'Tis a little thing
To give a cup of water, yet its draught
Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips,
May give a shock of pleasure to the frame
More exquisite than when nectarean juice
Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.--Talfourd.
Real poverty, it may not be impossible, is to the
individual, more of a question when directed to his country than to his
actions. In Ireland or Italy, it seems to me, the greatest of individual
excellence in sobriety and economy may not shield the citizen from
abject want, which is a terrible thing. But in America the man who is
often called "poor" gets as much rest for his body and quite as
beneficial food for his stomach as the man whose wealth is the wonder of
the world. It is a magnificent land where there is so much food raised
and so many clothes made that a man calls himself poor if he have only
plenty to eat and wear! Our definition of the word "poverty" is a
marvelous corruption of the word. To be poor in the true sense of the
word, in this great land, one must have either been sick or criminally
negligent. Many a clerk eats as much and dresses as well as Vanderbilt.
What does Vanderbilt do with the great number of millions which he
controls?