THE PROBLEM OF PAUPERISM 147 



the Street in the early evening because she lets 

 her room for immoral purposes until long after 

 midnight, when the poor little wretches creep 

 back again, if they have not found some mis- 

 erable shelter elsewhere." What must be the 

 effect where such is the social environment of 

 a lifetime ? How idle to expect to uplift thou- 

 sands upon thousands of such people by a few 

 soup-houses, a few visitors, and here and there 

 mission chapels ! What are these among so 

 many ? Several years ago the almshouses of 

 New York were carefully inspected, and nearly 

 ten thousand of their inmates personally inter- 

 viewed. Few were found who had ever owned 

 any property. Thirty-two per cent, were wholly 

 illiterate, and only thirty per cent, had received 

 a fair common-school education. Eighty-five per 

 cent, of the men had been intemperate, and forty- 

 two per cent, among the women. Fifty-five per 

 cent, had intemperate fathers, and over eighty- 

 two per cent, intemperate mothers. Overcrowd- 

 ing, intemperance, and the social evil act and 

 react on the pauper, and produce a progeny of 

 weakness, vice, and crime. 



Dr. A. J. F. Behrends, in " Socialism and 

 Christianity," says that the primary and purely 

 personal causes of pauperism are " idleness and 



