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study and many problems to solve, that will take time and patience. It may seem disheartening to an onlooker, for he can not see the ins and outs like a person that lives among the poor.

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There is one thing especially I think is dreadful, and I think it is the cause of a great many children being so rude and forward. In the ordinary flats there is no privacy at all, either from your children, or your neighbors; for everything can be heard unless you are as quiet as a deaf and dumb person. Of course people do not always whisper. Now there are many little things about private business that husband and wife wish to talk about, that concern no one else. If in building the new model houses they would make the walls and floors to deaden sound, it would be a great blessing to humanity. The Charity Organization has done much towards baths for the people; but it would be a great benefit to many a poor family if they would build baths for washing and drying clothes, charging so much an hour, as they have in London, for in small flats where there are children, washing is very unhealthy, drying clothes where people eat and sleep, when the weather is bad. If you hang them on the roof you must watch them or they disappear; if you live in the back and have pulley lines, in some places a sheet and one table cloth fills the line, and they blow over the next line, and get more dirty than before they were washed. The women up over you shake their bed clothes and rugs over your clothes; and if the people are not clean, then your clothes will have animals walking about over them.

Oh, there is lots to think about in a tenement-flat house. Talk about

fire-escapes, for so they are called! I should call them curiosity shops, for they are covered with everything from bedding down to flower-pots; here you see rags of quilts and clothes; there you see chairs, tin boxes, ice boxes, dogs, birds, cats, rabbits, jars, and bottles of every description, big parrots screeching at each other, canaries singing, and children playing. Here and there you will find a fire-escape devoted to flowers alone, but rarely. They are a sight to see. When I look through my windows and down between the rows of houses, where the yards are so small that the houses seem quite close together, it reminds me of the old historical Petticoat Lane, Whitechapel, in London.

I leave the third class entirely out, for it is past my comprehension how they live at all. It is only an animal existence-work, eat, sleep, drink. No thought of cleanliness in homes or themselves. That class is the hardest to reach. It is a problem how to deal with them, to better their condition. It is of no use whatever talking or preaching to them. The only way I see is force of example through their children. When they see the children growing up to be what they should be, they will be ashamed if they are not too hardened and stupid with drink. If they do not entirely reform they will keep within bounds for their children's sakes, and the children will be able to do a great deal with their parents.

OUTDOOR RELIEF.

N. H.

At the recent convention of Superintendents of the Poor in Rome, N. Y., a number of subjects were discussed-especially outdoor relief,

1 The Peoples' Baths are maintained by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

sanatoria for tuberculosis, and the care of dependent children.

Mr. A. W. Weber, of Otsego, read a paper on "Outside Relief," in which he said:

There are so many classes who apply for this relief, and their circumstances are so varied, that each must receive separate consideration; and it is absolutely impossible to lay down a set of rules that will apply with justice to the various cases that present themselves. First, there comes up for consideration the aged poor who have reared a family of children and find them unable or unwilling to assist their parents. I believe that, where it is possible, such children should be made to support their parents. I do not deem it wise to hurry the aged off to the almshouses. Another class that deserves attention is the widows and orphans, oftentimes a little aid to supplement their efforts to make a living will enable them to live together as a family. We should have an eye to the future welfare of those whom we help as well as to their present needs, in determining both the amount of assistance that should be rendered and the manner in which it shall be given.

Above all things investigate. Do not sit in your office and take all they say for granted, but go to their homes and see for yourself. Better spend a few dollars in investigating than to give it out in a heedless manner. While I believe that the worthy poor should be well cared for, I believe that there should be careful administration of relief.

Mr. Patrick Redmond, of Watertown, called attention to the system of poor relief of that city. Two years ago the charitable department of the city was taken out of the hands of the elective officer, who

had been forced to appeal to the people for votes to continue him in office, and was placed in the hands of a non-partisan board consisting of five members. At the time that board went into office the expenditures of the city, exclusive of those of denominational and private relief societies, approximated $20,000 per year for outdoor relief. A year ago under the new system expenditures for the same work were $4,500, and the relief from other sources had practically ceased. The method of the board is to cut off where possible all permanent relief, to investigate carefully all applications, and to enforce the law by compelling all those who are able to support themselves and those dependent upon them to do so.

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE CONFERENCE.

A meeting was held Thursday, June 14, in the United Charities Building, Fourth avenue and Twentysecond street, to make preliminary arrangements for a state conference on charities, which will probably be held at Albany some time next November. The meeting organized by electing William Rhinelander Stewart, chairman, and R. W. Hebberd, secretary.

On recommendation of the Committee on Permanent Organization these officers for the conference were elected: President, William P. Letchworth, of Portage, ex-President of the State Board of Charities; VicePresidents, Robert W. de Forest, President of the Charity Organization Society of New York; State Controller William J. Morgan; and the Rev. Thomas A. Hendricks, of

Poor.

the Children's Aid Society of Superintendent of State and Alien Rochester; Secretary, Homer Folks, Secretary of the State Charities Aid Association; Assistant Secretaries, Frederic Almy, General Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo; Dr. John F. Fitzgerald, Superintendent of the State Custodial Asylum, Rome; and Clarence V. Lodge. Superintendent of the Poor, Monroe County; Treasurer, General Agent of the New York Association for

Frank Tucker,

Improving the Condition of the Poor; Executive Committee, William Rhinelander Stewart, President of the State Board of Charities; Prof. George F. Canfield, President of the State Charities Aid Association; John W. Keller, Commissioner of Charities; Dr. F. Parke Lewis, Member of the Board of Managers of the State School for the Blind, Buffalo; Thomas M. Mulry, President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul; Enoch V. Stoddard, Vice President of the State Board; and James Wood, President of the Board of Managers of the New York State Reformatory for Women, Mount Kisco.

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There will probably be five sessions of the conference, and it was decided to have a separate committee to arrange a program for each session. Chairmen of these committees were appointed as follows: Treatment of the Criminal, Thomas R. Sturgis, President of the Board of Managers of the Elmira Reformatory; Care and Relief of Needy Families in Their Own Homes, Frederic Almy, Buffalo; Care of Defective, Dependent, Delinquent, and Neglected Children, the Rev. Thomas L. Kinkead, of St. Joseph's Home for Destitute Children, Peekskill; the Mentally Defective, Dr. William P.Spratling, Superintendent of the Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea; and Institutional Care of Destitute Adults, Byron M. Child,

At a recent meeting of the Board of Managers of the New York State Hospital for the Care of Crippled home of Bishop Potter, its president, and Deformed Children, held at the the committee on site reported that it had leased the home of Dr. Angell, Paulding avenue, on the Hudson River, in Tarrytown. The changes. necessary to equip the building for hospital use will be made at once, and it will be formally opened early in the autumn. The following physicians were elected members of the Consulting Medical Board: Dr. Francis Delafield, Dr. Robert F. Weir, Dr. W. Gilman Thompson, Dr. Joseph D. Bryant, Dr. Lewis A. Stimson, Dr. A. Alexander Smith, and Dr. Reginald H. Sayre, of this city; Dr. Roswell Park, of Buffalo, and Dr. L. A. Weigel, of Rochester.

Classified Advertisements. Advertisements under this head, two lines or more without display, 5 cents a line.

HE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY

Tappeals for so towards a fund to be used in the

support of a widow go years old. She is a woman incapacitated from earning her living and is now wholly dependent upon her friends. The small amount asked for will supplement what comes from another source and provide for the rest of her days.

For $25 to buy various little articles which will add very much to the comfort and happiness of an old man, educated and refined, who is an inmate of a Home. He has no relatives to call upon.

For $70 with which to pay the expenses back to Syria of a young Armenian widow with one child. She has been in the country for the past six years and was able to support herself by work until a year ago when she took sick and has since been practically laid aside. She has assurances from her relatives in Syria that she will be cared for by them, and she is very anxious to 10 back. It is desirable to send her off at an early date, so the society hopes that the public response will be prompt.

For $60 to provide shelter for an old woman, whom age and illness have incapacitated from work, but who until recently supported herself. She has no relatives able to help her.

Any money for these cases sent to the Charity Organization Society. 105 East 22d Street, will be duly and publicly acknowledged.

The Society also acknowledges the following contributions in response to appeals for the above: Lispenard Stewart, $to; "G. W. S." and "Miss R. I. B.," $5 each; C. H. Loring, "J. T. G," and M. Weis, $2 each; cash, $1.

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CHARITIES

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF

THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE NEW YORK, N. Y., POST-OFFICE.

Issued every Saturday. Five cents a copy. Subscription price, one dollar a year, in advance. Three dollars a hundred.

ADVERTISING RATES.

Classified advertisements, 5 cents a line, eight words to the line, agate measure. Display, 5 cents a line, 14 lines to the inch. Full page, 200 agate lines, $10. Half page, 100 agate lines, $5. Quarter page, 50 agate lines, $2.50. Special position, twenty-five per cent additional.

EDWARD T. DEVINE, Editer.

PUBLICATION OFFICE:

105 East 22d Street.

NEW YORK, JUNE 23, 1900.

In response to the circular letter, which was reprinted in CHARITIES of last week, the Tenement-House Commission has received a large number of letters containing much valuable information and excellent suggestions. We hope to be able to print extracts from some of these in future numbers and to invite discussion of the suggestions made to the commission.

* *

The third session of the Summer School in Philanthropic Work opens with great promise of usefulness and influence. The twenty-eight students registered represent eleven states and at least ten universities. Eleven are men and seventeen women. Fourteen, or exactly one-half, have had practical experience in charitable or social work, many of whom are now occupying positions

from which they have leave of absence for the six weeks of the school. The social opening on Monday evening was a delightful occasion. Mr. Homer Folks, Secretary of the State Charities Aid Association, gave an address in which the objects, the possibilities, and the limitations of the school were outlined. Professor F. G. Peabody, of Harvard University, spoke briefly upon the advantage of working "at the strategic point," at the point of greatest and most wide-spread interest, which is undoubtedly in the social field. The address was an excellent introduction and supplement to the lecture delivered by Professor Peabody on Tuesday morning, on the Expansion of Charity, of which we hope to give our readers a fuller report.

We extend a cordial welcome to the students of the summer school, and bespeak for them the hospitality which charity workers and public officials have bestowed so bountifully upon their predecessors.

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Additional registrations for the Summer School in Philanthropic Work are:

Edward W. Capin, Fellow at Columbia University.

Mary A. Daniels, University of Minnesota. Mrs. J. Riddle Goffe, New York city.

C. S. Lowenstein, University of Cincinnati. E. R. Park, University of Iowa. Mrs Bond Thomas, University Settlement, New York city.

* * *

Lord Methuen, one of the commanding generals in South Africa, is the chairman for this year of the Council of the London Charity Organization Society. It is the policy of this society to secure each

year for its chairmen, men who are prominent in public life, in one way or another, with the intention of getting their interest and support. Before he was called to the field, Lord Methuen had been very active in the work of the society.

* *

The Chicago Record, in commenting upon some remarks of Mrs. Frederick Nathan upon Preventive Philanthropy, calls attention to a report made by the Health Department of Chicago, in which it is stated that the opening of the Chicago Sanitary Canal has already resulted in a marked decrease in the number of deaths due to typhoid fever. Manifestly in that case the way to confer the greatest benefit on the people of Chicago was not to build more hospitals for typhoid fever patients, but to remove the cause of the fever by purifying the city's water supply. Mrs. Nathan, in the remarks alluded to, says that a good deal of "charity" reminds one of the so-called charitable manufacturer who reduced the wages of the employés because he needed the money to make his annual gifts for benevolent purposes. "Sometimes," she says. "I think that instead of being proud of our charitable institutions. we ought to hang our heads in shame. for the need of them."

**

There are public crematoria in Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, and one has just been opened in Hull. For a resident the charges will be one guinea for an ordinary cremation, including a year's storage

of the remains. Three guineas will be charged for non-residents.

* *

A volume has been announced, entitled "Houses for the Working Classes in Urban Districts," by Messrs. S. W. Cranfield and Potter, of London, Associates of the Royal Institute of British Architects, dealing with single and double tenement

and other terrace houses suitable for the laborer, mechanic, and other weekly wage-earners. An attempt has been made by the authors to introduce some new ideas and improvements with strict regard for economy. Detailed particulars of each design are given, with further information to make the book useful to all those who can take an interest in the important question of housing the working classes.

**

*

Switzerland has expressed its opinion of old-age pensions through the referendum. In twenty-five cantons there was only one-Glarus— with a slight majority in favor of the measure. In most of the cantons, and in most of the districts of the larger cantons, the majority against it was in the proportion of seven to three.

** *

With the object of brightening the lives of the poor of Glasgow, the corporation has decided to provide a number of window boxes of flowers for the poor. The idea comes from. Liverpool. For several years now the corporation, through its parks department, has provided these little luxuries, and now there are 1,800 of

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