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Show Christmas Should Be a Day of Joy For Rich and Poor. ! rpHE Intermountain Catholic extends I to all its readers Christmas greet-.' greet-.' ! ' ings and hopes that all their most i cherished wishes will be realized - on . ' . that day of joy. and gladness. It has , 1 appealed to the generous and well dis- ' ' : . posed to open their purse strings and bring peace and happiness to the half-deserted half-deserted and cold homes, of the sick : ! and weary, by clothing the naked, giv- ; j ing refreshments to the hungry and ! thirsty, and making it impossible for j J ' the cold winter blasts and nipping frost to reach the hearthstone. All -with lov-i lov-i ing, genial, souls end ready Sympathy ! can find within easy reach, objects ! worthy of their generosity whom they j can assist and make merry on Christ mas day. Their reward will be God's blessing, which is always meted out to those who -freely and generously help the needy. j The intermountain states are frill of wealth. There is abundant supply for -vory human wi.nt. The "barren moun- tains have yielded untold wealth in ' precious metals, the valleys have turned ' out rich yellow harvests; coal is plenti- f ful, and from all these products we j meet rich men in every city and hamlet ! of the intermountain region. Many of those who helped to produce this wealth will be also found. Some are old and feeble and no longer able to I i work, but the effects of the work' 1 they have done remain, and they I should not be allowed to suffer. All - their ordinary "wants should be sup- 1 Llled. There are others, too, who, i 15 ""' "ffi?15 i' Tii though willing and able to- earn a living, liv-ing, may need a helping hand. At this season work is scarce and often men with large families, though strong and robust, are unable to find employment which would secure for their families the simplest means of -subsistence. Many are ashamed to beg, but never too proud to work, and their pitiful cry, "Let us work so that we may be abel to purchase food for our little ones, and cover them with the scantiest scanti-est clothing," is not always heard, or heeded. For these Christmas should be -made a day of. joy and thanksgiving. thanksgiv-ing. They receive no share of the millions mil-lions that come from the bowels of. the snowcapped mountains, nor can they receive any . help from, the immense treasures yet to be dug from our fertile fer-tile valleys. They do not claim it. All they ask for is work, and if there be no work for able and willing hands who have families to support, they should not be allowed to suffer from hunger or cold. In a wealthy region, where checks from $1,000 to $100,000 are daily-issued, daily-issued, and constantly mentioned in slow and measured terms as matters of ordinary occurrence, it is awful to see a poor widow with two or more children, chil-dren, pale and wan. buying coal by the pound, and measuring the coarsest food by an Income of fifty cents to one dollar a day. No more sorrowful picture pic-ture could be presented than that of able-bodied men, willing, seeking work, yet unable to secure - employment whereby they could earn enough to buy food for their families." The news heralded her-alded from the coal regions of Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania during the last two months discloses a state of affairs there which is hard to realize as occurring in a Christian, country, where riches abound and prosperity reigns. The pith of the news, as ' gleaned from the evidence, shows a tendency throughout that region, re-gion, if not the whole country, to bring the vorking classes to a." point not only where a portion of this population popu-lation cpujd secure even a dollar a day for their "hard work, " but where they could secure no work for their ready, willing and brawny hands. In the midst of plethoric wealth, an old man with tearful eyes and . haggard face, who spent the greater part of his life in the airless, musty coal pits, testified that, with his dying wife, blind mother-in-law, and hungry children, he was ejected from a wretched lodgings for non-payment1 of . rent. WThen asked about his sickly wife, with a gloomy look, he answered. "Dead." Exposure accelerated her death and brought peace to her troubled soul. A widowed mother, whose husband's life was sacrificed sac-rificed in the coal pits, testified that her scanty earnings from scrubbing, and that of her boys, yet in their teens, were never paid, - but entered on the credit side of the ledger for rent due since her husband's life was sacrificed. Such instances show the cruelty and tyranny of greed and avarice, and how hard-hearted a soulless corporation can become. In the far west we have not yet come to the point where the milk of human kindness, flowing from the generous fountains of truly Christian " souls, is entirely dried up. We have not yet reached that stage in human misery where numberless workmen, pleading for their little ones, a6k, for the love of God and humanity, the privilege of working, if only, in return, they'receive but sufficient to keep them above starvation point. The laboring classes, as a.rule," are thrifty and industrious. in-dustrious. In the mining regions where employment is secured, the work is steady. In the cities, during the winter win-ter months, it-is different. Men, with large families, and no visible means of support, are idle, widowed mothers, wth Tielpless children, are in our midst. The' well' disposed, generous and Christian Chris-tian people can easily, find many such persons who are worthy of charity. ; We have, and it is greatly to be deplored, de-plored, a vicious and wretched element ! of society who need to ..be restrained. They are on the increase and to be '. found everywhere. What is the cause? People have lost faith in God, in eternity, eter-nity, in love and justice. That living faith of past ages is abandoned. Heaven Heav-en and hell are mere words, and all they convey are relegated to the domain do-main of superstition. Heaven consists in success in money matters, and the only hell that has infinite terror is failure fail-ure In making money.. The results are greed and selfishness, followed by numberless num-berless crimes. ,Last week we were informed by one of our daily newspapers of a sad state of affairs in this cits'. In a civilized community it is dreadful to contemplate contem-plate that - murder without remorse should ocfur for the stake of a few dollars; ; that houses of infamy should exist for' the -sole purpose of corrupting' corrupt-ing' innocent souls. There could be no more sorrowful -sight than the scenes depicted by our morning contemporary, of boys in their teens lured into the haunts of vice "for filthy lucre. Has it come to this, that in order to pay Shylock his pound of flesh, or ?2 a day, our . Christian representatives $10 a month, besides securing enough to furnish fur-nish fuel, food and clothing, our boys' morals must be sacrificed by the enticements en-ticements and unholy embrace of prostitutes? . There could be : no stronger condemnation of the order of things that exists than the plain unvarnished un-varnished narrative of the reporter. Its effects are far-reaching in their evil consequences. We may wince at the statements made by the unfortunate inmates of these hotbeds of crime, their daily wants and efforts to supply the same by inviting and encouraging mere boys, "from 12 years up," to sin; boys who know not even the name of their Maker, unless by hearing it desecrated. dese-crated. We are perpetually boasting of our wealth and prosperity, our great power on land and sea, our superior enlightenment, enlight-enment, the great privilege of universal suffrage, universal education, yet it may be asked, in this blessed and happy hap-py land,, under the light of the gospel, with our churches and Sunday schools, is this th.e best. we can dp for our boys, who are to be our future citizens? .Fathers .Fa-thers of families and all who love their country should answer this question in all seriousness. And that avswer is, because a living, active faith in God is sacrificed for. Mammon worship. The stream cannot rise higher than its source, and if parents and those who are not parents abandon church, lead easy, free and double lives, have no qualms of conscience, the children are sure to follow in their footsteps. It is' easier' to "sink than to rise, and having once, tasted of the forbidden fruit of sin, it requires not only a iu-preme' iu-preme' ff or, but God's grace, to rise again to the plane of the supernatural. Faith lost, is not easily regained, and if the people have substituted the wor- "V.. " - ' ship of Mammon for the worship of God, tHere is no restraint on their' descendants de-scendants farther than that exercised . , by. the police force and condemnation and -exposure of ihe public press.. You , parents" who have lost faith in God, the highest ideal of what is noble", beautiful and just, have given to your children in return a poor substitute iri the worship of Mammon. This low-ideal low-ideal is, in part, the cause of the great laxity that prevails everywhere. It shuts the door of the soul against the blessings of the Infant Savior, and makes Christmas - greetings a mere mockery of the grand and sublime ideas of religion with which they were always so closely connected. |