funeral and monument, was the effort to destroy as much as possible, and
take from the resources of benevolence that which might gladden a
thousand lives. To look back from the enlightened upper world upon such,
a monument of base selfishness, would be the hell of conscience; but a
simple rose or hawthorn over the couch of the abandoned form would
harmonize well with the sentiments of heaven.

[13] The salary that was sufficient for the commanding dignity
and ability of Washington is not sufficient for the
third-rate politician who occupies the White House to-day.
The numerous allowances which are added to his $50,000
salary raise it to $114,865. But why should he have any
salary at all? Would any man require the bribe of salary to
induce him to accept the Presidency? The honor of the
office would be more than sufficient pay for the third-rate
men that are accidentally chosen to a far higher rank than
nature gave them. We have too many ideas and fashions
inherited from old-world kingdoms, and the ridiculous rules
and etiquette of precedence and punctilio are as carefully
enforced in the court circle of Washington as in the old
world which still rules our fashions. But far worse than
they, we have the criminal ostentation of a funeral for a
Congressman, costing from fifty to a hundred thousand
dollars, which is simply an unconstitutional and shameful
robbery of the people to imitate the style of royalty.

What is it but a matter of course, and fashionably proper for a minister
representing the moneyless and homeless saint of Jerusalem, to spend in
various ways ten or twenty times the average income of an American
citizen. But _has any man a right to indulge in needless and therefore
profligate expenditure for himself, while misery unrelieved surrounds
him_?[14] Could he, if he had an occasional throb of the sentiment of
brotherhood, the divine love enforced by Jesus? Suffering, intense
suffering of mind and body, is ever present in society, and _we cannot
ignore it_ or disregard it. Has any human being a right to look on at
human suffering, and turn away contemptuously? to see men drowning and
refuse to throw them the plank which lies conveniently by? to pass by
the chamber of dying, with loud, unseemly revels? to titter and laugh
alongside of the grave where an unr