The San Francisco call., 1906-07-01
THE BURDEN OF DEPENDENCE
By Franklin H;chborn.

world to have her ask me il 1 could
get her any cast-off clothing for
girl y years old.
she lives in the next tent" she said.
and is almost naked. She does not
seem to be able to get any clothes
from the relief committee"
I stammered that l hadn't any clothes
that would fit girl of that age.
Il hardly thought that you had" sne
laughed but I have acquired the beg
ging habit since I have BEEN out here"
For others, I thought. and said IL.
oh. / have plenty" she replied But
the distress and want about US are
heart-rending."
SIX WEEKS AFTER.
When next visited Jefferson square.
six weeks later. had no idea that
Sullivan's heroine would be there. She
has long since made place for her
self, 1 reasoned. for IT was like her to
do So But she was there. although no
longer the strong. seIf-reliant woman
Il had met six weeks before. The pail
OF dishwater standing unemptied be-
fore the door. the cluttered ground
about the tent. the dusty table. told
story that 1 did not expect to find.
glance at the woman herself. as
she sat before the door with idle
hands. showed that her self-reliance.
her enthusiasm, her purposefulness, all
were gone from her. 1 looked at her
fever-fushed cheeks and lips, and
thought typhoid. But her first words
showed that IL was not sickness of
body that had dragged her down. In
her hand she held small card She
held the ticket up TO me, and with a
sob in her voice. said helplessly:
i waited in line for II nearly an
hour Ii is meal ticket. But I was
so tired when I got it that I didn't go
to the camp kitchen. And 1t is so dirty
! there that | couldn't have eaten had
/ gone The food makes me sick: IL
makes everybody about here sick
do not see how we are ever going TO
get away from this wretched place
work when they must stand for hours
in line waiting for meal tickets and
then wait for chance to get into the
dining-room? The relief that keeps US
alive takes all our time"
The strong. confident voice of six
weeks before had become quarrelsome
and complaining
IF could only get away" she con-
! tinued. IF 1 only had $50. could get
start I've worked all my life: Il can
still work But / can't stand in line
for meal tickets. and can't eat in that
filthy kitchen. l cannot. l cannotl
cannot
/ AS she spoke the flush on her facs
deepened from shame Six weeks he
fore. the idea of getting $50 dollars or
/ 80 cents except by her own Efforts
would never have occurred 10 her
Then her independence had drawn me
to her; now from her cringing depend
ence | shrank as one shrinks from a
dumb creature hopelessly wounded
that he cannot help. And that was the
pity of it: ones inability to help For
dependence is what is crushing and
killing that woman out in Jefferson
square.
The dirt of the camp kitchen is bad.
perhaps. but il is the evidence of de-
pendence, forced upon her in a hun
dred ways, the conforming with this
regulation and that. the waiting in line
for tickets and acquisitions. the short
unsympathetic answers of the distrf
buffers of relief. that is taking the
heart and the life out of her. She Is
not of the kind that responds to free
soup treatment. What she does need
is helping hand. to assist her to her
feet. little start that she may re-
cover her old standing in the world OF
useful. pHrposeful. seif-respectins peo-
pie. 1t. did not require an expert in
social pathology to see that the e50
that she asked would not have been
wasted had it come TO her before her
spirit broke. Nor did 1t take an eye
pert to see that another six weeks In
Jefferson square will either kill her o
or make of her a confirmed pauper
Perhaps II Is even now too date to helm
her: perhaps IL will be better if she
dies. o
The system under whicherelief tso be-
ing distributed may be most. scientific
it NAV be most effective in discourse
ing the urwOrthy and in preventing
graft. But IL has killed Su4lfvan's
heroine;o she isn't ga heroine any more.
And Of the thousands in the camps who .
are Under the heel OF the system how
many are there like her?