MEDDLING SAINTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1691, 5 January 1874, Page 4

MEDDLING SAINTS.

[iIBBBAi-KEVIBW.! The Meddling Saint has a fondness for visiting the houses of the working classes. I Children fly as she approaches, ior she is ione of the great terrors of their young Uivoj? ; andjtnothers.put on their worst air wh&jthSy see her, for they know that ;they are in ? *fo'r'tf-"right l dowh v good talkiing too." She enters a house with a firm , and resolute bearing and an expression of countenance-which- indicates -that nothing short of personal violence, or fearithereof, shall make her depart with 'her mission' unfulfilled. Unheeding the coldness of. her receptionj,: Itfie (fft^pnee seta to work upon the task which she has come^to-per--form. She discovers that the floor wants washing, -that the room is r untidy, and that the^hb'usewife J h'erseif is decidedly slatternly in appearance. "Upori, these facts comments are freely made, and if sh^Ctjb $hbnf- they "are; addressed displays irritation, she is reminded <; of certain, dire consequence^ wiich. must, ensue if. shei persists in- her wicked ways. ( 'Having had her say in hard metallic, unsy.mpathising voiced 'abouttliat which'mee'ts 1 liter eye, the Meddling Saint institutes a severe cross-examination of her unhappy victim. What are the wages of her husbaud, independent of overtime, and how much extra pay is he in the habit , of getting ?- -Does he drink 1 If so, how .much does he spend' in liquor? Hpw many timea a week are; the family enabled to have meat? How is it that they do not come to church 1 These are' some of the many; queries . which . are invariably put, and from the answers given one conclusion is invariably drawn, viz., that whatever troable the family visited may. :be in, it is entirely owing to their own ! misconduct. At the same time . the :Med-f idling Saint, in the true spirit of Christian.' Charjiy^dpes something for them; f She; .'suppliei 'ihiin Svith a' 'tract, or, "if she be in a more than/ordinarily 'generous mood, with a,c,Quple,..of a sort.which-she- is ableto buy at a few copper per hundred. Not only will .'she -act ; in this astoundingly generous manner, but she _will .tfalk' to<ithe children,' holding them by heir- graphic accounts of the lake } of 'liquid -fife 'into- which they will surely be plunged' if they do not reform. A community may be 'in the last throes of poverty, and. t she. will cpntemplato them r unmoved. .Stie^Has a conscientious objec-tiorf-^wh'ich'is all the stronger because it is cpfiscientidus-~to putting her hand ( help those whom she fsees'^are, inidistreas^ .It is her opinion that; ihe. lower classes; should be taught to be independent and self-reliant, and while professingwherselfiLready: to go through fire, and water 'to': assist: them to' emerge fromiltherr' spiritual < ; degradation, she seems to»i»todgine that ..theyj should be left to scramble out- oLtheir condition of social migerj^as bestthey can. If their tales of empty ..fire-places,, and r of mouths, which are crying in'vaiii for food, are more. than usually startling, ; in. ;i , rare ; and !■ exceptional instances she. may; cause something .practical to be done. But the charity is doled out in a; hardj 'unfeeling manner, and the, recipients have to go through so many degrading forms in obtaining it, that, a. feeling of bitterness instead, of thankfulness towards the. donors ; is/ engendered in tlieirheartsi; Her peculiar mission, as understood' by herself, is to advise and exKqrt,; rather than to act. It is her business to go < to ; people wheiithey are up to the hilt in- misery, begat bj poverty 'and imprudent Jmbits, and, after draggingfro'n them, bit by bit, the story of their woes, to tell theuf tliat : they ought to thank God' that things ( ;are no wprfe,' and that -they ;jireiiot ! chalstistsd as: they deserve to' ! be^ and.' ; io return praise for the many mercies which have . been,' vouchsafed them. It is Vnpt surprising she is sometimes; rudely treated, and it is difficult to ..participate in her frequently expressed surprise and horror Cat the fact that husbands do* riot ; always display . the same capacity for listening, -with some degree of patience, to her i as do wives— that"; r indeed,' on the contrary, 1 occasionally, when fired by drink or exasperated by what she has said, they, rudely or,der. her, outrbf their homes,; J;Notjeyen, the presence of death can awe. the Meddling Saint. She has a partiality for tearing open partially healed woundß, and for touching upon tender cords" of the weeping hearts of those who live and are sad because those whom they •love are gone to their last" account., .She will probe jthe souls' 1 of those whom she fastens '.Upon until each'; harrowing detail she ' ( se^Vs' after 'lies revealed before her unfeeling gaze, all the time , being oblir yious of the keen anguish of those upon ..whom she is operating* Indeed, she revels 'in the midst of. deep., trouble with an unctuous, if subdued satisfaction, which is more than ;JBufficient : ' ti violence of the grosßriess'-'bf -'her /nature; : Of course . she : essays the task ' of 'comfdrter^f;, When she. has roused^Sojire to a'pitch' of frenzy by : the -manner-in- which^ she - : had' -gloated detail oftheir; misery she .talks trite platitudes about "submission," ; "* 'trials.. be jng forourgood," that it is a sin to moufri over them," and tlhat "thanks ought to be returned to Him who ,sent ; — sentiments very proper and very .true, np.doub.t,, but which, enunciated -byher and under the circlinlstances indicaced, are calculated to raise a demon ; rather than an angel in the breasts o ', those to whom they ,aije addressed, , |