The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1878-09-21
Correspondence baltimore County Union.
A REVIEW OF "FREE EXCURSIONS. -

Some of the well meaning ladies and gentlemen
of cities have of late years been interesting them
selves in providing for the poor a series Of
sions by water after the fashion of those patron
lied by the well-to-dO classes. City newspapers
have Landed the undertaking, while those engaged
in it have felt the fattering conviction that they
were Frightening the lives of the poor with CLEAN
| Of pleasure and relieving their physical ailments
with the refreshments of nature and physics
Now laudable as all this seems at first sight il
is not exactly the proper thing. Whatever plea
sure Is extended 10 the poor, a charity, should
be in the shape of sodly supplying their necess-
ties. or, at the most, adding 10 their comforts
Pleasure as pleasure, in the line which others re-
gard il, should be out Of the question, and they
should find sufficient pleasure in getting clothing
and shelter for their bodies and food for their
stomachs. A few hours ride on the water may.
indeed excite the puny infant or decrepid grand
mother mentally and physically, but how long can
the glow attend when they are returned 10 those
holes Of the cities reekng with filth, foul odors and
Tepulsive sightsg
Although it would not be quite as pleasant or
a. fashionable. suppose the good ladies and gen
temen who earnestly desire to be charitable
would wend their way TO the novels Of the poor
take along their servants with shOvels. brOOms
whitewash, disinfectants. hammers and nails and
shovel out the dirt in their cellars and yards sweep
out the holes in their houses, whitewash their
walls and fences, disinfect their sinks and nail up
their doors and windows, how much more lasting
would be these ministerings TO their necessities
these additions to their comforts Those of the
poor who too deerepid to work might have
such things done for them ia toto and those who
able should assist and be encouraged to thus
substantially brighten their existence for all the
year round by paying attention to such duties
themselves. To look out upon n whitewashed
fence or wall alone all the year round is much
more health giving and exhiliarating than days
sail amid natures most lavish surroundings.
The poor are prone enough to ape beyond their
the fashions, pleasures frivOlities of the
rich, and the form of charity assumed by the free
excursions tends to dssatisfy them with their lot
and increase their hankerings for "airy nothings."
Charity for them should begin especially at home,
and it would be time enough to add to their lives
some exhiliarating pleasure after they had been
properly fed, clothed and housed and their sur
roundings made more presentable to themselves
and strangers. Imagine city with the houses of
its alleys and courts as clean and as fresh those
of its most frequented thoroughfares. The health
of such city would be established and it might
indeed then be thought that the day of the poor
mans prosperity had arrived in reality. Free ex-
cursions sustain the relation to the poor that
ice-crcam does to the starving-it is exceedingly
kind to offer it, but it is extraordinarily foolish
1t is humiliating to the pride of human nature
10 uHueGtike Je ABOVE ueScrlDeu laDOr OF cnarlty;
but charity that has not humility for its accom-
paniment cannot be anything but the fictitious
sembance which it too often appears. As an illus
tration of both this pride and the practical charity
advocated the following story is worthy of note
few miles from the city, on one of our principal
turnpikes, lived aged couple, wholly dependant,
and the man. rendered helpless by disease. One
winter they began to suffer from various dscom-
forts the doors and windows Of their house or
room were full of cracks, their window panes were
stuffed with old rags and their stove pipe, which
made exit through the Notwithstanding, had rust
ed away and caused them to live in q volume of
smoke. The rich people who supplied their wants
engaged a carpenter and glazier to fix up their
abode; but days and weeks passed and no relief
came. Finally a practical philanthropist, upon
being acquainted with their condition, went to his
home, rumaged his garnet for stove-pipes and
wire, procured window glass, putty, hammer and
nails and took half day to rig up the shanty as
if it was his own. Passers-by smiled at his ZEAL
but his was a practical charity. The mechanics
who had been engaged to do the repairs had said
that they "didnt want to be working at such
a shanty az that" The rich men who helped the
poor couple could send them turkeys and bon bons
at Christmas, but they their money could not
relieve the days and nights of real discomfort or
suffering that they passed. May word to the
wise be sufficient. Practical.