The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-14
BUNCH OF SUNSHINE GRAFTERS
NICE LOT WHO HAVE BEEN COL.
LECTING DOLLARS EVERYWHERE
F1oridy, Alias F1aherty, n the Blended
Mrs. Tibbetts Hang Out I'm Jersey City
Now but work All the Country but h
eago-Bogus settlements and Nurseries.

The Charity Organization Society Of
New York is about to issue a general warn
ing to all important charitable societies In
the United States against the Sunshine
Legion" and it's two publications SunShine
and the SunshiRe Journal. Tit Charity
Organization Society mas been on the hunt
for these people for q year. Now 1t has
evidence In hand and Is prepared to move
against Mrs. Z. NJ. Tibbetts, national
president" OF the society, and her com
panion, Joseph w. Floridy, the organizer
and brains Of the graft. These two-he q
charitable worker with a passion for dia-
monds as personal adornment, and abe q
blonde Of the peroxide type who Is up
lifting the tenements--have been living In a
fat In Jersey City and conducting a graft
which has run through all the Eastern
States and through part Of the Middle
West. 1t is one Of the oleverest, best or
ganized and most far reaching taps on
charity that has ever come to the notice
of the Charity Organization Society.
To put 1t briefly, Sunshine and the Sun
shine Journal were two apers advocating
the uplifting" Of tenement house children.
They are monthly publications, made up
for the most part OF reprints from Sunday
echool weeklies. The Sunshine Legion
pretends to maintain In seven large cities
of the United States settlements, day
nurseries and employment agencies for
the children Of the poor. To the main
tenance Of these settlements the proceeds
Of the paper are supposed to De devoted.
As a matter of fact, all the "settlements'
so far investigated, including the two in
Greater New York, were blinds. They
did little or no work, just enough to main
tain a pretence. Seldom were any children
found in the day nurseries. When children
were there they seemed to a been
picked up for the occasion. The employ
ment agencies apparently exist only for
the hiring of solicitors for the publications.
These solicitors are mainly young girls.
They hum subscribers for Sunshine at q
dollar a year. Their pay is so per cent.
Of the proceeds. This seems like small
returns to the heads of the concern but
many a little makes a mickle, and as a
matter Of fact a statement by a deceived
but honest ana who ran the Phila-
delphia agency for a month shows that it
has been a paying business. The solicitors
represent their work as a matter Of charity.
For that reason the business men, church
workers and charitable women who are
approached rarely want the paper-but
they give for charity. Their gifts, too,
often exceed the 81 subscription asked
| for Sunshine.
In the cases where the people really put
Town their names for the paper a new
refinement OF the game appears. Sun
shine is a sixteen page monthly, printed
or heavy oalendered paper and putting
up a pretty fair appearance, although
the contents could be made up with a pair
- -lI I--1 - T. L..
three hours. But that is not what the
subscriber gets. He gets the Sunshine
journal, an eight page monthly printed
on much poorer paper. In neither journal
is there any advertising.
As a matter of fact, Sunshine was never
entered in the mails as second class matter,
and last year the United States Post Office
authorities refused it the privilege Of the
mails. That really made little difference.
as it was only a kind Of a sample used by
solicitors and could be forwarded by ex-
press to the "organizer" Cwho was usually
the head Of one Of the -settlements') in
each district. Most OF the solicitors, it
would appear were innocent of any wrong
doing. They were simply girls out OF en-
ployment who answered advertisements
and were put to work.
This is not universally true. Fine stories
drift down from up State about the con-
duct Of some of the solicitors. Only Mon
day in New York, flats at 1877 and 1870 East
Thirty-third street we're robbed of ST. 800
worth of jewels and toilet articles. Just
before the robbery a woman in a long red
automobile coat had called at all OF these
fats soliciting for Sunshine. The police
are looking for her.
In nTae m oo the mo N q p IF thA
settlements" seem to have been innocent
of the nature Of the institution they were
promoting, although it should not have
taken a person of perez ption very long
to find out what was doing.
This exposure came about in a rather
singular way. About a year go the police
of Chicago began to look up the operations
of Mrs. Violet Jessie Sherbondy, who raj
an institution called the Sunnyside Society
and a paper called Sunnyside. Her paper
and her institution bore a remarkable re-
Sc mblance to the work OF the Sunshine
LIE gion. The stories and poems in the
paper, which were her own work, were
clever in a rather sentimental way and
her work in soliciting subscriptions was
more than clever. She was a sweet faced
woman, very gentle in her ways. She
ultHbcd III AuSi toobC oih OOt'N
tears at will. She was her own chief COL
lector, and worked not only among the rich
and we'll to do but also among the tene-
ment house people themselves. Her re-
ceipts are estimated by the Chicago police
at 500 q day in her best times.
Snnny$ide was a gem. 1t was studded
with pictures Of little people whom the
settlement bad re claimed and made healthy
and happy. These were all photographs
of her own eight-year-old son in different
poses and costumes, He, in fact, was the
whole settlement. The national presi-
dent Of the Sunnyside Society was Mrs
Shortcomings own mother. All these facts
were developed when Dete ctive Clinton r.
Woodbridge ran the game down and ar ,
rested Mrs. ~Sherbondy. WIKI was tried
and convicted. Late in the game she !
admitted the graft, but declared that she 1
had been arrested through the persecution I
Of j. W. Floridy. ,
He was after me all the time to marry
him and start A rival paper to Sunshins
Journal" she said. He was tired of Tib-
belts. / was his manager once. When