Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-03-30

indiscriminate gratuitous relief, and of the
superior advantages Of furnishing the poor
with employment, viii but confirm the views
already formed by those who have had the
best opportunities of estimating the results of
the past winters system Of relief
Truly yours, H.L.w.
Pauperisln.
A terrible winter has just passed IN New
York. Such a season of suffering among the
poorer classes has not been for many years
perhaps never in the history of our city. 1t
is, we are thankful to say passing gradually
away. Work is opening little; the chill
dren and the women can be more in the open
streets, earning their living, and warmth and
sunlight enter the damp and wintry homes of
the poor. The Spring is always, to one who
loves Nature, dream of delight. The first
soft airs and mild sunbeams after the winter,
seem to enwrap one in vague and dreamy
sensations, than which life hardly gives more
delicious pleasure.
But never before did it seem so filed with
blessings as this year, in our populous city
To how many novels does it bring warmth and
hope again how many poor woman, whom
the storms and frosts of winter had shut in,
helpless and shivering, does it release again
how many hall-clad and hungry children does
1t send forth into sunlight and new chances
for labor. The Spring is Gods gentle charity
to the poor, even as winter is His sterner
charity. For no one can be familiar with the
poorest people, especially the children of the
city, and not see that winter is as necessary to
them as spring. The storm season brings the
vagrant and idler back to the great laws of
Providence, that every human being must
work if he would enjoy 1t is our winter
that preserves us from horde of lazzaroni.
A g 10 rfn pf
it is the moment to inquire what we are to
learn from it in the treatment of the poor
Pauperlsm is new question-thanks to
our circumstances Ito the American people
and very naturally the main principles in re-
gard to it are yet to be learned. 1t has been
unfortunate that the subject, this last winter,
was forced upon us in such terrible form.
The whole treatment has been on such a great
scale that mistakes-if mistakes occurred
were likely to bring on fearful results. Our
own impression from the tristan impression
now gaining ground continually among
thoughtful persons--was that immense blum
deTs were being made in the relief the poor
blCnders which Will bear their harvest of evils.
not merely next year, but for years to come,
in our city. These views, though more I'M
welcome task can hardly be than to meet gem
erous impulses by cold practical words, were
freely stated to the public, and as freely COM
mented on and objected to by portion of the
pulpit and the press,
We and those who co-inciaed in our views,
were quite willing to leave them to be tested
by experience; though sadly convinced that
most important lessons were being learnt
at great cost. None Of us supposed, how
ever, that facts would so soon confirm some of
the positions taken. Before detailing these,
1t may be useful to go over the principles
which led some of US to our conclusions in
respect to charitable relief employed.
Taking any broad view of Society, there is /;
much more than the multitude suppose-an
immediate connection between Poverty and
Character; that is, the morale Of the man, his
industry, his habit of self restraint, his indie
pendence, or his pity determined his cireum-
stances much more than fist appears. When
one first visits among the poor, he is over
whelmed with the aspect of human beings so
crushed by mere eXternals. y relentless and
arbitrary Fate seems to be imprisoning and
destroying these miserable creatures but af-
ter nearer observation, he is surprised to find
how much in every case the moral quality has
brought about the condition. The laziness,
the lack Of temperance, the thriftlessness, the
want Of self-reliance or of spirituality, have
gathered poverty about the man far more than
any outside or unavoidable influences. There
disabledi there are those whom crcumstau-
ces beyond their power have stripped OF every
possible means of self-support. But these are
very few the mass Of the poor are not of such.
When this conviction has settled on the mind,
1T is not meant, of course, that we should turn
our backs on the needy, because they are so by
their own fault. Possibly, to noble nature,
it is this very poverty of soul which is the sad
dest part Of their restitution. And in teach
ing this lesson, that Poverty follows Charac-
ter it is the hardest thing TO make the gener-
al mind understand your object. There seems
to be about middle class Of minds, in the
world, natural inability, to see anything but
one premise and one conclusion of subject.
How many times this winter has it been said,
You object to the charity, therefore, YOU
would let the poor die !" AS if the choice was
between the present charities and starvation.
The great point is, not whether we shall help
or no, but but hoao shall zoe help' Theprinci-
pie and the mode Of charitable relief are the
questions.
1t what we have said thus far be true. ii is
plain that measures Of relief which in any de-
gree weaken the moral and nobler qualities of
a man, go far, instead of lessening poverty,
to increase it. If aid be given to family, so ,
that their self-relianoe, their thrift, their Dig.
nifty, or their honesty are injured or liAar24
to be injured, the family, in place of her ION,
sentially relieved, Greatly plunged
er poverty. The evils an aston ~ lssS
hct them next year, or the ye9er cent on The shares
a worse degree, by as much as tied BY the Directors
Of resistance is weakened. hey are requested to
relief then, which shall lessen iO-u1 Trsss,r
pendenee-the feeding people insTS77S-
calling the poor supphcants t6stnership. usdS,
OF the raising of money IN sueha mall continue The
the poor shall feel they have rigset, where may
support OF the rich, really increases oeerlss, which
So anything that encourages importuITE'
gives tree chance for experimentation
nate giving of aims and yielding to m
pertinacity of begging~-is weakness whiespavv
not merely Injuries the poor receiver now, buE.