The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-21

that another year is nearly gone and what's the use of waiting on from year to year when it is so unlikely that we shall ever be better off than we are now?
 He says that if people in our condition wait until we see our way clear 1t is like
 to be very narrow way-the grave. So
 Richards says, father, that as his work
 was yesterday made quite sure to him for
 some time to come we had better get mar ried on New Years Day" She said all this with sometimes a laugh and some times a sob and sometimes laugh ana sob together
 Toby said never a word and left his tripe cooling on the steps. Just then the door of the great house opened and a footman very nearly put his foot in the tripe "Out of the ways there, will you, out of the ways Will you clear the road or won't yoe?" snarled the footman. What's the matter-what's the matter?'' said a gentleman who came out of the door with two companions. They were all three very prosperous looking and we'll groomed men.
 The first one, and evidently the pro- prietor of the house, was one of tn ose who always give the impression of hav- ing a wealthy engagement somewh ere | One was a small, low spirited looking man with a taste for statlstics-and showed it. The other was a large, red faced, portly gentleman with a know ing smile, who seemed to say q know the people--they can't fool me. I get | Alderman Cute. and the thin one was MT. Filler, who compiled statistics show ing the prodgality and riotous waste oe
 the poor of the realm. Filler took up
 Toby's basin and began jabbing at it's | contents with a fork.
 This is species of food. Alderma n"
 said he, commonly known to the la
 boring population of the country as tripe. Now tripe is, without exception, the least economical and the most wasteful article of consumption that the market affords. The loss upon a pound | of tripe has been found by actual ex . pertinent to be- in boiling, seven-e -eighths of a fifth more than any other animal substance whatever. I find the amount of waste on the tripe produced in the
 
 garrison of 800 men for five months of 31 days each and a February over. The waste! The waste!'
 Trotty stood aGhast; his legs shook under him. he felt as if he had starved garrison of 500 men with his own hand. Divide the amount of tripe ct present existing in this country by the | number of widows and orphans" went on Filler, "and the result will be one pennyweight for each-not a grain left for that man. Consequently he's a robber." Trotty was so terrified at this state 1t did not concern him at all to see the alderman calmly finish the | tripe himself. It was a relief to get rid of it. Now said the alderman, T know the people, l am a plain, prac- tical man. And you, porter, don't tell me, or any one else, that you have not always enough to eat and good things, too. I have tasted your tripe, you | know so you can't fool me. Now, my friend. there is lot of talk nowadays about 'hard-up'--ha, ha, that's the phrase isn't it? and l intend to put it down. There is certain amount of cant in vogue about starvation-and I mean to put it down. You can put down anything among this sort of peo- i pie if you only know how to go about it."
 | Just then who should come along but ] Richard, the strong young youth, who | was to marry Meg He stepped beside her and one of the gentlemen asked if he was going to marry her. Yes" said I Richard Married! marriedl" groaned FL Ter. Put that down, Alderman. Ienor- ance of the very first principles of po- litical economy on the part of the peo- pie. Their improvidence. their wicked ness is enough to-now look at that couple"