Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt:... of the poor? It is of no use to say that the poor do not appreciate this poetical view of things. That is not true, to begin with; but if it were, it would only be an added reason against removing the very influence by which they may come to appreciate it. Or fall back to lower levels and be severely practical. If the desire in our philanthropic endeavor is to "inculcate habits of providence and selfdependence," to make the poor diligent in their work, to give them an interest in the welfare and advancement of their country, surely it will be best not to remove from them the very incentives and motives that in all ages and lands have proved the most powerful in nerving men to exertion and effort. The hope in a man's heart of having a home, whose roof may shelter father and mother when they are old, and where his children may grow up shielded from the dangers of the world, has been a potent factor in the progress of humanity; it has launched ships, and dared tempests, and felled forests, and conquered fierce and hostile tribes, and made the American nation. No philanthropy that weakens this motive, no philanthropy that does not aim at all costs to preserve and strengthen it, can contribute to social progress. But what of a philanthropy that erects Old Men's Homes, and Children's Folds, and Children's Nurseries, and tolerates tenement houses (in the interest of landlord benefactors), and says nothing against the robbery from the people of the very earth on which alone their homes can be built? The appeal to men to fight and struggle, and die, if need be, in defence of their hearths, the gray hairs of their sires, and their children's lives, has rarely been made in vain. But what patriotism is to be expected from a man whose wife has died...