I VICK & Sine 2 some I bea ང 1 ན།ཆེན་པོ་བཞི་དག་པ་ཞིག་དུས people who don't know that i am coming, det kom at all what Miss DE GRAFFENRIE?—I would like to ask Mrs. Lincoln to tell Mrs. LINCOLN.-I am happy to say that that is a very simple matter indeed. We believe in encouraging the people to, we might say, benefit themselves. If I find tenants are doing remarkably well, and need a little encouragement, I say, “Wouldn't you like to have little fresh paint?" And perhaps they will say, "Yes"; and I will say, "If you will put it on, I am very glad to furnish the paint. And in that way the house is brightened and freshened up. We have ways found that it was not wise to do everything at once. Ire member I learned that from the experience of a landlord who said to me that he had repaired and cleaned and papered his houses and turned the people in, and he was surprised to find at the end of a y e S. ys al few months that the houses were just as bad and neglected as they had been in the beginning. It is a good deal better to give them the benefit gradually, and also to let them feel that one takes an interest in the things that they earn. They are glad to earn the right to have the rooms more comfortable, and we are glad to give it to them. There comes in the personal side. It is because of something they have done that they are entitled to these better and pleasanter surroundings. The general conditions of the house should be looked after. We always repair the roof and drains, and see that the premises are in good sanitary condition; and they can afford to wait for some of the minor matters, which mean a great deal to the tenants because they relate to the attractiveness of the rooms. We have one woman who always likes a blue paper; and, when her room is going to be papered, she is sure to say to me, "Be sure that you get blue,' and I try to find the prettiest paper I can. I always choose the papers for my houses. We all like to have people take an interest in us and what we do. The tenants are in no wise different from ourselves. PERSONAL SERVICE ON THE PART OF DIRECTORS. REMARKS BY MR. ALEXANDER JOHNSON. First, let us ask, what charity organization societies usually do in the way of general visiting and supervision of the public and private charitable institutions. In the charity organization societies that I have been connected with we usually found that a majority of our directors and board of visitors were engaged in other departments of charitable work. If they would do their whole duty as volunteers, as unpaid members of the society, there is no doubt that this general visitation and supervision would be done very fully. We have all, I suppose, been met with the difficulty of getting unofficial societies and institutions to examine official ones about the precise thing they are organized for. I think I took it upon myself to say at one public meeting of the Associated Charities that, when a society refuses a case for which it is organized, as, for instance, a hospital refuses to take in a sick child, or if a relief society refuses to extend relief in a proper case, that society, church, or institution is bankrupt, and ought to wind up its affairs and go out of business. That is to say, if we undertake to do a certain amount of business, no matter what it is, we are under obligations to the public to aid every case of that kind that comes to us. A favorite answer of a relief society to me has been, "We would very much like to do this work, but we really haven't the funds." I happen to know that very frequently that story is not true, but, if it is true, that society should either collect more money and have the funds, or go out of business. 5 526 TWENTY-SECOND NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES But the particular point that I wished to speak about was not so Let the agent be called upon for the official part of the work defi- FRIENDLY VISITING. REMARKS BY JUDGE WAYLAND. I never have been a friendly visitor. matter, or perhaps more safely what I think I know, has been based almost entirely on observation, and almost not at all on experience. And let me say that, in talking about this matter, I am considering solely the relation between the charity organization and the poor people whom it seeks to befriend. What I know about this houses or any modern phase of relief work. the old-fashioned charity organization as it exists to-day. there are two or three aspects in which we can look at this: in the first place, dealing with poor people, what they want, what they need, I am not talking about tenement and how best they can be supplied with what they need. Now, what do they want? They want everything that they haven't got; I am only talking about they want to be saved from work; they want to be saved from earn Now ing; they want to be saved, above all things, from cleanliness; they want to live as they have been living, without effort. Now, it would be easy enough, not for me, perhaps, but for our agent, to give a dozen cases of the rose-colored poor, what you may call the prismatic poor. So taking friendly visitors, we could give isolated cases here and there of friendly visitors who had shown themselves adequate to their position, and have endeared themselves to the rosecolored paupers, and who had really done a charming work. But we should forget then the long and almost endless procession of unsuc cessful visitors who have done the people really more harm than they have done them good,— not, perhaps, in their own judgment, but in the judgment of on-lookers, who are perhaps heartless, hide-bound, but from whom, perhaps, all intelligence has not been absolutely eliminated. Now, what do the poor need? They need above all things instruction vastly more than relief. They need to be taught better cooking, better sanitary habits, better customs as to clothing, better care of their children on the same means, or want of means, if you choose, that they have; and they want to be taught it by the people who know what they are talking about. These people have a good deal of worldly wisdom, and, if the amiable, accomplished young lady waltzes into the house and asks a dozen questions, they are tempted to reply somewhat scornfully; and at all events they lose all interest. There are too many cases like the college girl who asked the farmer's wife, after a great many questions, why the cows were crowded so close in the yard where they came to be milked; and the tired woman said, "Why, ma'am, that is to give condensed milk." Now, that is the sort of a reply that a good many of these paupers are tempted to make to the questions that are asked them. The fact is disclosed almost instantly that the people don't know what they are talking about, and while they are getting an education the cause of true charity is being very much harmed. Now there is no question about that in the minds of heartless men. Now, how shall this want be supplied? I ought not to omit this: that the first attempt of the poor family, the visited family, is to see what can be got in the way of pecuniary supplies out of the visitor ; and every effort and ingenuity is expended in that effort. If there is any ingenuity left, it is expended in concealing the fact from the visitor that they don't need any relief. They are prevented from looking under the bed to see the supply of wood, they are prevented from looking into the cupboard to see the supply of food there. Now, to a very large extent, voluntary effort is wasted effort unless it is extremely well directed. I have no doubt that many persons here will rise to annihilate me when I sit down, but there may be one or two who think that what I say is not absolutely saturated with idiocy. Now, what do we want? What do some of us think Persons adequately, not largely, paid; persons in wh we want? |