222 HEREDITY. 



Those who wish to enter into tha't nobility, even 

 with our Lord at its head, are none too many, even 

 in the church within the church. The very best of 

 our Christians are altogether too perfunctory, distant, 

 and lavender, in their touches of these problems. 



What has been done in Germantown ? That is 

 the twenty-second ward of Philadelphia, and con- 

 tains twenty-five thousand* people. A union of 

 ladies and gentlemen was formed there, and they 

 made it a rule never to give money to any poor per- 

 son. Even coal was distributed cautiously. Their 

 plan included careful visitation, after Chalmers's prin- 

 ciple, and territorial supervision of small districts. 

 They put fifty visitors at work under the general 

 direction of nine men and one salaried superintend- 

 ent. I regard the Philadelphia experiment as ex- 

 ceedingly suggestive for American soil. The German 

 experiment needs a little change in being transferred 

 to our country. A board of supervisors, all men, 

 governed a board of visitors, all women ; but the 

 head of the enterprise was Robert Coulter, a salaried 

 superintendent, whose business it was to look into 

 every case professionally. 



The first difficulty the Germantown enterprise had 

 was indiscriminate almsgiving at the doors of private 

 houses. Of course, if we toss out charity miscella- 

 neously on the thresholds of our homes, an enterprise 

 like this Germantown Relief Association will languish. 

 The ladies who were visitors had cards printed, and 

 distributed among the households ; and whenever a 

 beggar applied at a private door his name was ascer- 



