POOR
246
POOR
medicines. All types of religious communities, except
those cloistered, perform every variety of service for the
sick poor as conditions invite and circumstances per-
mit. The activities of sisters in every form of re-
lief work concurrently with those of lay organizations
merit notice for their efficiency as well as their extent.
Thus, for instance, a community of sisters engaged in
hospital work will carry on systematically the work
of giving reUef to poor families, friendly visiting,
conducting sewing circles, instructing children, feed-
ing destitute adults under certain conditions, finding
employment, and making provision which the exi-
gencies of illness may require.
Hospitals furnish free wards for the poor whether adults or chiklren. Convalescent Homes make provison for the sick poor who are necessarily dis- missed from hospitals before their final recovery from illness or operations. Separate homes are found for chronic and incurable cases such as those afflicted with cancer or tuberculosis. Homes for those temporarily out of emplojTnent, homes for working girls where food and lodging are obtained at a cost proportionate to income, homes for newsboys, shelters for homeless children, and industrial schools where the children of the poor may learn trades, are also found. The lay charitable organizations include in their range of normal activities the visitation of inmates in such institutions and very frequently assistance of a most valuable kind is rendered. Visitors go to these institutions for the purpose of chatting with inmates and cheering the lonely monotony which tends to develop in spite of the best will and most careful management. Reading matter is brought and the homely comfort that may be found in a piece of fancy work or supply of chewing tobacco is not deemed un- worthy of the visitor's attention. We find lay men and women constituting boards of directors to act in conjunction with the management of institutions and acting on auxiliary boards for the more remote but equally necessary purpose of raising money or further- ing the interests of the institutions with the public. For instance, ladies auxiliary work in conjunction with hospitals. Good Shepherd Homes, or orphan asylums, and raise money or pro%'ide linens of all kinds which are needed in the normal work of such in- stitutions. The " linen shower " is a picturesque illus- tration of this method of work. Annual social events of one kind or another are inaugurated for the purposes of directing attention of the public toward institu- tions and to raise money for their general work. The tendency is marked to forget differences of creed in these larger events. One finds CathoUcs and non- Catholics working side by side in the spirit of a com- mon purpose. Seminarians will at some time form organizations whose members devote one afternoon a week to the visiting of these institutions, doing the work of the friendly visitors or good Samaritans in the spirit of Cliristian friendship.
Various types of child life in our large cities pre- sent extremely distressing problems to the charitable society. Newsboys, half-orphans, friendless chil- dren, who are entirely neglected by their parents and wander away from home, are found in distressingly large numbers in our great cities. All such t>-pes are kept in mind and either lay or religious associa- tions aim to discover them and to provide tem- porary or permanent homes for them. Usually those working in this manner act as emplojTnent agencies, and endeavour to find work for the children if they are of legal age, or to restore them to their homes and obtain for them the attention and pro- vision to which they have a natural right, \yhen a boy leaves an industrial school the authorities will find board and lodging without cost to him until he secures work. When work is found a representative of the school selects a safe boarding place for the boy, encourages him to save his money, and keeps in touch
with him either personally or by correspondence as
long as there is need.
Homes for the aged under the care of sisters are numerous, though Catholics are, of course, often found in pubhc poor-houses. The visitation of in- mates of all such institutions is well-organized. Homes are found for friendless women of good charac- ter and destitute mothers with infants, where pro- tection may be had until employment is found or provision made for whatever relief the circumstances demand. Lodging and food are furnished for friend- less and destitute men during periods of enforced idle- ness. This is done entirely without cost or possibly on the payment of a nominal charge of ten or fifteen cents per day. Lodging-houses Lq the large cities contain vast numbers of men of every kind and charac- ter. The danger in these places is more or less great, because of their tendency to develop an atmosphere of vulgar abandon. In the largest cities Catholic charitable societies provide halls and offer weekly entertainments exclusively to this type of friendless men. Volunteers are found who furnish musical or literary entertainment, and all are encouraged to sing. Lectures are given, usually by a priest on some moral or spiritual topic. Appeal is made gentlj' but strongly to the better element of these homeless and friendless men, with the result that in large numbers they reform and return home or feel a renewal of spiritual vigom and helpfulness. Much temperance work is done among them, with results which are en- couraging in the extreme.
A notably large percentage of delinquents come from among the poor, hence the normal range of activity of CathoHc charitable organizations extends to those upon whom the hand of the law has de- scended. The work of rescuing fallen women is nota- bly well developed through the activity of religious. Little girls in danger of moral perversion are received by such homes where they have opportunity to learn a trade and arrive safely at maturity. Youthful of- fenders who come within the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court are committed to reformatories or industrial schools or placed on probation. Catholic charitable societies and individual Catholics are active in co-operating ^-ith the probation feature of the court. Sometimes an association pays the salary of a Catholic probation officer who will be recognized by the court, or Catholics in a position to do so offer their services as volunteer probation officers without compensation. The organization of Catholics thus engaged is now under way in the formation of Catho- lic Probation Leagues. This service is rendered by both men and women. Associations provide truant officers whose duty is to follow up cases of truancy in parochial schools and report on them. The work of the big brother, in which an adult takes personal charge of a juvenile delinquent or of a poor boy and estabUshes informal friendly relations with him, is taking on hopeful proportions. The visiting of prisoners plays a considerable part in the life of nearly all important Cathohc charitable societies. The visitors call in a friendly way, encourage the prisoners to take hopeful outlook, induce them to resume cor- respondence with their families, and lead them to the promise of amended life which in many cases effects striking reforms. Reform schools for boys and girls arc regularly ^■isited in the same manner.
Practically aU acti\'ity related to the care of de- fectives is concentrated in institutions. Provision for the deaf and dumb, bfind, insane, epileptic, feeble- minded, and crippled is made bj' religious communi- ties to such an extent as resources permit. The in- terests of dependents, defectives, and delinquents of the Catholic Faith who are inmates of public in- stitutions are provided for in a general way by the public policy found throughout the United States. There are State Boards of Charity under whose
