, 1888-10-03
THE POOR OF LONDON.
THE KINDNESS SHOWN TO ONE
ANOTHER IN MISFORTUNE.

hiehbEAuopbihB SiShCE III
Misfortune Dead Comrades Pet.
Kindness to Animals.
1t is not only in their perhaps thriftless
almsgiving that the poor show their sym
pathy with their own order. They show
it in their practical help'in times of sick
ness and bereavement; they show it in
their readiness to share their scanty food
and shelter with the hungry and the home.
less; they show it in the way in which
they take other peoples troubles upon
their already overburdened backs; and in
the way they frequently sacrifice their
time and their money in e~ndeavoring to
put their poor brothers and sisters who
have been pushed down in the battle of
life once more upon their legs.
The poor live SO closely together that
they know a good deal of each others cir
cumstances, and naturally the ladies are
the first to find out each others business.
So it comes that the poor woman living
with her husband and family in one room
knows that the people in the next room
are without food She and her husband
go short and send in half their loaf to
their starving ~neighbors. and she sends in
the teapot with the leaves left in it, and
she fills it up with hot water. This, at
least. gives the recipient a warm drink,
whatever the particular flavor of it
may be.
One remarkable way in which the poor
show their kindness of heart is in adopt
ing children. 1t frequently happens in
neighborhoods where the laboring and
criminal classes herd together that a fam
lily of children may be suddenly left with
out father or mother. Father gets put
away" and mother, in her grief and de.
spair, goes to drown her sorrow at the
public house. and sometimes ends by fall
inn harSalf into tho rl,trhao of +bo low
Such cases as this occur over and over
again, and in FIVE cases out of ten the
children are taken care of. washed and
dressed and fed by some poor mother liv-
ing in the same house, who herself has q
large family All this is lone ungrudg-
ingly and as a duty" If you ask such a
woman what prompted her to burden her.
self with the maintenance of another
woman's family she will tell you there
was nothing wonderful in the act. She
supposes as some %neighbor nd do the
same by her young 'uns If ever she was in
trouble.
A poor. unfortunate girl, living in a ten.
ement house with others of her unhappy
class, fell seriously i'll The landlord
wanted her sent to the workhouse. The
other girls said No, not if they knew
it These Door creatures pawned all the
clothes they could spare in order to paw
for a clever doctor-for her case was a
complicated one-and they dubbed to-
gether and got her all the doctor ordered
her. They relieved each other at the sick
bed and took it in turns to nurse her day
and night. and they made her stop at
home when she was better for over six
weeks. as the doctor said there would still
be a risk in her going out, during all of
which time they paid her rent and every
expense incurred by her illness, though to
do it they had to deny themselves not
only any comfort but almost any neces-
sary of life Brave girls those and good
girls How different would their lives
have been, perhaps, had they known in
their homes such love and devotion as
they showered upon their sisters in mis-
fortune.
The poor man who loses his wife finds
plenty of sympathy and practical help
among his poor neighbors. Some good
soul comes in at once and sees to the
young children for him If he has none old
enough to look after the others. The
baby not ~infrequently finds a new mother
to take it to her breast, and even the
mans comfort is not overlooked. Mrs.
Jones will run in for half an hour while
he is away at work, and tidy up his place
for him; and Mrs. Brown will pop across
the road and get his tea ready for him
against he comes home. There are some
charming little idylls of the courts and
alleys which are waiting to be told-ten-
der prose poems, fragrant with the self
sacrifice and the heroisms of the poor and
the lowly, but they must be told from
the beginning to the end. To cut them
down into a bald narrative of incidents
would be to rob them of all their grace
and charm.
The sympathy of the poor shows itself
sometimes in q tender regard for some
thing which has been the pet of a dead
comrade or ~neighbor. Some little timp
back, a hawker in the East End lay dying.
He was a widower and childless, but he
had one companions faithful, loving
little dog, who had lived with him for
many years. AS the poor fellow lay on
his death bed, the little dog stretched it
self out beside him, and every now and
then licked the weak. thin hand that
rested lovingly upon it's little head. The
old hawker's mind was tortured as to
what would be his faithful companions
fate after he had gone to his grave;
SO one day he sent for a mate, n he
said to him: Jim, when I'm gone,
a my little Fan, and let her have
a home with you till she dies, will
you, mater l shall die happy if l know
as she'll lave q friend to take care
of her after I'm dead" Jim, a street
hawker of dolls, gripped his friends hand
and said: Yes, mate; I'll tax her, and
promise you as she shall be as comfort
able as / can make her."
This kindness to animals is by no means
a rare Craft among the poor. have seen
a lean and hungry lad many a time shar-
ing his scanty meal of bread and butter
with a stray cur in the slums, and l know
one common lodging house cat, who died
in the kitchen amid the tears and sobs of
the rough men Inc women, who clustered
around to see their pet breathe its last
George R. Sims in Philadelphia Times.