The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-09-06
MRS. SUTTHOFF NOW
HUMANIZES CHARITY

Mrs. J. H. Sutthoff, who for num-
Der of years resided on an Oak Grove
orchard place, is now woman county
agent of King county, WASH, where
she has charge of charity cases. Mrs.
Sutthoff is making a record. The fol-
lowing article, entitled, "Humanizing
Charity" and written by Robert Wat
son Royce, recently appeared in the
Seattle Argus:
1t is such an easy thing to sit in a
comfortable office chair in the safe Sc
clusion of ones own home. with ones
little babies snug in bed, and light
fragrant cigar as an aid to the diges-
tion of a whopping good dinner, pick
up an evening paper and read about
the New York bread riots and then
forget all about them. | remember
| few weeks ago after | had thoroughly
explored the East Side of New York,
where poverty really breathes, lives
and has its being, walked up Fifth
| Avenue and past the Union League
club and | could see through the win
dows lot of fat and fussy men whose
combined wealth would total millions,
and | wondered if they had ever been
down on the East Side, if they had
ever felt the pinch of poverty and that
| if they had ever heard the piteous cry
of hungry child.
AS general thing | am not keen for
so-called organized charity. Somehow
the word charity is an ugly word and
yet ! bumped into case the other day
that led me to make some inquiries
and my Investigations took me straight
to James j. Callighan, and when |
asked him about it he laughed and
said:
"I'll have to refer you to Mrs. Mary
Sutthoff she is responsible; it is her
work.
So l looked up Mrs. Sutthoff and she
said:
IL am just starting out on my af-
ternoon's work. Wouldn't you like to
go with mel" l would and did.
''We do everything we can" she
said, "to get away from the word
charity The people deal with are
not charity people-that is, the great
majority are not. They want help but
not necessarily money. 1t is my work
to see they keep themselves clean and
their homes clean. | am a great be-
lever in the beautiful and every home
we visit you will notice that there is
just a bit of flower garden. | don't
believe the world at large realizes the
subtle influence of flower. And then
| tell them how to make a garden and
take care of it after it is once made.
For instance, take the home we are
just about to visit. The dearest old
lady in the world lives there. She is
a widow. She has one son, strapping
lad who absolutely refused to work and
as consequence his mother was about
to lose her home. We heard of it and
investigated. l got hold of the boy,
got him interested in making garden
and, there, now look at it," she added,
as we drew up to neat little cottage
that smiled at US through its flowers,
and sure enough there was vegetable
garden that would have made an agri-
culturist give three cheers. And incl
dentally | found out Mrs. Sutthhoff
eventually got the boy job in ship
yard and he has turned out to be
steady, faithful and hard worker and
his mother isn't worrying about him
any more.
Then when she left US to go in. and
see the old lady, the chauffeur said:
"Aw, but she does lot of things
she amt got no business doin'. She's
supposed to look after gardens but she