LAND AND WATER 
February 6, 1915 
THROUGH THE EYES OF A WOMAN 
Where the Shoe Finches 
WE are very apt to waste pity where pity is not 
clue. In the early days of the war, when it 
was difficult to focus the situation, there was 
an idea that want would be widespread 
amongst the wrtrking classes. It seemed 
likely that unemployment would be rife and general distress 
grow great with the approach of winter. Experience has 
proved this far from tlie truth. The British workman is 
being kept fully occupied, and he, his wife, and children are 
benefiting in consequence. Many trades, indeed, have had 
the fillip they sorely needed. Harness and saddle makers, 
for example, are busier than they have been for years. When 
everybody took to motoring and stables became empty this 
industry fell upon very evil days. But now there is plenty 
of work to be done. New saddles, bridles, and harness are 
being required in quantity for the Army, and a fresh era of 
prosperity has begun for an almost obsolete industry. It is 
the same with countless other trades. The Government is a 
gigantic employer of labour at the moment, and money is 
trickling into many homes infinitely more freely than formerly. 
And it is not the skilled workman alone that is being employed. 
Even the casual labourer is having his share of work in cases 
where training is not required. There is much to be done, 
and men must be found to do it. 
So the burden of war is by no means pressing unduly 
upon the working classes. It is not to them that help should 
be given, but rather to those immediately above in the social 
scale. The people who are suffering through this war are 
those who, through want of a better definition, may be called 
the salary earners. Wages may be growing, but salaries, 
from all accounts, are shrinking deplorably. The wife of 
many a city clerk is having a sterner problem to face to-day 
than she has any right to bear. Employes in the " luxury " 
trades are keen sufferers. Curio dealers, furriers, jewellers, 
and the like have found their business brought to a standstill 
and have had to dispense with skilled assistants. In many 
cases the fruit of years of service has come to naught, and the 
brunt of this distress is being borne by educated men and 
women. 
It will be ten thousand pities if help is not given where 
it is urgently needed. Such cases as these merit the attention 
of all distributors of charitable funds raised to alleviate 
distress. There is certainly distress in this country, but it is 
not in the usual direction. People wanting aid are those who 
in normal times could not only have kept their heads above 
water, but maintained themselves and their families in 
comfort. They are not accustomed to beg nor to receive 
charitable help, but their need is none the less urgent. 
Philanthropy is very apt to blunder and fall short of its 
mark. It can do so only too easily at present. Help is 
wanted by scores of people whose traditions and upbringing 
are all against asking for it. They are the most difficult 
class in the world to succour because they are the very last 
to complain. A charitable fund administered for their 
benefit will meet the greatest requirement of the day, and 
money subscribed for relief of those in need can find no 
worthier channel. 
Amateur Concert Parties 
People who are musical themselves and have musical 
friends are busily engaged in forming concert parties to 
perform at the various headquarters of the New Army, to 
our convalescents in hospital, and many of the refugee homes. 
These concert parties, when successful, have been organised 
with a great deal of care. The amateur whose amateurish- 
ness is painfully obvious has been barely tolerated for a long 
time, but is certainlj^ never less tolerable than now. It 
would be a poor compliment indeed to subject our soldiers, 
sailors, and our guests to such wiles. Happily enough, in 
musical matters, as in all else, it is the'day of experts ; most 
people can count amongst their acquaintances a round half- 
dozen who play or sing remarkably well and have no taint of 
the amateur about them. And here a word of mild advice 
may not come amiss. The contents of the programme are 
almost as important a matter as the choice of the performers 
themselves. We have all had sad experience of the concert 
that leaves no melody behind, so tuneless has been the 
selection offered. The concert most people appreciate is that 
which allows facile music to be carried away in the memory. 
The audience in barrack-room, hospital, or club want simple 
refrains, and the older and better-known these are the more 
will it be pleased. Let there be songs with choruses. Those 
who listen will be delighted to join in the music themselves, 
and win probably sing at the top of their voice, no matter 
how inharmonious it may be. Erica. 
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