SHELTER. 
39 
not be as degraded as that of savages. I refer to the 
degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know 
this I should not need to look farther than to the shan¬ 
ties which every where border our railroads, that last im¬ 
provement in civilization; where I see in my daily 
walks human beings living in sties, and all winter with 
an open door, for the sake of light, without any visible, 
often imaginable, wood pile, and the forms of both old 
and young are permanently contracted by the long 
habit of shrinking from cold and misery, and the de¬ 
velopment of all their limbs and faculties is checked. It 
certainly is fair to look at that class by whose labor the 
works which distinguish this generation are accom¬ 
plished. Such too, to a greater or less extent, is the 
condition of the operatives of every denomination in 
England, which is the great workhouse of the world. 
Or I could refer you to Ireland, which is marked as one 
of the white or enlightened spots on the map. Contrast 
the physical condition of the Irish with that of the 
North American Indian, or the South Sea Islander, or 
any other savage race before it was degraded by contact 
with the civilized man. Yet I have no doubt that that 
people’s rulers are as wise as the average of civilized 
rulers. Their condition only proves what squalidness 
may consist with civilization. I hardly need refer now 
to the laborers in our Southern States who produce 
the staple exports of this country, and are themselves 
a staple production of the South. But to confine my¬ 
self to those who are said to be in moderate circum¬ 
stances. 
Most men appear never to have considered what a 
house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all 
their lives because they think that they must have such 
