Many Drones In The Hive

"Diil yon over wonder, while riding through the streets of a city, what all tlie people do to raake a living?" was asked of i gentleman whose business ;akes liini abouttown to a great extent, nul wlimii the writer was accornpanyng npon one of bis regular trips. "Yes, it was a great mystery to me a long time, and I have taken pains toVfind out in a nuniber of instances where my curiosity was excited. There, for instauce, in tliat liouse right tliere, lives a fainily. Do you kuow what he does?" "No." "Well, I'll teil you. He does notliing. Absolutely nothing. A more worthless fellow does not exist in tbe city. Ilis wife keeps the family from want. She is a hard woeker, has the sympathy of every one who knows them, and as she does the sewing that she makes a living at, well, bas all that she can do. She is the only honey gather in the hive. The four others are all drones, and live off of her iudustry." Coming, to another street a fairly good house was pointed out, with a remark: "There is a different state of affairs. The man who lives there ia a hard working, steady man, and provides íor bis family well, but the wife has fáfee ideas of life. She keeps a servant when she and her two daughters ought tu do the work themselves, and the consequenee is tlrey do not save up anything. It worriea him, and that worry is fast turning bis black hair to gray. Some day be will drop away and then what wi'H become of the family? That thought perhaps bas been oanvassed in all their minds, but they have their way of living and it seems impossible to changa. Three drones in there." Coming to a little old house that looked uninhabitable my compauionremarked : "In that tumble down old shell lives a family of seven. The parents and five children, tbe oldestof thechildren being 12. The father not only drinks up all he can get hold of, but he is ugly. He wbips her sometimes when be is in bis cups, and if he thinks she has a cent of money he will compel her to give it to him. And yet she clings to tbe beast, when she couldget along a great deal better if she would fire him out. People would then give her work to do who now will not do so, because they tbink it will be drank up by him. It is a pretty sad case, I teil you, and. the city bas to help them or they would starve. The children are all bright but with such au example set before them, what will become of them? We wonder where all the crimináis and dissolute people come from ; there is a breeder right there. The chances are if the father lives until they are grown up, that some of those children, if not all, will be inmates of brothels or jails. There are six drones in that hive." "The man who lives in the house vonder I do not know where to place. He is not strictly a droue ; he is a gambler; he does not exactly rob people, but he lives off the weakness and youth of bis fellow men. He toils not, neither does he spin, yet but few people are arrayed like him. The woman who lives with him is not bis wife, but as they have no children, the species is not likely to be propagated by them. Another instance of the fifteen or tvventy this gentleman told about, and we will close these answers as to how people live. Pointing to a house that still bore an aristocratie air, even in its somewhat neglected condition, om friend continued : "In that place lives a family ot' iïve. The father died some years ago, and when the estáte was settled up it was found that there :is nothing left éxcept that house and lot, which a lawyer who was a friend of the family, saved from the wrecked fortune. Every one supposed him to be wealthy, and the family never knew a want that he did not supply, but an ill wind blew over bis affairs, he became involved in debt, and the worry of it took him to liis grave right in the prime of life. But to the family. This wife was left with three little ones. She knew nothing of management, and was like a child when forced to battle with the world for existí nee. Prienda helped ill tliey coulii, slif i-ented rooms, tried (o take i few boardeí-s bnt failed, aud finally her health succumbed to the strain and slie becatne an invalid. The death of lier father about that time left her a smul! amoimt which was taken are of by this Eriend spoken of, and su wisely invested, that with the aid of tli o rent from roonis t niaintained the fainilv in reasonable comfort until ihe two girls were educated. One of these ííifls became a teacher, the ottier married, and tire boy now o!.! enough to help himself and his móther, but unfortunately for both, just at the period that he ought to have liad a fina hand to guide hini aright be was left tu his owh sweet wil!, and so got into liad company, and is to-day a good-fornothing. The girl that was married lost her husband in an accident after a couple of years, and carne back home with a Hule babe to care for. That is the history oï that home. They have a little monev, bnt the oldest daughter is the only worker there, and so four drones will have to be credited to that hive." Aud so from street to street drove our friend, telling how this and that family lived, and how the drones often ontnninber the workers.