St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-25
AT RELIEF HEADQUARTERS.
A Sample OF Work Done Daily i'll
Relieving Want.

A Sample OF Work Done Daily i'll
Relieving Want.
The relief society finds deal of phil
anthropic work to do even in these
prosperous days. 1t is busy institu-
ton from morning until night. and the
officers often finds it pays to extend
their labors late into the night. The
number of people calling for
aid is surprising. Some INDECENT
poor come themselves and some
send friends TO lmpOrtune the
secretary for relief Not all are
worthy candidates for relief. and the
greatest care is required to prevent i'm
position. No doubt relief is often ex-
tended to professional mendicants who
would rather live off the bounty of 9TH
ers than to exert muscle to earn an oc-
casional dollar. This is true because
the benevolent citizens who maintain
the charity believe in a Christian spirit
that it is better to give aid to dozen
impOSterS than to refuse relief to one
deserving unfortunate.
Yesterday there were nearly score
of applicants for relief of one sort or an
other. Some wanted clothes, some food
and some fuel, while now and then they
pray for money to pay rent, represent
d
is about to eyict them for arrearages.
The institution is purely private, and
it is maintained by private contribu-
tions. The society owns the building
and it rejoices in roster representing
many OF st. Paul's leading citizens
and ladies. One department that is
deserving of special commentator is in
the basement. The children of working
women are taken in there during the
day, while the mothers are compelled
by fortunes reYerseS to seek mental
labor about the city 10 buy neceSsaries
of life and to keep the wolf from
the door. These children are kept
during the day and given wholesome
dinner for five cents a day, and in the
event the mother is too poor to pay even
this mOiety, the children are never re-
fused. They are given hospitality and
care gratuitously.
Then in the second story free kim
dergarten is managed by the ladies of
the society. The children of the poor
of the city are instructed in the elemen-
tary course during the forenOonS of
each day, and sent home happy to
brighten the humble hearthstOne.
The sewing school, which will open
the first of the coming month, is not the
least important Of the branch of work
that the relief society has undertaken.
At the last term 200 poor girls
were instructed in plain needlework
and many home in the city has been
blessed on account of the knowledge i'm
ported in this particular. The young
sisters mend their brothers clothes. as
we'll as their own, and the effect is that
a coat or dress is made to do twice the
service it did under the shiftless plan
that was followed before the girls knew
how to do the work.
Another department is the cutting,
fitting and making of clothes. Philan-
thrOpic ladies come to the building and
they cut out garments from new cloth.
Then they hire poor women. to do the
sewing and pay them literally for their
labor. Often these unfortunate Wo-
men are not only paid III
cash for the making of garments
but they are presented with the gar
ments after they are made, and it is not
an infrequent occurrence to see poor
mother go home to an impoverished
family of children with silver in her
purse and her arms full of garments she
had been paid to make, and her eyes are
usually suffused with grateful tears.
Mrs. Burbank has charge of this de-
partment.
Every day packages of clothing are
received by the secretary and sent out
to the most deserving and needy. 1t
would touch even heart of stone TO
spend day at the relief Office and wit
ness the incidents, and no one could eX-
perience anything OF the kind without
being better for it.