PUBLIC SPIRIT 



return, in the work of institutions lacking 

 which no community can continue civilized. 

 There are, for instance, the city govern- 

 ment and school committee, the directors of 

 banks, savings banks, and other financial 

 corporations, of hospitals and infirmaries, 

 various state commissions, and the board of 

 education, of charities and corrections, of 

 health, and many others, to say nothing of 

 orphans' guardians, or of care for church 

 and fraternity interests. Gigantic is the 

 labor which all these entail ; priceless is the 

 good they do. 



Well have we known business men and 

 lawyers, after passing the day in the confin- 

 ing work of office, counting-room, or store, 

 to bend at night over the accounts of some 

 poor fund, in which they had no earthly 

 interest save that prompted by human kind- 

 ness, and spending their hours and their 

 best talents in hard figuring to save all the 

 pennies for the unfortunates needing them 

 carrying to this work the same rigorous 

 methods which they would have used had 

 they expected it to win them millions. 



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