New-York tribune., 1876-10-10
RETRENCHuKNT And CHARITY

f. Last Sunday, according to custom, the usual
appeal for the poor was made In all EplScO-
palan churches throughout the country, and
in many others. Everywhere the statement
was made that large number were out OF
work, provisions high, the winter approaching,
etc. Now in spite Of the October revival OF
trade. this is all true Charity will be needed,
is needed now; and no safer hands can be
found to receive and distribute aims than
faithful minister in a poor parish.
Many of cur readers, in fact the majority OF
wealthy people, prefer to give aims through
others 1t may be the wrong way, but 1t Is as well
to have 1t az nearly right as possible. II you
don't choose to test the truth of every tramp,
or to seek out cases Of suffering in the neigh
boring alleys, give your fund for charity to
somebody who viii seek them ont. Much
suffering might be relieved this Winter,
too, by the application of a few prac'
teal rules to the management of every
establishment and household. In the first
place, wages should be more evenly proper
toned between the ornamental part OF the
force and the workers. 1t is the custom in all
retail establishments, for the sake OF appear
anccs, to keep up the full corps of shOWy,
higl-pliced attendants until the last gasp,
while the wages and numbers of the real
laborcrs are reduced to a minimum. Just as,
we might hint, few sensational preachers and
effective choir leaders are paid enormous sal
aries, while the church is forced to withdraw
her support from her poor missionary posts on
the borders. Now, nobody is deceived by
this; no parade of well-dressed statesmen will
hold back creditor from a shaking house
any more then Satan will be scared by pews
at 81 900 premium. We can better afford in
oil eases to 90 to the bottom of reform than
to patch it over with false show Precisely
the same rule holds good with regard to house
hold expenditure. The majority of the fami-
lies into which THE TRIBUNE goes are neither
paupers nor mill0naires, but people whose
means are very apt to be straitened in
these trying times. They watch the five
dollar bills very closely as they go out
AMI come in. Yet it will be found
in too many eases that the chief outlay is made
with regard to effect on the nel&hbor 1t Is
in the ball given at Christmas, or the state
dinners with hired walters, or the saucy
iootman or the waitress who really are not
needed. but look genteel.' Household ser
wants are paid in proportion more than any
other class of laborcrs; and the very house
keeper who is in subiection before her profess
sional cook or modiste from Paris, and who
paws their bills without murmur, wringS the
last penny from the wages of her waSherwOman
or the poor wretch who does an occasional
chOrc.
This may sound like a homeopathic rem
cdy for an incurablc disease but for every
needy man there is a well-to-dO household, and
if our domestic business and aims were con-
trolled with reference to this needy class we
could reach them just as easily as Ivy change
in the caTcnts of trade. Let every family,
now that the Winter is near, cut off every
vcstige of unreal display, and widen its oppor-
tuntics for practical help by giving work and
paying fairly for it, Prune the branches to give
strength to the roots. in word, and we shall
have fewer tramps to raid on the community
and no real plupcrs to reproach It,