New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-12-21
pIUPERLSM IN NEW- YORK.

lavish endowment of them by the wealthler
classes, suggest the remembrance OF th:, CLASS,
horn outside of even intelligent conception or
the educated pleasures of life, and whose
highest ambition is to get enough OF the mis-
cradle food which will keep them alive IN
world that has pOrtiOncd out to them only
wretchedness. Charitable associations, whether
religious or otherwise, are ordinarily Dased Oh
the creed that Dives owes this much to Laza-
rus-to keep him in the WORLD so far to FEED
and clothc him that the purple and fine linen
of bis garments may be clean of his brothers
blood: a creed which is just enough, when we
take n surface view of the matter. we beheve
that not only the rich but the wcll-tO-do
classes in Ncw-York contribute generously to
this end Very few men do not, either private
" or through the medium of church or NIL
ncipal organizations, do what they can to mt
this sinking, helpless mass into comfort OF
dcccncy.
One of the best methods used to this end is
the N. Y. Association for Improving the Con-
dtion of the Poor, whose twenty eighth an
nua report is now before us. This organlza-
ton undertakes its work, as far as we can
Judge, with not only sound principles OF
charity. but common sense. 1t covers the en-
tire city and county from the Battery to
Kngsbridge This area is divided first into
districts, and the districts into $40 sections,
to each of which is appointed Visitor. ANY
amount contributed gives membership, with
tickets by means of which applicants are re-
ferred to these Visitors. The rules for the
Visitors require them to examine promptly
and in person into each case to give assist
ancc at once, if deserved, but only for imme-
date relief, and in small quantities. TO each
district there is also appointed local Advis-
DRY Board, who are to confer with and direct
the Visitors. The average number OF poor
annually relieved by this charity amounts
during the last twelve years to $1,000 persons.
The primary and altogether cOmmendable OBJ
icct of this Association is to furnish an intel
ligent method of alms-giving for our citizens,
secure from imposture and 80 admirable and
effective has its system proved, that 1t mas
been taken rs the model for the London Mem
deity Society. We commend it heartily as
in every way preferable to indiscriminate
street and doorstep charity, while we urge
at the same time that no association can re-
lieve the Christian man and woman from
their duty of personal help to their poorer
brother. ~ was naked and ye clothed mcJ
saith the Lord; not "yOu sent Visitor or
advisory Board to mr.'
But the question underlying this temporary
relief is, whether that is all which Dives owes
to Lazarus. Is the poor man simply to be
fed for this one hungry December day, or set
upon his feet and shown how to earn bread
for years to comet Is it his stomach only
that is going by default in life, or the strength
or talent that God gave him TO fill his place
in the world, the sclf-respcct that makes
aims more bitter than starvation? This AssO,
citation recognizes the higher and more efficient
duty of rOusng whatever latent sense of man
hood there is in the pallper to feeding and
clothing him, and does what it can to that
end, making it necessarily side issue. The
Visitors are cnjoncd to give food of an infe
"rior quality and quantity to that which the
"applcant could obtain by labor; to require
"of each beneficiary abstinence from liquor,
"and that his children shall be sent to school,
cor, if of a proper age, apprenticed to trade,
cor sent to service" and to discontinue re-
lief to those who appear willing to remain
paupcrs How hard it is to kindle real self
respect in uncducated people they prove in
the incidental statement that nccdle-wOmen
out of work refuse to accept domestic service as
I" too humiliating," but take aims, regarding
it as the only alternative with the brOthel.
We have urged time and again that the true
work for charity IN Ncw-YOrk was to make
this great fostering mass of pauperism self
helping instead of staving off death from
it by yearly does. Emigration, trade
schools, liquor-aw, model lodging houses,
may do much to this end, but will never prove
efficient until the pauper is made ashamed of
his pauperism. lie is not now. The experience
of every ono cOnversant with tho poor is that
(taking out the self-respecting, sclf-helping
Germansl they have vague creed that "the
"world owes them living" that the luxury
or comfort of their rich neghbor is a right of
which they were defraudcd, and not good
dependent on hard work of brain and body.
1t is upon this envy, this discomfort this is
nOrant sense of having been cheated, among
the lower classes, that tho lnternationals base
their frantic appeals and on which they will
find their sole foundation. The only hope of
giving self-respect or manhood to this class is
by education, and that being tho case, tho
sooner it becomes compulsory the better.
There is an old Morse story of lad who
had giants stable to clean. He shovelcd
away for years, only to find the heap grow
deeper every day, when a fairy whispered TO
him to turn the other end of the pitch fork,
and 10! the stable was clean. If We turn the
sharper side of our charity upon our work, the
result may not be so prompt, but assurcdly by
the next generation our common sense with
aims. giving will begin to tell
A discomfort that is national has been kin
died in France by proposition on the part of