77

THINK OF THE POOR.

Mr. Peattie Makes an Earnest Appeal
for Food for Sufferers.

Curtis, Neb. Dec 23- I thank God
tonight for the gift to man which enables
me, here on the edge of the sand
hills, in the midst of the ruin of crops,
the deserted farms and the destitute
people to talk to you as though we
were face to face I do not wish to appear
as the ghost at the Christmas
festivities now going on among you,
but I do wish to say another word for
these sad people, who sit by their
blackened hearths, drinking the bitter
cup of poverty.

When you in your own way go about
celebrating the birth of our Lord remember
for a moment your fellow
creatures in the sod huts upon the
bleak divides and stretches of this western
land. Spare neither substance nor
prayers, for both are needed. There are
hundreds who today have neither fuel
food nor decent clothing. There are old
men and women shivering out their last
days in these desolate huts. There are
mothers whose starved breasts cannot
give sustenance to infants but a few
days old. As I write these lines a babe
lies dead in this very county because of
insufficient nourishment.

Men stand looking at this glorious
sunset with despair in their hearts, and
they are almost ready to curse God
and die. When I think of the thousands
of dollars which even in these hard
times will be spent tomorrow upon
ephemeral pleasures, and when I think
how much of the necessities of life that
sum would buy for the people about me.
I feel as though the senseless giving of
gifts at this of all times in the year
were a wicked crime.

These men and women have not all
deserved to prosper, many have been
slothful and extravagant and ungrateful,
but upon the eve of the birthday of
him who died for all these people, our
fellow creatures, our brothers and sisters
are facing the most squalid of
deaths. A little will save them, everything
is needed, but food most of all I
earnestly beg that concerted action be
taken immediately.

ROBERT B PEATTIE