The Greeley tribune., 1904-02-04
POOR CRAFTS
HOW SOME ARE WORKED IN
GREELEY.
But Few Really Worthy Poor
Ask for Public Charity
A Few Noticeable
Incidents.

The lecture on the New York
slums, given by Jacob A. Riis In the
Greeley opera house last week has
caused many persons to ask what
practical value such lecture might
have to Greeley people who had no
sIum to contend with. All agreed,
however, that the lecture was OF ab-
sorbing interest. even though none Of
the ideas expounded might find par
@SS o ~W '-.,-~
While there are no cOngested dis
tricts In Greeley and no great amount
Of vice and crime, there Is more real
poverty here than most people dream
Of, and tins is an element Of the
Sums OF the great city. Of course,
there are those who will take excep-
tiOn to this statement and say that
ii this is really the case 1t shouldn't
be made pubic, as it might injure
the town. There is no danger Of
this however, as the good things Of
Greeley are too many to be in any
way overshadowed by the real or
feigned misery of few individuals.
Besides, ii the place could be made
diSagreeable enough to keep GER
tain class of poor out of the town al
together, it would be good for the
name OF Greeley and money saved to
the county. The greatest difficulty Is
in finding The really worthy poor
who from sickness and other misfui-
tune are compelled to accept public
or private charity. AS iule this
class will 90 to the greatest extremes
with hunger and want before help is
asked, and it is seldom accepted ex-
cept upon the solicitation of others.
This is in striking contrast to the
methods of the army of grafters that
prey upon the public privately and
through the pauper fund OF the coun-
ty. The amount paid out for pauper
support during the past year is con-
sideable less than OF the previous
year, owing to the rigid investigation
OF all cases made by 2. A. Tisdel,
who has volunteered to do this work
for the county, it is still over $4,000.
Mr.. Tisdel works entirely without
pay, but is as careful OF the expendl-
lures as thought he might be paying
them out of his own pocket instead
of for the county. One OF the cries
OF the com planning poor who make
pauperism a profession, Is that 1.-THE
man Tisdel is a cruel man, and one
of his complaints is that the county
commissioners are too easy, ard that
they are not able to tell the differ
ence between real hard luck STORY
and hard luck story for revenue
only. The commissioners have about
come to the conclusion that this is
true ard seldom issue rations except
upon the recommendation OF Mr..
Tisdel.
So close tab does Mr.. Tisdel keep
upon the puor In Greeley aud vicinity
that he can tell exactly how many
"grafters" and how many NEEDY
Door there are here AZ all times. or
the former he says there are new six
teen in the city, and of the really
needy poor there are about double
that number. This is a fair average
the year around. Anyone wishing
to learn about chow the other half'
in Greeley live can gain fair idea
of this oy being in the county COM
missiopers room when they open
their session at the beginning of each
month. So expert have some OF the
yrafters become that they can shed
tears to order with every request for
ratiops. In new cases there Is u.s.
ually a story of long sickness and
suffering that would melt a stone.
Sometimes the request is for trans
portation to some other point where
the victim has friends, and some
times for food and clothing here. 1T
is seldom for work. Either they
have rheumatism in the head, a tor
mid liver or an aversion to manual
labor. II they can show that they
are at all worthy, help Is extended
to them. but quite as often when the
applicant is a strong, healthy looking
man he Is informed that the roads
are in good condition, and that he
had better walk.
There Is also a class OF grafters
that is. usually we'll represented here,
known as the hospital and poorhouse
workers. This organization IS much