3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



employment was offered, less than one fifth proved to be good for 

 anything ; showing that the unemployed, so generally pitied as 

 ill-used by society, are unemployed because they either can not 

 or will not work ; and showing, by implication, that charitable 

 agencies enable them to evade the harsh but salutary discipline 

 of Nature. 



The encouragement of hypocrisy, which goes along with this 

 neglect of the good poor who do not complain and attention to 

 the bad poor who do, becomes conspicuous when religious pro- 

 fessions are found instrumental to obtainment of alms. Clergy 

 and pious women, easily deluded by sanctimonious talk, favor 

 those who are most skilled in utterance of spiritual experiences, 

 and in benedictions after receiving gifts. Hence a penalty on 

 sincerity and a premium on lying ; with resulting demoralization. 



This evil is intensified by sectarian competition. There are 

 competing missions which collect and distribute money to push 

 their respective creeds, and bribe by farthing breakfasts and 

 penny dinners. Nearly half the revenue of one mission is dis- 

 tributed in credit tickets, and " if the recipient wishes to cash his 

 ticket, he can not do so until after the evening service " : this 

 vicious system being carried even to the extent that the visitors 

 try " to force its tickets on the most respectable and independent 

 people" — pauperizing them to make hypocritical converts of 

 them. Said one woman, poor but clean and tidy, who saw how 

 the emissaries of the Church favored the good-for-nothings : " I 

 didn't want any of the good lady's tickets . . . but it's very 'urt- 

 ful to the feelings to see that careless drinking people living like 

 'ogs gets all, and them as struggles and strives may go without." 

 And not only does there result a discouragement of virtue and an 

 encouragement of vice, but there results a subsidizing of super- 

 stitions. Unless all the conflicting beliefs thus aided are right, 

 which is impossible, there must be a propagation of untruth as 

 well as a rewarding of insincerity. 



Another evil is that easy-going people are exploits by cunning 

 fellows who want to make places for themselves and get salaries. 

 A crying need is found ; prospectuses are widely distributed ; 

 canvassers press those on whom they call ; and all because A,B, C, 

 etc., who have failed in their careers, have discovered that they 

 can get money by playing the parts of manager, secretary, and 

 collector. Then, if the institution vehemently urged is estab- 

 lished, it is worked in their interest. But it is not always estab- 

 lished. As there are bubble mercantile companies, so there are 

 bubble philanthropic societies — societies kept up for a time merely 

 for the purpose of getting subscriptions. Nay, on good authority 

 I learn that there are gangs of men who make it their business to 

 float bogus charities solely to serve their private ends. 



