Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-19
A WOMAN,s CHARITY.
where the Friendless Find Friends
and the Homeless Find shelter.

nrst administration Of Gen. Grant that num-
Der OF ladies organized and Incorporated the
"Womans Christian Association of the District
OF Columbia" The ladies named in the instru-
ment were: Mrs VIM. Stiekney, Mrs. ]. C.
smith, Mrs z. Richards, Mrs C. s. Jones Mrs.
IT, A Hail, Mrs. J. C. Lewis. Mrs. II. ID. Barr.
Mrs. c. A. Weed, Mrs. II. Pitts and Mrs. J.. n.
whitney, and it was Mr.. Edmund F. Brown
VINO certified the charter. The objects of the
association are of practical nature and are to
AFFORD relief and aid to the destitute. work for
those seeking employment homes for the
homeless, sympathy for the friendless, to re-
form and restore the fallen and to bestow
such Christian benevolence upon the
NIT. The society is undenominational
IN character, but the workers desire to follow
the sublime example of the Divine Master,
whose charities embraced all In the begin
ming OF their efforts upon this line the women
soon found they could accomplish nothing
without building. The desire to improve
the moral, intellectual and spiritual condition
OF women In the District could not materalize
into good works without a house or headauar-
tiers for that work. So the association worked
away IN sad old tenement on Judiciary Square
Tor couple of years and the charitable deeds
that they accomplished being materially recog-
nlzed, they were enabled to purchase the hand
streets, that they now hold.
THE BUILDING.
They quartered their charges in the barracks
Of houses that were on the grounds, and in 1874
Congress appropriated 500, 900 for the erection
OF the present building that stands ut the head
OF Riggs street closing the vista prettily of that
quiet court. 1t is set far back in the ample
grounds has three stories and a basement the
'front.' Is draped with Towering vines, the heavy
LEAKAGE concealing the angularity of the struc-
ture, the entrance is through a plain wooden
vestibule and the whole house is but the stem
OF the possible shape that it is intended to
assume when completed. There is a fine plat
OF ground to the front for the accommodation
OF handsome facade.
On entering the house the visitor finds him.
self In broad hall with large rooms opening
on both sides of it. To the right are a suite of
parlors where religious exercises are held every
moaning, and where, on Tuesday evening, a
special service OF song and prayer is conduc ted
by the chaplain. who is either a pastor or
iaynan OF one of the city churches. To keep
TINS Office always supplied is the work of the
members OF the devotional committee, of which
Mrs. Ii. t. Catlin is the chairman On the
other side of the hall are the matron's apart
Hlen1s' where many welghty questions OF ex-
pediency are settled. There are rooms for
more than half a hundred beds in the main
building.
GUESTS OF THE INSTITUTION.
Now, the boarders and others in the home OBJ
1ect most strenuously to being called Sin
mates" This precaution it is important to
recollect and observe, as any of us would rebel
against the term were We so situated The
permanent object of the home then, is. as its
name implies, to give a home and a certain pro-
lection to otherwise homeless women The
majority Of them pay, and the rates of board
range from % 80 per week TO nothing. A per-
manent home is provided for six old ladies who
must be from the District of Columbia.
who pay an entrance fee of 800. The number
Is nAed, ana 1t is only when vacancy occurs in
natural way that an accession is made to that
roll. These elderly women may be called the
autocrats of the institution, as they feel a
strong proprietary right in it, Other old ladies
are supported here in their declining years by
churches, friends and societies; girls seeking
employment, strangers in the city, widows
looking after pension claims, and people of
small incomes who are dependent upon their
earnings. Then there Is the large class of
women who have seen better days; they cannot
do anything, never were taught to do anything
useful, do not want to do and never will do apy
service. They must be burdens upon some
strength other than their own, and this home
gets Its proportion OF them to keep Then
there is guest chamber that is kept in order
for ladies who are in town for a time and do
on sightseeing tour, and they all pay full
price.
CARING FOB uNFoRTUNATEs
While the home is not q mission for fallen
women the Womens Christian Association
does hold out its protecting arms to unfor-
tunate girls and women whose husbands and
homes are maze uncomfortable to them before
the period OF motherhood by poverty or iii
treatment. There Is small building upon the
grounds where these women are received and
where they stay until they 90 to the hospital
for their accouchement, from where they often
return with their babies to wait until they can
obtain employment through the influence of
the association. The mothers care each for
her own child and she helps in the duties of
the house. This branch of the work requires
peculiar tact and diplomacy in the manage
ment OF it. 1t also requires greatly increased
accommodations When the chairman OF the
home committee was asked by the congress
sional committee how they could increase the
facilities of the home she answered by increasing
the dimensions Of the building and Of the ap-
preparation. The home now receives from
Congress "a, 900 per annum. In MAY there
were n persons in the home. The report for
the LIST of june shows that there were IS adults
on the place and babies. The number in
cluded the 6 old ladies' &c boarders, paying
from 81 to % 80 per week, supported some by
pensions or churches, some by dressmaking.
one teacher OF German, a clerk in a private Of
fee, one maintained by the collections of the
Kings Daughters and one working girl rest
department., one in the Treasury, a
widow in the Government Printing Office. and
another in the Census Office One of the Off
GERS of the board verified all the statements as
to the means of the boarders. A lady who re-
ceives good salary is retained in the house
because out OF her income she supports her
child and an invalid sister. There were also
sixteen transients, who were waiting for places,
and by this class the work about the house is
very willingly done.
AN AGED VETERAN.
Among the interesting individuals finding
refuge here is . veteran soldier, q battered
wreck, who marched beside her husband
through the campaigns of the Crimean war
and also through our own war of the rebellion. |
She Is thoroughly up on military tactics and |
has had the honor Of correcting the word of |
command when given wroLg by the officer Of |
the day. She is a countrywoman of Mrs |
Maj. O'Dowd, although not occupying the ele- |
waited station in polite society so greatly en- |
joyed by the latter. This warrior is now |
seventy years old and she has all the eccen- |
tricities OF an old soldier. She draws q PEN |
sion from our government and has been sew
era times elected from the home, but she |
Always returns in an humble spirit and is |
again taken in. |
WIVES WHO 60 INTO RErIRKMENf. |
Another class are the women who come from |
all over the country, who want to leave their |
husbands. They vow that they can never live |
with ''the odious creatures" again. The man.
agement tell them they will only make trouble |
In the house, but ON their protesting that they |
will live like nuns if they viii only allow them /
seclusion they are admitted. They live up to |
FOR 70 he