The Street And The Flower A Novel

Author : Harr Wagner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330651865
Total Pages : 122 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (518 download)

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Download or read book The Street and the Flower written by Harr Wagner and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-03 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Street and the Flower: A Novel Some painter enriched our Centennial Exhibition with a picture of the Caesar on his war-horse. An affrighted woman carrying her child is seen in the distance, escaping for her life; the ruthless hoof of the horse is planted in the bosom of another woman, less fortunate in her escape, while the Caesar, indifferent to the sufferings of his march, is calmly studying the globe in his hand, planning at what gates he will next marshal his legions, and what country he will next subdue to his scepter. That proud and ruthless Caesar is dust to-day; his marchings are all over; his name affrights no woman or child, but his horse goes on, mounted by another and more reckless, cruel, bloodthirsty rider. Caesar has given place to alcohol; strong drink commands a larger army, besieges and conquers more cities, and tramples into the dust more women and children than ever did the Caesar. Women and children are always the victims of the world's passions. Men may have the glory, the fame or the pleasure; women and children have the pains, the privations, the bitter dregs of it all. Man's breast may heave with proud ambition, on the horse; woman's breast is crushed by the cruel hoof. That horse and that rider are making fearful havoc on our own streets. Their victims pass us on every corner in increasing numbers. The mark of the hoof is plainly seen. Their cry is in our ears, and we dare not be deaf to it. It may be true that strong drink and its blighting results have not touched us; but we are surely past the days of the Stoic and the Pharisee who could wrap themselves in their superiority, and thank God they were not as other men. "What is your Christianity to me?" is an accumulating cry coming up from these miserable unfortunates, which we know and feel ought to have a more practical and comprehensive answer. Christian people hear that cry and feel the inadequacy of the work performed. We stand on the corner of some famous streets where these waifs gather in greater numbers, and, looking beyond, we see the spires of our churches that have cost a hundred thousand dollars - costly piles that stand idle and echoless for six days in the week, across whose portals, opened for two hours on the Sunday, few of this class feel welcome, and less come, and we realize that certainly something is wrong. That amount of capital ought not to be locked up at such a small percent of return. None feels or regrets this more than the Christian community. There are hundreds who fain would do something, even much, to alleviate and to prevent all this misery, if they only knew what to do and where to do it. Many a willing heart is delayed, waiting for a large opportunity, or discouraged through the failure of an attempt on too grand a scale. The heroism of books, the chivalric deeds of the past, seem to have all been performed on horseback, by mailed knights who scoured the globe for the relief of the oppressed and the unfortunate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."