''
``You'd better keep away from that part of town,'' advised her
father. ``They live awful dirty, and you might catch some
disease. If you want to do anything for the poor, send a check
to our minister or to the charity society. There's two kinds of
poor--those that are working hard and saving their money and
getting up out of the dirt, and those that haven't got no spunk
or get-up. The first kind don't need help, and the second don't
deserve it.''
``But there are the children, popsy,'' urged Jane. ``The
children of the no-account poor ought to have a chance.''
``I don't reckon there ever was a more shiftless, do-easy pair
than my father and mother,'' rejoined Martin Hastings. ``They
were what set me to jumping.''
She saw that his view was hopelessly narrow--that, while he
regarded himself justly as an extraordinary man, he also, for
purposes of prejudice and selfishness, regarded his own
achievements in overcoming what would have been hopeless
handicaps to any but a giant in character and in physical
endurance as an instance of what any one could do if he would but
work. She never argued with him when she wished to carry her
point. She now said:
``It seems to me that, in our own interest, we ought to do what
we can to make the poor live better. As you say, it's positively
dangerous to go about in the tenement part of town--and those
people are always coming among us. For instance, our servants
have relatives living in Cooper Street, where there's a pest of
consumption.
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