Ostentatious Charity.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 217, 17 August 1883, Page 3

Ostentatious Charity.

. A wealthy banker m One of ourj lar^e cities, who is noted for his large- subscriptions to charities, and for his kindly habUs of private benevolence, was called < on one evening, and asked to go to the help of a man who had attempted to commit; suicide. They found the man iv a wretched house, m an alley not far from the. banker's dwelling. The; front rorm was a cobbler's shop ; behind it, on a miserable bed m the kitchen, lay the poor shoemaker, with a gaping gash iin^his throat,' while hie wife and children were gathered" about him. "We had been without food for days," said the woman j "when he returned. If was not my husband's fault. He is a hard-working, sober man ; but he could neither get work, nor the pay for that which he had done. To-day he went for the last time to collect a ■ debt due to him by a rich family, but the gentleman was not at home. My husband was weak from fasting,: and. seeing us starring drove him mad.. So it ended that Way, w * 'turning*, to .the fainting, motionless figure on the bed. The "banker having fed and warmed 1 the family, hurried home, opened his desk,, and took Out a file of little bills.,, Ail his debts were promptly paid,' 'but' he. was apt to be careless about the accounts for milk, bready&c, because they were so petty. He found there was a bill' of Michael Goodblow's for chil« dren's. shoes. -Michael' Goorlblbw was the suicide. It was the banker's unpaid debt which had brought these, people to the verge of the grave, and driven this man to desperation, while _at the very time the banker had given away thousands m charity.