Yet some who live in palaces, and many bold charlatans of trade who use
the name of philanthropy to guild their shady ways, will still cry,
"Why don't the out-of-work man help the farmer? Why don't they go onto
the land?" They certainly do not mean in the domain of the Hudson.
In talking with an editor, I once advanced the thought of the advantage
of cultivating every acre of the ground from New York to Albany. The
astonished editor replied, "Why, would you destroy the scenery of our
American Rhine?"
Destroy the scenery! I could not but ask, surprisedly, "What is more
beautiful than a cultivated vineyard, or a farm supporting an American
home?" But this was what the search light revealed. The great estates
of the greatest financiers in the world; the palaces of wealthy
brewers; the castles of whiskey distillers; monasteries of the Church
of England; Roman Catholic convents; orphans' homes, reformatories for
white slaves, States prisons, criminal insane asylums; United States
War Schools; government store-houses for high explosives; miles of
unsightly brick-yards (of the Brick Trust); acres of decaying old frame
shacks; ice-houses (of the Ice Trust;) signs, "Don't trespass" and
"Beware of the dog"--and hundreds of hungry, starving men.
CHAPTER XXIII
ALBANY--IN THE MIDST OF THE FIGHT
"_As long as any man exists there is some need of him. Let him fight
for his own._"--EMERSON.
Between the hours of ten P. M. and midnight the next evening,
I found myself (with another down-and-out worker) sitting in the
smoking-room of the Albany depot. My momentary acquaintance was
an Irishman. Presently another young fellow, whose appearance was
indicative of having recently put off a good many meals, came in and
sat down near us. The Irishman looked squarely and inquisitively at
the new-comer (who was an Irish-American), and recognizing by some
mutual instinct that he belonged to the army who must work and wander,
abruptly said: "Who are you?"
"I am a tramp," the young fellow replied.
"Then, I suppose," continued the Irishman, "you have been in every
State in the Union."
"Yes, every State," answered the young fellow. "Well," said the
Irishman, "I'll bet you have never been in the state of matrimony."
"Yes," quickly answered the man, "_I have been in Utah, too_."
"How about the state of intoxication?"
"Do you mean the State of New York, or a personal experience with John
Barleycorn? If you mean the latter, I can honestly say, I have never
been drunk."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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