Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1885 — The Soul’s Anaesthetic. [ARTICLE]

The Soul’s Anaesthetic.

But men can get hardened to anything. I used to look npon a corpse with awful solemnity, but during the war the sight became so common that I could almost step upon the dead to avoid a ditch or a mud-hole. I have seen soldiers who were kind and humane at home rifle the poekets of the dead upon the battlefields and chuckle over their finding. JusfT so it is with the rich. They get utterly hardened to poverty and passion. They will weep over pathetic acting in the theater, but laugh at scenes as sad npon the streets. They will shed tears of sympathy for little Nell, but carelessly pass by-the beggar children on the highway. Money is an anaesthetic to the soul. It makes a man insensible to the pain or the grief of his fellow men. I would be afraid to have much money, Peter Cooper and Peabody could be trusted, but they are dead. When will the worid wake up to the rights of the poor and unfortunate? Well, after all there is one relief, one-comfort, and I am glad of it. The poor can suffer and then—die. The ricn can feast and frolic and then —die, too! What next?— B\ll Arp.