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Editorial Section of Hearsfs Sunday American, Sunday, May 25, 1913
There Is the Charity of the Heart, There Is the Charity OF THE POCKETBOOK. It Is the Charity of the Heart That Keeps Our Civilization Going, AND GROWING.
HE greatest of these is charity.”
In this world the most beautiful
thing is CHARITY which gives without
hope of reward or return, simply for the
love of giving, and for the love of other
human beings.
All charity is beautiful, necessary—(that which
, comes from abundant wealth spasmodically sympa-
’ thetic, and that which comes from the very heart of
the poor, helping each other.
If anything (-an make the eye in the needle wider
for the Croesus it is the charity which marks the close
, t of his life, when his money has been accumulated.
And if there is anything that gives us hope for the
future of the human race, confidence in the innate
goodness of human heings, it is the wonderful endless
charity that poor people show T to each other, and that
the world never hears of.
K M r
It is because there is so much charity NEVER
HEARD 0F that we write to-day of the two kinds of
charity and illustrate them in this picture.
The woman is put out of her home. Furniture is
on the sidewalk, the children are bewildered and
frightened—and HUMILIATED; humiliation is sad
dest to the poor.
Help comes at once.
Poor people passing the door give their pennies.
The rich woman driving by sends a footman to help,
as she looks out sympathetically, afraid that what she
has seen is going to spoil her pleasure for the evening.
The woman, the coachman and the footman drive
away. It begins to get dark, the sun is going down be
hind the tenement house roofs—the sun sets earlier on
Yttf* tenement streets than it does on the wide park or
tae |5®Mtiful country.
jhv darkness REAL CHARITY COMES OUT
FROM THE TENEMENT HOUSES NEAR BY.
The mother whose rooms are too crowded already
with scanty furniture and plentiful children comes
down with her husband and a neighbor. The woman
put on the street by a rich man IS PUT BACK UN
DER A ROOF BY A POOR MAN.
The dinner that is none too big for four is made
to do for six or eight.
The poor woman and the children that have been
rescued from the streets are put in the place of honor.
THEY ARE MADE TO FEEL LIKE WELCOME
GUESTS, NOT LIKE OBJECTS OF CHARITY,
NOT LIKE BEGGARS.
And that IS THE REAL CHARITY THAT
MAKES LIFE POSSIBLE, KEEPING THE POOR
AND FRIENDLESS FROM UTTER DESPAIR IN
THIS HARD WORLD.
* m n
We would not have any man underestimate the
charity of the powerful man, rich man.
In all the history of the world, we sincerely be
lieve, there is no more hopeful sign than the recent
tendency of those that are very successful in life to
give back to the people the money that they have ac
cumulated in their days of work.
Human-beings are not vet advanced sufficiently in
government to look after their own interests thor
oughly.
The public money is used without stint to BUILD
JAILS, but our foolish ideas will not allow us to use
that same monev TO BUILD LIBRARIES, AL
THOUGH WE KNOW THE LIBRARY IS THE EN
EMY OF THE JAIL, AS KNOWLEDGE IS THE
ENEMY OF IGNORANCE AND CRIME.
It was real charity and nobility of character that
impelled Andrew Carnegie, poor and without educa
tion in his youth, to give back to the people in public
libraries and in his splendid establishment of learning
at Washington the millions that he piled up as a suc
cessful man.
When old John D. Rockefeller, grief-stricken at
the loss of a grandchild, devoted a large sum of money
to scientific investigation of / children’s diseases and
their cure, he did a great deal for millions of children
and mothers that will live here after his death. The
thought was kindly. It should be appreciated to the
full.
J. Pierpont Morgan took millions of his money
and gave them to establish a lying-in hospital for poor
women—an establishment so perfect in its detail, its
scientific care of health, THAT THE RICHEST
WOMAN CAN NOT HAVE IN HER OWN HOME
SUCH CARE AS MORGAN GIVES TO THE POOR
EST WOMAN IN HIS HOSPITAL. The world must
recognize in that a beautiful charity, and be glad that
the modern spirit impelled Mr. Morgan to do so much
for those that need his help.
It would be better if we had reached the point
where we had no John D. Rockefellers and no Mor
gans; on the one hand making millions by control of
legislation, and on the other hand giving millions in
charity back to those from whom they have taken tens
of millions.
But until we learn enough to spend our public
money for hospitals and libraries and institutions of
learning, we must be grateful that in the brain of the
powerful men that take the hundreds of millions from
us there is the particular kind of charity that impels
them to give a few millions back.
* * •*
There are the two great kinds of charity—the
charity of power, of the full pujse, which gives freely
—easily. That kind of charity is needed—it is the
prelude to common sense on the part of the v people,
the forerunner of real government, free from charity,
which will enable the people to do for themselves
those things which they now receive as gifts from the
hands of the enormous millionaires.
That kind of charity which appears in its millions
and ihu, of millions is weii «u\tilled — ever y b o d y
MUST hear about it. We ask von to think often of
the second kind of charity. The charity from a hand
hard on the palm and grimy with labor on the back,
that takes from its pocket a small sum and almost
apologetically gives it to the woman poorer than the
giver.
That charity is practiced daily on every block of
every city in this country—and in every other country.
It is the charity that sends one poor mother to
help another when a child arrives unexpectedly in the
world.
It is the charity that brings friends when a child
is sick and money is lacking for the doctor and for
good food.
It is the charity YOU MAY BE SURE TH NT
GOES MOST SWIFTLY AND DIRECTLY 1X1 BE
RECORDED BEFORE ETERNAL JUSTICE, IN
THE BOOK WHERE THE NOBLEST ACTS OF
M EN ARE W RITTEN DOWN.
Long ago the story was told. In the temple at
Jerusalem the rich gave freely, and all the world
knew it.
That big giving was good charity.
But the other kind, still better, was there, when
the poor widow, with torn clothes and a thin hand,
gave her mite.
"And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting
their gifts into the treasury.
‘‘And he saw also a certain poor widow casting
in thither two mites.
‘‘And he said, Of a truth I say unto you that the
poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
‘‘For all these have of their abundance cast in
unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath
cast in all the living that she had.”
That is the charity of which we wish to remind
you to-day. When you hear that this man has given
his millions or that man his tens of millions for char-
itv, or education, or science—be glad AND GRATE
FUL. BUT DON’T FORGET THAT THE REAL
CHARITY. THE REAL MD ' IONS, are given away
by the poor p ic thempen —— -