THEOLOGY VERSUS THRIFT. 



361 



Several children wish for wealth Taecause so many white people are 

 rich' and a boy of thirteen explains, 1i I were rich the white man 

 would not cry my name down but would be my friend.' 



It is a regrettable fact that one fifth of the children who desire 

 wealth, expect to live bedout working,' as a nine year old boy puts it. 

 Aladdin's lamp is sadly missing from the lives of these twelve hundred 

 children. Their most extravagant desires are as limited in scope as the 

 children voicing them are limited in number. Ten children would 

 travel if wealthy, seven would run a store, two would be conductors on 

 street-cars, five would own pianos, four bicycles, one a 'five-dollar 

 doll' and one a horseless carriage. 



But pathetically limited as is their idea of wealth and the wants 

 which it would supply, half of the older children from the rural dis- 

 tricts reply with a decided negative to the question 'Would you like to 

 be rich ?' Their religion has forced them to choose between comfort in 

 this world and bliss in the next. A girl of sixteen expresses the pre- 

 vailing sentiment in her answer. "No, I would not like to be rich. Be- 

 cause the Bible say it is just as impossible for a rich man to get to 

 heaven as it is for a camel to get through a cambrac needle eye." * 



As is shown by the following table, the hostility toward riches is an 

 increasing factor in the lives of both city and country children. 



The Attitude of Negro Children toward Wealth. 



While fewer than one fifth of the older children living in cities 

 repudiate wealth, one half of the country children from fourteen to 

 twenty years of age distinctly declare their preference for poverty. 



The children of the city poor usually see the ordinary comforts of 

 life in evidence among their more fortunate neighbors and often their 

 ambition is aroused to acquire equally desirable property. On the other 

 hand, in the rural districts the standard of living varies less widely, 

 and there is less evidence of prosperity to stimulate the desire for 

 wealth. However, the disproportionate number of country children 

 who exalt poverty does not depend upon the merely passive effect of 

 neighborhood conditions. Their papers bear proof of positive teach- 

 ing that the accumulation of property is opposed to religion. Almost 

 aU who repudiate wealth do so on religious grounds. Between the 



* The common 'reading' of Mark 10, 25, by illiterate preachers. 



