St. Paul daily globe., 1889-02-20
CAREL LESSNESS IN CHARITY
Is Responsible for Much Idleness aud
Vice Here in Minneapolis.
SECRETARY HoLT's VIEWS.
Systematic Dead Beats and Professional
Eeggars Thrive on Indiscriminate
Almsgiving.

About twenty good people, mostly
ladies, comprising the working element
of the South side conference of the as
sociated charities, met yesterday after
noon at their rooms on Cedar avenue.
AS is the custom at these meetings, the
hour was spent in discussing particular
cases of destitution in the scope of their
work. Since the meeting two weeks
ago forty-two families have been
hunted up and their wants
tended to. AS the ladies gave
their experiences in the work-for the
ladies here. as elsewhere, hold sway
when talkingis to be done-Story after
story was told that would be aerevela-
ton to Minneapolis people If they could
hear them. George ID. Holt, secretary
of the associated charities. was seen
after the meeting by the GLOBE repre-
sentative for little information on the
charity work.
II tell you what" said Mr.. Holt,
"When fellow runs across genuine
case of deserving chara cter il does him
good to relieve it, but l find very
few cases of it, l assure you. 1t
is really astonishing how many eases
there are of people living off OF differ
CllU CIIdIltltS, dS d J1OlCSoiOns III WIN
ing together here and talking these
cases over, time and again, we find that
every one of us, with many outside par
ties, are working on the same case.
The characters that are the most heard
of-that arouse the most widespread
sympathy-are the greatest humbugs.
1t is very easy matter for person
eVilly inclined to move from place to
place, and in that way always appear as
part of the worthy poor. l will give
you an example that is
A FAIR ILLUSTRATION
of this class of people. About month
ago woman of honest and decidedly
respectable appearance arrived at tile
Milwaukee depot. She was young and
possessed face and bearing that would
arouse sympathy anywhere. She ap-
piled for money to pay freight on what
little goods she had brought with her.
We helped her.and on her request found
her room on Sixth street south, not
great way from NicOllet. i'll fiat. we
believed her honest, and thought she
would do as she said and get work to
take care OF herself; but we had to keep
helping her all the time. She got so that
she didn't say anything, but took it as
matter of course when we took things
to her. She got sick. too, and told
us that the neighbOrs were heathenish
and never came near her. SO went
to her room with an experienced lady
nurse one evening after she had grown
dangerously ill, and found there a man
whom | knew to be dead beat and out
of WORK. Here | saw an explanation
for the heathenism of the neighborS and
other things. | waited for an hour and
a half with the nurse for the fellow to
go, and when l found he was used to
staying there told him he wouldn't
be needed any more, as we had a nurse.
That sick woman protested that the fell
low must stay, and we left them. Of
course. the neighbors were not going to
go in while the man was there. AT our
next meeting it turntd out that the.
man and woman had been living on the
charities of several institutions and pri-
vate individuals. Now that is
BUT ONE OF MANY CASES.
We have them every week, and the
good people who believe they should be
charitable and have the right hand
know not what the left hand doeth' are
the ones who are most imposed upon.
/ have grown to be suspicious of lone
women who will not go into domestic
rvice. There are lots of young girls,
many of them just from the old world
or the country, who will not take
places in good families where they
could get good education iii
housework. good home and
dollar or two a week.
They must have s. a week and be able
to buy ribbons and flashy clothes and
have their Fellows OF they will prefer
to he destitute and live giddy lives and
finally depend upon charity. / can to-
day furnish respectable girls with 800
good places, with from 81 to 50 a week
and board in good families. know of
a great many cases of young girls going
astray who have rejected such places.
l tell you it is too bad, and | haven't
half the sympathy with poverty aud
destitutiOn that | use to have"