Charity organization; Housing -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London; Working class -- Dwellings
My tenants are, of course, encouraged to save their money. It should,
however, be remarked, that I have never succeeded in getting them
to save for old age. The utmost I have achieved is that they lay by
sufficient either to pay rent in times of scarcity, to provide clothes
for girls going to service, or boots, or furniture, or even to avail
themselves of opportunities of advancement which must be closed to them
if they had not a little reserve fund to meet expenses of the change.
One great advantage arising from the management of the houses is, that
they form a test-place, in which people may prove themselves worthy of
higher situations. Not a few of the tenants have been persons who had
sunk below the stratum where once they were known, and some of these,
simply by proving their character, have been enabled to regain their
former stations. One man, twenty years ago, had been a gentleman's
servant, had saved money, gone into business, married, failed, and then
found himself out of the groove of work. When I made his acquaintance
he was earning a miserable pittance for his wife and seven unhealthy
children, and all the nine souls were suffering and sinking unknown.
After watching and proving him for three years I was able to recommend
him to a gentleman in the country, where now the whole family are
profiting by having six rooms instead of one, fresh air, and regular
wages.
But it is far easier to be helpful than to have patience and
self-control sufficient, when the times come, for seeing suffering and
not relieving it. And yet the main tone of action must be severe. There
is much of rebuke and repression needed, although a deep and silent
under-current of sympathy and pity may flow beneath. If the rent is
not ready, notice to quit must be served. The money is then almost
always paid, when the notice is, of course, withdrawn. Besides this
in inexorable demand for rent (never to be relaxed without entailing
cumulative evil on the defaulter, and setting a bad example, too
readily followed by others) there must be a perpetual crusade carried
on against small evils--very wearing sometimes. It is necessary to
believe that in thus setting in order certain spots on God's earth,
still more in presenting to a few of His children a somewhat higher
standard of right, we are doing His work, and that he will not permit
us to lose sight of His large laws, but will rather make them evident
to us through the small details.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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