Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisationist. By J. Hornsby
Wright. (William Hunt and Co.)—This book may be de- scribed as a very powerful "act of accusation" against "unorganised charity," the "charity" which gives without inquiring. Anything more extraordinary, more painful, and at the same time more instruc- tive, would not be easy to find. It is, indeed, a commentary on the observation which, though it be a truism, will always bear repeating, —that" there is nothing more complicated in this universe than the human character." One reads frcm time to time stories which illustrate the ingenuity of swindlers of exceptional cleverness, but there is nothing in them that exceeds the marvel of those records of common- place and every-day fraud. We have marked in reading this volume many instances; to quote them all would fill almost as many columns as we can afford lines. What does the reader say to r this ?—A certain Mrs. Freeman is in the regular receipt of I charitable help. She is the wife of a flyman, a hard-working, I respectable man, who gives her all his wages, unfortunately not more than twelve shillings per week. Not far off there is a certain Mrs. Robinson, in circumstances precisely similar, an exemplary woman, with a hardworking husband, equally ill-paid. At last it is found out that the husband is the same person. Both women really believe themselves to be married to him ; one really was. And for four-and-twenty years the man had divided his wages of twenty-four shillings a week between them, and never once failed to visit each home. The facts were con- fessed by him just before his death. Hero is another case :—A lady, dressed in even costly fashion, calls at the offices of the Society. She has with her an aged woman, looking "the pink of decayed respecta- hility,—neat, cleanly, venerable." The lady had known her protig‘e for many years, had allowed her to occupy a room in her house, but could do so no longer. Would the Society help ? An additional reference is asked, and given, somewhat reluctantly. There, too, the testimony is the same. But further inquiries prove that the venerable party was the mother of the two referees, one of them the wife of a "gentleman of good position under Government," the other married to the partner of a prosperous firm in the City. One of the most painful and at the same I time most needed lessons of the book is this,—that casual relief is, ! in instances without number, ruinous to the recipient. The thought- less gift of a sovereign may easily be the first impulse that sends a man once honest, hardworking, and sober, down the fatal incline of dishonesty, drunkenness, and vice. This is a most valuable book, and we recom- mend it with all heartiness.
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