The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-28

l
 the advantage peculiar to the visitor i!
 that, contining her work to a very few
 families, she has better opportunities
 of becoming well acquainted. Thest
 tools are only effective when applied
 with & full knowledge of the circum
 stances. Sometimes no one of them i'
 needed. knew of one case where the
 man was given a fresh start in life by
 persuading him to remove his family to new neighborhood, away from ole
 associations In another family the wis litor's influence was needed on both man and wife The wife was something o1 a scold, and when that was remedied
 and the mans old employer had been persuaded to give him one more trial the visitor went with the man before a
 ma gistrate where he took the pledge This remedy, useless and worse than useless, as we all know, in many cases, just happened to be the right thing here
 From being an attractive ne'er-do-weel, he has become a fairly steady, hard working citizen.
 I would not, in my enthusiasm for
 friendly visiting work, lose sight of the
 old adage, that it is hard to make a
 silk purse out of a sow's ear. The best
 we can do is sorry patchwork, often,
 but then civilization itself is just that, and only in the glowing pages of the
 modern socialist do We read of every thing made new all at once. Where a
 man Is really anxious to fight his tend Iency to drink, an arrangement to pay
 his wages to his wife or to the visitor is often the best than can be done. The United Workers of Norwich have been
 peculiarly successful in this direction.
 Tn many cases the more heroic treat
 ment of cutting off supplies must be re-
 sorted to. So long as charitable people
 Insist that they must forestall the possi-
 billty of "etting the innocent suffer, !"
 by aiding every neglected family gem
 erously, just so long the lazy man has
 society by the throat When we find
 that we are dealing with such man it becomes necessary to prove that we have more strength of character to re- sist temptation to help than he has the
 strength of character to resist the
 temptation to work l regret to say that he stands the test better than
 we do, and frequently wins the day. Where a woman refuses to leave a .good-for-nothing husband she will sometimes change her mind when she finds that the charitable people are in earnest Where the man finds that the threats of the charitable are not, as they too often are, entirely empty, he will sometimes, when pushed to the wall, take work I know of a soddenly selfish fellow who did nothing for his family, and whose wife could not be pursuaded to leave him. At last, the Charity Organization society convinced the benevolent individuals of the neigh borhood that they must withhold help, and agreed to be responsible for the A neighbor, who could be trusted, was paid to feed the wife and children without the husbands knowledge and in the strictest privacy. When he enquired why such a church hadn't helped, and when the basket was from Mrs. So-and-So, and the money from the Circle of Kings Daughters, and the accustomed help from half q dozen other sources, the wife replied that one and all had said they would rather let her starve then continue to help the family of man who wouldn't work. He held out for two days and then came for the work order at the labor-yard, which he had previously working steadily for some weeks, and until the work closed.
 Sometimes the removal of wife and will bring the husband to his senses. One wife for whom work was found in an institution where she could keep her two children with her, has agreed to go back to her husband on condition that he will first work stead fly for year, and save his earnings.
 It will appear from what I have said that a, visitor must have patience and must not look for very brilliant or i'm mediate results; but it Is possible, on the other hand, for her to have too much patience, or rather to think that she is patinet when, in reality, she is cowardly. I have seen a family going steadily down hill for wears; the under fed, over worked mother taking finally 10 drink; the younger children, an un- 1er-vitalized, diseased stock; and the most cheerful happening In the family the violent death of the see- )nd boy. All this preventable misery lad gradually accumulated because the | visitors and other charitably interest 9d lacked courage five years ago. When l charitable people delay and temporize 1 n such cases, I wish they could have l good, wholesome, terrifying vision of l he future they are helping to manu- 'acture The fact is, the supply of | capable visitors is altogether made i luate, and it is the most important func- | ion of a charity organization society Q increase this supply.
 have given a very imperfect review 1f legal and chailtaIble practice in | ases of non support; the last division of l ny subject brings me to another func ion of a charity organization society, | namely, the influencing of public opin- | on. one of the questions sent to my | was, "Is charitable ! eminent inclined to make it easy or ifficult for man with an interesting amily to live without work?" Of the hirty-four states heard from, thirty acknowledge that it is easy, on the whole, for lazy man to find support, rovided he has a family; though in tates where charity organization meth ds are well established, it is not so asy as formerly.
 There is important work before us, nd We cannot afford to delay it's ener- etic prosecution a moment longer. o,,,n l,oIra. crro1Ur co cancitiH+a t1 l