Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-19
wOMEN's CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

On Tuesday last we published the sad but
eloquent appeal of Mrs. J. C. johnson, pres
ident of the Women's Christian Association,
for aid in behalf of an organization which
has done so much to alleviate the sufferings OF
| the poor and needy. The publication made
| by Mrs. johnson inspires mingled feelings of
| admiration and sadness-admiratio for the
noble ladies who have dedicated their lives
to the poor widow, the orphan and to suffer-
| ing humanity in all its phases, and sadness
! to learn that the association is so restricted
in its work of usefulness on account of the
want OF means. The appeal of Mrs. John
son should be promptly responded to- and
she has right to make the appeal and to
expect help, for she has labored for the past
ten years with an energy that never
wearied, and we understand the organi-
cation over which she has SO ably
presided costs her individually near $1,000
year. When she gives such unstinted la
Dor and money to this association, surely the
public will come forward and rescue it from
peril and embarrassments. 1t is better to
provide for the needy, as this association has
done for years and is still ready to do in the
IMAM ~ pSILllb AIob1NutlOu W per
ish and thereby cast the homeless and penni-
less upon the streets and society. These la
dies have exhausted their resources, and they
confidently look to the public for help. The
careless and unthinking are too ready TO |
confound raggedness and misery with vice !
and crime. 1t is not altogether among |
"the things of threads and patches" |
L
to be looked for. If the custodians OF |
public honesty sought merely among the |
back-alley shanties how many rogue would |
remain unwhipt of justice? But it is not IL e |
criminal we propose describing, but tn |
friendless, the unfortunate, the homeless; too |
frequently made SO, it must be admitted, by |
their own improvidence or intemperance, but |
untsinted of dishonesty. What a world Of |
dreary meaning is there to the wanderer IN a |
great city of that cruel word, homeless"
What coy sound of comfort in the word |
'homen The best of all American lyrics, |
song sung wherever the English language is
spoken, was inspired by actual want Of the |
blessing it glori6ed Human nature owes a
debt of gratitude to the New Yorker John
Howard Payne, for "Home, Sweet Home"
1t was penned when he was utterly cast down;
destitute snd friendless, wanderer in a
strange land with no money and no sure and
certain hopes OF dinner, walking the lonely
streets of mighty city, wet, shoeless, chilled,
hungry and sad, watching the ruddy light
streaming from between the crimson curtains
Of comfort. Only think OF it, the author of
Home, Sweet Home" homeless man.
Thy name is suggestive, poor wanderer Payne;
While millions are charmed with thy musical
An exile and outcast, still destined to roam,
And homeless to MARBLE " there's no place like |
home
In city like Memphis, with population
largely made up OF foreign elements, and
being a common center for all without means
of seeking for something to do, cases of
want and restitution are OF
daily occurrence, and the Womens Christian
Association has labored to provide for dis
tressed humanity in all its varied aspects. II
seems to us that any appeal for poor women
and children, homeless and without friends, |
ought to lie responded to with alacrity. With
no fault of their own, women and children
often come TO want Work may cease, hard
earned wages suspend, tne petty cnanuler re- |
fuse more credit, the coal-heap give out, and
everyone around be utter strangers: a poor
discharged penniless from one
OF the hospitals, may have no shelter, no
food, no means; repentant, sad and sober
waii, whose term for drunkenness or petty
crime may have expired, finds herself upon |
the street without place to go; the half | ,
starved. three-parts-naked, oppressed and /
beaten child OF drunken parents may leave the
hell 1t has called home; the victim of mans
with her burden of shame upon
her bosom, unable to find a situation: the
stranger who, passing through by train, finds
herself penniless and far away from her des-
tination; all OF these must either be public
charges, guests of private benevolence. or
iuffer and die. Let it be said, to the glory
If Memphis, that the Women's Christian
Association has provided for many OF these
Unfortunate classes, and are still willing to y
10 so if the public will sid them. The
criminal is warmly housed and fed; but the
poor, whose only crime is poverty, must steal
'r starve. The unfortunate poor, who, hun =
sry and naked, stir up the dying embers
without heat, certainly objects of pity
anu compassion. The Women's Christian
association Is not the nursery of idlenesa, a
LOT The managers do all they can toward | L
tIa1s II SeiI-s9stalning. 1t II to be hoped {
Iisi People Of Memphis will come to the re- h