THE FRIENDLY VISITOR
I have tried to make a number of specific suggestions in the foregoing
pages, but it is needless to say that only a few of these are likely to
be useful to any one visitor, and it would be fatal to apply them all
to one family. In the effort to be specific, I fear that I may have
been as exasperating as the cook-books, which, in a similar effort,
will suggest, "take a salamander," or "take a slip of endive," when
neither is obtainable. Cook-books have their modest uses, however, and
the cooks who are most skilful in skipping recipes not intended for
them will turn the others to the best account.
In avoiding the danger of representing friendly visiting as a pleasant
diversion, I may have gone to the other extreme, and represented it
rather as an arduous and {180} exacting profession. It is so far from
being this, that professional visiting can never be friendly. In fact,
friendly visiting is not any of the things already described in this
book. It is not wise measures of relief; it is not finding employment;
it is not getting the children in school or training them for work; it
is not improving sanitary arrangements and caring for the sick; it is
not teaching cleanliness or economical cooking or buying; it is not
enforcing habits of thrift or encouraging healthful recreations. It
may be a few of these things, or all of them, but it is always
something more. Friendly visiting means intimate and continuous
knowledge of and sympathy with a poor family's joys, sorrows, opinions,
feelings, and entire outlook upon life. The visitor that has this is
unlikely to blunder either about relief or any detail; without it, he
is almost certain, in any charitable relations with members of the
family, to blunder seriously. Visitors have said to me that they could
not see that they had been of any special service, though their
friendly feeling for certain families made it impossible to stop
visiting. These visitors {181} who have no story to tell have often
done the greatest good. "One of the women we had not seen since she
first came to us some four years before," writes Miss Frances Smith,
"and we remembered her distinctly as quite ordinary then. Imagine our
surprise in finding that a certain dignity and earnestness, akin to
that of the visitor, had crept into this woman's life, and found
expression in her face and bearing. Such transfigurations cannot take
place in a few weeks or months; they are of slow growth, but they are
the best rewards of friendship." [1]
The rewards of friendly visiting and the best results of such work are
obviously not dependent upon the suggestions of a handbook. As Miss
Octavia Hill has said, success in this depends no more on rules than
does that of a young lady who begins housekeeping. "Certain things she
should indeed know; but whether she manages well or ill depends mainly
upon what she is." Life, therefore, is the best school.
Meddlesomeness, {182} lack of tact, impatience for results,
carelessness in keeping engagements and promises, will be as fatal here
as anywhere.
When we are depressed by a family's troubles and are striving earnestly
to find a way out, theirs seem quite unlike any other troubles. In a
sense, it is true that they are unlike; but there are certain
resemblances between human beings, even when a continent divides them;
and, unsafe though it may be to administer charity by rule, it is more
unsafe to administer it without reference to certain general
principles. Many of the suggestions of this book are not of universal
application, but, in bringing it to a close, I shall endeavor to state
a few principles that apply quite universally to friendly visiting.
1. The friendly visitor should get well acquainted with all the
members of the family without trying to force their confidence. A
fault of beginners is that they are unwilling to wait for the natural
development of trust and friendliness. "They expect to make a half
dozen visits on a poor family inside of a month," says Miss Birtwell,
"and see them {183} helped. Now, which one of us ever had our lives
strongly influenced by a friendship of a month's standing? . . . I
once heard a sermon which made an impression on my mind that has
remained with me for years. One of its main ideas was to get your
influence before you used it. Many people seem to think that if they
can visit a poor family, by virtue of their superior education and
culture, they must immediately have a very strong influence. They do
not get it that way. They must get it just as our friends get an
influence over us, by long, patient contact, and by the slow, natural
growth of friendship." [2]
Patience is difficult where we see so many things to be done, and it is
particularly difficult where there is actual need; but the visitor does
not go to act as a substitute for the forces, charitable or other, that
have kept the family alive so far. He must confer with sources of
relief that are or can be interested, but beyond this he must have the
courage to {184} do nothing until he knows what is the right thing to
do.
It is not possible to visit many families, but there are definite
advantages in visiting more than one--the usual limit should be not
less than two nor more than four. An advantage in visiting two
families is that the visitor is less likely to be feverishly active
during the earlier stages of acquaintance, and the contrasts and
resemblances between the two give the visitor a better grasp of
principles. Not only is a new visitor liable to err in overvisiting a
family, but some families have too many charitable visitors. The New
York visitor, who refused to go to a family on whom three charity
workers had lately called, was wise. There are families so clearly
overvisited that all who are charitably interested in them should be
persuaded to let them alone for a while.
It ought to be unnecessary to add that the winter is not the only time
for charitable work. Our poor friends need us quite as much in summer,
though many charities are less active then. When we are away in summer
we can {185} write, and when we are in town for a short while we can
often find time for a visit. Charitable work suffers from the
tradition that the only time to be charitable is when it is cold.
Next to uninterrupted visiting as a means of getting acquainted, comes
the power of taking our own interests with us when we visit. "In our
contact with poor people we do not always give ourselves as generously
as we might. Intent upon finding out about them, we forget that they
might be interested to hear about us. Would it not be well if, instead
of always giving sympathy, we sometimes asked it? It is often
striking, if we tell them about the joys and sorrows of our friends, to
note how they respond, often inquiring about them afterward. Such
mutual relationship broadens their meagre lives, and makes our contact
with them more human. A visitor, who has undertaken during the summer
the families of another too far away to visit, wrote: 'I want to tell
you what a matter of interest and pleasure it has been to me, in
visiting your families, to find that what they {186} really seemed to
value was your personal friendship for them, and how they treasured any
little incident you had told them of yourself and your travels.'" [3]
One who visits in this spirit always wins more of pleasure and of
profit from the work. In fact, it is never the visited only that are
benefited.
2. In getting acquainted, the visitor has the definite object of
trying to improve the condition of the family. This is impossible
unless he has a fairly accurate knowledge of the main facts of the
family history. Charity workers often come to me for advice about
individual families, and reveal in a few minutes' conversation that
they have no knowledge of the condition of those they would help. The
head of the family is sick, it may be, and they expect prompt advice as
to the best way to help him; but they have not taken the trouble to see
the dispensary doctor who attends him, or to find out in some other way
the nature of his disease; or perhaps the boy is out of work, but they
have not seen his {187} former employer and know nothing of his earning
capacity or references. Charitable skill is not a sort of benevolent
magic; it is based on common sense, and must work in close contact with
the facts of life. In other friendly relations we recognize this, and
in our charity work too, whether by investigation of a trained agent or
by our own inquiries, we must have the facts before we can find out the
best way to help. One advantage of visiting under the guidance of a
charity organization society is that a thorough investigation has been
made of the family circumstances before the visitor is sent.
The following is a brief outline of the facts that should be known, if
a plan is to be made for the family's benefit:
(a) _Social History._--Names; ages; birthplaces; marriage; number of
rooms occupied; education; children's school; names, addresses, and
condition of relatives and friends; church; previous residences.
(b) _Physical History._--Health of each member of the family; name of
doctor; habits.
(c) _Work History._--Occupations; names {188} and addresses of present
and former employers; how long and at what seasons usually in work; how
long out of work now; earning capacity of each worker.
(d) _Financial History._--Rent; landlord; debts, including instalment
purchases; beneficial societies; trade-union; life insurance; pawn
tickets; has family ever saved and how much?; present savings; income;
present means of subsistence other than wages; pensions; relief,
sources, and amount; charities interested.
In addition to these detached facts, there is also needed whatever
other facts will make a fairly complete brief biography of the heads of
the family, including a knowledge of their hopes and plans. The
statements of relatives and friends, their theory as to the best method
of aiding, together with some definite promise as to what they
themselves will do; the statements of pastor or Sunday-school teacher,
of doctor, former employers, and former landlords; and the statements
and experiences also of others charitably interested may be needed
before an effective plan can be made.
{189}
Inquiries of present employers and landlords should be made with
extreme care, if at all, as they might create prejudice against those
we would help.
The outline here given of the facts needed is best filled in by a
competent trained agent, rather than by the friendly visitor, whose
relations with the family render searching inquiry difficult and often
undesirable. But the mercifulness of a thorough investigation is that,
once well done, it need not be repeated, and by saving endless
blundering it also saves a family from much charitable meddling. Its
seemingly inquisitorial features are justified by the fact that it is
not made with any purpose of finding people out, but with the sole
purpose of finding out how to help them.
3. Gathering facts about the poor without making any effort to use
these facts for their good has been compared to harrowing the ground
without sowing the seed. The facts should be made the basis of a
well-considered plan. It may be necessary to modify our plans often,
as circumstances change or new facts are discovered; but a plan of
treatment {190} is as indispensable to the charity worker as to the
physician. Our plans must not ignore the family resources for
self-help. The best charity work develops these resources. If outside
help is needed, it should be made conditional upon renewed efforts at
work or in school, upon willingness to receive training, upon
cleanliness, or upon some other development within the family that will
aid in their uplifting. All this is suggested, not with a view to
making the conditions of relief difficult, but with a view to using
relief as a lever; or, as some one has put it, we should make our help
a ladder rather than a crutch, and every sensible, reasonable condition
is a round in the ladder.
Our plans for the benefit of one family must not ignore the possible
effects of our action upon other families. This is a hard lesson to
learn, but a plan that might be kind and effective, if there were only
one poor family in the city, is often unfair and even cruel, because it
rouses hopes in others which can never be fulfilled. In other words,
we must be just as well as merciful. A {191} knowledge of the
neighborhood and of the circumstances of other poor families is
necessary in judging of the justice of a plan, and here the criticism
and advice of an experienced charity worker will be very helpful.
It is necessary also to guard against making our plans with reference
to nothing but the present emergency. We must have a view to the
future of the family, and must think not only of what will put them out
of immediate need, but of what is most likely to make them permanently
self-supporting, if this be possible. There are, of course, families
that can never be made entirely self-supporting. These, if we consider
only the cases for which it is thought best to provide outside of
institutions, will be the exceptions; but in making plans for the
welfare of such families we must try to organize help that shall be as
regular and systematic as possible. Next to having to depend upon
charitable resources at all, the most demoralizing thing is to be
dependent upon uncertain and spasmodic charity.
4. In plans looking to the removal of the causes of distress, the
greatest patience is {192} needed, and we must learn also, if we would
succeed, to win the coöperation of others charitably interested. If
our plan with regard to a family is likely to prove permanently
helpful, and we are able to persuade others to work with us in carrying
it out, we are not only helping the family, but we are educating others
in common-sense methods. In persuading to an important step, the value
of coöperation is illustrated by an instance taken from the Fourteenth
Report of the Boston Associated Charities:[4] "A respectable woman, who
had struggled for a year to keep her insane husband with her and the
little girls, at great risk to them and the neighborhood, was persuaded
in but a few days to let him go to the lunatic hospital. Of course, as
strangers, our opinions were entitled to little weight; but by
collecting the doctor's opinions and those of her own friends, all of
which she had heard singly, she was sufficiently impressed to take the
long necessary step."
5. Though we must make plans looking toward self-support, these are
not the only plans {193} within the scope of friendly visiting. Some
of the best visiting can be done after families are no longer in need.
The entry "dismissed--self-sustaining" on charitable records has a very
unsatisfactory sound to those who realize the further possibilities of
friendly help. After a family has learned to live without charitable
aid, there is a better chance of introducing its members to thrifty
ways of spending and saving, to better recreations, and to healthier
and more cleanly surroundings.
6. Our work as friendly visitors is an intensely personal work, and,
unlike other charity, it is best done alone. We cannot visit in
companies of two or three, nor can we talk very much about our poor
friends, except to those charitably interested, without spoiling our
relations with them. The district system of visiting among the poor,
which is still the system of German towns and of English parishes,
assigns a certain geographical boundary to each visitor. It has been
called the "space system" in contrast to the "case system" of friendly
visiting. The main objection to it is that it is not personal enough.
{194} One who is a friend to a whole street is not felt by the members
of any particular family to belong peculiarly to them, and there is
danger, moreover, of more official relations and of small jealousies
and neighborhood entanglements that are avoided by the friendly
visiting plan.
The district visitor is the ancestor of the friendly visitor. Brewing
a bit of broth for an aged cottager, reading beside some sick-bed,
sewing a warm garment for Peggy or Nancy--it is thus that our ancestors
lightly skimmed the surface of social conditions. It would ill become
us to speak slightingly of the work of those who have handed down to us
a precious freight of human sympathy and tenderness. If heavier
burdens of responsibility, more serious problems and more strenuous
ideals are now imposed upon us, we have also many advantages that were
undreamed of a hundred years ago. Now, if we would be charitable, and
possess any power of using the forces at our command, there are
hundreds of avenues of usefulness open to us where formerly there was
only one, and there are hundreds of {195} agencies ready to help. We
must know how to work with others, and we must know how to work with
the forces that make for progress; friendly visiting, rightly
understood, turns all these forces to account, working with the
democratic spirit of the age to forward the advance of the plain and
common people into a better and larger life.
Collateral Readings: "Friendly or Volunteer Visiting," Miss Zilpha D.
Smith in Proceedings of Eleventh National Conference of Charities, pp.
69 _sq_. "Friendly Visiting," Mrs. Marian C. Putnam in Proceedings of
Fourteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 149 _sq_. "Class for
the Study of Friendly Visiting," Mrs. S. E. Tenney in Proceedings of
Nineteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 455 _sq_. "The
Education of the Friendly Visitor," Miss Z. D. Smith in Proceedings of
Nineteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 445 _sq_. "Friendly
Visiting," Mrs. Roger Wolcott in Proceedings of International Congress
of Charities, 1893, volume on "Organization of Charities," pp. 108
_sq_. Also Miss F. C. Prideaux in same volume, pp. 369 _sq_. and
discussion, pp. 15 _sq_. "Continued Care of Families," Frances A.
Smith in Proceedings of Twenty-second National Conference of Charities,
pp. 87 _sq_. "Friendly Visiting as a Social Force," Charles F. Weller
in Proceedings of Twenty-fourth National Conference of Charities, pp.
199 _sq_. "Company Manners," Florence Converse in "Atlantic," January,
1898. (This story is not a fair picture of associated charity methods,
but points out one of the dangers of spasmodic visiting.)
[1] Proceedings of Twenty-second Conference of Charities, 1895, p. 88.
[2] Proceedings of International Congress of Charities, volume on
"Organization of Charities," p. 21.
[3] Eleventh Report of Boston Associated Charities, p. 31.
[4] p. 27.
{197}
APPENDIX
The illustrations of friendly visiting in the preceding pages have been
given with a view to elucidating some particular part of visiting work.
Some of the following instances show the possibilities and
discouragements of continuous visiting, and the last illustration
emphasizes an important fact in the life of poor neighborhoods; namely,
the unconscious but restraining and uplifting influence of good
neighbors. On this same phase of the subject, see Charles Booth's "Life
and Labor of the People," Vol. I, p. 159.
_Home Libraries and the Visitor._--A visitor reports that "a library has
been established in the room of Mrs. ----, where the boys of the tenement
house meet every Saturday afternoon to receive or exchange their books,
discuss with the visitor the books they have read, listen to stories as
they are read or narrated, and to play games. This little gathering
seems to have improved the moral and social atmosphere of the entire
tenement house."
The woman who has charge of the library first became known to this same
visitor over four years ago, {198} when she was struggling upon the verge
of starvation, and almost giving up in despair from the effort to support
herself and her two children. Through the efforts of the visitor she is
now comfortable and practically self-supporting. She has been made
librarian for the tenement house by the visitor, and is proud of the
distinction. The following are the exact words of the visitor: "She
welcomes the children into her room, made scrupulously clean and
attractive; and as she sits at her work and listens to their games and
readings, in which she frequently participates, her depressed spirits
rise, and she seems to gain courage, and to feel that there is after all
something bright in her life."--Sixteenth Report of Cincinnati Associated
Charities, p. 13.
_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. 45 _sq_.
_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. 7 _sq_.
{219}
INDEX
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. See _Charity 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.
Catholic _versus_ Protestant 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; wayward
and 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 an
investment, 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 natural
source of relief, 173-174; the chief source of the charitable
impulse, 175-176; and secular agencies, 176-177.
Church workers, who ignore the breadwinner, 18; ignore neighborhood
ties, 25, 27; ignore the fundamental conditions of family
life, 44-45; ignore the claims of children to educational
advantages, 81; allow children to be sent with begging messages, 88;
prefer to administer spiritual consolation mixed with material
relief, 144.
Citizenship, 19-23, 87.
City life _versus_ country, 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, _versus_ relief 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-school
teachers, 87; with children's aid society, 85; with
society for protection of children, 89-90; with board of
health, 96-101; with dispensaries, 100-101; with hospitals,
101-103; with district nurses, and diet kitchens, 103; with
educational 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, cautions
in 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 biography
of 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; introduction
to, 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; and
sanitation, 97-101; and sickness, 101-106; and thrift, 111; and
savings, 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 families
in, 182; by correspondence, 184-185; mutual relations in, 185;
and charity organization societies, 187-189; and others charitably
interested, 192; best done alone, 193; distinguished from
district 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; weakens
neighborhood ties, 27; weakens family ties, 45-47; to
children, 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 of
landlords 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 concerning
inquiries 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 plans
for permanent improvement, 191.
Neighbors, 24-25, 27; as a source of relief, 150; effects of relief
upon, 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 their
welfare, 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 need
has ceased, 155; to supplement natural resources, 162.
Physical defects as a cause of unemployment, 38; as a cause
of 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; treated
as dependent animals, 125; partnership with, in plans of
relief, 159-160.
Poverty, phases in our treatment of, 5; cure of, 29; problems of
not 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's
family, 50-54; of drunkard's family, 61; of children, 76-77;
and hospital care, 102; of thriftless families, 112; and
recreation, 138-139; a valuable tool, 140-141; friendly visitors as
dispensers of, 142-145; six principles of, 145-162; with a future,
153-154; societies for, 153; interim, 154; compared with
doctoring, 154-155; with a plan, 155-157; adequate, 157-159; in
work, 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; savings
banks, 118-119, 123; beginnings of, 119; for burial, 119-121;
for sickness, 122; stamp, 123-124; collections, 124; for fuel, 124.
School-teachers, 79-80
Scott, 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; public
outdoor 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 theological
seminaries, 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; treatment
of, 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 also _Friendly 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.