Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-01-26
TIE SUFFERING ATOUR DOORS.

1t is before your door! You shall Judge!
Read the Police Scenes in our columns to-
day. This is the talk Of only one man, who
sees but a segment of the circle OF starva-
ton in Staunton. 1t is a fact that may be
ascertained in conversation with the OIL
GERS of the city, OF with your nelghbors,
that there are men, ome and children
poor, pitiful, helpless children around us
to-day suffering for want of food and fuel /;
without anything to eat and without any
fire to cook it if they had it. Honest, IN
dustrious mechanics out of work, who with
their families don't taste food more than
once in twenty-four hours, and sometimes
not that often, may be found on nearly ev-
cry street IL the city. These people, be-
sides being poor, are proud /: always able
and willing to work when they could get
it to do, and fully able to support their
families their present situation is new to
them, and they are ashamed of it, unused
to it their selferespectEhas never had this
trial before, and they don't know how to
bend it to the necessity of begging for as
~slstance.
1t is for such men as these that an Or
gained charity is indispensable. They
want no church society women prying, as
they look at it, into their family affairs
and passing upon their claim to aid.
They have been good and useful citizens
and have held their heads up, and their
strait has come so suddenly upon them that
they have had no time to mould their
spirit to what in their eyes is a humilja-
ton. Wemention this class Of our neigh
bors especially, because they are very nu-
merous and very hard to get at and bear
almost beyond bearing before they will cry
out. 1t is for them especially that a pub
lie organized charity would be beneficial.
A house opened for the public, where any
one can send for a meal of good soup and
bread, without a formal exposure Of their
want. will at least save these people from
ton, could be put in the custody of so
many members of the Y. M. G. A. in each
ward, and distributed gratis to every ap-
plicant. In Alexandria, in addition, these
tickets are sold to the charitable at twenty
for a dollar, and by them given to the
poor. The cost is next to nothing.
The church women's societies are doing
a good work, so good that there is always
a strong effort made by a community when
charity is mentioned, to saddle its collec-
ton and distribution and general manage
ment on them. But they would be over
cropped i'll trying to manage the destitu
ton now in Staunton. They are chiefly
familiar with the poor OF their churches,
and are severely tasked to provide for
them, for it must be remembered that they
not only have to disburse charity but also
to, gather it up. Besides, there are many
now suffering who do not know the
churches, nor do the churches know them.
And then the colored people! There is
intense suffering among them. Seldom
provident, they ache to the bone when ice
cold poverty like this comes along. AL
ways poor, they cannot look to each other
for aid. Earning their money from the
whites, and soon returning it to them by
thriftless extravaganza, they can onl,
look W GI6m Ill UlultO llhC CiCoOs IL 10
only by a public and organized charity that
these Yoor creatures can lie reached.
If the Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton would put its hand to this thing, the
City Council cooperating with it. a great
deal Of suffering can be saved i'll Staunton,
and if their efforts are supplemented by
the sympathy and aid Of those citizens who
can afford it, all will be saved. 1t is but
natural to look to this Association in suciI
a work. They wear the uniform. they are
called after the name of a Man who was
not rich himself but who WAS very thought
full and very lender towards the poor, and
who so identified himself with their caus
that he said. ''Inasmuch as ye did it not
to one Of the least of these, ye did it not
To me-"