The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-02-10
Soup Kitchens for the Starving
Where Shall They BE Located.

charity in New York Our public institutions
are creditable, our private benevolence is pro-
verbal There has been, up to the present
time, less street begging and less visible signs
of want in this city than in any other city of
equal population in the world. But to spend
the money that is given in charity wisely and
bene6cially is as important as the act of Civ
ing. If the liberal sums contributed for
charity were all spent in such manner as to
insure that the aid they are competent to rem
der would be applied promptly to cases of real
suffering, the good they would accomplish
would be much greater than it is No doubt
everybody who gives to the poor or raises
funds for their relief means we'll and acts with
a sincere desire to do as much good as posi-
BILE. But there is homely saying that
"while the grass grows the steed starves,''
and it is questionable whether crcumlocution
and delay do not seriously interfere with the
practical benefits that ought to flow from the
ample charity of our citizens.
The most practical plan for instant relief
in the direction most needed is that which
proposes the establishment Of free soup
kitchens throughout the city. Hunger is the
greatest of all the evils of poverty. To give
man hearty, wholesome meal is, in fact, to
clothe and warm him as well as to feed him;
for cold can be borne when the appetite is
satisfied. Besides, the food furnished by
soup kitchens is nourishing and strengthen
ing and does much to avert disease and suf-
fering, especially among poor women and
children. The question is how to start these
soup kitchens promptly, without great e1-
pense for rents and fittings, and in such
manner that their number may enable every
hungry pauper to be fed, and their loca-
ton be easy of access and readily ascer-
tanned No better plan suggests itself than
to open soup house in every
police station and engine house in the
city. There are nearly forty station houses
and about sixty engine and hook and ladder
houses in New York. and these are necessarily
well located and evenly distributed. If soup
houses should be connected with them any
policeman or fireman could readily direct
inquirers to them, and they would soon be-
come known to the poor of the several dis
tricts. Rent would be saved, and the police
would be in great measure the distributors of
the great charity. The city is directly inter-
ested in the work, although it will probably,
if carried out, be mainly through private char
ity; hence there could be no objection to the
proposition. The poor wretches who are
driven to seek q nights lodging in the station
house would then obtain o meal instead
of going to bed hungry, and the sta
ton and engine houses, being open day and
night, would be accessible at all hours. It
would, besides, facilitate the immediate OPEN
ing of the soup houses without wasting time
to search for and fit up other premises, and,
as the restitution in the city is fearful and is
on the increase, it is desirable that this effec-
tive and humane plan of instant relief should
be put into operation as speedily as possible
We therefore strongly urge upon our authori-
ties the propriety of taking such action as
may be necessary to authorize the opening of
soup houses in the station and engine houses
of the city, and we call upon the charitably
disposed and the managers of charitable
societies to apply the funds they contribute or
raise to this desirable object In no other
manner can the sufferings of our starving
thousands be so promptly and so mercifully
allayed.