It is the slowness and dullness of country
life, and not their poverty alone, that keep the poor in dirty lanes and
tenement houses. They want stir and amusement, too, poor souls, when
their day's work is over. I believe they would come to the country if it
were made more pleasant for them."
"That is another question," said Mr. Harry, "a burning question in my
mind--the labor and capital one. When I was in New York, Maxwell, I was
in a hospital, and saw a number of men who had been day laborers. Some
of them were old and feeble, and others were young men, broken down in
the prime of life. Their limbs were shrunken and drawn. They had been
digging in the earth, and working on high buildings, and confined in
dingy basements, and had done all kinds of hard labor for other men.
They had given their lives and strength for others, and this was the end
of it--to die poor and forsaken. I looked at them, and they reminded me
of the martyrs of old. Ground down, living from hand to mouth, separated
from their families in many cases--they had had a bitter lot. They had
never had a chance to get away from their fate, and had to work till
they dropped.
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