Civic Helpfulness 97 



man may slip and should at once be helped to rise 

 to his feet, yet no man can be carried with advan 

 tage either to him or to the community. The great 

 est possible good can be done by the extension of a 

 helping hand at the right moment, but the attempt 

 to carry any one permanently can end in nothing but 

 harm. The really hard-working philanthropists, 

 who spend their lives in doing good to their neigh 

 bors, do not, as a rule, belong to the "mushy" class, 

 and thoroughly realize the unwisdom of foolish and 

 indiscriminate giving, or of wild and crude plans 

 of social reformations. The young enthusiast who is 

 for the first time brought into contact with the ter 

 rible suffering and stunting degradation which are 

 so evident in many parts of our great cities is apt to 

 become so appalled as to lose his head. If there is a 

 twist in his moral or mental make-up, he will never 

 regain his poise; but if he is sound and healthy he 

 will soon realize that things being bad affords no 

 justification for making them infinitely worse, and 

 that the only safe rule is for each man to strive to 

 do his duty in a spirit of sanity and wholesome com 

 mon-sense. No one of us can make the world move 

 on very far, but it moves at all only when each one 

 of a very large number does his duty. 



VOL. XII. E 



