Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-11-09
City and County.
4 Communication.

Editors of the Kennebec Journal:
I desire to thank you for the practi-
cal. timely and commonsense editorial
in this mornings Journal hPractical
Charity" l do so the more heartily
because in it you advocate ideas l have
long held and specially emphasized
last Sunday evening; ideas which we as
a church are practising in our Angus
ia Congregational Benevolent associa-
ton Through which we have given
hundreds of dollars to supply the tenn
poral necessities of the deserving poor
of the church: ideas which our ladies'
sewing society is practicing in it's care
for the needy of the parish and com
munity and those beyond our borders
so far as possible. When the call came
two winters ago from the needy fisher
men on our Maine coast, we sent two
or more boxes of clothing and other
help. Every year two or more boxes
are sent to needy mission workers in
the State of Maine. During the last
six years our church has collected for
home expenditures and benevolent
work something like $4,000 annually.
third of which has on an average
been for benevolent work at home as
we'll as abroad. We do not look on the
expense of the local church as benevO-
lent work any more than the sustain
ing of the public schools. / say this
not to advertise our good works but to
remove so far as possible the mutual
obtusenesS which exists in our midst
among well-meaning people as to what
the wide-awake church of today is do
ing and saying.
] am melted to this by the following
quotation from one of our local week
for charity at home. and many a poor
soul at our doors will go to bed hungry
and cold before May, while we send
our thousands to Africa and the far
away isles of the sea. Dollars for the
poor heather, and the poor house for
our neighbors.'
The man who wrote that does not
know what he is talking about. If |
wanted to collect money for the poor
in the State of Maine, l should go with
more hope to the people who are Civ
ing for the support of the gospel in the
foreign and home fields than to the
ignorant cynical spirit of the man
who penned the above.
I have been compelled slowly to
come round from the sentimental idea
that every one who asks for food and
clothing at my door ought to receive it
there, to the idea that if one truly wants
food he needs more, i. e., an opportun-
ity to earn it in the future. That in
feeding or clothing a person in answer
to some pathetic plea l may be doing
him more harm than good Yet in the
absence of some organized and practi-
cal method of aid what is one to do?
| suggest that in connection with the
Howard Benevolent society we secure
the services of some good. broad mind
ed. practical Christian woman to take
charge of what might be called THE
Immediate Relief Work
Secure some kind of work like sawing
wood from some of our wood merchants
or from families of the city. Odd jobs;
round houses or stores for the men. till
permanent work is secured. Secure for
the women some kinds of house clean
ing, &c.
Secure some room in connection with
a restaurant where the hungry can be
fed, then insist that he who will not
work shall not eat, and put him at
work breaking stones in the county
Jail. Then let every family contribute
something to the Howard Benevolent
society, and strongly refuse to give
food or money to any soul but conduct
them to the secretary of this relief
work or to the police office, if they are
not pleased with that.
1t seems to me that through the or
of such work we can bring
together the need of the poor and the
generosity of the wellto-do, so that
no one of our people need be hungry
or cold, and the stranger who may
come within our reach shall have a
helping hand extended to him which
shall allow him to receive aid without
losing self respect and our charity
shall become a blessing and never a
curse. I know I am voicing the senti-
ments of the people, have the honor
to serve in the gospel ministry when
saw we stand ready to aid in all such
practical work, for this is the gospel
we preach and the gospel we try 10
live. Very truly youls'
JAMES S. WILLIAMSON.
Parsonage, Augusta,
Me-. Nov. 9th, 1896.