The Universalist., 1895-08-17
Our Special Contributors---I8o5.
'ROBLEM OF THE TRAMP AND PAUpER.
Reforms of Recent Years.

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the progeny of one family for some
SIX generations and through about
l,2OO individuals, Mr.. Dugdale found
two we'll defined types among the
depraved part of the tribe, namely,
the criminal and the pauper. The
pauper type was the lower, and into
it the criminal elements showed
tendency to descend.
Ii we are to deal successfully with
pauperism we must face the facts of
a wide and uniform experience.
Mendicancy means something other
than simple turpitude; it means de-
generation. Dissolute living may
end in it, but the pauper is a de-
graded type of humanity, just as GER
tain parasites in natural history have
become the things they are by
deterioration of organization which
has incapacitated them for foraging
abroad for food. Here we come upon
another great fact wich is beginning
to influence charitable methods pro-
foundly. Undoubtedly some para
sites have lost the organs and the
power of Independent living because
of the facility of getting warmth and
support from their hosts at small cost
to themselves in labor. Perhaps
they sprang from some enfeebled
ancestry which sought host on ac-
count of weakness, but the more
common course of degeneracy must
have been that easy living caused
the deterioration. Like conditions
will bring to parasitical life men
and women of feeble powers and
weak intelligence. To create such
conditions, modern benevolence has
done much and is still SO doing.
What Shall be Done?
Now comes the pregnant question,
What will charity do with it9 Max
ing the meals more palatable and reg
ular, displacing rags with clothes,
putting fuel into the bin,-these are
inadequate. If this be all charity is
mockery. All! but we are wiser in
these days. Perhaps never in human
history have large, true hearts been
more discerning, never befofe''has
philanthropy wrought more radically
or wisely. The shameful tenement
must be reconstructed, the sanitary
inspector must visit it, the scavenger
must clean the streets, landlording
must be something more than rent
gathering, the Mulberry Bends must
be made into parks, the friendly visi-
tor and the teacher must come, the
creche and the kindergarten must re-
lieve mothers whom hard drudgery
makes unmaternal; flowers might
bloom on dingy window sills and
books get lodgment on mantel
shelves; the manual training school,
the trade school, the industrial
school must draw the children to
their tables and benches; University
Settlements must place the beauteous
life of noble usefulness side by side
with the life of the tenement. Christi
anity must plant churches and not
missions among the destitute. In a
word, the spirit of Octavia Hill must
hover over the households, and the
soul of Mary Carpenter guide the
childhood out of which mendicancy
springs.
Advances Made.
1t needs but to enumerate these
provisions to show even to a careless
observer what an important advance
in hopeful efficiency has been made
by enlightened charity. Are not such
enterprises spriDging up daily on
every hand? And they are the fruit
of discerning the truth so forbidding
to first or superficial sight, that pau
perism is degeneracy more than tur-
pitude; that mendicity is not con-
dition, but life; that education is
more imperative than aims. Educated
educate variouslyl educate amply! ed
ucate incessantly! This is the mes
sage to-day of charity, coming to her
own lovely self. She exacts it as our
highest gift and service, because ed
ucation is ever the importation to the
pupil of that which makes the teach
er strong, clear souled, capable, and
master of Gods profusion. Gods
profusion, how inexhaustible; yet
the carnally minded scarce can touch
it. 1t is the prerogative of mans
higher nature to enjoy it. Teach the
degenerate and weak how to use it.
and the social problem of pauperism
vanishes. d. c.. KELLOGG.
New YORK CITY.
William Cullen Bryant was wont to
lay great emphasis upon his wifes opin-