Instead of multiplying agencies needlessly, the city churches will find it to the advantage of their spiritual work to keep up vital connection with city charities. A clergyman who has an active church in one of our eastern cities, has abandoned the plan of starting separate church schools, societies, or institutions, realizing that many of these are unnecessary, and that many others, necessary in themselves, are inadequately supported. His people are sent instead, according to their aptitudes, to hospitals, children's charities, societies for visiting the needy, alms-houses, and homes for the aged. It may be objected that the shoulder-to-shoulder contact, the strength of concentration, is lacking in such a plan. But the church holds frequent congregational meetings, where all who have been detailed to serve as friendly visitors, hospital workers, etc., report to the church and to the minister. Each one learns in {177} this way from the work of the others; weak points in the city's plans for dealing with the poor are made apparent; and the church is able by united effort to obtain needed reforms. The work is understood to be a practical application of the gospel as taught from the church pulpit, and there is a natural and vital connection between the spiritual and social life of the church community. Two other advantages are apparent. The elasticity of the plan makes it possible to find work adapted to many varying capacities, and all denominational rivalry, all petty jealousy is avoided.

The friendly visitor from such a church will not visit the poor with a view to winning them away from other churches to his own. On the other hand, he will see the importance of some church connection, and will strive to restore church relations, if they have been severed, by urging attendance upon the services of the church and Sunday-school to which the family naturally belongs. He will seek the help of this church's minister in any plans he may make for furthering the family {178} welfare, and, in this way, a spirit of cooperation between churches of different denominations will be encouraged.

I cannot leave this part of my subject without mentioning one other matter, though it is only indirectly connected with friendly visiting. The training of ministers in our theological seminaries should include a thorough course of instruction in charitable work. This would enable ministers to guide the work of their people in the best channels, and it would save them, moreover, from the discouragements of the conscientious worker who is striving to improve social conditions without any clear conception of the scope and limitations of such service. There are many clergymen whose experience and opportunities for study fit them for leadership in an attempt to establish systematic training, in the seminaries. A demand from the laity for more experienced direction in church charity would also help to hasten the introduction of regular seminary courses in applied philanthropy.



[1] "Charities Review," Vol. II, pp. 26 sq.

[2] "Occasional Papers of the London Charity Organization Society," p. 35.

[3] Miss Pickton in London "Charity Organization Review," Vol. X, p. 538.



{179}

CHAPTER XI

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 cooperation 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 cooperation 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 cooperation 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. Cooperation, 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.

THE END