The morning news., 1889-05-20
IN THE NAME OF CHARITY.
Over $7ooo,ooo Given to the New
York Poor Annually What Is Done
BY Fashionable Society.
(CnnanrnhI 1eslN

BY Fashionable Society.
(Copvrf9ht 1ss9)
NEW YORK, May 1S-Seven and one
half million dollars year approximates
the sum the rich of New York give volun
tarily to the poor. This is from private
purses and entirely apart from the charities
OF the city government Five hundred
churches, with their missions and their in
Vulnerable societies for giving relief to all
sorts of needs, and 800 secular societies DIS
burse this money.
AS every woman of social Importance is
connected with these societies it would be
useless to enumerate them. Prominent
among the practical workers is Mrs Fred
Vanderbilt, who has had a Soberer and
more broadening experience of life than
most wonen Of wealth and fashion, and is
therefore full of sympathy for the unfor-
tunate. She can remember the time when
her father kept a 2cent shop in Providence,
and still clearer is the memory of her first
unfortunate marriage and the embarrass-
ments of a divorce. She is a noble, whole
souled woman, whom neither adverse nor
fortuitous circumstances can spoil Her
favorite work is at one of the working girls
missions OF st. Georges church. Miss
Grace Dodge is Interested, among her other
philanthropies, in these organized missions,
and is an especial patron of the working
girls club, where she gives practical talk
once week, The four daughters Of Bishop
Potter are indefatigabls mission workers.
The eldest, Clara, has established two girls
clubs, presides at their business meetings
and lectures before them every week
Helen Potter shares in this work, while
Bertha has charge of night class in en-
broidery. Mrs. Elliott Shepard's favorite
charity is the Young Women's Christian
Association, and she is never tired of lavish
ing money upon it, AS an illustration,
when the young women had recently a
holiday tea party she ordered and pr seated
them 800 bouquets at a cost Of several hun
dred dollars. She has just given to the as
sociatiun a valuable block of two houses on
Sixteenth street, in one of which Ward Nc
Allister now resides, to be converted into a
boarding house for girls. A considerable
sum finds its way to the poor through the
mediumship Of Father Huntingdon called
the Episcopal monk, who IS a unique char
act r; a very good looking young man, son
of Bishop Huntington and nephew of DR..
Huntington, Of Grace church, New York,
who has taken the VOWS of poverty, cell
bacy and chastity, and who spends his time
among the poor.
So much activity cannot but produce its
effect upon the frivolous, and charity is
fashionable, Not the kind which suffers
long and IS not putfed up; not the sort
which endureth all things; | fear it vaunts
itself sometimes aud moro or less see1eth its
own; but it never fails in being prompt
with its check book, and it is meant to be
kind Philistia, of Fifth avenue, by means
OF kettle drums, balls, fairs, and theatricas
keeps up a constant frolic fer the poor
Above all it furnishes an excuse to kick
over the traces Of conventioBality. For
sweet charity, but for no other thing in life,
may Miss Philstia make, for instance, an
exhibition of herself on a theater stage:
dotf her ordinary wear and become Span
ish senorita or an English bar maid: try
what it would be like to showiler foot with
skirt above the ankle, or challenge ad-
miration in a rakish frou-frou rig, with
'see- e-what-l-mlgh be-if-I-chose" air.
Miss Philistia never by any chance comes
in contact with her beneficiaries and has
the vaguest ideas concerning them. There
is in Philistia's set too much of the feeling
brutality expressed the other day by a
curled darling of fashion, who, hearing If the
los at sea of several hundred immigrants,
shook her bangles, ran her jeweled and
useless fingers through her friZzss and re-
marked that perhaps it was a good thing:
it was the easiest way to dispose Of them
in her home it has been a rule, time out of
mind, that the family carriage must never
be seen west Of Sixth or east of Madison
avenues, and what wonder her fancy pic
tuFes the unknown beyond where the poor
live, as full of horror.
The society woman's charity list PLAYS
almost as large part in her social economy
as her visiting list. Certain charities she
mussynot fail 20 patronize on pain Of losing
caste. This is the way it is managed In
her desk she keeps what she calls an SIN
dex." 1t is book containing a list of the
charities to which she contributes. Against
each entry is marked the dates on which
regular Payments fall due, whether annu-
ally or oftener, together with the amount
to be'given. As the dates occur her private
secretary makes out and dispatches the
checks. When a new charity is projected
printed circular, stating its objects and the
names of its patrons, is sent round. The
woman who receives it scrutnizes the
names upon it and if they are Of persons
whose good graces she desires she sutscribes
and adds the new charity to her permanent
list. When sne receives "a card apprisiug
her of an incidental Entertainment, asking,
"Will you take three ticaetsN she does not
look at the nature of the charity but at the
list Of patroas in order TO decide. Receipts
Of Il single parlor entertainment rise often
to $1,000 and it is probable that If anv
one Of half The persons present were asked
the object Of the festival they would be I'M
able to tell.
People who are not in fashionable society,
but who wish TO be, fnd charities the most
accessible breach in tho social wall.
ADA CONE