St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-03-30
A QUESTION OF HOMES.
Which the Women All Over the CountYJ
Should be Interested.

| V0eStbON Of hOMES,
Which the Women All Over tho CountyJ
| Should be Interested.
| 1t would seem hopeless, if not pre-.
sumptuous, to undertake to point out q
new way by which women, beset with
the wish to be doing something for
somebody's betterment. could have
their hearts desire.
There are SO many sorts of organized
charities, each one OF which would
seem to be running in such well-oiled
| entire world and the secured happiness
of every soul in it, ought to be mere
question of time.
And yet, if all accounts of the houses
where our poor are herded in are trust
worthy, there is great wrong waiting
to be righted; new field of Christian
endeavOr which appeals peculiarly to
women-Lecause it is a question OF
homes: of other women's homes.
Women's power is cumulative. Her in
terest in all matters Of public interest
is infectious. Once let the idea OF q
necessity for reform find Judgment in
the breast of two or three women, and
1t can safely be trusted to wax strong
enough to move mountains, If noun.
tains bars its progress. The question
OF how to improve life in the tenement
houses is not a new one, perhaps. but
with her recent laurels fresh upon her,
strong with the sense of achievement,
1t is an opportune moment for her to
strike at another one of this monster
Hydria's many heads.
1t is not in every woman's power to
pull down the score or two of untrus.-
worthy tenement houses, nor to vanish
vice from roofs under which pauper.
lied virtue is often constrained to come
side by side with pauperized vice. but
she can inaugurate countless minor
reforms that will make for cleanli-
ness and health, and-righteousness.
Why might not there he tene-
ment-house visitations? Not by the
regularly ordained charity visitors,
where coming and going gets to be q
mere matter of course, resulting in
Goals and hannels, but visitations by
the more prosperous class of good
women, who. by informing themselves
personally of tine hopeless inadequacy
Of the homes of the poor, can prepare
themselves for an intelligent crusade
against the crying evils of overcrowd-
ing and lack of sanitary regulations.
You may not own any of these COM
fortress barracks yourself, dear reader,
but your husband, your son. your male
kin unto the third and fourth genera
ton may. The poor are very long,
suffering. Years convince many of
them that they have no right to the
superior comforts of life. They grow
used to being huddled like cattle.
They become dulled to their own
misery.
The protests will not come from
them. But with the horror and disgust
Of it fresh upon your own outraged
senses, you women who know a little
of the seamy side of life, lift up your
voices against it and demand to the
uttermost limit such improvements as
the situation calls for. Those womep
who own tenement-house property in
their own right have a golden opportu-
nifty to set their brother landlords a
fine example of Justice combined with
an enlightened policy of self-interest.
Nine-tenths of the misery traceable
to the crowding of the poor should be
taid at the door of their own unclean
habits. Let the evangcl of cleanliness
be aroused and the existing squalor
WILDE enormously reduced. fa tenant
knows eviction will follow upon un-
tidiness and Indifference to evil &C.
cumulations, he will cultivate the
habit of cleanliness. Thousands of the
drunkards whom the dear white-rib-
boned temperance workers have agon-
lied over in vain have been manufac-
tured in the foul atmosphere of tene-
ment-house home, presided over by q
down-at-heeIs slattern.
Someone told me the other dav of q
philantbropic idea originating with a
Boston woman's club. They paid girl
in each tenement house to scrub the
halls and stairways. The fresh, sweet
smelling halls spread .contagion of
cleanliness and in every instance tho
results were most happy.
There is a wide field for Individual
and for cooperative effort stretching
here before women. and those among
them who will devote the coming
months ardentiy to the publication and
elevation of the homes of the poor will
deserve well at the hands Of the record.
ing angel.-N. Y. Mail and Express.