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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 2nd January 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag, THE TOMAHAWK: A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATI...

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    • A SERMON TO STONES ; or, AN APPEAL TO HE...
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      The Tomahawk: A Saturday Journal Of Sati...

      THE TOMAHAWK : A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . & Yxttb frg Jitter n" § nMt " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRiETERIT . "

      No. 87.] London, January 2, 1869. [Price...

      No . 87 . ] LONDON , JANUARY 2 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence .

      A Sermon To Stones ; Or, An Appeal To He...

      A SERMON TO STONES ; or , AN APPEAL TO HEARTS ,

      Charity Is The Subject Proper To The Sea...

      Charity is the subject proper to the season , so , even at the risk of monotony , a few more words about it . A few words , not to the great mass of English heathens who have never in their lives given so much as a sixpence to help the suffering poor , but to the really charitableso calledwho figure on the

      , , lists , and do , from time to time , contribute something . " Well , what have you got to say to us , I wonder V I hear one remark . Simply this , then—that nine-tenths of your charity is a miserable sham . Many of you give because you cannot help yourselves . Many , perhaps , out of some sort of sympathetic motive .

      But how many of you give after the fashion of true charity ; that is , in such a manner that you feel your gift ? A hundred of you ? A dozen of you ? I doubt it . You don't know what I mean . I dare say not . Let us look at the list , then , and see if I can make it clear . AhLady

      - , Jinksby , your name is down the first . Suppose we begin with you . Here you are , I see , assisting the East-end poor , an orphan asylum or two , a couple of hospitals , needy curates generally , various church necessities , and some half-dozen religious societies , and all these very respectably . I dare say it costs you

      quite a hundred a-year . Do not deny it ; you pass for a finished saint in your own set , and like it . But now I am going to ask you a very disagreeable question . Has this exuberant almsgiving ever necessitated the smallest approach to a sacrifice on your part 1 In short , do you feel the outlay ? No , confess it ,

      you do not . You have your seventeen dresses in the season your and kettledrums opera boxes , still dinners . There , false is hair not , a at singl homes e item , concerts cut off , rouge your , , dressmaker's account ; not a name less on your visiting list . Were your . £ 100 spent in Chinese fireworks you would be just as happy , providedof courseChinese ~ firework . ___ ,, . _ . — s _ . were the __

      fashion ^ ^^ ; and ^ your useful , and beautiful , — life — — would run on _ — _ just _ _ as smoothly as ever . My dear Lady Jinksby , I am therefore forced to tell you you have no charity at all . You have as much blanc deperle on your dressing table as , converted into specie , would feed a starving — —— - — - — £ J famil " ¦•^•¦•¦¦••^ y ; j and m >** wv when »• ** w ** you JWV * are «» % * ^ taking MbVMI . I * g your ^ VUA drive UAJk V W 111 in >

      the Mile one feels instinctively that there are many a night's lodging for the shelterless frittered away in the trickeries of your bonnet . I do not ask you to show the world absolutely the very self-same face that nature has given you , or live in a style totally inconsistent much at your with command your means , to do much but I do and exp deny ect y yourself ou , who some have

      thing proportionate in some degree to your wants . The Marquis of Axminster deserves a similar rebuke , though perhaps his case is far worse than yours . He could live like a prince for a whole year on the amount of his income for one single monthand do such wonders

      , with the balance among the poor and suffering , that Mr . Peabody ' s admirable gift would be thrown fairly into the shade . But even if my Lord Marquis did not rush into such Utopian philanthropy as this , he might effect ten times the good he does . He gives his thousands , it is true , but then he draws

      his millions . As I have observed before , and the plain fact cannot be too often stated , conscientious Robinson , of the Adhesive Envelope Office , who , out of his paltry salary of , £ 350 a-year manages to set aside his £ 3 10 s . for charity , is ten times the Christian my Lord Marquis , isand , for the matter of that , so

      , is little Master Tommy , who puts one penny out of his six into a beggar ' s hat . This is nonsense , or socialism , or cant , I hear some orthodox Christian cry out . Just so—and as such will it be denounced to the end of the chapter . Still , the fact remains . Our rich do comparatively nothing for our poor ,

      and it is on the immensely rich that the burthen of assisting them should really fall . There is some excuse to be made for the niggardliness of the hard-working man of the middle class , who , work as he will , can only just clothe , educate , and feed his family ; but there is none for the self-pampering

      millionaire , who , did he write an annual cheque for ; £ 100 , 000 , would not miss so much as a grain of salt from his breakfast table . One may well despair of better times when the intense misery of the lowest classes and the sensuous luxury of the highest are contrasted one with the other . The theme is old ,

      but it is not too stale for those who make it their business to preach the truth ; and at this season , when a long winter , with all its bitter hardships , is about to set in , it should be handled by everyone who knows anything of the depths of English misery and of the frightful shortcomings of English

      charity . Having said thus much , for the moment , then , I lay down my pen , only , 1 trust , to take it up in this same cause again . " Unpractical , " you call it , Mr . Greenback , and " dangerous twaddle . " Precisely , for what else could you call it ? Are not Greenback and Co . making , £ 20 , 000 by their City

      house alone , and have not you given " liberally , " according to your sense , to this fund and to that ? Nobody questions it , but bear one thing in mind . Dives subscribed largely to the public charities of the day , and yet , depend upon it , all he ever spared of his abundance had not one millionth part the value of a widow's mite .

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), Jan. 2, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_02011869/page/1/