The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-02
BIRMINGHAM WOMEN WHO LEAD PHILANTHROPIC WORK
Something Of the Beautiful Lives Of Those Who Work Among
 the Destitute Glasses
By ANNIE KEN DRIcK WALKER.

If all the pathetic stories of Birming- hams submerged tenth found their way into the newspapers many columns could be filled daily. But few know about the hopelessness and utter desolation or this large class, and because Birmingham has not yet developed those terribly con- gested districts teeming with diseased and poverty-stricken humanity, 1t is supposed that the problem of the poor and the ur= employed is less difficult to handle, that in this city conditions are less complex, and therefore to be viewed with greater complacency.
 Because we have not yet established public soup kitchens does not mean that we have not the hungry and the poor among us. Because we have not seen long line of unkempt men waiting for bed in lodging houses where for few cents they may sleep in a cot and go in the shower room, need not be taken as an indication that every man in Birmingham is able to provide himself those necessi- ties. and that none walk the streets friendless and penniless.
 Because, too, we have not raised fresh air funds for the babies in the slums and provided ice and milk for those who are too poor to get these summer necessities for their ill-nourished children, does not clear the situation nor proclaim that there has been no suffering among the destitute in the long, hot, dusty summer.
 And with winter approaching the out look is more despairing, more gloomy, with men out of work and wife and chill dren H.
 I do not intend to go into the work of the organized charities which provide clothing and food and medicine to all worthy applicants, and with the work of which all Birmingham is familiar, but rather to touch upon the work of the in- dividual wholly separate from the estab- lished and well-organized charities. And perhaps I should ask pardon for touch- ing upon this phase of it, of treading ever so lightly upon such delicate strings.
 The several years of busy life which have given me so many glimpses of the finer and noblest qualities in women could well furnish an excuse for my touching upon some of the intricate inci- dents that have never found their way Into pTlDl dIlu Ol uWciliHS hpoh Sohio oA the relations that have been established between the poorer and the wealthy classes in this city.
 When say that relations have been es- tablished l feel that ties is better word, for believe me, when I say that some of the most beautiful friendships in the world have been born in the slum dis tricts of Greater Birmingham, friendships between the poor and the rich.
 A woman whom I know well, having frequently gone with her in her round of visiting among the poor, formed a friend ship that was only broken by death with an old woman who lived in almost hope less poverty on one of the side streets of Birmingham. She was bed-ridden for months, and with no income she was un- able to pay even her water rent.
 This woman, whose carriage stops before the humblest doorway in Birmingham, provided for this poor woman until her death. But while the water rent and house rent were paid and other necessi- ties provided from day to day, it was the little visits that gave birth to that holy thing we call friendship.
 While poverty had crushed out some of the finer sensibilities of this poor woman, fin her heart there still lived the seeds from which love and friendship grow
 A little digging around the roots and