The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-17
OAKLEY'S LABOR.
High Praise for Tt
From Rev. George
w. Kent.
.WORCESTER'S WAY.
How She Should Care for
Poor and Unfor-
tunate.

Rev, George w. Kent pastor OF the
South Unitarian church, preached sun
day from the subject worcester mat
ters that need mending, and it may re-
suit in starting a movement on the part
of the citizens of Worcester Tor more
humane accommodations for the untor-
tunate.
: MIR. Kent attacks the question fear
lessly and states many interesting 4acts
in connection with his investigation IN
other cities, as folloWs;>-
After several years acquaintance
with the iron towns of Pennsylvania,
and with the shoe and textile towns Oh
4 Massachusetts, 1 should be blind in
, deed to overlook the advantage to the
Door man Worcester gives compared
with these towns of a single INDUSTRY.
Having seen so many times the col
lapse of a single trade reduce town
to almost as pitiful a plight as a state
of siege once used to do, | am able 10
], appre Rate what it's diversity of INDUS
triesis doing to save Worcester and It's
, working men from similar disaster.
Hard times would have to be general
indeed to shut down all its shops ana
!, factories. The hardest times have new
er yet compelled it.
How does Worcester, as a civic cor
poration, deal with the unemployed
: What chance does it afford them OF
! escape from begging at our doors or
: from desperate resort to crime?
| What system has it that repels the
visitation of the tramp and relieves the
! honest mans necessities? Our meth
DDS are wofully antiquated slipshod
| and inefficient.
I'VE are taxing ourse- YES for proper
: municipal attention to these matters
and then we leave ourselves to grapple
with them as private citizens by sup
, porting a charitable institution for the
purpose. The only institution with us
7 that makes Worcester uncomfortable to
the idle tramp is the little Welcome
Mission down on Portland street, and
We prevent it acting as a repellant by
our civic invitation to him to dodge its
honorable test of work and take the
city's free and foolish charity instead.
. We are tempting tramps to overrun US
a by our municipal shiftlessness, and at
the same time are making it impossi-
bic for Welcome Mission to squarely
grapple with the problem.
To the man who finds himself in
| Worcester a stranger friendless anc
penniless, we offer our municipal hos
pltality in the shape of a bare shelter
! at the police station. 1t is very bare
indeed. We provide no suitable accom-
! mediation, no means of cleanliness, mex
to no separation from the drunken
braWler or red-handed criminal incar
cerated there. The policemen good
naturedly do the best they can undel
] tE,., 4
l They can do but little. In the early
morning the 40 or so hapless guests are
turned out into the streets. They haV,
been asked to render no return; they
r have been given as little, and that a!
miserable, as seems possible. To the
bravely struggling working man, try
i ing to keep his self-respect, eager t.
pay in some way for what he gets
/ hating to beg, wanting to be clean, the
experience has been nothing short of {
cruel outrage But the tramp likes it
He doesn't want to work. He dOesn
want a bath. He likes to be turned int
= the street to fatten upon private char
= ity. He promises a city that is foo
} enough to treat him as Worcester does
= that he will be a frequent visitor, anC
T. he is he and his unwelcome brother
) hood also. They come eleven thou
sand strong, each year
This is more than three times thu
number that Providence has to put III
with, and Providence is half as larg,
again as Worcester. 1t is six times a.
| many as Springfield has to care for
and Springfield is a good deal NOR,
than one-siXth the size of Worcester.
The secret of it is an open one
. Springfield, Providence, Fall River
? Brockton, Holyoke, Chicopee. Newton
Boston, all the cities round about u!
have sane and civilized way OF deal.
ing with this matter. We have not
These neighbOrs of ours do the thine
quite simply. They offer to every mar
who wants it decent food and lodging
and they have him do what every de.
? cent man desires to do, pay for it with
/, MS labor if he has no other means.
The tramp gets the unwanted and
unWelcome experience of being oblig-
ed 10 work, of being washed and of
getting his clothing in the morning with
a strange unliveliness about it, He
shuns these cities and resorts to some
place more according to his taste and
more IKE him in its shiftless ways.
a taVorIte resort of his is Worcester.
I find that all the cities have
named pursue practically the same me-
thods. And their overseers of the moor
are unanimous in hearty approval of
those methods. They agree that the
course pursued has both solved for
them the tramp problem and afforded
them the most humane and efficient
. way OF caring for the poor and de-
. serving stranger within their gates
/ The woodward for the saving and
/ chopplng of irew0Od seems to be gen.
orally adopted, as affording labor to
/ which every kind of skilled and I'M
/ skilled worker can apply himself and
/ the product of which can both find a
/ ready market and be largely used in
/ the schools and other institutions of
/ the city. In Boston a school hous,,
from whose neighborhood the children
| nave all moved away, is the city hos
/ telry. What kindly consideration for
those who need to seek its shelter il
/ mas been given no derogatory name.
/ but is called the Wayfarers' Lodge.
! The guests are dealt with almost as
simply as in the first class hotels OF
( the city an q only as much more strict
/ ~ as is necessary Every applicant is
given hearty meal; as bedtime comes
/ he is obliged to take a bath. hot water
being supplied to a score of bath tubs
: in the well warmed basement He is
( then furnished with q clean night
shirt and goes to one of the cemforta-
bic iron cots in the great upper rooms
where the children used to do everv-
thing but rest. While he is in bed his
clothes are placed in a huge receDta-
Gle and the injection of live steam soon
leaves nothing else alive about them
In the morning they are dry and warm
GIVE THE CHI DRFN b drink