istening to
the knots gathered at the corners, to the conversation among the
inhabitants of the most violently riotous districts, the words which
fell oftenest upon the ear were those of bitter, burning, blasting
denunciation against the apathy of the rich, who, while enjoying the
comforts of a competency, are forgetful of the continuous, persistent,
hopeless, never-to-be-relieved, and crushing poverty of the poor, with
its inevitable accompaniments. The writer does not hesitate to affirm,
that but for this sense of the insecurity of their means of living, and
the mistaken notions which had been instilled into them in regard to the
negroes and the object of this war, as increasing still further this
insecurity--a deception to which their ignorance, the necessary result
of their present pecuniary conditions, even were there no other causes
for it, renders them at all times liable--they could not have been
incited to the recent sedition.

It is not easy for men who do not feel the daily and hourly pressure of
poverty, to comprehend the constant solicitude which weighs upon the
indigent. It is still less easy for them to understand the intensely
practical point of view from which the poor must regard every question
submitted to them, and the equally practical and speedy solution which
they must find to problems of social interest presented for their
consideration. The citizen who is comfortably situated in relation to
money matters, can afford to look at the result which any social,
economical, or mechanical change will introduce in his affairs with
reference to a period of time more or less extended into the future. The
man who has no capital, who literally earns his _daily_ bread, and whose
ability to gain a livelihood for himself and his family depends upon his
constant, unintermitted labor, is in no condition to look at any aspect
of any question but in the one, vital, all-important view of his
personal necessities. Anything which stops his work, for a week even, is
destructive to him, no matter how beneficial its after results may
promise to be. The binding force of dire necessity coerces him into this
position; and even were he intelligent enough to see that all progress,
no matter how destructive to particular departments of industry at
first, eventually benefits _all_ classes and _all_ individuals, he
cannot afford to consider the question from this stand-point, if it
affects his immediate occupation. The benefits