Some years ago an American gentleman was driving past one of the
beautiful old homes in rural England, standing in its stately
park. He asked the driver who lived there. “Oh,” said the man,
“we used to have lots of aristocratic company there. They had
plenty of money and they spent it freely. We poor folks were
well off then. But now the place belongs to a woman, and she is
a Methodist, and everything is going to the bad.” So spoke the
countryman, and from his little view this loss of luxury and
extravagance was all wrong, even for the poor man. But meanwhile
there was another side to the picture. That estate also
included a large tenement district in one of the worst portions
of London. In wretched hovels, surrounded by saloons and low
resorts, the miserable people paid their rents, exorbitant for
such quarters, and these rents supplied the funds for the luxury
and extravagance of the former owner. But now what has happened?
The lady who owns the estate to-day is using her revenues, not
for her own luxuries, but in bettering these homes, in driving
out these saloons, and in creating a new spirit of love between
her and her tenants. A few country yokels get less to spend
for drink, but a great city population has more joy in living,
and the bitter class distinction between riches and poverty
is lessened.--DONALD SAGE MACKAY, “The Threshold of
Religion.”
(3462)
=Wealth Statistics=--See MONEY-POWER IN CANADA; MONEY-POWER IN THE
UNITED STATES.
=Weapons Displaced=--See WARFARE, ANTIQUATED.
=Weather Forecast=--See PROGNOSTICATION OF WEATHER.
=Weather Influencing Crime=--See CRIME, EPIDEMICS OF.
=Weather, The, and the Spider=--See INDICATOR, AN INSECT.
=Weaving=--See WEB OF LIFE.