In the course of time I became very suspicious of every record in the
Charity Institutions. Not one appeared to me truthful. I knew I could
not trust them any more than I would trust police records that are made
up not to give information but very often only to shield a particular
policeman. They are coloured so as to give the impression that it was
difficult to procure the information. Often the detective sent out to
get the particulars spends the time in a saloon or gambling house, then
on a few meagre details he makes up his report. When contradicted by the
"case" he simply says the man lies. The same thing happens with the
investigations of charitable institutions. Knowing this I suspected
every record of being far from the facts. In my investigations I made it
a rule not to take _anything_ for granted from the reports, but to look
into the matter myself.
One rainy day I looked through the records and laid aside the ones I
intended to work upon the next day. I decided to reinvestigate cases
where the pension had been discontinued. By this time it was very
difficult for me to work. The investigators feared me and had drilled
their "customers" to so answer my questions as to conform to the report
they had made on the case. Wherever I went, under whatever guise, I was
anticipated. The people were on the qui-vive and I often had to give up
my investigation without marked results.
At first I did not know to what to attribute my non-success and the
Manager grew impatient and spurred me on. "Results, results. If you
don't bring us extra information you are of no great use to us." Such
was the tenor of his speech. They needed "extra information." Right or
wrong, by hook or crook, but extra information to give an excuse for my
pay envelope. But it did not take long before I learned the cause of my
ill success. The people were warned.
I knew of several investigators who did it and I could have reported
them and had them discharged, but I disliked to do so. So I reported to
the Manager that some one had warned them and that I was working on a
clue to find out who had done it, when I would report. Naturally this
made them stop their interference. This subterfuge gave me time to do
other work--investigate the "discontinued" cases. It was work for myself
and I had no need for hurry, nor did I need to make a report of my
findings.
I copied a few addresses and some other particulars and the next day I
set out on my tour.
One of the cases that particularly interested me was the case of a young
Irish lady, a widow with four children, who had been pensioned for four
years. The report of the investigator was a continuous description of
misery and misfortune. One of the children, at least, was always sick.
At times there were three in bed and the mother too was in an "awful
condition." This was so from 1908 to 1910, until the month of December
of that year, the reports never being farther apart than two weeks.
Then, all of a sudden, the report was discontinued for two months, until
the end of February, and was then very much colder than usual. It simply
mentioned that Mrs. G. was much better and the children well. The next
one, made in April, contained an interesting item. The older child, nine
years old, was selling papers. "The woman denied that she knew anything
about it but I saw him myself," read the report. For May of the same
year there were three reports, the last one speaking of a "pail of beer
and cigarettes, in company with other men and women." It advises the
application of the "test." Then, after that, one big word.
"Discontinued."
It took me some time before I found Mrs. G. She had moved three times in
eight months and when I at last found her she was living in 63rd
Street, in a house near the river. Her dwelling was more like the hole
of a water rat than the quarters of a human being in a civilised city of
the New World. A mattress on the floor, a folding bed with torn sides,
on an egg box a gas stove, a rocking chair that had seen better days,
some rags hanging on the walls, this was the furniture of the house. And
the woman herself. She fitted excellently into the picture. It was as
though a painter had grouped them together as the subject of a
masterpiece of misery, to hold the world up to shame. Tall and angular,
her hair dishevelled, her face unclean, with dress torn, through which
greyish dirty linen peeped out, with bare feet in a pair of shoes picked
up from a garbage can, she stood in the middle of the room and looked
wonderingly at me, not knowing to what she owed my visit. She had hardly
enough strength to answer my questions. There were no children in the
house. I told her who I was. Her face lit up and she asked me about the
investigator--a man--who was in charge of the district. Pointblank I put
the question:
"How are you making a living?"
"I am not doing anything," she answered.
"Yes, but from where do you get money to buy food?"
"I am not buying any."
"But you don't live without food!"
She shrugged her shoulders and turned away in despair.
I waited a few moments, and as I got no answer I repeated my question.
All in vain. She would not answer. As I sat there the door was opened
and a little shrunken, dirty boy of about eight years, barefoot and
wrapped up in a pair of overalls, came in.
"I got a good big one," he said, as he put a package on the folding bed.
He turned round, and saw me. Mother and child looked at one another
understandingly. Without another word the boy disappeared. The mother
manipulated the package from the folding bed to the window sill.
"From where did the boy get this package?" I asked.
"From nowhere--he did not get it--he took it, from--"
"Why! my good lady, do you allow him to steal? Do you know where it will
land him?"
"In the hospital," she answered, as she gave me the package. I tore off
the paper,--a piece of cooked chicken, the remainder of a steak, three
old rolls, all of them with the stamp of the garbage can, with spit and
sawdust on them, and on one morsel the butt of a cigarette.
"You see," she said, "they can't arrest him for _that_," pointing to
the package. "He gets it from 'Martin's' restaurant."
I tried to get at the reason of her being "discontinued," and after a
time I had to ask her outright. From her talk I understood that she
wanted me to believe that Mr. S., the investigator, was very attentive
to her, and she had responded to his advances. That he would sit with
her at night and that he even took her to a moving picture show once. I
looked at her and did not believe a word she said. Mr. S. was a young
man and this woman could hardly inspire an old drunkard with such
sentiments. She understood the reason of my apparent doubt.
"I see you don't believe it." From under a broken mirror she brought
forth a picture of a lovely young woman of the pronounced Irish type,
with loose hair and clear-cut features.
"That's me," she explained, "three years ago--when Mr. S. knew me," and
as she talked she put her blouse in order and tried to look like the
picture. It was hard to find a resemblance, but it was undoubtedly her
image. With the picture she tried to tempt me. "A few weeks of decent
care and I am again the picture," she explained, thinking that this was
the only way to re-enter into the possession of the pension.
"Why were you discontinued?"
"It's all my fault. I had bragged about it to a neighbour and the
neighbour told it to another one who was in Mrs. S.'s care, and she
reported it to him. But I got my lesson. I'd keep mum. The boys are
out."
From the woman I learned how he used to get extra money for her every
time, on the plea that a child was ill, that she was ill, a whole
traffic in pity, and then I understood the record and understood the
sudden change of face and the discontinuance.
I tried to explain to the woman that here was a wrong way. With no
success, however. She told me that the former investigator, the one
before Mr. S., was also very friendly, and about him she never told. She
seemed to think that I was sent by Mr. S. for the same purpose, and
again and again she attracted my attention to the loveliness of the
picture, and appealed in its name. There must have been a trace of a
great disgust on my face, for she cleaned her hands and combed herself
as she spoke. From the emergency money I gave her a few dollars and told
her that I would visit her again and try to get her restored on the
pension list. She took the money, but I felt that she was disappointed.
Was the woman in her insulted? For she still assured me of her secrecy.
Before I went away I learned that two children had not been in the house
for the last four or five days.
"And where do you think they are?" I asked.
"One, I know, went on a freight, and the other must be somewhere." At
the door she again stopped me.
"Here's my picture, if you want it!" she said pleadingly, as she tended
it to me. I felt it would have been a great insult to have refused her
gift, to destroy the hope she had that the picture might awaken desires
and that these desires might bring her rent and food. There was a
glimmer of hope when I promised to do all in my power to restore her
pension.
Instead of going to my next address I loitered in the neighbourhood of
63rd Street, near the river. I knew that Mr. S. was in his district and
I hoped to find him. I was rehearsing mentally the words in which I
should clothe my opinion of his behaviour, when all at once I saw him
coming from a house. I approached him, called him into a saloon, and
without a word I showed him the picture.
"What about that?" I asked.
"She was all right once--that's how she looked, the cat," he explained
jokingly. "Did you get at her? You--you! She was all right once, how is
she now?" He took the picture and looked at it with interest, probably
remembering his debauches. I immediately saw that I could learn more
about the matter by handling the case dexterously, and I learned, oh! I
did learn how the money of the poor is spent--how payment is taken for
the bread and coal and rent, and how, when he has "another one," a fresh
case, the "cat" is simply discontinued.
Mr. S. was a man of about forty and had been fifteen years in the
business. He knew all the ropes and finished up with a promise to take
me to a young French widow who was a "peach," a new case, as he
explained, twinkling his eye knowingly. He still looked at the picture
of the Irish woman.
"You would never think her to be an applicant. She has such a
distinguished appearance. Oh! she's a peach--if she only could keep
mum," he said, referring to the French widow.
I offered him another glass, and when this was consumed I playfully
suggested: "Let's go up to Mrs. G.--just for fun."
At first S. refused, but as his eyes again caught the face in the
picture he ordered another glass, and then standing up he said: "Come."
He did not know her address so I had to lead the way.
We knocked and Mrs. G. opened the door and invited us in. But S. had
only one look at her, when he ran down the stairs. I followed him. He
was dumbfounded and kept on repeating: "Is that her? Is that her?"
I put the picture before his eyes: "How do you like the change?" I
asked. "It's good charitable work. When you get another one the 'cat' is
simply discontinued." I repeated his words.
A few months afterwards I saw the same woman in the street. She was
decently dressed and looked much better. Remorse or fear of my
denunciation had made S. provide for immediate needs. Soon she was
restored on the list and again the oldest son was ill and the third one
was in bed and all the tricks were resumed to have the institution pay
for the lust of the coward.