The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-07-26
THE BRITISH PAUPER.
Indoor and Outdoor Relief.---A Great
Social COnundrum.
Special Correspondence National Tribune.

many signs of a luxury of wealth and an
abyss of poverty for which no use of the i'm
agination could prepare him. There is how
ever one element of London life which proba-
bly, he never sees, an element silent and unob-
trusive, but none the less terrible and abiding.
This element is the inside-life Of the London
warehouses. For nearly three hundred years
the pauperism of England has been reeOg-
nized fact provided for by law, supported by
taxation, housed at discretion of the local au-
thOrities. In the present century it has grown
to such vast proportions that the attention Of
twenty thousand poor-law guardians are oceu-
pied in providing for it.
In the past ten years the interest of English
women has been largely enlisted IN the work
of administering parish relief and thirty
one women are now serving as pOor-law guard
iaus. These women have secured the cO-Ope-
ration of large numbers Of others who, without
actual office, help greatly in the care Of pauper
children by finding places IN which the children
are carefully watched over while learning TO
support themselves, and are kept from drifting
into otfenses leading to reiormatories or indus
trial schools, and from relapsing into pauper
life. These thiTty-One women who are acting
as pOor-law guardians find the need Of the prac-
teal experience of women among the thousand
details of housekeeping necessary in conduct
ing warehouses filled with hundreds of men
and women of all ages and all degrees Of in
capacity and intrmity, and with children
training needful in increased measure. Even
more necessary is women's care in the parish
infrmary, where the sick poor, the most pitt
full class in any society, are cared for.
WOMEN AS GUARDIANS.
Ameeting was therefore held last week to make
known to the public some of the features of the
work of the guardians which especially call for
| the presence of women on the boards of guard
ians and to discuss the difficulties which lie in
the way of securing the services of women. In
/ the course of the discussion it became evident
that act of Parliament is necessary to increase
the number of persons eligible to election as
guardians. At present the only persons eIigi-
bic are heads of families who live in the parish
and pay taxes as householdeTs. Thus only one
| person from one family can be elected and that
the taxpayer; adult sons who live at home
being excluded as well as the larger class of
| women of leisure who live with their parents
and pay no house rent. Mr.. Gaines, NJ. p,
| himself a guardian, readily undertook, when
| this point was made clear, to bring In a measure
| providing that eligibility for poor-law guard
| ianship should BIO made identical with that for
election to the school board, e., that it should
| be made necessary merely to live in the parish
and pay a certain slight tax. 1t is hoped that
/ this measure may be speedily adopted, and that
large number of women may be made eligible
for election as poor-law guardians.
Meanwhile at the meeting IN question an in
/ terest was aroused not only In the election of
| women as poor-law guardians, but in the women
| who are already serving in this capacity and in
| the warehouses in which their work lies. 1t
was my good fortune to be permitted to visit
lambeth workhouse with one of the ladies in
| question, and to see several things which seem
/ TO me to be of interest to us in America.
| The vastness of the work among the pauper
| population is almost inconeeivable. The parish
/ of Lambeth contains population of two hum
/ bred and fifty thousand persons, of whom
| twenty-five hundred live within the walls of
the workhouse, and twenty-five hundred more
/ Teyolye about it as the central point of their
| existence. The responsibility of standing be-
tween this army Of three Thousand human
/ beings and death by starvation rests with
| a parish board of twenty men and women.
| This part of their responsibility is COMPARE
lively slight, however, for the parish rates are
heavy, and there is bread and meat enough for
the army every day in the year. A much
greater responsibility is that of giving relief
| from the public Golfers so wisely as not to in
crease the begging habit in people whose very
| need proves that something is wanting in them
| already and the interest of a visit to lambeth
| workhouse really centers in the methods used
to guard and develop the little selfdependenee
that remains in the paupers.
LAMBETH woRKHoUsE.
The workhouse is vast brick structure,
erected FIVE years since and provided with the
arrangements suggested by two hundred years
| experience in building wOrkhouseS. The shin
| ing cleanliness and the pure air that peryade
every corner were continued surprise, and
the simple means used to secure these two
benefits are admirably easy of imitation. All
the inside walls are of glazed bricks and the
floors of wood scrubbed to the utmost white
ness, or of stone or cement. The window
sashes are provided with wooden castings ar
top and bottom, and can be somewhat raised or
lowered without admitting direct draught5
upon the Paupers at their work, most of the air
coming through the middle crack where the
saShes meet In consequence of these simple
arrangements, workrooms occupied by hun
dred women each We're fresh as the outer
courts.
The point first visited by the pauper is the
little window through which he asks for bread,
meat and shilling. Bread and meat the clerk
gives at discretion; money must be voted by
the board. The clerk whom l saw was a mid
dle-aged man. with gentle voice and kind
grey eyes, who showed US his register and
spoke with real sorrow of the widow whose re-
lief was cut off last week because one boy
would not go to school, while the only fund
applicable to her case must remain cut of by
law so long as one child IS out of school. The
school board helps TO enforce this by placing
the attendance books of every school at the
disposal of the clerks, and the children whose
parents receive relief are thus dOubly COM
PEELED to regular attendanee-frst by the CON-
pulsion law and second by the poor law. The
kindly grey eyes of the clerk were troubled
again as, in running through the lists with
quick comment his various charges, he
came TO a case In which five younger children
depended upon the wages of lad of sixteen,
who claimed relief because he earned but six
shillings. Later the lad lost this slight earn
ing, and when new place was found for him
declined it, and the truth came out that he
had really been earning twelve and could get
himself another twelye-shilling place at viii.
THE LACK OF GOOD FAITH.
The utter lack of good faith and truthful
statement among the outdoor paupers forces
the authorities to believe guilty all who are
not proved innocent, and to investigate ont
door cases with the same rigidity which
brings harsh criticism upon our own charity
societies. The pauper whose account of him.
self is satisfactory is placed upon the rec
ord watched, studied, and helped TO get upon
his own resources once more. it was pleasant
to see the eordiality with which our kind
friend, the clerk, dwelt upon the new married
womens property law, which will enable many
of the hardworking mothers whose names are
on his book to keep their earnings from drink
ing husbands and so work out Of pauperhoOd.
He who falls one grade below outdoor relief
and comes within, finds several unc0ngenial
though wholesome conditions. First of these
is bath; next the sacrifice of his wOnted
stimuants-there are few paupers among total
abstainers; then diet of painful simplicity,