Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1895-02-09
A QUESTION OF HOMES,
n Which the Women All Over the Country
Should be Interested.

n Which the Women All Over the Country
should be Interested.
It would seem hopeless, if not pre-.
s~umptuous, to undertake to point out
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 n of which would
seem to be running in such well-oilcd
grooves that the reformation of the
entire world and the secured happiness
of every soul in it, ought to be n mere
question of time.
And yet, if all accounts of the houses
where our poor + herded in are trust
worthy, there is a great wrong waiting
TO be righted; a new field of Christian
endeavor which appeals peculiarly to
women-because it is q 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 a
necessity for reform find Judgment in
the breast of two or three women, and
1t car safely be trusted to Il 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,
it is an opportune moment for her to
strike at another one of this monster
lIydria's many heads,
1t is not in every woman's power to
pull down the score or two of untrust-
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 c~lcanli-
ness and health, and-righteousness.
Why might not there be tene-
ment-house visitations? Not by the
regularly ordained charity visitors,
where coming and going gets to be a
mere matter of course, resulting in
Goals and fannels, but visitations by
the more prosperous class of good
women, who, by informing themselves
personally of the hopeless inadcquacy
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 con.
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 huddlcd like cattle.
They become dulled to their own
misery.
The protests will not come from
them. But withthe 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 n.
the situation calls for. Those womer
who w tenemcnt-house property il
their w right have a golden opportu
nifty to set their brother landlords
fine example of Justice combined will
an enlightened policy of self-interest
Nine-tenths of the misery traceabl,
to the crowding of the poor should b,
laid at the door of their w uncleaI
habits. Let the evangel of cleanliness
be aroused and the existing squalo
will'be enormously reduced. Ifa tenan
knows eviction will follow upon I'm
tidiness and Indifference to evil &C
:umulations, he will cultivate TIL,
habit of cleanliness. Thousands of tn
%drunkards whom the dear white-rih
boned temperance workers have agon
lied over in vain have been manufaC
tured in the foul atmosphere of a tene
ment-house home, presided over by
oWn-al-ncel Slattern.
Someone told me the other day of
philanthropic idea originating with
Boston woman's club. They paid a gin
in each tenement house to scrub tn
halls and stairways. The fresh, sweet
smelling halls spread q contagion q
cleanliness and in every instance th
results were most happy.
There is a wide field for individua
and for cooperative effort stretchin
here before women, and those anon
them who will devote the comm
months ardently to the publication an
elevation of the homes of the poor wi,
deserve wellat the hands of the rccort
ing angel.-N. Y. Mail and Express.