Evening star., 1897-05-15

Appealing to Charity.
Having exhausted the means Of help the
world OF business offers a woman I'm dis
tress, I appealed to charity.
i went first to the Christian woman's
Home. Here l learned that TO her that
hath. even a very little. more shall be
given. and here. elsewhere I found the
charity available 10 a woman is in inverse
proportion to her children.
Fer a nominal sum at the Christian Wo-
mans Home woman I'm distress may
obtain food, shelter and assistance in get
uhg employment But n woman with
| nothing but two babies has no quarter
there. In the absence of the matron a
person speaking for her told me that Il
would be utterly impossible TO find work
Tor such woman, and when I asked II
She might not go to the home and work
there for her support 1 was assured that
under no circumstances could they take an
| woman with two babies and that at
present they could do nothing for a wo-
man with even one baby.
next went TO the Young Woman's Chris
tian Home. The matron of this institution
could not consider babies at all. She said:
III the woman is good chambcrmaid
and she could get somebody 10 take her
babies 1 could give her work"
Then when | had assured her the mother
was so unreasonable as to insist upon not
parting with her children the matron sus-
gested that the Hope and Help Mission
makes provision for children, and possibly
i could find aid there
AT the Home and HELM Mission the matrou
informed me feelingiy: We can do moth
ing Tor respectable woman. Our work
| is on rescue lines solely. II We attempied
10 heip respectable women We would have
no quarters left for the other kind. we
have so many applications from the re-
spectacle ones. always from one to six "A
week You might try at the Central Union
Mission
At the Central Union Mission accordingly
l next asked il they coull do anything FOR
| a respectable woman with two babies
Quietly and finally came the answer: No:
| 1t Is impossible to obtain employment fer
such a person, and We cannot give a woman
with children anything 10 do at the mission
Besides the work of the mission is princi-
| pally to preach salvation"
Lastly l went to the Brnen liome. HIRE
j asked with something like brutal direct
| ness, Docs this institution make any pro-
visions for respectable woman with chIl-
dren i'm distres5?''
The Zola-like style of his inquiry seemed
| rather 10 anger the matron. who replied a
bit testify. Yes, We help respectable women
IN Mistress though our work is principally
among women who have been unfortunate.
The hmite! sense in which the word ',un-
| fortunate applies to women i'm professional
| cnarity is fairly expressive of the narrow
nope that attends upon respectability in am
extremity.
No Room for Children.
l related the case of my poor woman TO
| N'iS iiia''Oh vi i's utsl ilo1If VINO. All
the rest that are disposed to be liberal
drew the line at more than one child II
am So overstocked with babies now" she
said-'sixteen today and by tomorrow
| Light seventeen-I could hardly agree TO
take the woman with one child What is
the age of the older? Why dces she no:
put ii in an orphan asylum? / can heartily
| recommend St. Josephs and to do that
| seems to me by all odds the very best thing
possible"
This exhausted the hope of all the institu-
tions that L know OF, which in their consti-
tuition contain the least assurance of assist
ance tC a woman conditioned as the one I
have instanced. Clearly. the sum total of
my efforts was to find promise of work
Tor the poor mother, save as she put her
! cl ildren from her, or took upon herself sin
Thus only does she become a reasonable OBJ
| ject of charity. duly unfortunate" aud
| logically in line with the most beneficent
rescue work
In stating this conclusion no existing
charity is .lisparaged thereby. 1 have no
| wish TO insinuate other than the truth that
| :hey are all praisewortEy, as far as they
| 20. but the evident fact is there is a lack
| OF provision for mothers who are both hon
oraple ana humane enough to consider the
| agony of starvation and death itself prefer
able to relnquishing the care and RESPONSE
billty of their children. Personally L think
such mothers, far from wanting neces-
| sary charity,shoul be handsomely pension
ed by the government and decorated with
| specially devised honors as a rebuke to the
! overeducated, end-of-the-century mothers
| who deliberately, impelled by no necessity
| but the impulse of their egotistic vain am
bitious natures. strive by every means
| known to science, and ultra civiliza ton
| 10 shirk every responsibility attendant upon
| children that are to them just many OBJ
| stacles in the way of career" A promi-
| nent physician of Washington an accredit-
ed authority throughout this country and
abroad, sand to me recently that from the
knowledge he has gained In his practice of
4 dfara hfah tS x.fr
men and children. he is ready to assert and
| 10 prove that the degeneracy of the ma
ternal instinct among American women is
| not only one of the greatest social and
moral evils with which we have TO contend,
| but that il has denationalizing tendency
| that must tell sooner or later for our polit-
| ical history. the influences which preserve
the life and promote the full development
| of the child, emanate SO largely from for
eign-born mothers.
What Can BE Done.
But this is aside from the main point OF
my story which is not TO suggest a posSl-
bic political reform based upon encourage
irg maternal sentiment among needy
men, but merely TO Indicate the desirable
ity of a broader provision for helpless
mothers with children.
How this can be successfully accom-
plished has been demonstrated elsewhere
notably in New York. where the agency
for providing situations in the country for
destitute mothers with children has been
profitably at work the past several years
The business of this agency is TO assist
Just such uEfortuEates as the one that /
have found to be practically without hope
in Washington, not by subjecting them TO
the always abnormal conditions Of institu-
tional charity, but restoring them TO or
binary and normal relations in life by pro-
vidng situations at domestic service.
usually in the country or in a village. at
which a mother can keep her child with
her and continue TO give 1t a mothers care.
The moral support and happiness involved
in such charity are apparent without being
defir ed. 1t is Furthermore emiEeatly eco
nomical. BY the annual report of the New
York agency ii is shown that the expense
to the city of supporting a mother and
child i'm an institution is not less that $3.50
per year, while the average expense of
helping them to support themselves is sG.61
per year.
i have not told all that I know on this
subject-who would be false to her
as to tell less than all she knows until 1
relate how finally. in pursuit of IL. the con-
ceit was taken out of me by a woman who
never writes, breaches or processes char
ity, but lives IL every day.