TO HELP THE UNEMPLOYED [To the Editor of THE -SPECTATOR.]
SIR,--..NO • doubt the idea of " adopting " the family of an unemployed man is familiar to you and to your readers, but only people = who have actually put this idea into practice realise what an extraordinarily good way of helping it is.
For you need not be rich—it only means helping 'the family as much as you can, and many people who do so can hand on very little more than their children's outgrown clothes (clean and mended), what they can spare of their own and, perhaps, sometimes, some apples or other things from the garden, or a cake or a pot of jam, with little extra presents at Christmas and on the children's birthdays. AS you can see,
this costs little but it makes the most incredible difference to people who have,-perhaps, had to live for years on an average of less than 4s. a head a week-for everything, after the rent is paid. I have long lists of families living in bitter poverty in many of the Distressed Areas, and if anyone will write to me I will do my best to select a family which will be able to make good use of anything that can be sent. If there seems to be too little for a family, there are lonely women, and men, too, to whom a letter, some books or flowers, and a few clothes would come as a godsend.-1 am, yours, &c.,
BEATRICE LEIGH-CLARE.
Longshot, The Ridgeway, Guildford.
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