Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-12-05
A STUDY In
SOCIOLOGY
Another Temperance Sermon
BY Or. John w. Wadman
Which Rings True
BY Or. JOHN w. wAoMAN.

Bill and went, TO school IORetloT.
We were in the primary grades Bill
couldn't learn He was naturally stu
pid. He was often punished for his
dullness and was left behind in his
classes His parents were Swedes.
The father drove an express wagon
for a living and the mother, to assist,
went out washing. After the fourth
grade Bill dropped out of school and
went to work in shoe factory. Years
passed. had quite forgotten all
about my Swede schoolmate.
Having blossomed forth into a PRO
bationer on Trial. in the ministry,
was appointed assistant pastor Of one
of the churches of my native town
acquainted all over. He was married,
with two little children. They lived
down near the gas works, in two
rooms of tenement filled with
twenty or more other families. Bill
still worked ina shoe factory-a larg.
er one. He then worked ten hours a
day, tending noisy whirring machine
cutting out uppers for shoes. have
often watched Bill working that ma
chine. He couldn't take his eyes off
for single second for then he might
spoil the piece" and that meant a
fine or the loss of finger-possibly
two or three, and that would mean
the loss of job. Bills eyes would
burn like fire after ten hours of such
steady work and in the small Of his
back there would be sharp shooting
pains as if scared with hot iron. Bill
4 cfnr a. 90 sahf In
the whistle blew 6 O'Clock. For all
this, poor Bill received Saturday
night the princeIy sum OF, $12s or. pos
sibly $11.50, the half dollar being de-
Quoted because rotten belt had
snapped asunder or for some other
offense. 4 49,
All About Bill. %- III.
j Bill looked underfed. His children
too were often sick. The little Ger
man wife was not very strong. She
was kind and patient but worried a
good deal about their little debts at
the grocery and meat shop with the
rent unpaid for some weeks. Bill
knew all this as he donned his coat
and started fof4honae one dull. chilly,
cherries Saturday in autumn through
Pownal street BHls shabby gar
ments are not the Warmest. The cold
night air and drizzly rain make him
shiver. His eyes burn like balls Of
FIRE. The buzz and roar of the factory
wheels are still in his head. His back
aches and throbs with ten hours con-
slant stopping. He sees the tawdry
lights of a dozen or more saloons as
he trudges along, the narrow street
towards his tenement abode. He
smells the alcohol-laden air, hears a
burst of ragtime or the hearty roar
of some Jolly good fellows. He slack
ems his pace, comes to a stop; then
he wavers. Poor Bill! He only wants
a little drop to warm him, little bit
of good cheer to tighten his burden.
He won't stay long nor spend much
The swinging doors have closed on
Bill. poor wife, you say. Yes, poor
wife. 1t is frugal supper she has
prepared and after waiting long she
signs TO herself, Drinking again!"
Then she feeds the children, chokes
down her own food, places BiH's sup
per between two broken plates, puts 1t
in the oven of an old stove with a
dying fire in the CRATE to keep warm,
and goes to bed late. Little Nell's
cough grows worse towards midnight
and still no Bill. What has happened
more than once, she thinks, has hap
pened again Drunk and disorderly,
locked up for the night But where
are the wages? And what about the
bills which must be paid, and food for
the coming days? y.
"Not a Bad Fellow" IL.
Two days later was called in to
bury Nell, for the angels had borne
her little spirit away to the fathers
house where there is bread enough
and to spare, and Isgot to know Bill
again Believe me, he was not in any
sense a bad fellow; that IL, bad at
heart. True, his ideals were low, his
passions strong, his temptations Sc
we're. But Bill was oyerworked and
underfed. His worries, too, un-
manned him, embittered him.
/ But let us be charitable. You and
i don't have to work in a noisy, nerve
Iwrecking factory ten hours a day
with its whirring bolts and belts and
blades. There is food in our larders,
some little cash in our purses, while
at the end of the day wives greet US
with smiles and children with song
and laughter. Tommy's school clothes
nor Nelrs bad cough, nor wife's bag
gard looks don't worry us. Neither
does Whisky Row lie between the
place of our daily toll and the bunga-
low uptown which we call home.
We spend more money in month.
some of us, on our amusements than
Bills family spends in a whole year
for poor, mostly canned, food.
But, Bill is a Type. -, :
The cost of your wife's hat, sir,
would have paid for a doctor and a
nurses care of little Nell and saved
her from an untimely death. 1t is a
study in sociology. Don't blame Bill
!, too severely for his drinking. Would
you have done differently? Put your.
self in Bills place With his eyes you
will see the Inequalities of our social
Il NJ T. IL I,aa