National Republican., 1883-02-24
CHARITY AT HOME.
An Effort 10 Assist the Unfortunate Without
Unnecessarily Humiliating Them.
The Work oftho Washington Association
and Its Success.

The Work Oftho Washington Associatioh
and It's Success.
The work which the Associated Charities
are doing is of vast and growing proportions.
The object of this ASSOCIATION Is to relieve inn
mediate distress as far as possible, but pri-
marily. to provide work for all persons desir-
ing it. Aims giving is a secondary consider
alton. The Importance of preserving the
self respect of tho needy is kept in view, and
experience has shown this can be best done
by supplying them with employment. The
association depends for its means upon con-
tributions from the charitable. The annual
appropriation made by congress to relieve the
destitute of the district goes TO the commits
sionors. ThoAssociated Charities get none oft.
| The amount appropriated is Sl0,O0O, of
which the physicians to the poor get $4,000.
The police authorities get $1,000 to disburse
for this object. This sum is insufficient andthe
police daily refer cases need TO tho Associated
Charities. The latter association is suffering
for want of funds. The rich do not respond
as literally rs they should, but have done
better this year than last. The central
Office " is u sort of supervisory institution, to
which the subdivisions rcpst monthly. The
district Is divided into seventeen subdivisions;
of which four, embracing the territory outside
the city limits, excepting lie DrOit park
and Mount Pleasant, are yet un-
organized. The work Of investigating
and relieving cases of distress is
chiefly done by the subdivisions, although
the central office does u great deal Of it.
Generally cases reported TO IL are turned
over to the subdivisions There is an appal-
ling amount of suffering in the district,
and, strange to say, more of 1t, proportionate-
! ly, among the whites than among the colored
! ,,,,,ln A I,n ,r Il Ia al no ha
presence of strangers in the city, coming here
TO seek employment. 4 vast deal, however,
Is TO be found among native mechanics who
caunot get work. This class is growing in
numbers. They are generally rcticcnt on the
| subject of their suilcrings, and when they np-
ply for assistance IL is almost inyariable found
that they have reached the limit Of cndur-
ance.
Among the practical plans devised by the
Associated Charities TO relieve distress
without humiliating the applicants is that of
| lending money on security. No interest is
charged on loans, and 1t is found that these
are almost always returned. Very frequently
| loans are made without any security for re-
payment. A good many soldiers coming to
| Washington on various kinds of business often
| get penniess and are assisted in this way to
their homes. During January, 1883, l2l per-
SONS registered their names at the central office
as applicants for work Of these % were
| white mon, i6 white women, IL cOlOrCd men,
and 40 colOrcd women. The greater number
of these whites both male and female, were
totally illiterate, being able to neither read
| nor writo. The bulk of these come from
| Maryland and Virginia. During the month,
of all the applications, either for relief or for
work, only three were impostors all of them
white; all of them unable to read or write
one man and two women. Although per-
| fectly illiteratc, their easy address and suave
nuency of speech were such as TO attract atten-
| ti0n
The work obtained by the Associated Chari-
| ties for applicants Is generally paid at fair
rates, One lady who called at the central
Office while the reporter was there wanted a
girl to do houscwOrk for q family of three.
She offered SO per month wages, board, and
lodgings. The tendency, however, of en-
ployers other than for domestic services is to
cut down wages to as low a figure as possible.
This tendency, US learned by the charities, is
not confined to Washington. One man who
applied Mt the office far aid in getting some
thing to do had worked at his last job for $25
u MONTH lie had Il wife and four children to
clothe, feed, pay house rent for, and when
sick TO buy medicines and pay doctors bills.
TO do all this he had less than fourteen
cents day for each. Fuel and
house rent took over two'ffths OF
the amount, and, not counting requirements
for sickness &C., the balance left him about
| clBnU CenIS u udy-inC uullN lUOu VI cHCI. vi
course clothes were out of the question. Yet
this man was an Intelligent, temperate, in
dustrious citizen, whose appearance indicated
better association and more generous living
than $25 month cOuld command. Such in
deed was the case. He had formerly occupied
positions of trust and responsibility, where
both intelligence and character were required
He had no bad habits, was faithful to his en-
gagements, valuable to his employers, but
deemed himself fortunate in getting work nj
, $25 per month. Even this miserable pittancc
was earned sporadiCally lie couldn't get a
permanent job at eighty cents day on which
TO support family of six. As this is by no
means an exceptional case, it behOoves the
student of ethics in its relations to economy
/ TO revise their science and study anew the
social problem,
There is found much feeling among the
colOred people in reference to certain phases
of their poverty. One feature, which is tC
be commended rs showing a basis of self.re.
spect and acute sensibilities that afforded
hope for the building thereon of u superstruc.
ture of selfsustaining manhood, is their sen.
sitveness in reference to the burial of theii
dead. As an illustration, while the reporter
was in the office, a young colorcd woman
came in with note addressed to the central
office. Her child was dead, and she wanted
! help to bury it. She was told they would
furnish her with n coffin, but the district au
thorties would have to bury the body. This
, was revolving to the woman, who had pleas
ing, Intelligent face. A corporation burial )
was suggestive of a deeper degradation thar
poverty rs yet had brought her to. PerplexeG
and anxious, with strong emotion showing
, visible traces of its presence on her face, sht
sorrowfully left the Office to try some Other
method of putting away her dead "dccently
! and in order.
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