Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1915 — BRINGING THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT TO THE POOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BRINGING THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT TO THE POOR

sap-|T IS * question whether the f ■ I families helped or the work--1 I ers helping them get moat L fr I Joy out of the Christmas diatribution. A real settlement 35 worker, one imbued with the right spirit, will tell you that only one who has visited the homes of the poor and the suffering on Christmas eve can realise the pleasure of bringing happiness and sunshine into these homes. Many settlement visitors, who have given up the work for tiMne reason or another, but wbo return to assist with the Christmas distributions, give generously from their own purses thgt the baskets may be larger and more families aided.

Wdhlthy women, ■who have never done settlement work; enter into the Santa' Claus spirit and visit the alley and tenement districts of the large cities on the night before Christmas, their automobiles heavily laden with toys, turkeys and good things to eat. They employ investigators .to canvass the section th which they are Interested a week before the holidays, and the distribution is made

according to their reports. Oftentimes small trees are sent to the homes, with glass balls, trimmings and candy toys, and the donors, with the aid of their chauffeurs and the parents of the children, fix the tree while the little tots are asleep. v Though little known, Santa Claus’ work in the alums of the big cities is carried on along systematic lines to overcome any overlapping of the multitude of good Intentions. In days gone by, charitably inclined women would leave a large basket of provisions in a house in ignorance of another basket hidden in the closet And it was not unusual for two or three workers to meet in the same kitchen at the one time, each burdened with good things for the one . family. This is an error of the past; for now the Christmas giving has been systematised. Settlement workers of the Various societies and representatives of the wealthy private givers compile a list of those- they will assist, and all go over their lists carefully together. Although the Christmas giving is nil cat and dried a few days before the time, Santa Claus’ secret is not given away. Half of the pleasure would be gone if the families knew that the viaitor* were coming with food’ and . toys in abundance. It is true that those who are visited and quizzed by the private workers have a shrewd suspicion, after they have told their tale of -woe and received the sympathy of the visitor, that something substantial is to follow. The regular settlement workers know their ground pretty well; they know which families have had a hard road to trhvel and are putting up a good battle against the tide of misfortune.

The settlement workers have little investigating to do before the holidays; their entrance into a home or tenement Is always greeted with surprise, for they generally make it a point to go where they are least expected. "The poor are always with us” is doubly true at Christmas time. Families who can barely exist, who do not know where the next day’s bread is coming from, can certainly not afford any extras for the holiday season. They consider themselves fortunate if they fiave a loaf or two of bread and a small piece of meat for the Christmas dinner and coal for the kitchen fire.

No one appreciates this seamy side of the bright Christmas story more than the charity ■worker. She knows that tribulations exist at Christmas time as during any other part of the year. Years of experience have shown her how to use tact and good judgment on her travels and where she cannot leave good cheer, she can at least make the sorrows and troubles easier to bear. The “Angel of the Settlement" knows, more than any one else, that there are many cases when the word .“Merry Christmas” would sound like a mockery; where the hand of death, for instance, has been heavily felt when it takes away the chief provider of a large family. She knows, also, that the Christmas spirit is cherished by the poor as well as the wealthy. While they cannot spend the day in feasting and merrymaking, they can at least forget old

grudges and let bygones be bygones, shake hands with their enemies and wish one another good luck. How many reunions and reconciliations take place then is known only to these good women. The hearts of many men who have been separated from their wives and families become softened as the holidays draw near, and It isn’t uncommon for the settlement worker to find them together when she comes with the Christmas basket Many prodigal sons return on Christmas eve. A striking case of this kind that occurred two years ago was run across by a settlement workar in Philadelphia. She said that she had never witnessed a scene on any stage that could equal it - It was a real case of where the Christmas prayer of a broken-hearted mother was answered by the return of her boy. The son ran away from home seven years earlier, when a youth of sixteen years. He had a good home and the family consisted his permits, an older brother and a sister. His father was a hard-working man and used all his earnings for his home. The younger boy, being the baby of the family, was the pet of all; but he had a wild disposition, and he wanted to see something of life. He decided to run away from home and go West When he reached the ranches of Arizona he found that the cowboy life wasn’t as bright as it was painted. He longed for home many a time, but vowed that he- would not return a failure. He persevered until he had made good, though it took seven years for him to do it. His fearlessness and daring attracted the attention of the owner of the - ranch, and he placed him in charge of another place. When the young man had a goodly wad of bills accumulated he decided to return in time for Christmas. He reached the old house to find that another family was living there, and he learned from neighbors that his father was dead; that his sister had grieved so over his disappearance that she died Portly after he had left, and that his brother had been killed in an accident. The mother, doubly aged with grief, had been left alone and was subsisting as best she could in a third-story room. The son lost no time and strived in the room just after the settlement worker had reached there with .her basket of provisions. The,mother had just finished telling her story to the sympathetic listener when this latest prodigal returned. .

“No one can really appreciate,” said a settlement worker in another city, 'how happy one feels after visiting the homes of the poor on Christmas ere. gratitude of one woman alone last year was enough to recompense me for the work I did. This woman’s husband was in the penitentiary serving an IS-year term for murder. It appears that he and a companion were working in the cranberry bogs. They quarreled, and in a scuffle this man stabbed his opponent He made his wife promise she would never allow the family of six to be separated. She not only kept them together by taking in washing and working until all hours of the night, but she refused, to accept outside aid in any shape, or form. There would have been no Christmas celebration

in this home, and it was a delicate undertaking to hrWg.a woman like this any provisionsfߣ&it£>l explained to her that It and her joy was only equaled by that of her children, who'were more than delighted with their new toys. “I have been in homes where the children never had toys, and I have brought them their first playthings. In one case there were two children, a boy and a girl, Pepino and Mechalmo. Their father died when they were babies, and the mother supported them. She had come to this country a bride and was not well versed with the American way of doing thing.}. She did not even know how to make a rag doll for the children. We brought those children a small tree, decorated it, and gave them plenty of toys. Words couldn’t tell the happiness of those little ones.

“There 1b more pleasure in the work than you would imagine. We see many sad scenes, sorrow and joy mingled together, 'but, we also find much to amuse us. Last year we took a basket to an old colored woman. Her husband was a paralytic and she had two orphaned grandchildren to keep. Christmas to her was to be the same as any other day until we arrived with the provisions and toys. She glanced ai us as we entered the room, and when we put the basket on the table, she stared at it and pointed to herself, as much as to say, ‘For me?’ I said. ‘Yes, Liza, that's for you.’ You could see nothing but the whites of her eyes, and she raised both of her hands above her head, clasped them together and said, ‘De Lord bepraised.’ That was all she said; but she repeated it time and again. One time her eyes would be as large as dollars and she would joyously sing the ‘De Lord be praised’ and again she would be sad and mournful and moan ‘De Lord be praised.’ * “Finally her husband, who was unable to leave his chair, lost his patience and he shouted, ‘Liza, good Lord, woman, has you done lost your head altogether? Why don’t you thank the ladles?’ Then, as a sort of apology to us, he said: ‘You’ll have to excuse her, ladies, for she has surely done lost her head altogether.’ As we left the room and glanced back, poor Liza was still standing there, looking at us with her hands clasped before her and slowly nodding her head saying: ‘De Lord be praised.’ W T e concluded Liza knew better than her husband. She was thanking the right one;

“I have witnessed many reconsiliations ■of families of foreigners on Christmas eve. The afternoon that I spent at the immigration station last year was one of the pleasantest of my life. It was interesting to note the expression of gladness on the faces of the children in the costumes of their various fatherlands. They couldn’t speak a word of English, but they could show you that they were grateful for the playthings.

“I will never forget my first Christmas visitation. It was my initial experience with social service work. One of the first places we visited was in a court, a poor German family. When we arrived at the house the mother w r as telling the three children Christmas legends. She had gilded apples, and that was their only other reminder that the morrow was a great festival. She had no meat nor vegetables in the house for the next day’s meals, and there was no coal In the bin. But the place was as clean and neat as a new pin. “The mother was ah educated woman. and you could tell at a glance that she had seen better days. _ She had married against the wishes of her family and she was top proud to let them know of her poverty. Her husband had go*e West to “try to better his condition, but was unable to get work there and became stranded. The wife kept the wolf away from the door as best she could by sewing. We brought her a turkey, vegetable* fruits and cranberries, then went out and got a tree and a doll for the children and. left an order to have coal sent there Immediately. It is lmpos» sible to tel! how grateful that pool woman was.”