Show howe abo t poverty A sordid tale A popular rogue a bell service by ED HOWE INVERT E VERY little while I 1 encounter the statement in american print that 73 per ce cent nt of citizens die as paupers haupers pau pers if f not I 1 in n the poor house then as helpless burdens on grumbling relatives it Is a disgraceful charge to mako make in a country as good as this how near true Is it and how much of the blame attaches to the unhappy 73 per cent the other day I 1 attended the funeral of a man I 1 had known some years for six months he had been a charity patient at a public institution and a very unpopular one as he had an ugly temper for 30 years he had a salary never below 40 a week and light and pleasant work yet was never a week ahead of the tha hounds within a year of his death he be took a long trip on borrowed money in an automobile the mortgage took after the funeral mortgages also emptied his house of all the furniture worth anything I 1 have known him to give parties on money ho he should and a nd might have saved to pay his funeral expenses lie he jazzed mazzed his music his job his life ile he might have owned a shop of his own SO 30 years ago but was always expecting a raise when a reduction was steadily more probable it Is not an unusual case the disturbing figures quoted may not be too high I 1 know an old fellow who disposed to do his duty to the unemployed the past winter hired an automobile driver he did not need because the fellow had a wife and two children in one night the man stole a car help up a filling station and married a street walker and is now in jail at the expense of overburdened taxpayers before the state Is through with wa th him bim trial rehearing deputies to take him to prison officers to guard and feed him chaplains to pray for him his cost to the public will be several thousand dollars more it Is a sordid tale but true what was in that mans brain cavity did his parents spoil him or was it the help howling in publications and conventions vent ions and everybody saying that civilization Is a failure I 1 know a stout young man with excellent natural intellectual equipment who for 20 years has been a contemptible temp tible scoundrel in all his relations with hla his mother ile he reduced her to poverty giov 1 erty and she went to work but he refused to he lives off of her work and Is mean to her ile he Is a disreputable loafer yet the women say there Is nothing vicious about the boy and rather like him they even severely criticize his mother for spoiling him although she has done nothing except love him and coax him with tears in her eyes to behave himself 0 0 A certain great scientist whose special branch is mankind sald said in a recent writing that lie he liked to study ills his own body he even found toothache interesting I 1 wonder what this man thinks of love I 1 once had a friend who ns as a single man was quite admirable soon after he married a woman roman we all thought very nice he became so brutal as to strongly suggest insanity totally separated from lier her by divorce and removed to a distant place he again became a gentleman and made a name for himself in one of the foremost professions I 1 was once with a hunting party in the west and we set a trap one morning we found a bear in it it As we rode back to camp with the hide the negro cook who had come along for the ride was speaking of the surprise of the bear when caught here was a tempting morsel h halt alf an antelope and the bear was hungry in getting gettan it a hidden trap suddenly snapped quoting the bear the negro said my lord what have I 1 stepped into great outrages are apparently committed by judges judge it ts Is stated elated by a reputable newspaper quoting official records that a woman was judged insane during the following year the court allowed bills of the he gu guardian ardlan amounting to forty thousand dollars mostly bills for tees fees of lawyers while the insane woman was allowed only six thousand for living expenses and now hundreds of the womans comans neighbors testify she was never insane the woman herself swore that she was persuaded by lawyers to consent to a fraudulent insanity plea as the best means of robbing relatives in a court proceeding what a sickening outrage to go on in a courthouse built at the cost of taxpayers to insure justice I 1 do not believe the people can ever be cured of their natural dishonesty but still have hope they can be taught honesty is the best policy it we will teach it as long and industriously as we have taught some of our untrue doctrines f some of these thes lays days you will realize that you have managed your affairs badly all your ybur life why owhy not admit your weakness as eail early as al possible and tn endeavor deavor to do better this Is the soundest advice one fool man can give another |