The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-25
SEATTLE, FRIDAY. NOT. S5
CHARITABLE WORK.

Thanksgiving is the season when all
men of good will are moved to thoughts
and perhaps deeds of charity. There is
much talk and time given to the discus.
sion OF charity organization and the help
ing of friendless children. Red tape
charity is necessary evil; that is, it is
necessary to protect the community
against the imposition of those who do
not need assistance but are impostors. Red
tape charity bureaus are worthy Of sup
port chiefly for the reason that sys-
tematic effort is necessary to separate
the wheat from the chat. Beyond
this the best work of charity must be
done by those who are able to win
the confidence of the self-respecting poor
who really suffer the most because of their
silence; they will not speak save to those
whom they treat as friends rather than as
official almoners of organized charities.
To help the self-respecting poor over a
hard spot It is necessary that every man
and every woman, who has personal
knowledge of worthy persons that are in
transient trouble because of sickness. mis-
fortune or lnfirmity, should personally do
what he can quietly and delicately for
them and induce others to do So The
sef-respecting poor do not like to pro-
claim their distress in the market place
nor have it proclaimed by others;
nor do they like to be the subject of or
ganized red tape charity. There is no
charity bureau that can possibly take the
place of individual benevolence when we
undertake to deal with the decent poor,
who are not parasites nor inpostors, and
who will suffer severe distress before they
will accept help whose tender does not
come home to them through person in
whom they feel entire confidence and for
whom they feel entire respect.
The efforts to help working girls in
great cities have frequently been failures
because the people who undertake it do
not have any real heart in the work or
they lack all natural fitness for it. The
story of the late Jennie Collins, who
founded "Boffin's Bower in Boston, is
worth reciting. She was born in New
Hampshire, a child of the people.
She came to Boston when young
and became a worker On clothing in
four years. Nature had given her a very
vivacious nature, very noble, tender
heart married to an excellent understand
ing She had native talent for literary
work, but her great heart drew her away
to a life of hard, wearing. ceaseless, phil
anthropic effort. A working girl herself
for years, she gave her talents, her time
and her whole soul to organizing charity
for their benefit for a long time before she
became widely known as the founder and
manager of what was called "Boffin's
Bower" She worked quietly, shrewdly,
sensibly, on her own account, extending
sympathy and practical help to those of
her own sex that were in need or in
trouble. She had been factory girl,
domestic servant: she rose to be true
social reformer and the splendid manager
of a most invaluable organized charity.
After the great fire of 1871 she exerted her.
self in behalf of the working girls thrown
ont of employment and secured rooms
where they could obtain work and tide
over their time OF tribulation.
Long before Boston's great associate
organized charities were thought of this
little woman was a familiar figure in the
homes of the city's wretched poor; she
came and went at all hours of the day and
night and never needed policeman TO
protect her. Her system was simple, and
in it's simplicity lay its success. She
searched out the needy and then she
searched for those who were both willing
and able to help the needy. The great
orator Wendell Phillips. was one of her
heroes, and she used to say half sadly,
half exultantly, that she helped spend all
that Phillips could earn by his lectures
and more, TOO. She was AZ once enthusiastic,
unseltish, chivalrous: yet with an eve like
a hawk for sham poverty and pretended
misfortune A child Of the people. an
humble worker in the shop for years. she
knew human nature and never misplaced
her benevoeace upon creatures that are
the parasites of all philanthropy. She
had unflinching courags. unqueuchable
cheerfulness; womanly in voice and man.
ner, she had a sharp wit and fearless
tongue, and she was not afraid to ask any,
body 10 help her to do good or to scold
them brilliantly for doing wrong. From
her "Boftin's Bow er" She stretched forth
her warm. kindly hand. to the working
women with whom she once labored,
and helped hundreds of them over
hard. critical places in their career;
helped hundreds of Young girls TO honest
lives she had found tottering between the
temptations Of vanity and the despair of
unrequtei effort, and ready 10 leap the
wall Of want that IS next door 20 sin. She
won these women not BY rant or cant. but
BY sagscious counsel and instant aid when
she saw that they were not wicked but
faint and broken with hard work and
chronic disappointment CT honest en-
desvor.
The success of the famous Irish Catholic
priest. Father prumgoole, among the
friendless boys OF New York city is AL
other illustration that every successful
Kind of charitable work and elort must
have q man or woman behind II who is