The evening times., 1896-02-04

Lessons From the Experience.
Miss Wilbur's account of the reception ac
corded her by certain wel!-known pastors
| when she was testing the charity of the city
| will he remembered.
| 1t has drawn forth reply from Rev By
ron Sunderland, who was one Of those Wis
tied. In an article in the First Preshy-
| terian OF the current month, sent to The
| Times, he says:
Miss $. Wilbur-it is pretty well known
to the people OF the city Slat this young
woman has been doing up the town re-
Gently as a perambulating mendcant. She
| called On me about O'Clock on Satur-
day evening, January II, Just as l was
| going to my study 10 finish some writing
| which had been deiayed by the many calls
| had received during the day, and the fol-
| lowing is her story OF the interview as
| printed in The Times of january 10:
Il determined to wind up my Investigation
that night, so after dnneri saihcd forth once
more and went down to G street To calIagaiu
on Rev. Byron Sunderland.
That gentleman received me in his back
parlor. ! sat down near the door, and lie
cane and stood in frGf.. of ne When told
him my story, he said, well. well This
is Il bad time for you TO be coming after
Charity-SatUrday night. Can't yOu man
age 10 get along until Monday morning? /
haven't Il cent to offer you"
But | don't know how 1 am going to eat
tomurrow: have no money or anything i'll
my room"
Why, get the people to trust you where
you are. They'll keep you, won t thcy?"
They are very poor people wher. live,
over in Gordon court. Its very hard toask
charity of them"
IT'S A HARD WORLD.
20, well, they can stand it to give You a
meal or two. Tell them You have prospect
of something on Monda y nd come back here
then il you don't get anything else. III try
la do something for you. But don I promise.
mind you, to secure you anything else. I'll
make the effort, though. Some of our people
may be able to find you something"
| rose TO go and said. Its very hard
world
80. yes; it's a hard world for every one.
Good night" And the minister walked a way
from me without word of comfort or a
touch OF the hand.
This is a pretty accurate report of the
interview so far aS she knew it. Now let
me tell something that she did not know.
She had not been in my presence more than
n minute before ! suspected who she was
and that her story was fih. The first i'm
pulse was to send for a policeman and have
her arrested as an impo>tOr, but | had
lust then no leisure for such Il scene and.
besides, i; would have broken up her little
game entirely and caused her a deal of
modification. When she tC!d me she was
staying with a very poor family in Gordon
I u, Il rnu,.tN. t. Fnttf,.tl I
hat and go with her to see about it. as
have often done III similar eases before.
and think if had not been so busy then
| world have done It. Yet that would have
at once exposed the fraud and LETT her in
pitiabIc condition. so | parted with her,
l confess. in not very sympathetic mood.
but with the promise that if she returned
Monday morning wcud see what could
be done for her. felt Of course he would
not return, but would 20 10 h"rcomforah!e
quarters, after having spent the day in
telling fihs all over the city just to see
how the people would treat her, posing as
a beGgar.
There are, however. some practical les
sons to be derived from her adventure.
l. The course pursued by this Young
woman is one of obtaining goods under
IsIlSt DTtltll>,S- Ut pour aiisAiA
who tossed the half dollar to her and then
had to walk because he had not penny To
buy a car ticket with was handsomely de
frauded. and Miss Wilbur is just as amen
able to prosecution as any bank cashier
or store clerk that eEbezZics. Besides, 1t
does an immense injury in cases or sore ne
ccssity. One person in Iracticing deiib-
crate. imposition upon the community pre-
pareS the way to have the door shut every
where against the deserving and worthy
poor.
Everyone who is solicited again will be
apt to exhibit but little sympathy. Be
sides. the movements of this young woman
are now pretty well known. and she will
hardly be abe 10 practice her deceptions
TO any great extent. Her selection of vic
Tins is also noticeable. Why did she not
try the Catholic University. the Columbian
University. the conductors of the Evening
Star. the Washington Post, Members of
Congress. and the courts?
Her motive in ma king her distinctions is
obvious.
Q Begging from door to door SHOULD he
stopped by the police at once. The stories
which Sibyl tells Of the treatment she re-
cnivcd in "A single case and upon the impulse
of the moment furnish no criterion OF judc-
ment as to the humanity Of the person ad-
dressed He may have been kind. cOnsi!er
ate and generous in a hundred other cases.
and taken ut Il disadvantage in this one
case, n 5 indeed many persons were.
There should DE II more perfect orcaniZa-
ton of the CHI arities OF the nfS' rict than any
thing we have seen yet. and it should hc
under government control. and supported,
if need he, by proper taxation. We have
now our superintendent OF charities. at Il
salary of 5000 per annum. but his office
is utterly inadequate to meet the demands of
thesituati ion and he does but little more than
send an annual report Ia Congress OF the
work Of outside people. and then draw his
own salary. The plan is about as poor
piece of legislation as Congress ever en-
acted.
3. Where destitute and deserving per-
sons or families are known in the church.
the method we have pursued for years is
about as perfect as it can well be. Each
class of the Sabba.h-school selects some
family to visit and care for through the
year. and monthly mission reports are made
of the welfare of such families. A vastly
greater interest in our city mission society