The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-12-01
CHARITY AND THRIFT

In six days, less than n week, /
have received eleven letters asking
me for charity. Some of these let
ters are amusing as well as annoying,
while others are pitiful in their pleas
for help. While l would need to have
the wealth of a Croesus, in order to-
answer favorably all the letters of
this kind which come to me, would
not accommodate many of these
beggars, even if | had the w~hereWlth.
Two wrote they were unable to meet
family expenses and were in very
sore straits l learned from the
pastors of these people that the men
had steady employment, the women
were idle and extravagant and they
simply looked to friends to help them
tide over their difficulties and were
| shameless in their waSteful habits.
Another wrote she could not pay her
doctors bill and had a note to meet.
This particular case, I learned, is one
of the commonest among women.
This woman owes her high-class dress
maker, buys everything that goes on
the table at the delicatessen and spent
two months this past summer living
with her relatives at the lakeside,
while l was putting in Is hours per
day at my desk. l could go on ad
libitum in giving instances like the
above and every woman who works
in the business world has a siege of
the same. Teachers, doctors, lawyers,
journalists, women in any profession
or business, once they spend some
years in their chosen ~avocation, are
seized upon as prey by those who
greedily want to get-rich quick or
others who wish to live easy and
depend upon their borrowing or beg
cling to live.
A woman grown to middle life if she
has been a faithful laborer is simply
pestered by genteel beggars, and ii
she is a spinster or a married woman
without children there is absolutely
no sympathy for her from those who
marry early on nothing and depend
upon a couple of children a. an ex-
cuse to pull money from others. /
know of a woman lawyer in a nearby
city whose relatives kept her, poverty
stricken. Her sisters were no use,
her brothers without ambition and be-.
cause she, through her w efforts,
helped herself above them, she was
looked to to keep them. She had to
do this, in good part, to keep up her
own responsibility. Finally in sheer
! docnnrofinn to 0ot rid of fhnir onnnU.
ance, she married when so years of
age to make herself a home. If silly
headed young people are anxious to
marry, they should first work a few
years and have a savings account. If
one cannot live single on his wages,
then how in Heavens name is a man
to keep up three or more, a home,
doctors bills, etc.! Too many get
married on expectations of what they
will pull from relatives and friends
and when disappointed soon find them
selves hopelessly involved. Much
misery ensues nowadays from early
marriages, especially when the wife
is anxious to start "high" and her
foolish husband is as anxious to please
her. Pastors have the same annoy
ance with people wanting to borrow
one told me recently that if he sold
rectory, church grounds and all his
personal belongings, furniture, etc., he
could not begin to satisfy the wants
of people who ask him for loans
and these people are not the deserv-
ing poor either!
-Michf0an Catholic.