New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-03-16
SAD LOT or GRANDMA.
No Place for Her IN Tenement Life
-TnSkilIed Workers.

One OF the saddest things in thu life of the
tsnements Is the position OF the grandmother, and
every tenement mother looks forward TO that posi-
don" said Mrs. Alexander Ewing a. one Of the
monthly conferences Of the Charity Organization
Society. held yesterday morning in the Assembly
Hal q the United Charities Building
IT you try 20 encourage a tenement mother by
saving that her children viii soon be grown Up
and able 10 help her" proceeded Mrs Living, she
win tell you that when her children are grown up
they Will not want 20 be bothered with her. As
almost invariable rule the children co not want
The old people around. They are too cranky they
say and the life Of an aged grandmother IN &
tenement home is so intolerabIs that she Is ready
10 do anything 10 escape from it. The people OF the
tenements seldom make any provision FOR their
old age. but ] know one woman who was 50 I'm
pressed with the horrors Of the FrandnOthers sit
uauon that she brought her small savings. about
2 cents week 10 a missionary, and asked not 70
be allowed 10 have them again no matter how
much she ui-ht want them.
80 unwelcome are aged parents in tenement
homes that We seldom find them there They live by
themselves entirely alone II only one survives
g. long IS they are able 70 support themselves and
when they cannot Go So they 80 70 Blaclzwers Isl
and. II they have to live with thei~ sons and
daughters their lives are made a burden 20 them.
I know one old woman who was tossed back and
forth continually between the home Of her son and
her daughter. in one ~ which her only bed was "a
cult on the floor when she could no longer stand
one she went 30 the other Another grandmother
was compelled to sleep tr the same bed with the
three children M rho family hut she Was finally
restored t0 position of importance and honor IN
he family ay means of rho workrooms for un-
skilled women The groceries which she carried
home every might ss the price Ct her labor made
her dauehrer-n-law regard her with new respect
and when l.r SON lost hs employment and the
Family became far "a time entirely dependent upon
her She was treated with au the 6eference that
naturally goess0 rre bread winner"
The evil of disraspect for age. Mrs. Ewing con
o.uard. was Eo- confined TO the tenements. and
was part 0t the general disintegrauon Of the home
song III a. present.
People find their interests outside the home"
she sail. and even the efforts Of phia-thropists
conduCe to thar enc. Many a tenement house
mother depIores the Gay when her daughter Joined
working girls club. for She rarely sees her after
The subject OF the day vas the employment %
neauutul russ from The workropms FOR unskil Jed
recently been introduced into the CITY Home ana
according 20 the chaplain. the Rev. ar. Baird, has
have been done M any other way.
Rather than iet this work stop" said Mr.. Baird.
IL would Boz worth while FOR the city 10 make an
sIpIoprauon 90 buy the product even 4 u were
o. dumped irto The river afterward. I used 10
crlpples epAeptcs paralytics. etc. al Going moth
could ssy - 49,. ~
on We NoN il IS one az the most delightful wards
g ,s s3anE but the thing Is going 10 faii Unless
-, ,-o. ~ = found for the work"
strain. and told OF Other 9 Ss 1900 ~ sis
tFe -oesf,1,, NJ - Anna Garlin Spencer discussed
supportltg Miss Kate BOND 7res.5e5 - 80 49,
wCrkrooms for unskilled vyoros b -ss mace az me
received from England. The snpUai - pei ,i
the home OF Mrs Charles ri - o, S,ook Until at
West Fifty-third-st. @noer' NO b