After Five Years.—The C. family—father, mother, and eight children—were in a very depressed condition when I first made their acquaintance, five years ago. The father, who was a consumptive, had lost his position of travelling postman; the mother was ill; and the only source of income was a monthly pension of $8.00 and about $8.00 a week earned by the three eldest girls, who were saleswomen. The rent was $15.00 a month, and the family heavily in debt. I succeeded in finding them a house for $9.00 a month, and found assistance in flour, coal, and clothing. An unknown friend undertook to add $1.00 a month to {199} Mr. C.'s pension, and this paid the rent. Twice, when the girls were ill, the Golden Book Fund came to the rescue and made up the temporary deficiency. I tried to represent to them the dignity of keeping a roof over their heads by their own efforts. First, it became possible to dispense with the monthly gift of $1.00. Later, when the girls' wages were raised, Mrs. C. told me I need not provide fuel,—they would now try to do that themselves. One summer, whilst I was away, the youngest child died, and the funeral expenses were paid by the family, through much self-denial. Every year the girls have been sent to their friends in the country by the Fresh Air Fund of the Y.W.C.A., and once the younger children were sent to the Children's Country Home. The parents continued in wretched health; but as the girls' wages gradually increased, I was asked by Mrs. C. not to provide further aid, except in case of sickness. In 1891, Mr. C.'s pension was more than doubled, but they continued in their poor and unattractive neighborhood until every debt was paid, not forgetting the doctor. Last summer they moved into a larger house on a pleasant street, and have enough lodgers to pay more than half the rent. Mr. C.'s health has improved, and he has a light position at $25.00 a month and his meals. The oldest girl has married well, the two other girls are good workers, and my old friends sure now well on their feet. During absence we have {200} corresponded regularly. Mrs. C. has learned to come to me in every difficulty, and knows how gladly I share her encouragements.—"Charities Record," Baltimore, Vol. I, No. 1.
Persevering under Difficulties.—We are each year more strongly impressed with the importance and value of patient and careful visiting, even in the face of great discouragement, believing that sincere and judicious friendliness is invariably helpful, although it may be long before any apparent result is produced. Proofs of this are constantly coming to us, as in a German family which has been for the last six years under the care of one of our visitors. The family consists of father, mother, and five children, and, when first visited, they were found almost destitute,—the woman earning a little by picking berries in the summer and selling them, and the man by picking coal,—though they were well able to work. The visitor was received very ungraciously at first, and it was only after finding some work for the man, and showing a real interest in the children, that she gained any hold upon them. No really marked improvement took place until the children went to the Industrial School. Then the girls taught their mother how her work should be done, and it was with great pride that they showed the visitor how neat they had made their rooms. Work was obtained for the man as {201} night-watchman at $12.00 a week, and, after a while, he was able to pay off all his back debts. He is now always glad to see the visitor. Three of the girls are at work, and they seem a happy and prosperous family.—Tenth Report of Boston Associated Charities, p. 55.
Widow with Children.—A typical case of chronic dependence is that of a widow with six children. When she was referred to us, nearly four years ago, her children were very young, and she, though well-meaning, was stupid and inefficient. The problem was not whether aid should be given,—that was clearly necessary, for the woman could not earn anything with her little children to care for,—but if the aid could be given in such a way as to really benefit them. Relief was procured from the proper sources,—$20.00 a quarter from the "Shaw Fund for Mariners' Children," $2.00 a month in groceries from the city, and at times $1.00 a week from the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The visitor who first interested himself in the family, and who has been their friend and counsellor ever since, received the quarterly $20.00 for them, paid the rent with $13.00 of it, and gave the rest to the woman, who knew just what she had to depend upon, and learned to use it properly. As the children grew older, the boy went into a district telegraph office; and the girl, wishing to go into a store, asked the visitor to find her a place. He thought, however, {202} that it was wiser to teach her how to find one, and, after suggesting some good establishments to which to apply, told her to get references from her schoolteacher and others, and go herself to ask for work. This she did with some difficulty, and got a place; and when, after a time, she gave it up, she knew what to do, and had no difficulty in finding another. The boy refused to be apprenticed to a joiner, as the visitor wished, but is working hard in a place he found himself. The second boy goes to school, and sells papers. In summer, the visitor, with the consent of the Conference, has sent the younger children into the country to board for a month. He has taken pains to have the family live in a healthy tenement, and in many ways has insured their well-being. They are now partially self-supporting; and the older children are respectable and industrious, which we feel is greatly due to the influence that the visitor has exerted over them and their mother for four years.—Fourth Report of Boston Associated Charities, p. 40.
A Failure.—Gamma made his first application to the Charity Organization Society seven years ago, at a time when it was even more difficult than now to find volunteer visitors who were intelligent and faithful enough to make a careful study of the needs of families placed under their charge, or courageous enough to carry out any thorough plan of treatment in these {203} families. The man was a German cobbler who had married an American domestic, and at that time there were three children, one of them an imbecile with destructive tendencies. The man said he was discouraged, that he got work with difficulty and had no tools with which to do it. Materials were furnished and members of the Society found work for him, but, this form of assistance not being very much to his mind, they soon lost sight of him, and it was not till several years later that the Society again encountered the family in a different part of the city, and a friendly visitor was secured to study their condition and try and improve it.
The visitor reported that the man was "discouraged," the house filthy beyond description, and that the life of the fourth child, then nine months old, was endangered by the imbecile boy, who was violent at times. Aid was given, and, the man's own theory being that he could do better in another neighborhood, the family was moved and otherwise aided by money secured from benevolent individuals. It soon became apparent that the man lacked energy. He was given to pious phrases, and was a good talker, but all efforts to inculcate industry or cleanliness were met both by man and wife with the excuse that the imbecile boy interfered with all their efforts.
At the family's own solicitation, the Society tried to find a home for the boy; after months of negotiations {204} he was placed in the School for Feeble-minded at Owing's Mills. This burden removed, the visitor redoubled her efforts to make the home a decent one for the remaining children, but without success. The beds were not made until they were to be slept in, the dishes not washed until they must be used again, and soiled clothing was allowed to stand in soak a week at a time in hot weather, until a heavy scum gathered on the top and the air was poisoned by the stench. The remaining children were unkempt and untrained, and the woman quite indifferent about their condition. The imbecile had improved at Owing's Mills, but, owing to a half-expressed wish of the mother's to see the boy, Gamma brought him home and refused to take him back again. The man's good intentions always seemed to evaporate in fine phrases. He was reported by the neighbors to be drinking, though not heavily, and one morning the visitor received a letter from him saying that she must take care of his family—he could stand it no longer and had left them.
One thing greatly handicapped the visitor at this time and later: the squalor of this family strongly appealed to chance charitable visitors, who helped them liberally because they looked miserable—helped them without knowledge and without plan. It used to be said that every American thinks he can make an after-dinner speech, and it might have been added that every American, or nearly every American, thinks {205} he can administer his own charities judiciously. When we are mistaken in our speech-making ability, we ourselves are the sufferers, but the saddest thing about our charitable blunders is that not we but the poor people are the sufferers. The friendly visitor to the Gammas was a woman of unusual intelligence and devotion. Her failure may be traced to two causes: to the fact that she was not called in earlier, and to the willingness of many good church people to help quite indiscriminately for the asking. They went and looked at the home, saw that it was wretched indeed, and called this "an investigation." "Yes, I've helped the Gammas," they used to say. "I've investigated their condition myself." The way in which Gamma was in the habit of talking about the Bible as his best friend made a great impression on them.
The man's desertion of his family was a mere ruse. He was soon back again, and ready to profit by the help they had obtained. Moving from place to place to avoid rent, they were at last ejected, and the man, wife, and children, including the imbecile, found refuge in the stable of a kind-hearted man who took pity on them. The owner was alarmed, however, when he found the family making no effort to find other quarters, and fearing the imbecile might set fire to the place at any time, he applied to the Charity Organization Society to know what could be done. We offered the woman and children shelter at the Electric Sewing {206} Machine Rooms, until the boy could be sent back to Owing's Mills and the other children committed to the Henry Watson Children's Aid Society, and advised that the man saw wood at the Friendly Inn until he could get work. The man refused to go, but the woman and children came to the Electric Rooms, and with the coöperation of the Society for the Protection of Children, the imbecile was returned to Owing's Mills.
At this juncture the daily papers interfered with our plans for the children by publishing a sensational account of Gamma as a most industrious shoemaker, who had always supported his family until the hard times of the last year had thrown him out of work. Money was sent to the papers for the family. Gamma, who had consented to have two of the children placed in good country homes by the Henry Watson Aid Society, changed his mind, and the old story of indiscriminate charity and indiscriminate filth and neglect began all over again. The gentleman who had given them shelter thought they ought to have another trial. They had had six years' trial already, but this last one was of short duration. In four months their champion returned to say that the Charity Organization Society was right and he was wrong; that he had found Gamma drunken, lazy, and insolent; and that the children raised under his influence must become paupers and criminals. Again the family were ejected, and this {207} time, before public sympathy could interfere, the two older children were committed to the Henry Watson Aid Society, and only the baby left with Mrs. Gamma.
Our advice to Mrs. Gamma was to return to her mother, who offered her a home. But the advice was not taken. Established in another part of Baltimore, Gamma renewed his attack on the clergy, and told one minister that he was a hardened criminal who had served a term in the Penitentiary, but, after hearing one of his sermons, he desired earnestly to reform. The latest news about the Gammas is a bit of information in which the charitable public will have to take an interest, however reluctantly, before very long,—there is a new baby.—"Charities Record," Baltimore, Vol. II, No. 8.
A Success.—The second family consisted of a respectable, middle-aged woman who had been twice married, four children of the first marriage, and the second husband. The eldest daughter had married, and with her husband occupied part of the house in which her mother lived. The other three children were young. The second husband was a drunken fellow, who did little for his wife's support and abused her badly. She had been to the hospital to have a serious operation performed; and, although the operation had been successful, her health was still poor. When first known by the Conference the family were {208} in great destitution. The husband brought home very little, the wife could not work, and one of the children earned a mere trifle. The rent was unpaid, and almost the only food the family had was oatmeal. The married daughter and her husband said the family had been long enough quartered on them, and refused to help them any more. The only work the woman thought she could do was sewing, and some of this was found for her. Diet Kitchen order was obtained for one of the children who was ill, and shoes were given to the others. Later, the Provident Association gave groceries. At this time the first visitor left the city, and a new one took charge of the family. She writes: "On first calling on Mrs. X., I found a tidy, respectable-looking woman, apparently in delicate health. Her face was almost that of a lady, and her manners were polite; but she did not make me very welcome. She spoke with affection of her former visitor, who, she said, had been very kind; but she presently remarked that she could not see why 'all these other people' had come prying into her affairs." On inquiry it was learned that after the former visitor had left town representatives of several charitable societies had called, and that one had hurt the woman's feelings by asking all kinds of questions without giving any explanation of his so doing. The visitor explained that she knew the former visitor, and had been asked to call in her place; and, after {209} some sympathetic explanation, the woman seemed a little cheered. However, she resented the grocery orders she was receiving, saying that she did not wish charity—that she was willing to earn her living by sewing. "Why could she not have that instead of grocery orders?" As to sewing for the shops, she said she could not do that; for shop-work was too low paid, and she could not work on the machine. Plain hand-sewing was the only thing she could do. When told that certain sewing to which she referred was charity sewing, and was only given out in winter, she exclaimed, "Then it is not work at all, but charity, just like the grocery orders." When the visitor said good-by, she was invited to call again. She did so repeatedly, seeing the family once a week or oftener. On account of the drunken husband, some question was raised as to whether the groceries should be given regularly, but Mrs. X. stated that her husband never shared the food. He was away from home most of the time. Sometimes he would come home Saturday night and bring some money, and then he would take his meals at home; but, when the money was gone, he would go out for his meals, never asking how his wife and children fared in his absence. It did not appear that his disregard was due to his thinking that others would care for the family. The wife insisted that he did not think or care how they fared. He had sometimes left her for weeks, when {210} she was ill in bed, and had never asked or known how she had been kept alive. He appeared to be so utterly irresponsible that he could not be made more so.
At the visitor's suggestion, it was soon decided that the younger daughter should take a place at service, where she could earn something and yet go home every night. Such a place the visitor found for her, and the girl was eager to save money to buy herself a coat for the following winter. The needs of the family, however, made it necessary to take the earnings for living expenses; but the visitor promised that somehow a coat for the winter should be forthcoming. When the employer closed her house in July, the visitor found a situation for the girl for the summer in one of the country towns. Of this time the visitor writes: "All the time I felt that the family were suffering more than was right. The children were fatherless and with a sick mother, and little A. was constantly ill, first one thing and then another, the doctors saying that he was under-nourished. Mrs. X. did jobs of washing and scrubbing as she could get them or was able, and the two children of thirteen both worked. So a benevolent person consented to take entire charge of the family, giving just what I should think proper. Accordingly, from that date to October 10 an average of $2.65 a week was given, besides $13.00 for clothes and other things. Also, {211} Mrs. X. and the two boys were sent to the country for one week. Notwithstanding this, Mrs. X. felt the summer a hard one. She was not a brisk or cheerful woman. She had suffered a great deal from the heat, and A. had diphtheria and other illnesses." In the fall it was arranged that the girl should again go to school; and the married sister finally offered, in order to make this possible, to board her and provide her with boots until Christmas. The Provident Association, after considering the case carefully, offered to give $2.00 a week and coal and clothing. The friend who had been giving all the help stood ready to give if more than this was needed. Two months later Mrs. X. had her husband arrested, and sent to the Island for a month.
In the winter Mrs. X. consulted her visitor as to the possibility of her giving up the Provident help and supporting herself by taking boarders. "She had friends all ready to come, and could arrange to hire additional rooms. All she needed was extra bedding. She felt confident of success. Her health was better than it had been for a long time, and she was improved in energy and courage. By dint of great persuasion, the Provident consented to give the bedding. They also promised to continue giving coal; but the other help, it was arranged, should stop. They had little hope, however, that the experiment would succeed. But the experiment did succeed, and better {212} than I had anticipated. Mrs. X. proved a good manager. She made a comfortable home, clothed the children, and provided many little comforts of which they had long been deprived. She became cheerful and hopeful for the future. She seemed like a different person from the sick, discouraged woman I had known nine months before.
"When her husband came home from the Island, I feared he might disturb this prosperity, for he acted worse than ever; but in January he attacked her with a knife, so she had him again arrested, and sent to the Island for four months. She then told me she wished to take steps for a separation. I encouraged her in this decision, but was careful not to urge her, for I felt that such a step to be successful must be taken by her own desire.
"So, as spring approached, I hoped that better days had really come for this family. Unfortunately, however, in March a sad accident brought this prosperous state of things to a sudden end. On the morning of March 10, N. brought me word that his mother had fallen downstairs and broken her arm, and asked me to call as soon as possible. I found the poor woman in bed, with her right wrist broken, and her face and body badly bruised. She was in great pain, and so discouraged that it was pitiful. Her boarders had gone, and she found herself once more dependent on charity; but I felt I could say {213} from a full heart that the help she now needed would not be grudged to her. For, surely, no one could help respecting her endeavor for self-support or could regard her effort as a failure; and, when her accident reduced her once more to dependence, her rent was paid for the rest of the month, she had a bag of flour and other groceries in the house, and $8.00 in money with which to pay the doctor for setting her wrist." The visitor adds: "I think that during this year's visiting Mrs. X. had really learned to regard me as a friend. At first I do not think she liked me very well, and I also found it hard cordially to like her. We were not naturally sympathetic. I am afraid that she often thought me hard; and she had a dreary, complaining way that tried me a great deal. But her good qualities commanded my respect and her misfortunes my pity; and on her my evident desire to befriend her gradually had its effect. Her first expression of real feeling was when she consulted me about her plan for taking boarders, and that was after nine months of constant visiting. She then said that I was the only friend that she had in the world; and later, when the plan was in successful operation, she told me that she attributed all her prosperity to me, and that she was a star in my crown. That she owed all her prosperity to me was of course an exaggeration. I could not have helped her had she not been the essentially decent woman she was. But, at the same {214} time, it was true that, had she not been helped and encouraged when her destitution was so great, she would probably have lacked both the physical and moral strength, as well as the opportunity later, to stand upon her own feet. And, when her bad fortune again overtook her, it was much for her that she had a friendly visitor to turn to. She felt it so herself; and, as she lay moaning with pain, she sobbed out that I was the only comfort she had on earth."
After the breaking of her wrist, Mrs. X. was dependent for a long time, since the wrist did not knit properly, and her right hand was almost disabled. It did not seem as if she could ever get on her feet again. But after a time she wished to move to one of the country towns where she had acquaintances. The visitor went to the place herself to examine the chances, and decided that the plan was worth trying. The Provident Association gave $10.00 for moving and $10.00 more for a start. After that the visitor gave a little from time to time; but, for the most part, the family were self-supporting. The boy worked in a factory, the girl was employed by a neighbor, and the mother raised hens and vegetables. At last accounts the daughter was married. Her husband is of good character and prosperous. Both the brothers are earning good wages, the younger one having grown from a sickly child to a strong and hearty boy. The mother is successful with her poultry, and gets high prices for {215} the eggs. The husband comes and goes as formerly, contributing nothing to the family income, but doing no special harm to any but himself. Certainly, the present condition of the family is a very happy contrast to that in which they were first found; and certainly, also, these changed conditions are in no small degree due to the earnest and devoted efforts of the visitor.—Sixteenth Report of Boston Associated Charities, pp. 45sq.
Unconscious Influence of Good Neighbors.—I would venture to say that there is not an immoral man or woman in neighborhoods known as disreputable, however completely he or she may have cast off self-restraint and regard for character, who has not daily examples of persons, close to such homes and haunts of vice, living honest and morally clean lives, and who is not, to a degree not consciously known, restrained and influenced by the contact. . . . Space will not permit many instances to be stated, but, as illustrating what I am wishful to make clear, I give two. In a court behind a street well known as bearing almost the worst character in Manchester lives a man, paralyzed, unable to leave an old sofa which has been his bed for months. He was in the Royal Infirmary, and there pronounced incurable, but likely to live years with ordinary care. He could have been taken to the workhouse hospital at Crumpsall, where he would have {216} had careful nursing and suitable food. He has no dread of the workhouse hospital, and would gladly go if he had any hope of cure. He speaks most gratefully of his treatment at the Royal Infirmary. But there is no hope of cure, and his wife and he have determined to keep together while he lives, and he refuses the comforts of the hospital, and she refuses to let him go from her. She has made her home in this court, working in the room in which he lies, with only another room for their four children. She earns an average of 5s. weekly; her eldest boy earns at a situation 5s. more, and on what is left out of 10s., after paying 2s. 6d. rent, and buying coal and light, the six live. (The condition of things is now improved by the guardians deciding to take two of the children into Swinton Schools.) This is a simple and very ordinary story. But what is the effect of the woman's work? She says little to her neighbors. Her high purpose and her complete devotion to her husband and children have made other women ashamed of sin, and made men wish themselves worthy of women like her. She has no thought that she is doing anything but giving her life for her husband and children, has no knowledge of what the words "unconscious influence" mean—but none the less she is "a light shining in a dark place."
Another illustration. An old man, for forty years a laborer, never earning more than a weekly wage of {217} 20s., who had brought up three sons (now decent working men, married, with families), became unable to work longer, and is allowed 5s. weekly by his last employer; the rent is paid by his sons, who also give an occasional shilling when they visit him. This is the whole income for himself and his wife. Some time ago when in the street he met a young woman whom he recognized as the daughter of a man who used to work with him. He saw that she was out for immoral purposes and spoke to her, telling her how sorry he was to find her leading such a life. As she appeared sorry and repentant, he took her home to his wife to take care of her until he could see her father. He found that the father had moved to Bury, having left his work in Manchester from shame at his daughter's disgrace. On the Sunday, when he could expect to find the father at home, the old man walked the seven miles to Bury and found his former mate, but could not prevail on him to take his daughter home. In fact, the father was very angry at being asked, and refused to listen. The old man walked back and told his wife that the girl must stay with them until the next Sunday, when he would try again. The next Sunday the old man walked to Bury and saw the father, who was somewhat softened, but still refused to see his daughter. A walk home again, and the old man and his wife settled that the girl should remain with them for another try to be made, and on the next Sunday he set out on the {218} road, hopeful to succeed. The father this time gave way, and on the following Monday the daughter went home, and has since lived at home working regularly. The old man and his wife don't know that they have done anything "out of common," or anything more than ought to be done, "for a poor lass."—"Drink and Poverty," by Councillor Alexander M'Dougall, pp. 7sq.
{219}
Accident, damages for, 23, 104.Addams, Miss Jane, 72.Adequate relief, 157-159.Adulteration of food supplies, 113.Advertising, philanthropic, 148.American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, 137.Associated charities. SeeCharity organization societies.
Babies, care of, 77-78.Bad temper as a cause of unemployment, 37.Barnato, Barney, 10.Barnett, Mrs. Samuel, 134-135.Baths, cheap, 96.Beale, Miss J. F., 130.Beggars, 25-27; child, 88-89; and free soup, 149.Beneficial and fraternal societies, 122-123; as a source of relief, 150.Birtwell, Miss M. L., 182.Boarding-out dependent children, 90.Books, lending, 133.Booth, Charles, 197.Bosanquet, Mrs. Bernard, 18, 29, 48, 49.Boston Symphony Orchestra, 135.Breadwinner, the, as head of family, 17-19, 44-57; as citizen, 19-23;as employee, 28-41; intemperate habits of, 57-63; woman as, 72-74;child as, 81-83.Brown, Miss Mary Willcox, 120.Building and loan associations, 123.Burial insurance, 110, 119-121.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 172.CatholicversusProtestant attitude toward the poor, 174.Causes of poverty, 7-9; intemperance as a cause, 58; sickness, 95-96.Character, 9.Charitable agencies, multiplication of, 176-177.Charity organization societies, 13, 31, 38, 55, 60, 62, 187, 189, 202.Chattel mortgages, 115-118.Child insurance, 122.Child labor, 81-83, 111.Children, of immoral parents, 49-51; of widows, 73-74, 158-159,201-202; diet of small, 77; as breadwinners, 81-83; waywardand dull, 83-85; reading of, 86-87; training in citizenship,87; begging, 88-89; protection from cruelty and immorality,89-90; boarding-out, placing-out, and institutional care of,90-91; cleanliness for, 99; sick, 101; insuring, 122; as aninvestment, 122; and stamp savings, 123; games for, 130-131;and relief, 146.Children's Aid societies, 85-86.Children's charities, 76-77.Church, the, and municipal reform, 21; and relief, 160, 167-174;and poverty, 166-167; multiplying relations with, 168, 169;charities of, 170-178; competition in, 171-172; as a naturalsource of relief, 173-174; the chief source of the charitableimpulse, 175-176; and secular agencies, 176-177.Church workers, who ignore the breadwinner, 18; ignore neighborhoodties, 25, 27; ignore the fundamental conditions of familylife, 44-45; ignore the claims of children to educationaladvantages, 81; allow children to be sent with begging messages, 88;prefer to administer spiritual consolation mixed with materialrelief, 144.Citizenship, 19-23, 87.City lifeversuscountry, 40, 82.Cleanliness, household, 69-70; personal, 99.Clergymen, difficulties of, in guiding church charities, 170-171;training of, for charitable work, 178.Collection of small savings, 124.Commodities, relief in,versusrelief in cash, 161.Common sense, charitable skill based upon, 187.Compulsory education, 80.Conditions, reasonable, in granting relief, 190.Confinement cases, 48, 103.Consumptives, change of climate for, 105-106.Contagious diseases, 101.Contentment not always a virtue, 127-128.Convalescents, 104.Coöperation, between churches and secular charities, 176-177;of the visitor with school-teachers, 79-80; with Sunday-schoolteachers, 87; with children's aid society, 85; withsociety for protection of children, 89-90; with board ofhealth, 96-101; with dispensaries, 100-101; with hospitals,101-103; with district nurses, and diet kitchens, 103; witheducational agencies, 137; with relief agencies, 164, 201-202;with churches, 177-178; with charity organization society,187-189; with others charitably interested in family, 192.Correspondence with families, 184-185, 199.Country life for families, 41, 82.Credit, buying on, 113; better than relief, 149.
Damage and accident cases, 23, 104.Dampness, 97, 102, 110.Day nurseries, 77.De Graffenreid, Clare, 25.Deserted wives, 48, 73-74.Deserters, chronic, 48, 205.Dickens, 2.Diet, 67; of small children, 77.Diet kitchens, 103.Dietaries, scientific, 66-67.Discontent, social value of, 127-128.Dispensaries, 100-101.District nurses, 103.District visiting, 193-194.Doctoring, relief work compared to, 154-155.Dress and manners, taste in, 68.Duplication of relief, 165.
Edgeworth, Miss, 2.Education, 80-84, 92, 137-138.Educational classes, 137.Eliot, George, 2, 10, 34.Eliot, Rev. Samuel A., 105.Employees, 28-41.Employer, as source of relief, 150; caution in making inquiries of, 189.Employment, 28-41; fluctuating, 35; equalization of, 35-36, cautionsin finding, 40-41, 201-202; facts needed in finding, 186-188.Exceptional cases, 7.Exercise, outdoor, 98-99, 132.Experience, need of, in relief work, 163-164.
Facts, necessary in relief, 156-157; in treatment, 186-188.Family, the, head of, 17-19, 44-57; essential elements of, 45-46;breaking up, 54-57; over-visiting, 184; brief biographyof heads of, 188.Family budgets, 125.Financial history of family, facts in, 188.Fluctuating work, 35.Food, buying and preparing, 65-67; adulteration of, 113.Forms of relief, 160-162.Fraternal societies, 122-123; as a source of relief, 150.Fresh air charities, 78-79.Fresh air, prejudice against, 97-98.Friendly visiting, and social service, 5; need of, 13; introductionto, 13; qualifications for, 14; and economic problems,29; and employment, 36-41; men and women in, 41-43;and household economy, 65-69; and school-teachers, 79;and home libraries, 87; and the children, 91-93; andsanitation, 97-101; and sickness, 101-106; and thrift, 111; andsavings, 124; and chattel mortgages, 116; and recreations,129; and relief, 142-145, 183; and relief agencies, 164-165;and churches, 177-178; what it is not, 180; results of, 181;principles of, 182-195; patience in, 182-183; number of familiesin, 182; by correspondence, 184-185; mutual relations in, 185;and charity organization societies, 187-189; and others charitablyinterested, 192; best done alone, 193; distinguished fromdistrict visiting, 193-194; illustrations of continuous, 197-215.Fuel, 68-69; saving for, 134.Funerals, 119-121.
Games, 130-131.Godkin, E. L., 21.Gymnasiums, 132.
Health, 95-106; saving at expense of, 110.Hill, Miss Octavia, 35, 128, 181.Home, the, the unit of society, 44; relief should be given in, 145-146.Home libraries, 86-87, 197-198.Hospital care, 101; prejudice against, 101-103.Howells, W. D., 70.Humor, sense of, necessary in charity, 129.
Ignorance of English as a cause of unemployment, 39.Imposture, 168-170.Improvident poor, 112.Inadequate relief, 157-159, 173.Incapacity as a cause of unemployment, 34.Incurables, 104-105.Indiscriminate giving, 4, 6; by the poor, 25-27; weakensneighborhood ties, 27; weakens family ties, 45-47; tochildren, 88-89; materialism of, 141; results of, 157, 204-205.Individual service, and social service, 5-6; dangers of, 7.Industrial insurance, 120-121.Influence, power of personal, 92-93; patience in gaining, 182-183;of good neighbors, 197, 215-218.Instalment purchases, 24, 113-115.Institutional care, 162; of children, 90-91; for chronic cases, 191.Insurance, industrial, 120-121.Intemperance, 7, 48-49, 54, 57-63; recreations as a cure of, 132-133.Interference with individual rights, 12.Interim relief, 154.Invalids, chronic, 103-104; migration of, 105-106.Investigation, 155-157, 186-189; caution concerning inquiries oflandlords and employers, 189.
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 3.Juvenile offenders, 85, 88-89.
Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 82.Kindergartens, 79; first supported by churches, 175-176.Krohn, Professor William O., 83.
Landlords who sub-let, 24; as creditors, 162; caution concerninginquiries of, 189.Laws for protection of children, 91.Lectures, free, 137.Legal extortions, 23.Libraries, free, 133.Loan companies, 115-118; philanthropic, 117; building and, 123.Loan exhibitions, 133-135.Loans, 161.Loch, C. S., 125.Lowell, Mrs. Josephine Shaw, 54, 73, 118, 157-159.
Man of the family, often overlooked, 17; should apply for relief, 145.Manual training, 92.Married vagabonds, 47-57, 93, 146, 158, 164, 202-215.Mason, Miss, 90.Materialism of the charitable, 141, 171.Medical service, cheap grade of, 100.Men as friendly visitors, 41.Migration of invalids, 105.Money, relief in, 161.Mothers' meetings, 74-75.Municipal reform, 6, 21.Music, 135-137.
Negro prejudice against hospitals, 102-103.Neighborhood standard, and relief-giving, 163-164; and plansfor permanent improvement, 191.Neighbors, 24-25, 27; as a source of relief, 150; effects of reliefupon, 163, 190; influence of good, 215-218.Newspaper appeals for individual cases of need, 147, 206.Non-support laws, 53.Novels, poverty in, 2; sociological, 3.
Odd jobs, 36.Open spaces, 96.Outdoor relief, public, 151-152.Outings, 78-79, 131.Over-visited families, 184.
Parasites, 11.Partnership, with the poor in relief, 159; in plans for theirwelfare, 190.Patent medicines, 100, 110.Patronage, 10, 75.Pauper burial, 118-119.Pauperism not poverty, 11.Pawning, 118.Peabody, Professor F. G., 127.Peabody, George, 133.Pensions, for widows with children, 74; continued after needhas ceased, 155; to supplement natural resources, 162.Physical defects as a cause of unemployment, 38; as a causeof juvenile delinquency, 83-85.Physical history of family, facts in, 187.Pickton, Miss, 173.Pictures, lending, 133-135.Placing-out dependent children, 90.Plans for relief, 154-157; changed with changing conditions, 155;based on facts, 155-156; for permanent improvement, 189-192.Pleasures the measure of a man, 129.Pledges, temperance, 61.Policemen as distributors of relief, 19.Political corruption, 21-23; and public relief, 151.Poor, the, not a social class, 10-12; charity of, 25-27; treatedas dependent animals, 125; partnership with, in plans ofrelief, 159-160.Poverty, phases in our treatment of, 5; cure of, 29; problems ofnot so simple as they seem, 140.Principles of relief-giving, 145-162.Probation system for juvenile offenders, 85-86.Protection of children from cruelty and immorality, 89-90;societies for, 89; laws for, 91.Provident poor, 111.Public distributions of relief, 147.Publicity in charity, demoralization of, 146-148.Putnam, Mrs. James, 76.
Quack doctors, 100.
Reading, 133; of children, 86-87.Recreation, 127-139.References, lack of, as a cause of unemployment, 37.Relatives as a source of relief, 149-150.Relief, policemen as distributors of, 19; of married vagabond'sfamily, 50-54; of drunkard's family, 61; of children, 76-77;and hospital care, 102; of thriftless families, 112; andrecreation, 138-139; a valuable tool, 140-141; friendly visitors asdispensers of, 142-145; six principles of, 145-162; with a future,153-154; societies for, 153; interim, 154; compared withdoctoring, 154-155; with a plan, 155-157; adequate, 157-159; inwork, 160; in kind, 161; duplication of, 165; church, 167-174;as a gospel agency, 171-173; with conditions, 190.Relief in work, 160.Relief societies, 153.Rent, 156, 162.Richardson, 2.
Saloon, the, 57, 128, 133.Sanitation, improved, 96.Saving, 35, 111, 119-125; unthrifty forms of, 110-111; savingsbanks, 118-119, 123; beginnings of, 119; for burial, 119-121;for sickness, 122; stamp, 123-124; collections, 124; for fuel, 124.School-teachers, 79-80Scott, 2.Seasonal occupations, 36.Self-help, resources for, 190.Self-sustaining families, 193.Sentimental charity, 4.Settlements, 5, 8, 108.Shaftesbury, Lord, 10.Sham homes, 46.Sick benefits, 122.Sickness, as a cause of poverty, 95-96; outside hospitals, 103-104;facts needed in helping, 186-188.Smith, Miss Frances, 181.Smith, Miss Zilpha D., 36, 58, 79, 142.Social classes, 10-12.Social history of family, facts needed in, 187.Social service, 5.Soup kitchens, 148-149.Sources of relief, natural, 149-150; relief societies, 150; publicoutdoor relief, 151; multiplication of, 152-153.Spasmodic charity, 191,Spencer, Mrs. Anna Garlin, 81.Spending, 111, 112, 125,Stamp savings, 123-124.Strikes, 31-32.Study, supplementary to experience, 15; of charity in theologicalseminaries, 178.Suggestion, power of, 18, 71-72.Suggestions about visiting not all applicable to one family, 179.Summer visiting, 185.Sunday-schools, multiplication of, 87-88, 168, 177.Sympathy and sentimentality, 71.
Tact, 14.Tammany Hall's charity, 20.Tenements, unsanitary, 96.Thanet, Octave, 3.Theological seminaries, course of charitable instruction in, 178.Thomas, Theodore, 135-137.Thrift, 108-112; and wages, 109; includes spending, 110-111;divides the poor into three classes, 111-112.Thriftless, the, 109-110, 156.Trade-unions, 30, 32.Training of charity workers, life the best school for the, 14, 145,181-182; common sense in, 187; economic questions in, 29.
Undertakers and industrial insurance, 121.Unemployed, in place of strikers, 31-32; number of, 33; treatmentof, 34.Unemployment, causes of, 33-40.University extension, 137.Unsanitary surroundings, 96-97; tenements, 96.Unthrifty forms of saving, 110-111.Unworthy not a descriptive term as applied to the poor, 154.Usury, 115-118.
Vagabonds, married, 47-57, 93, 146, 158, 164, 202-215.Ventilation, 97-98.Visiting, continuous, 182-185; illustrations of continuous, 197-215;patience in, 182-183, 200; illustrations of successful, 197-202,207-215; in summer, 185. See alsoFriendly visiting.
Wants, social value of varied, 127.Warner, A. G., 33, 95.Wayward children, 83-86; girls, 216-218.Widows with children, 73-74, 158-159, 201-202.Window-gardening, 131-132.Winter not the only season for charitable work, 184.Wolcott, Mrs. Roger, 70.Women as homemakers, 64-75; as breadwinners, 72-74.Work history of family, facts needed in, 187-188.Worthy and unworthy, 154.