The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-28
Women Of the Age Tell What to
Do with the Poor.
hrs. Bsllington Booth Wants Religion In
the Slums-Miss Frances Wizards
views-Belva Lockwood Rec
ommendR Legislation.

How can poverty BIO abolished? My answer
would be: Strike at the core, and remember
that that which is superficial and proves but u
palliative, while II may Danish the question for
awhile, will never answer il. You can give OPT
ates to soothc tho pain and bcnumb the feeling
OF the victim OF cancer, but that could not save
him. Nothing but the radical exSection of the
cancer can stop its ravages. Divide up the
wealth Of the world tomorrow, giving to every
man an equal share and by the end OF 1882 there
would be again vast number of destitute,
homeless. starving, suffering poor. The vicious
dssoutc, criminal and drunken classes will Ill
ways be poor, and nlas with them will suffer
the innocent victims of their neglect or cruelty.
Poverty can be amciorated in many ways. the
suffering of innocent victims allcviatcd, employ
ment given ut fair wages to those willing to
work. IL the classes blessed with riches and the
many employers OF labor would wake 10 the i'm
portancc OF their responsibility towards their
less favored fellow men, and be made to feel
and realize the extent of existing poverty. But,
nlasi alienation and abolition are quite differ
ent matters.
All schemes and plans that aim al the Sweep
ing away OF existing misery without the removal
ton OF the miserable themselves seem TO those
OF us who have lived and worked among them
In their halntS and homes utopian and dSup-
pointing. You cun cleanse the slums, / have no
doubt, providing you have wealth and power
enough to pull down the rotten tenemcnis,
building in their places model lodging, houses,
turning every saloon into colIcc-Dal2cc, closing
every house OF disrcputc and washing awuy the
filth and infection. But that viii but lie Il
change in bricks and morlar-a renovation OF
the locality. What Of The pcorlc-ihc tcorl;ag
humanity of the slums-thosc thieves drunk
ards cx-corvicts, loafcrs, saiconl;ccpcrs. broth
cl-kccpcrs and all the women and children they
also represent?
The answer OF the Salvation Army and the
answer OF the Bible, MS read IL: The answer of
Christ our saviour, is this: Begin ut The heart
OF humanity, purify the spring and the waters
will he clean Bring the living vital religion OF
Jesus Christ, not in books and tracts and ser
mons, but lived out in pure sclf-sacrincing lives
10 bear upon the people.
Your bread is Tor their body, your education
for their homes, your homes for their living, bat
II is Christs Divine touch to their hearts that
will change them and alone enable them 10
profit by these other advantages
We, In the Salvation Army, sending poo
pie TO live among them who arc dealing hand to
hand and heart TO heart with them; and ii is
such practical devotion as this which proves 10
them that there Is power in religion that can
transform the life and the environment of their
wrctched circumstances.
vs. have proved in the case OF thousands of
individuals that the change OF heart was fol-
lowed by change OF life, ambitions, circum-
stances-in fact, transforming the outcasts into
good citizens and Chrsthonorng servants. II
this can be achieved in individual cases multi
ply the agency sufficiently and it can be accom-
plishcd for the whole. Poverty would then be
driven gut sellishncss and sin, with MI their t.
tendatF curses, would disappear, being abol-
ishcd by the reign of Christ, and q millennium
would dawn. MAUD u. BOOTH.