"Poverty with honor is better than riches with disgrace," is a common saying. It is used by the bourgeois to console the poor, to quell thought of uprisings, to spread the oil of resignation over troubled waters.

From early childhood the idea is imprinted with capital letters in the mind of the child, and after a life filled with poverty and disgrace alike, the sermonette about poverty with honor versus riches with disgrace is sounded again from the mouth of the preacher, at the poor man's grave.

But what a shameful paradox this, "poverty with honor." When in all the world was poverty honored? Never! Poverty, however, does not demand to be honored, it is satisfied if only it may be left free from undeserved disgrace. But in the minds of many, the concept of disgrace is closely allied to poverty. Very frequently it is said of some man that he was born of poor but honest people. Here it is definitely presupposed that poverty and honesty are condition but rarely associated.....But was it ever stated, "born of rich but honest people?"

Such are our concepts of social morality even in 1905.

A workingman perfects an invention, and a manufacturer or a corporation 3grabs the rights to the invention. The inventor remains poor, subject to the disgrace naturally associated, more or less, with the condition of poverty. The manufacturer, on the other hand, and those directing or holding interest in the corporation in question become rich, not in disgrace, but in honor.

Such are the conditions of present day society, that the logical restatement of the saying under discussion would be: "Poverty is a disgrace, but riches spell honor." Not an attractive sentiment, perhaps, but it is true.

Gain a million, or millions through swindling and you will find 4admirers everywhere, even though you be in the chair of the indicted. But if you are poor, though your wife and child are starving and you can find no employment, do not dare to pawn the furniture on which you still owe an installment or two, in order to get money for bread; you will find no sympathy; you break the law, and the branding iron of dishonesty will forever mark your brow.

Never shall the people praise you, for you were living your life in poverty, and you died in poverty: and that, in the eyes of present day society, is a disgrace.