154 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



" O, mum, it's not the rents I depend on for 

 my profits, it's the funerals ! " Such a brute 

 exists, and carries on his work, because those 

 who have the abihty and the wisdom do not lift 

 up hands and weapons of law and drive him from 

 the face of the earth. Somebody is responsible 

 for pauperism and its attendant wretchedness 

 and crime; but it is quite as often the man who 

 sits in the ceiled house, and the woman who 

 dresses in lace and diamonds, as the tramp 

 who begs or the thief who steals. 



One need not be a socialist to see that there 

 is no way to get rid of a destructive and vicious 

 environment until the State makes overcrowd- 

 ing impossible, compels those who build houses 

 for rental to make them comfortable, healthful, 

 decent, and even supplies such tenements itself 

 where capitalists refuse to do so. 



(c) Intemperance. — This source and element 

 of vicious environment will be treated of at 

 length in the next chapter. It is unnecessary 

 to speak of it here. There is no evil of our 

 time more prolific of pauperism. 



(d) The esprit de corps of the pauper class. — 

 Strange to say, this is an important element of 

 evil and demoralizing environment, and is as evi- 

 dent in the ranks of pauperism and crime as it 



