The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1877-11-24
SELECTED MATTER,
NOTES.
BY WINIFRED ST. CLAIR.

Not the autocrat of a breakfast table
nor any other autocrat but at ''tea'
we hear wonderful thing on the inside
of life.
The board of health here have insti-
tuted means to ferret out the cause OF
the increase of consumption. Should
they have gone inside of some homes
where the pale, wan mother sits with the
children, and their sustenance is only
bread and tea, they would have their
answer. Starvation is in more places
than the garret, or the hOvel. Gaunt
want stalks in pride into many home
of which we know nothing We call it
the hard times we call it by all unheard
of names and in perfect wonder we
stand aghast when we find the hungry
mothers, starving children in every home
hungry souls, hungry bodies. Souls
fed with chaff, bodies alike fed-tea and
bread. Any statistics will prove that
tea and bread diet lays the seed of con-
sumption ;.and yet our sesquipedalion
charities go N the name of charity.
Now why {; 6e1pmg your neighbor,
charity? Many a refined person well
nigh starves because of the sound of the
word. We know so many ladies who
dress in velvet and diamonds; ; they give
nothing away; their selfish lives are
spent in round of gaities. Truly they
give the matter of fifty cents away sOme-
times to some one to buy medicine-all
due respect to physicians and their pre-
scriptions. Many times the pain in the
head for which they give medicine,
come not from that ever present neural
gia, or from abused malaria but hun
ger, diet of bread and tea. Little does
the rich woman, wrapped in elegance,
clothed in "purple and fine linen" +"
know of the want of the refined woman
earning her living, and that of her fam
lily by copying, by music teaching, by
any of these silly paid avocations the
white face and the thin hands tell the
tale without any words. Wine and oil
would make these care worn faces shine
but they are not on your charity.
During the summer last past, we have
seen much of this class of struggling
refined people, once in affluence, now
in want. We have not seen the tender
pity of human love displayed as much
as we know it could be- Women are
willing to work in any honest way; but
these cultivated women whose lives have
never known want, do not need to have
it told them to 60 take in washing for
living for themselves and their families.
Not that we decry manual labor No,
would that every girl could be raised to
do manual labor, the whole physique of
women would be stronger. We are de-
sirous to help the suffering mother, the
suffering wives, the little children, the
struggling women. Some people say,
be more selfassertive; well you can as
sert most anything in health and COM
fort, but starvation and its boon COM
panion weakness, is limp and broken ;
what is to be done? We wish just for
one twenty-four hours, lady in silks
and Jewels would be obliged to eat bread |
and tea, and sit at table or desk and |
use her pen for any purpose, whether it
be in writing friendly letters, (if such a
thing could come from her adamantine
hear or setting copies for classes, or in
any way of writing she might choose
and have her bread and tea-many times
Just tea alone, without milk or sugar
and then the decoCtion so very weak as
to be barely colored. We wish some of
the ladies in luxury would try some of
these things, and see how it is themselves.
Possibly, they would turn to their ward
robes and sell them in disgust, rather
than to live on in their vapid lives, cum
berers of the ground. Look on the pale
face and thin hands of women Strug-
CLING; look on their weak, uncertain gait
almost staggering from weakness-want
Ofgoodnourishing food. That nourish-
ing food, ladies, is in your larders,
growing gray with mould. Your sister
needs it ; but she needs it not
in charity, "not here-this is all that l
can do for you to-day" No, she needs
i in tender love, and in tender love, we
pray you, take with your jewelled hands
| nice basket and napkins, place therein
each day from your bounty, and send it
Is a message of love to the homes of
some of these struggling women. Re-
they are not poor for your
charity, they will grow stronger feeling
you have thought of them as a loving
sister; kindness, pity, tender love is