THE PROBLEM OF PAUPERISM 155 



was in Napoleon's armies. It does not apply to 

 the temporarily poor, those who have not lost 

 remembrance of better things, but to paupers 

 as distinguished from the poor. They argue that 

 society owes them a living, and they exult in get- 

 ting it without work. The chief of this clan is 

 the fellow who induces society to do the most 

 for him with the least trouble to himself. His 

 example is a vicious inspiration. Children born 

 amidst such an environment are subject, during 

 their formative years, to the influence of degrad- 

 ing ideals, and stimulated by examples of clever 

 baseness. Hence it comes that the esprit de 

 corps of pauperism is one of the most fruitful 

 causes of its increase. 



(e) Disregard of the marriage relation. — This 

 prepares a fruitful soil for pauperism. When 

 children are born outside of wedlock, or to those 

 for whom wedlock has no sanctity, the responsi- 

 bilities of parents are lightly esteemed. Under 

 such conditions thousands of street waifs come 

 into being. The father commonly does not know 

 of their existence, the mother is engrossed with 

 the struggle for existence and the indulgence of 

 her vices, and the child is set adrift to become a 

 pauper and, all too often, a criminal. How large 

 this class is, the crowded Maisenhaus in Vienna 



