The evening times., 1899-11-04
Pauperism and the Remedy.

Richmond has been graphing with the
mendicant problem. Beggars have been
unusually numerous in that city of late,
and the benevolent people of the eommu-
nifty have been forced to take the problem
of their existence into consideration. The
| genuine beggar is not an agreeable addi-
tion to any town. big or little. and it can
not be said that he exerts in any way a
| desii able influence. Charitable people en-
! joy giving when they are sure that they
I are really alleviating somebody's woe. but
/ there are so many impostors that nova
days the public is moved to suspect the sin
cerity of the mendicant. and there is not
much comfort in ministering to the wants
! of a sharper
What is going to be done with this prob
lem? Taking into consideration the indif-
ference of the selfish. the ignorance of the
well disposed. the craft of the vicious, and
the shyness of some deserving poor. it is
rather hard to get hold of the subject in
all its length and breadth. In the present
condition of things those Of us who would
really like to help needy people have not
time to go and hunt up the home of every
even of half of them. The business man
must be at his Office. the housewife must
attend TO her family, and both are in
clined to think of the risk attaching to q
visit to wretchedly poor neighborhood,
where disease of all kinds may be preva-
lent This is rather a weighty reason in
the case of mother of several small chill
ic tho ~
investigating a case thoroughly, and of
dealing with it when it is investigated, in
such a way as to hurt nobody's feelings
and injure nobody's self-respect. There is
also the danger of pauperizing the needy
person by giving him the idea that he can
depend on somebody else to support him
whether he does anything for himself or
not. Altogether, the way in which most
people dispose of the difficulty is by giving
what they can spare to some charitable
organization. and trusting its representa-
tives to do more than could be accom-
plished with the same money by private
charity. This. in turn, gives a chance for
some mismangament and money making
among the officials of the organization, and
so there is waste all around.
There is still another difficulty in the
way Of the would-be charitable-that of
knowing who are worth helping Soma
people seem to think it the proper thing
to confine their charitable work to the con-
frmed criminal or pauper-the person who
is SO thoroughly unlovely that nobody
would want to help him except from altru-
istic motives: 1t is to be suspected that q
desire for self-congratulation enters into
this sort of charitable work now and then
There are people who like to think that |
they can take hold OF job which nobody |
else can do, and at any rate do something |
with 1t. Then there are others who re- |
fuse to help any except the worthy poor"
the heroic souls who are keeping their |
discouragements. This system contributes |
rather more to the general welfare Of So |
c;ety than the other one does; but there |
is a third class Of poor folk who are left |
out Of both systems. They are the debata-
able folk-the boy who has been once ar
rested, the girl who has once fallen into
disgrace, the youth who is discouraged be-
cause he cannot get chance to do honest
work, and who. perhaps. does not quite
know what he can do. A little time and
thought. and, above all, sympathy, spent on
these people, would probably pay" better
than twice the effort exerted upon the con-
firmed criminal. 1t is the old truth that
an ounce Of prevention u better than
pound of cure. II young men and maidens