But the point of view impressed upon us by the sufferer himself is apt to be quite the opposite. What he wants is something immediate and temporary for the relief of something accidental. The beggar who meets us in the street has "accidentally" lost his purse and asks of us a small sum of money to reach his home. Often I have said to such an applicant, "Meet me at the railroad station half an hour before the train leaves for your home. I will buy you a ticket and see you on board." _He never comes._ This is an extreme instance and involves almost always a deliberate attempt to deceive us. In home visiting it is not like this. The sufferer does not usually intend to deceive. Nevertheless his misfortunes are pictured by him as accidental and temporary catastrophes, maiming a life which needs no general reconstruction. He is so sure of this that he is apt to force the idea upon us unless we are alert, bracing ourselves to question it and to make sure that it is true. But actual experience has shown me and hundreds of others that this point of view is almost never true. It is not chance that the family is just now poor. It is no emergency which we are summoned to meet. It could have been foreseen long before and it will certainly recur unless we can trace out its causes and prevent their acting as they have hitherto. Hence the detailed, prolonged, individual study of the family's economic state is necessary. One must find out, first of all, all the details of income and outgo. The family is likely to forget some of these, so that one must be ready to assist their memory. Further, one must inquire carefully into possible sources of help from relations, friends, fellow members in some club or association, and so forth. For next to self-help the help from those naturally bound up with one is best. Compared with impersonal charity, it is less artificial. It is less destructive to the natural family relationships which it is always our ultimate ideal and our immediate job to maintain or to restore so far as possible. Whatever disturbs or threatens them is hostile to the social interests for which we labor.