Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-24
Underclothing Made Of Flour
Soaking Covered One Family
Found by Charity
SHE "eoEs TO BED HUNGRY
Poverty of Two Families Reaches Back
to Tragedy Which Cost Life-Des-
titute, Old Woman Dates Her Age to
the Potato Famins in IxIand-other
Gases.

From individuals who have inter-
es:ed themselves in the conditions Of
the destitute of the city come some
moving stories OF dire poverty and
need. One kindly disposed woman went
OFT to seek for herself case where
she might be of present assistance. She
found it. A family destitute of food
and clothing, a woman young girl
and other children whose underclothing
had been extemporized of the muslin
ir. which millers sack their flour and
whose outer garments were utterly I'M
fit to protect them against even the
open weather of the present excep-
tional season She saw with her eyes
and was Mortified. She had found an
outlet for her charitable impulses, a
stimulant to the action that followed
before she rested that night and that
brought decent clothing, warmth and
food to that family as quickly as speed
could carry them.
Take the case of the man and wife
living in the Third ward; the husband
palsied and old, the wife cripple. How
;lre these people to get along. They get
help from the county, but is the cold
charity thus dispensed sufficient for
i.hese old people whose anisfortunes and
poverty seem greater than they can
bear and go on living?
The Man With tho Broken Back.
Take the case of the man in the First
who has lain helpless from paralysis
since his back was broken by fall
while earning his living as a carpenter
two years ago. Doesn't such a case re-
quire of the individual citizenship of
Marshalltown some human sympathy
and special attention?
Family Is Scattered.
Take the case of the scattered fam
lily, one child in the hospital, another
sick in another place. the mother stay
ing at a home in this city and the
father in an adjoining town. Poor, poor
to the last degree of poverty. Isn't this
something We should know?
A PitifuI Case in Nhe Fifth.
There is q family across the creek"
visited yesterday by a man, not of the
T.-R. force, but employed by this pa
per to make Investigations. The head
Of the family is i'll with pneumonia and
has been ill for some time. He was
held on a charge of manslaughter, be-
tween three and four months in Jail,
acquitted and released few days ago
to go home and succumb to this illness,
re kha
head Of the family cut off for nearly
q third Of a year during his busiest
season. They are in dire straits. The
county helps, but there are many
things needed for man Ill with dan
gerous disease that the county does
not furnish. It is stated that kerosene
Is not furnished. 1t Is not necessary to
say that there are no electric or gas
fixtures in this home across the creek
and no ability to pay for current or gas
IL there were. The question suggests
itself "how is a sick man to be prop
erly attended to inS the dark? Along the
same line Of suggestion, how is a sick
man to be properly fed? It doesn't
matter much about who the man is or
what he may be individually while he
lies at the point of death and his family
are in want, does 1t
Goes to Bed Hungry.
A washerwoman with three children
over in the First ward says she goes
to bed hungry. Think Of that when
you sit down to table tomorrow. No,
don't think of it. 1t may spoil the flavor
OF the turkey and cloud the happy
faces about your board. Think Of 1t
today. and you won't need to think Of
it tomorrow, II you do what your sim
cere impulses urge you to do. This
woman has an income OF $3.50 week.
She pays IS a month rent. Her Oldest
girl works. She and the children need
underwear and food. And tomorrow is
Christmas!
A Survivor Of the "Potato Famine"
Here is an old; old woman in the
Fourth, alone, feeble and poor. She
doesn't know how old she Is, but as a
child remembers when the potato crop
failed in her birthplace, Ireland. She
needs food and fuel and clothes. Why,
when this old decrepit and hungry old
woman was a child, America sent ship
loads Of potatoes to the succor Of fam
ine- stricken Ireland. Shall we refuse
food and warmth to her now in the
country her childish experience taught
was the richest and warmest hearted
on the globe?
Tragedy and Pathos.
Here is another case tragically con-
nected with one given above, the widow
Of man slain by the man held for
manslaughter and now sick with pneu-
monia. She has four children, three
boys, the Oldest IL, the youngest 4
and a girl Of 6. They all lack under
wear. They need coal and flour. She
has not applied to the county, but is
doing her best to keep "of the town."
How about this case? Isn't she wor-
thy of personal aid that does not carry
a stigma? There is material for the
sociologist in the sad and bloody his
tory of her sorrows and need. Per-
haps to every voter some sense Of re-
sponsibility must attach.
The T.-R.'s Intent.
The original intention on the part OF
the newspaper in calling public atten-
ton to the poor and needy was to
prompt people to give their personal
attention to cases Of distress within
their own acquaintance, but the in
ability of MANY busy men to know who