany, under their system of poor relief, a man so | busy as Professor Virchow, the great | surgeon and scientist. had his block in | his street in which he knew and saw to those who needed a helping hand And yet in the very same year In which | ' had sat and admired the German | system. when Mrs Josephine Shaw Lowell asked me to join her district | committee on the East Side, to do | not even that but just to supervise the | work of the friendly visitors, 1 found | an excuse. I was busy. Busy! We | are all too busy to attend to the | neighbor's real wants; busy laying up | treasure for ourselves. for our own | families. And then comes the pang al |