Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1890-03-13
POVERTY STRICKEN PEOPLE.
Rev. Brushinghnm Says Word for the
Thousands OF Miserable Poor.

Rev. Brrshinshhin Says horu ioF tho
Thousands OF Miserable Poor.
q "Homes of the Poor was the sub-
iect of discourse by tho Rev. John 2.
Brushingham, at the Ada street M. e.
church. The speaker took for his text
the eighth verso of tho second chapter
Of Samuel: "He raiseth up the poor.
Chicago as making distinct impress
sion on any visitor or resident who had
been over any considerable portion OF
the city. 1t was conceded that the
poor would be always with us, and the
only question worth considering was
how the burden of this poverty could
be lightened and the suffering from it
reduced to the minimum. Some of
the most abiect poverty to be found in
Chicago was among the foreigners re-
sident here The Italian quarter on
the south side had been frequently de-
scribed by the daily press. The colony
made up of German, Russian and Po-
lish Jews now numbered about 30, 600
members, and many of them lived in
soualor and bcastlincss as the result of
oppression by tyrannical govern
ment. Of tho Bohemians resident
here 1900 lived in novels not fit for
dogs. On Ashland avenue, between
Blackhnwk and Division streets, there
was one parish that included 81, 900
Bohemians, and two small blocks that
were canvassed contained 1,77G souls.
frequently twenty-five or thirty peo-
pie could be found in one small house,
and sixty families were crowded in
twelve small houses "The north side
is not much better" said the speaker,
and he described visit recently paid
by him to family that lived in
howell on Kinzie street where the water
from the stt ct poured under the floors
and where the tenement hardly seemed
habitable for human beings. Il have
seen Irish poverty across the water, F"
lie said, but it was nothing like this. "
He referred to the deserving poor
who were withheld by shame from
making their wants known, and gave
an account of the discovery of one of
tho members of his own church-a
woman-who disappeared and was
found dying of consumption and sup
ported by the slender earnings of an
ONLY ughter-both mother and child
unwilling to make their straitened cir
cumstances known. mo Christian, F"
he said, need starve in this land if
they are willing to make their hunger
known, but many are too modest to do
this" and he warned his hearers to
search out these cases and help to give
them the needed relief. For perina-
neut relief" he added, "truc charity
must help the soul as well as the body.
Frequently vice and poverty go to-
gether. Close quarters, an absence OF
all the surroundings that tend TO uplift
humanity, and lack of fresh air and
breathing space tend to degradation.
Statisticians tell us that IS per cent.
of inmates of almshouses are degraded
and vicious. To lessen these figures
the causes that produced them must
be operated upon. l believe in medi-
cal dispensaries, but there are people
who need bread more than medicine,
and if the proper arrangements could
be made the wastage from the rich
mems tables would suffice to feed all
our suffering poor. While poverty
may be necessity, vice and filth are
not. It's the part OF prudence as well as
benevolence that the conditions which
surround our poor on Tilden avenue
and under the shadow OF st. James
cathedral be changed If We do not
help them they will destroy u.s."
In conclusion the speaker paid an
earnest tribute to the work Of charita-
bic organizations OF tho city, and
prayed that the church might always
be kept close in its work to the COM
mon people.-Chicago Herald.