Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-11-21
Children as Beggers in the MetrOp-
ellis,

There are divers institutions of char
liable nature in this city-hospitals, asyl-
ums for orphans, the deaf, the dumb and
the insane-and many wealthy citizens
are gifted with the spirit of true benev-
olence. And we have two or three asso-
Citations whose names would indicate
that their mission is to care for and aid
the children of the city; but, with all
their machinery, they have as yet been
unable to understand, much less solve,
this problem of the children of the poor.
A few years ago New York was the par
adise of beggary from door to door, but
of late the generous families of New
Yorl have found that miscellaneous aims,
given at their doors, is not effective.
Cold victuals given to beggars are often
! thrown in the street, often carried to the
swilI barref often used by keepers of
| the lowest boarding houses in the city,
and very rarely find their way to the suf-
fering poor, to whom they are presuma-
bly, given 1t is said that members of
the associations for the relief of the poor
regularly visit every tenement end place
of misery, making personal lnvestiga-
ton of cases of destitution, which they
report to the association, and they make
a great poiut of rule that no money is
given where it is likely to be expended
for liquor. A great many visits are made,
a great many persons are relieved, but
the red tape which is bound about the
best of these associations hampers aud
cramps individuals at a time when aid is
most needed, and prevents their working
in the field where the greatest good might
be done. Observations shows that many
little girls, who become familiarized with
profanity and in1elicacy at home and in
the streets, and whose education along
these lines of expression and action is en-
HANGED by their service on the street as
reddlers of one thing or another, find ac-
cess to the dance houses, and other places
of disrepute with which their own sec
tions of the city abound. No special
good is to be gained by details of this
sort, and general statement must be ac-
cepted of the existence of vast tenement
house districts in which the poor are
crowded, so that all possibility of bar
rier between sexes and condition is out
of the question. There these
little ones are born in great numbers
there, so far as individual members are
concerned, they might as well be one
great family, for they live in the street,
play in the street, cry in the street, SLEEP
in ahe street and, after awhile, make
their living in the street. In 1884 New
York had less than thirty thousand
inhabitants. The problem which veXed
our forefathers was the education and
care of the children. The same problem
presents itself to-day. A part of the
children are cared for, and to a certain
extent are educated, but the great mass
of them are in the hands of careless par
ents. Society takes no heed of then
whatever until, breaking some o.
the societys laws, society's police
club cracks them over the skull
and hauls them to society's prison. NJ
man ever confronted such peril, NJ
woman was ever confronted by such dan
ger, no traveller ever experienced sucl
disaster no nation was ever faced b!
such misfortune as are daily the fate
the nightly certainty, the constant com
panions of the babies on our blocks. -
NeU York. Herald.