The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-07-14

l
/ am not sure whether the heavenly
powers had spite against them, OF
were merely putting the two women tc
the test, but anyhow they had a hare
time Of it and lack of food was the
cause Of their losing strength. 1t Is
hard to maintain life on a few pieces OF
poorish bread and a couple of mugs Oh
milk, innocent of cream When i heafd
of their misery bethought myself OF
the hospitality | had met with in Vera
Cruz and saw to it that they did not so
quite so hungry. Meantime, / endeav-
ored to interest some well-to-do people
in their case, but the well-todo people
merely remarked: 1T is very sad, but
there is so much poverty, why, 1t is like
the sea ~
Then the favorites of fortune went in
to their dinner with a better appetite
for thinking Of how hungry the poor
women might he.
Seeing that people of the comfortable
class are determined to be comfortable,
and not to worry over others, and also
! prone to give as to the proper prayers
to be said, / concluded to make sure
that at least two unlucky women, as
incapable of practical wage-earning as
two shorn sheep. should not be dinner
less They started in praying for me,
and burned little oil lamp
before a picture of the Virgin, and
said the best they could Of me- !
doubted the efficacy of any prayers in
my behalf as they seemed to have no
luck with their own petitions. But the
| fact remained that the two sisters
seemed to be happier, and they went
on quite contented for few wonths,
when the youngest, who was not well
| favored of form or feature, but was
proud withal, gave up the struggle to
| live and incontinently died.
| The surviving sister, who was an
angel and had a heart of gold, bore up
! bravely, and then fell i'll; Il woman in
the tenement house offered to assist her
and cock her meals, and prot1ted by the
opportunity to steal about everything
in the three tiny rooms. There wasn't
much to steal, only a few pictures,
some little vases, relics Of the old home
in Vera Cruz where the balconies look
out on the blue waters of the gulf. 1t
was hard to be robbed Of those little
links of association with the happy
past, but the sick woman did not COM
plain. and, on recovering, made an at
tempt to live and earn her support.
Things went against her, as they have
way of doing with the good and in
nocent poor, and finally she too, sue
cunnbed and left this most hard hearted
earth.
| merely cite this because it is a chap
ter of real life among the poor of the
city. Of course the whole world can't
be even wel-to-do, let alone rich; but
surely the rich owners of tenements
can comply with the law and make
them habtable, bring in water to drink,
compel cleanliness and show a little
human charity. If there is a new
church to be built, they can subscribe
to the fund, and they look out careful
ly for their own comfort.
There are very noble hearted people
here, who are always trying to do good
and to help the poor directly, In truly
Christian way, and some of them will
not set up a coach lest they diminish
their charity fund. I know Christian
men, Catholics, of the fine old sort,
who work increasingly for the poor,
and also priests who give half their
food to the hungry, for the vital spirit
of religion is not dead here. And / have
met, and pay my little monthly sub
scrption to, sisterhood Of young and
devoted women who nurse the sick,
the poorest and filthiest who maintain
a home for old and feeble women, an
other for aged and helpless men and,
beside, have an orphan asylum. Some
of these young women are from Spain.
and they are worthy of all praise.
They are called the Servants of Mary"
and angelic goodness shines in their
happy faces
1t Is good to see how the very poor
help one another; their life is near to
the bone. Pei haps for that reason it Is
the sweeter. Here is a case: A poor
old woman is rescued from utter aban-
donment by some poor families In
tenement house, she Is ILL., and, after
lingering on, she dies. There is not
enough money in the crowd to buy a
cheap coffin and have her body taken
out decently to the cemetery 1t is hard
to let the poor body go out to Dolores
in one of those black, hearselike, closed
city cars, smelling of picnic acid. A
poor tailor pawns his coat, his example
is contagious Money is raised and the
dead woman is respectfully buried.
The great lack here Is practical edu-
cation, manual training schools for
boys, housekeeping and sewing schools
for the girls. In a word, the chief
cause of city poverty is unframed peo-
pie. The people are bright, and well
trained would do much for themselves.
In Havana our charitable people are
brought up in the old fashioned Spanish
way; not the very poorest women, for
they usually go to work early, but the
middle class women who are apt to fall
into poverty when the man who sup
ports them does.
The church needs to get down to SOL
id business. and, instead of talking
of the poor being always
with us, to see to it that there are few
es causes of poverty. A very excellent
priest told me the other day that he
lamented the lack of means of practical
education for boys. He felt, as many |
of us do, that the way to help the poor
is to make them practical workers, we'll !
trained in handicrafts. or to prepare
them for the great industries growing |
up here, Alexander Won Humboldt, |
who lived here in the very opening
ears of the century. noted that the
,hil1rep 0f tI1e laDerS ,vero hriobt ap1 |