“The poor shall never cease out of the land,” is
a prediction still constantly fulfilled after, the
lapse of many centuries, and this despite of the
multiplied discoveries of art and science that
according to human calculation should have given
occupation and consequent sustenance to all; so that
it would be an obstinate rejection of the prophecy
to doubt that until the end of time, “the poor shall
never cease out of the land.” Under these
circumstances let us examine what is the duty of
those to whom the prediction was given, and what was
the purpose of it? It is found in connexion with the
command “Open wide thy hand to thy needy brother.”
But if it were only intended to apply to such as
require immediate aid, the command would be
sufficient without the prediction. This therefore
appears to have another object, and seems to demand
that whilst providing for those who need present
aid, it is incumbent on us to lay the foundation for
aiding those that will be the poor of the land when
we are rendering at the judgment seat of our God an
account of the deeds which have marked our career
whilst sojourning on earth.
Of all the institutions that charity has suggested
and liberality is needed for, a Foster Home or
Hospital seems most to combine provision for the
present and the future requirements of the poor.
Some slight efforts have been made, and strong
wishes have been expressed, to establish such an
institution; but good wishes alone will not avail,
or the wants of helpless childhood
<<2>>had ere this found
protection, and the pangs of disease been alleviated
by the kind hand of brotherly love. The pecuniary
means are wanting. Ye who have abundance of God’s
gifts, ye who are clad in purple, and dwell in
palaces, remember that to “open wide thy hand to thy
needy brother” is the command of that God who hath
so blessed your store; remember that “the poor shall
never cease out of thy land” demands, that from your
abundance provision shall be made for them; remember
that your children, or your children’s children, may
be among the poor of the land who will seek the aid
and require the sympathy of their generation; but,
above all, forget not that your deeds, and not your
wealth, will on the day of judgment lead for you to
your God.
Α DAUGHTER OF ISRAEL. [Rebecca Gratz]
NOTE BY THE EDITOR.—Our
readers will recollect that we have several times
urged the propriety, nay, the necessity, of
establishing a home for helpless infancy, and a
refuge for decrepid age, and to have connected
therewith a hospital, where the Jewish sick can be
attended by those of their own faith, and be
nourished by a wholesome diet, and without violating
their religion in their last days, or in moments of
recovery. Whilst the German paper, Israel’s Herald,
was in existence for a short time, its intelligent
editor, Mr. Bush, admitted several articles,
advocating the subject strongly; but as yet no
response has been made by those having the means to
aid in the premises, and the foster-home, house of
refuge for the aged, and the hospital for the sick,
remain but a pious wish, the accomplishment of
which, we fear, will have to be postponed till
several liberal-hearted men, now unendowed, acquire
wealth, or till those in possession of it shall
acquire a heart to devote a considerable portion of
it to something else than the obtainment of a larger
store, or self-gratification. But we will do the
rich the justice to suppose that they do not think
that there is any distress in the world; or else
they would not be enveloped in their warm
dressing-gowns, whilst the poor child of beggary
stands shivering at their door; they could not sit
down to their well-spread board, whilst they know
that near them the destitute are starving for want
of a little of that superabundant food which they
cast to their dogs; they would not rest in their
beds, could they be made to believe that a
fellow-being, a stranger in a strange land, is
wandering houseless in the deserted streets, amidst
the pelting of the drenching rain and the howling of
the<<3>>pitiless storm;
they would hardly dare to provide for their own
children all the superfluities of an over-refined
education, could they realize that a brother’s child
perhaps is reared in ignorance, vice and misery, for
want of a little kindly aid, for the absence of a
little consideration for the wants which neither it
nor its parents have voluntarily caused. And still
we can assure the rich, that such agonizing scenes
as we have just hinted at are constantly witnessed,
and that there is distress which a well-directed
philanthropy could easily remedy, if those who have
the means were to act in concert, and if they would
feel in earnest that charity is something more than
a mere almsgiving, a bestowal of a little
superfluous matter which they do not need, and the
absence of which they cannot appreciate.
No one need tell us that all mankind could not, as
society is constituted, relieve all the distress and
prevent all the crime the world. But surely much can
be effected if the will be there to smooth the path
of those doomed to sorrow, and to lead many, who
otherwise might become a curse to society, to attain
the highest stations among the learned, the
virtuous, and the public benefactors. Often and
often the experiment fails, it is true, lamentably
true, and the vice imbibed in early infancy, the
improvidence engendered in the hovels of
wretchedness, will cling like the poisoned shirt of
Nessus to the sufferer, till his last breath is
drawn. Still is this no reason to abandon the
unhappy to a hopeless misery, to omit rescuing, as
it were, twenty of a whole crew of a thousand,
because we cannot save all from drowning. It is not
ours to accomplish impossibilities; but surely it is
not doing our duty to attempt nothing, when, to a
surety, something is within the reach of our means.
Now, we contend, to second the idea of our
correspondent, that something is due from wealthy
Israelites, and those of moderate means, toward the
children of the wretchedly poor, and those helpless
through age and disease; to snatch the first from
the pollution of ignorance and its baleful
consequences, and the others from the despair of
utter helplessness in their downward course to the
grave. Let us first speak of the Foster Home.
Whoever is acquainted with large cities will readily
acknowledge that there exist always in them a
degraded population, who are addicted to vice and
improvidence, and thereby sunk into poverty and
degradation. Children educated, or neglected rather,
by parents so situated, become speedily the reflex
of their progenitors, and young thieves, young
drunkards, young idlers, young debauchees, are seen
in all directions, and exhibit early the disgusting
characters of low vice and cunning. And why? Because
crime and its debase-<<4>>ment,
low propensities and their cunning, have become
ingrafted on their tender natures, and they exhibit
them publicly, without shame, without remorse,
because they have never known the restraint of
virtue, and been left without the blessed influence
of religion; hence their nature is callous, their
feelings are blunted to the nicer sensibilities of
shame, and they exhibit their corruptions to the
public view, without, perhaps, dreaming that there
is ought unbecoming or reproachful in their conduct.
You may say that this is rare among Jews; we
acknowledge it, cheerfully and gladly, that this is
so; but we know ourself of instances like those we
have cited, which came under our own observation,
and where the house of correction for juvenile
offenders received within its walls several children
belonging to one family, besides some belonging to
other households, and we are free to assert, at the
same time, that if they had been removed from the
evil influence of improvident parents, the jail
would not have been the receptacle of those, who
only needed instruction and a good example to render
them honest, intelligent, industrious, and happy, by
which we mean we mean their religious and physical
condition could have been cared for.
It is possible enough that, as we observed on a
former occasion, parents might not be willing to
surrender their children to any society, no matter
how well organized; and indeed it would be a
laudable feeling in the poor were they to object to
giving up the highest, the tenderest duty of
humanity, to fashion themselves the mind of their
offspring. But again, it may be said, that when you
find such poor persons, who so highly value their
position as parents, you may freely leave their
children with them, for these will learn nothing but
what is good and truthful, if even their home be
ever so humble, their food and clothing ever so
simple. Wherefore, all you would have to do in this
case would be to give such occasional aid and
advice, as would enable the parents to execute, in
good faith, their duty as guardians and protectors
of their children, and with this your interference
should end.
But we chiefly speak of improvident parents, who
would, if left unchecked, rear their children to a
life of infamy; and these would gladly part with
them to be relieved of the trouble of providing for
them, or, if they meant to keep them, to make their
crimes productive to the seniors. These should be
compelled by the strong arm of the law, to place
them where they would be properly cared for, on the
principle that it is more noble to prevent crime
than to punish it.
Houses of refuge, so called, which are in other
words nothing but places of detention and punishment
for minors, are but poor schools for reformation, at
best, and then they only punish crime in children,
but do not prevent it. And then, besides,
<<5>>there is no
classification possible in such institutions; the
child of misfortune and the one grown old in crime
before reaching his thirteenth year, are placed on a
level, for no one would think even of punishing
young children with solitary confinement at hard
labour.
But there are scenes of misery in such places which
none but a hardened jailor could witness unmoved.
And once, we recollect, we were in the Philadelphia
House of Refuge, to look after some Jewish boys
imprisoned there; it was a beautiful spring day; the
sun shining bright and warm, and as it was the first
day of the week, the usual labours were suspended,
and the boys were, according to the humane rules of
the institution, allowed to play about in groups in
the prison-yard under the inspection of the keepers.
We noticed one boy, about twelve years old, sitting
apart from the others, basking in the sunshine near
the door at which we were standing speaking to the
superintendent. He appeared wan and dejected, his
youthful cheeks hollowed by the insidious hand of a
consumptive disease. He did not appear to our view
one reared to crime; his countenance did not betoken
him hardened in sin, and, upon inquiring, we found
our opinion correct. He was an orphan boy, was
neglected and cast on the world, committed some
little offence, perhaps vagrancy, which the good of
society was bound to punish, and the jail became his
home for a while, but, the superintendent thought
that he could not long survive, death having marked
him his own by the unmistakeable traces of inward
decay.
We pitied the poor child; but what could we do? at
least where he was he met with kindness, and the
jail perhaps, where no doubt he soon expired, was to
him the only home on earth, the only place where he
was in no one’s way, where no one could upbraid him
with his poverty, his helplessness, his forlorn
position. But still he appeared a bright intellect,
kind and gentle in disposition; and had his infancy
been watched over by affection and kindness, had he
been tended as are the children of the great and
wealthy, might he not have lived and become the
ornament of society, instead of the inmate of a
prison for juvenile offenders?
We regret that we did not inquire deeper into the
fate of this unfortunate being; but we can never
forget the painful impression his pitiful condition
made on us, and the conviction it produced on our
mind, that society owes something more, much more,
than merely providing prisons for delinquents,
whilst it does so little, so nothing at all, if we
may judge, to prevent crime, and to train those
exposed to the danger of contamination in such a
manner that they should benefit instead of injuring
their fellow-mortals.
Now, we know of many instances in America where,
even among <<6>>Jews,
the wrong-doing of children is clearly traceable to
the vicious influence of their parents or guardians,
and where, if they had been removed, we can see no
reason why they should not have been as good as the
offspring of those who are reared without a vicious
example. Now, we ask, could not such a virtuous home
be provided?
Could not the Israelites of America make a common
cause to establish a permanent fund, the interest of
which should endow a true refuge for the
children of the unfortunate or the vicious, that
they may bear and see only what is good and
religious before them? We know well enough that
there are other objects equally deserving the
attention of American Israelites; but we believe
there are means enough, if the wealthy only would
think so, to endow a foster home, a hospital, and a
college, besides leaving ample mean for the
accomplishment of all other good schemes.
It is possible enough that the funds may not at once
be obtainable; but a commencement might be made by
some having the means, to let a fund accumulate by
degrees, which, when it attains a certain amount,
should then be applied as its donors might direct.
One such an institution would be enough for the
whole country, and the more so, as then the children
would be effectually removed from the vitiated
atmosphere of their paternal home; and the more
remote the situation from the crowded walks of a
city, the better would it be for the permanent
reformation of the objects of the public care.
The green fields, the quiet of the country, the
cheerful view of outward nature, and the gentle
manner of their superintendents, aided by the bright
and cleanly appearance of all things in their new
home, would contrast strongly and, even to their
minds, favourably, with the squalor of their dingy
huts, the filth of their neighbourhood, the stifling
atmosphere of narrow alleys, accompanied as these
sights are by universal profanity of the
neighbourhood, and the discord and contention always
attending on vice within doors.
Of course the schoolmaster must be there also; for
on him mainly devolves the task of reformation, and
on his powers of persuasion or his skill of
eradicating evil and implanting virtue, it chiefly
depends whether the nurslings of the public shall
become what we wish them to be, or to degenerate,
notwithstanding all our care, into the οffshοοts of
humanity, which deform the image of their Maker.
We speak from no sickly sentimentality from no
love for the low, and contempt, or rather fancied
contempt, for those having ease and affluence. We
are equally, however, removed from a contempt of
those who are afflicted and in humble circumstances,
since those who have themselves known affliction, we
imagine, should not, without de<<7>>spising
themselves, cast a slur upon those who for the
moment happen to stand in a low degree in the scale
of human fortune. We esteem the rich in their
sphere; they can be useful if they choose to use the
blessing of God, if they have the heart to part with
what has been loaned to them more than given. But
beyond this we value not the wealthy above the poor;
for there all the real distinction ceases, for “a
man is a man for a’ that!”
Hence, we say, that both from reason and revelation
the poor, especially the innocent, helpless
offspring of the needy, have a claim, a paramount
claim on the superfluity of the other, better
endowed portion of mankind; and they may demand,
both as men and servants of the universal God, that
they shall be aided in their hour of distress. Not
that they have a right to sit down in idleness and
ask food, clothing, fuel, and shelter of the
wealthy; but that, if with all their honest labour,
the hand of distress falls heavily on them, they
should not be allowed to starve whilst there is
food, go naked whilst there is cloth, sit shivering
in the cold whilst materials for kindling a fire can
be procured, wander about houseless whilst plenty of
room is in the city to enable the favoured few to
erect palaces which they cannot occupy, and finally
to roam about in vice and ignorance, and to sink
into degradation and debasement whilst there are
ample means to kindle the lamp of knowledge in every
hovel, and space enough in the houses devoted to God
to invite all to enter, whether they can or cannot
aid in defraying the necessary expenses to rear the
buildings and reward the officers of religion.
Our words may sound somewhat agrarian; we
acknowledge it; but we speak as a disciple of Moses,
the first agrarian on record in history; we fear not
to promulgate his doctrines, to defend what he
commanded by the will of the Supreme; and as such we
are taught to know of no difference between man and
man, and that the poor have a claim on our bounty,
and that all have a right to be instructed in the
way of life. Do the Israelites in America understand
their duty? Do they feel their mission both as Jews
and freemen? We trust they do; and hope, therefore,
that these loose thoughts we have thrown out in
response to our correspondent may not fall idly to
the ground, but become fruitful in after years, if
even not immediately. We close for the present. |
