The Washington herald., 1915-09-15
Perquisites
BY JOHN ID. BARRY.

Not long ago had reason to call on a clergy
| man.
! AS entered his house he was ushering out al
old man, poor feeble, evidently in distress
The clergyman spoke loudly, roughly. Hi
| words, however, showed that he was going to dc
| the service
| AS he turned to greet me his manner changed
He smiled. His voice softened
"You have to handle those fellows without
gloves" he said, speaking to me as one speaks tc
i an equal and drawing into completely.
We had never met before He had never seer
me nor heard of me. Like the feeble old man,
had come to ask the clergyman to do me a service
But my clothes good the clergy.
mans. They suggested prosperity. So the clergy
man instnctively paid OF the perquisites
of the prosperous, of the sweetest of all per-
quistes, courtesy.
1t must be hard to receive this perquiste 1t
must be OF the hardest things in life, one OF
the most embitterng.
Some of the prosperous like to say that the
poor don't mind. The poor are so used to pay
ing the tribute of respect and to failing to receive
it.
l wonder if the prosperous really believe that
notion.
Perhaps they only think they believe it.
Perhaps they think they believe it because they
have said it so often and because they have heard
one another say it.
But it isn't true.
The poor repeatedly show that they feel dis
courtesy.
AS matter of fact, they feel exactly as you
do do
They show that they feel it by responding
within you do and | do, both to dscourtcsy
and to courtesy.
Only they may not show it in exactly the same
way.
Often they don't dare to resent discourtesy.
They afraid of the punishment that will fall
upon them if they show it, and upon their wives
and children.
That is awful thing about our way Of
living.
The prosperous easily punish not only
the poor that offend them, but those who are de-
pendent the poor.
For in reality the poor have only one another
to depend
They can rely only one another.
l know wc-to-do man who suffers consider
ably from thinking about the perquisites OF the
prosperous.
''iif'N''io'ciy
think steadily about it for few minutes, it will
make you very uncomfortable.
This man is extremist, people who resent
our social conditions are so likely to be- It's
pity, too, for their extravagant language weakens
their influence.
This man is prosperous that he refuses to
wear good clothes.
In fact, he often looks shabby His friends, in
presenting him to their acquaintance, explain
eagerly that he is rich
Their apologies cause him to be considered
much richer than he actually is, greatly to his
circumstance not devoid of humor.
One day he went to call on some people who
lived in a fashionable New York apartment hotel
1t was raining. He had no ovcrcoat and his
collar was turned up He walked to the desk and
asked that his be sent to his friends
The clerk shook his head and frowned. "Go
to the servants entrance" he said.
Now I should imagine this particular man
would enjoy making his way up that entrance to
his friends
But you can be sure what those social
enthusiasts will do in such an emergency
Besides at critical moments the sense of hum
or may become inhibited Often it fails genuine
just when they most need it, too.
The man was furious.
He clustered
Naturally people thought he had been drink
ing
They started to put him out
BY that time he was so incensed that he might
have done something foolish.
But one of his friends happened along and
rescued him.
It's very unpleasant thing for one who enjoys
the perquisites of the prosperous to have them
suddenly suspended.
But it's a healthy experience, too, if he only
looks at it in the right way.
1t makes him realize how it must feel to have