It will be seen that I have borrowed much in direct quotation in the following pages from those who have preceded me in writing about the poor, but my debt does not end here. Whatever I may be said to know about charitable work--my whole point of view and inspiration in fact--can be traced to certain definite sources. To some of the leaders of the Charity Organization Society of London, to Miss Octavia Hill, Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet, and Mr. C. S. Loch, it will be evident to my readers that my obligation is great. It will be evident also that I have been helped by Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell and other workers in New York, who, against such odds, are making advances in the reform of municipal abuses; and by that group too who, under the leadership of Miss Jane Addams, have given us, at Hull House in Chicago, so admirable an object lesson in the power of neighborliness. But more than to any other teachers, perhaps, I am indebted to those members of the Associated Charities who organized Boston's friendly visitors nineteen years ago, and have {viii} led them since to increasing usefulness. Their reports have been my most valuable source of information. If I do not name also my friends and fellow-workers here in Baltimore, it is not because I fail to bear them individually most gratefully in mind. BALTIMORE, January, 1899. {ix} CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CHAPTER II THE BREADWINNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CHAPTER III THE BREADWINNER AT HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 CHAPTER IV THE HOMEMAKER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 CHAPTER V THE CHILDREN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 CHAPTER VI HEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 CHAPTER VII SPENDING AND SAVING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 {x} CHAPTER VIII RECREATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 CHAPTER IX RELIEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 CHAPTER X THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 CHAPTER XI THE FRIENDLY VISITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 {xii} GENERAL REFERENCES Proceedings of National Conferences of Charities and Correction, 25 volumes, especially portions containing reports of sections on Child-Saving and Organization of Charities. The Conference Reports constitute the best American authority on charities. Special papers in the Reports are noted in this book after the appropriate chapters.