Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-10


peals.
The winter season and the hard times
i have brought the problem of relieving the
| poor again home. and it may be interesting
to study charitable systems in older coun-
tries. to take glance at the metAod-or
! want OF method-of poor relief abroad.
: 1t seems 10 be the invariable rule that the
/ high lights and deep shades of civilization
| go hand in hand. The greatest wealth and
/ greatest poverty exist side by side. so the
/ Oldest and richest countries have had to
| grappie most with this problem Of want.
! Most countries OF the world recognize the
| right OF every man to claim food to sustain
! his life, if he cannot obtain it To- himself.
/ 1t is the rule rathe- than the exception. in
the greater nations. that the government
| shall feed a man who cannot get bread in
/ any other way. To do this without encour-
aging idleness ana crime is the problem out
! of which the organized charities have
sprung.
| In England.
In Great Britain the poor law system
| adopts the workhouse. The "worKus," life
| long terror of the respectable poor or the
Union" another name for it. arising from
the system of combining several parishes
in one union for parochial relief with one
wCrkhouse.
| Here the aged, the children ana the sick
not otherwise provided for are fed and
! clothed, and the children taught 1t is at
the worAhouSe. too that the vasrant poor
are accommodated. They are provided with
food and lodging for one night. but must
| invariably, if able-bodied perform some
| labor before leaving. If man applies for
| relief 1T the same ward again within a
month he may be detained four days. The
| food is plain in the extreme and the ac-
! compartment of bath and a generous
amount of stone breaking, oakum picking
and such like occupations keep prof assional
| t-amps from resorting to the union for sup
pert.
Among the poor who have not become
thoroughly pauperized and degraded the
dread of going to the work house masters
want and sometimes even death itself
People perish of restitution in their miser-
able novels rather than so to the work
house. with its shame, its restraint and it's
inevitable sundering of family ties.
In Ireland. though famine and bad gov
eminent and many ills have made wretched
poverty 50 prevalent that one might expect
the sensibilities to be dulled, yet even there
people have starved rather than 90 to the
workhouse
Outdoor relief is tried in connection
with the work house system. That is. giving
some assistance to the poor who are not
absolute paupers and yet not wholly self
supporting. In Ireland for the year 1879
| the amount expended in this way was 1885,
UOO pounds, nearly one-fourth of the entire
poor law expenses. This does away with the
large expenses of those institutions. On the
other hand, the difficulties are great Those
who would work rather than come to the
union would not object to a regular remit
lance for their relief and would inevitably
come to rely upon II instead of their own
la Dor.
So much for government care of the poor
Side by side with this the voluntary
charitable societies These almost inyari-
ably originate with some religious body
In fact, each church is charitable society
The evils of overlapping, the ease with
which the skillful mendicant could work Il
number OF different charities for assistance
led to effort to adopt some better sys-
tenn, and the Charity Organization Society
is the outgrowth of that defect in existing
methods
This society is active in many English and
Scotch towns, and many other societies use
its records for Identification of cases
Few societies attribute money. Tickets
FOR provisions and fuel are issued and
made use Of by the members of the society
Blankets and Goals figure in English
charitab BILE records.
In Great Britain one form of charitable
activity is to aid the poor to emgrate
This Is apt to cause an ironical smile to
Americans, as We represent the after
taking part of the process
Modern charitable methods aim to do
away with indiscrminate almsgiving which
invariably tends to pauperiZe the recipient
The object now is to incucate self-respect
| and elevate the condition of the poor but
all reports show that this is very difficult
to achieve.
The greatest hope lies in educating and
training the children. AS for reforming
| the grown-up vagrant and mendicant class
es of England, the only society that even
hopes to do much is the Salvation Army
They adopt the only way, 1t is claimed
that ever can assure practical results. init.
mate personal association. People are
watching for the future results of the So
cial wing of the army.
French Methods.
Across the channel the charity system is
almost as different as the language The
workhouse has disappeared and, as a rule
municipal charity is given in the form of
a fixed revenue to be added to the other
means of some private charitable society
and administered by it,
There are free dispensaries and the sick
are cared for in the free wards of the hos
pitfalls. The benevolent societies are numer-
Gus, and include creches, or infant homes
where working women can leave their
young children. Poor children are provided
with clothing and a midday meal to en-
able them to attend public school,
The Societe de Charlie Matemelle was
established by and is receiving small SUBJ
sides from the government for aiding
mothers and young children.
There is in MarseilleS an important or
ganization for assisting the poor to find
employment. Every subscriber receives a
number of "bons de travail or work
tickets which are given to applicants for
relief. and insure certain amount of en-
ployment.
In Lyons the city provides an asylum for
mendicants, to which persons found beg
ging may be committed. Besides this asy-
lum the city provides a place where persons
may come twice a day and receive a piece
of. bread to be eaten on the premises
In some parts of France the regular pub
lie charities are supported by lotteries
There is also system of collecting per-
centage on theater. concert and music hall
tickets. called the "droit des pauvres'
fright of poor, to be applied to the income
of the local charities.
On the whole the French system is some-
what like that prevailing here. The govern
ment works with and through the local
charitable associations, by giving subsidies
to those that are recognized as useful: as
Is done with the hospitals, orphan asylums
etc, of this city
A Novel Feature in Belgium.
Belgium. although so small, is an import
ant manufacturing country. Its prosperity
rests upon its having an immense amount
of skilled labor which is employed at very
low wages. Labor troubles are common,
oY,1 FL xl.,.-s.