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“The Barberry bush—the poor man’s bush! 
Its yellow blossoms hang.” 
—Caroline Gilman. 
Sympathy for the Poor. 
I p VERY kindly heart will feel for that class of less fortunate humanity 
^ known as the poor. The hardships and sufferings of their lot will 
excite keenest commiseration. Further, beneficence will follow, yea, ac¬ 
company benevolence. Deeds of practical value will be witnessed, by 
which necessities will be relieved, opportunities for well-doing opened up, 
sorrows solaced, and hopes revived and stimulated. 
Under the name of the poor, come not only the destitute, but also 
those who have verily to struggle for existence, as well as those who have 
been suddenly crushed under the weight of a commonly occurring adver¬ 
sity, or have become, as unexpectedly, the victims of some overwhelming 
calamity. Here, too, a genuine and generous fellow-feeling will reveal 
itself in judicious considerateness for the rights and welfare of the wage- 
worker in every department of industry, and in prompt and liberal re¬ 
sponse of assistance to the distressed. 
Oh! if the wealthy and the well-to-do would only take thought, they 
would surely make redoubled efforts and even sacrifices towards coming 
to the timely rescue of the afflicted members of society,—thereby soft¬ 
ening the exasperations likely to be engendered by their ill-fated condi¬ 
tions., producing in those sorely tried hearts the contentment at least of 
resignation—with no unfriendly eye cast upon those more favored with 
this world’s goods—, and averting even the faintest semblance of peril to 
social order. 
“Taught by that Power that pities me, 
I learn to pity them.” 
— Goldsmith. 
