But it is not only by pecuniary transactions that a preparation for the future is presented to the mind of the prudent housewife: she is invited to insure against the cold.
BLANKETS.
A large stock of blankets is annually distributed on loan to deserving persons, who are considered by the Visitors in want of such a boon, and not likely to abuse it. For several years, and with an experience of many hundred blankets, but few cases have occurred in which their judgment has been deceived. Some half dozen blankets may have been pawned, and as many lost; more are fairly worn out. A replenishment took place at Christmas, 1851, and above three hundred were given out in November last. For each of these sixpence is paid by the woman to whom it is lent, which, being devoted to cover the expence of its washing when brought back in summer, is either returned as the price of ablution to the holder herself, or given to the best laundress in the district where she lives, in remuneration for this necessary work.
But the most industrious persons cannot always obtain occupation. Breaks in employment perpetually occur, especially in the case of females. Servants out of place, laundresses and charwomen, milliners and sempstresses, alike dependent on families visiting London only for the season, all may be included in this list; simply to relieve them in distress would be to increase the evil; it is a different thing to find them work, hence the formation of the
WORK SOCIETY,
of which the intention is to purchase, by subscription, flannel, calico, &c. to be made up into articles of useful wearing apparel, by any respectable women who may be thankful to fill up their intervals of involuntary leisure by using their needles. The Clothing thus made is sold at the cost price of the materials. A wife, therefore, who makes her husband’s shirts, may obtain it for little more than her own labour. That this Society supplies a gap in the District Organization is not more plain from the consideration that out of the 144 workers, whom it has employed, 118 have been recommended by the Visitors, than from the position which it has assumed, as a valuable coadjutor in the industrial training of young females. Under its auspices, many girls have been led forward from plain to fine needle-work, and some who commenced by experiments on aprons may now be trusted with the finish of a garment requiring the neat performance of accomplished skill. It has also proved of considerable service by undertaking emigrant orders. One family, in particular, was indebted to its ready-made department to a large extent; and thus not only enabled the Committee to dispose of a portion of their superfluous stock, but benefitted themselves by procuring what they wanted much cheaper and better than they could have done at the outfitting shop. Charitable persons using its agency to furnish clothes for the Jennings’ Buildings and Gore Lane Schools, or, indeed, for the poor at all, have the double satisfaction of knowing that they are doing good, not merely by their gift, but by its preparation also; while to the ladies superintending the cutting out and execution of the work, and conducting its weekly sale, special thanks are tendered by the Committee, who are not unaware of the time and regularity that so intricate a duty must demand. The sales alluded to have realized nearly £60, of which £7 13s. was received from the Depositors to the Clothing Fund. Owing to the change in the Collector, some subscriptions were omitted to be sent for last year, and the consequence has been, that the receipts under that head are less than those on former occasions; nevertheless, the accounts have nearly balanced themselves, and there is no reason to imagine that they will not entirely recover by the next audit. It would be uncourteous to close this retrospect of the Work Society, without expressing its acknowledgments to the linen drapers of the town for their continued disinterested and valuable assistance.
But the most resolute determination to preserve a position of independence cannot always contend against the adverse vicissitudes of life. Sickness visits all in turn; and though a man may struggle through the illnesses of wife and children, what is his resource when he is himself struck down? Must he, with a family heretofore respectably and honestly supported—after his tools, furniture, and clothes are pawned,—be at last consigned to what is, in fact, to him, the degradation of the workhouse, or so pledge his future labour, under an accumulation of debt incurred perforce, that all hope of future freedom from its load must, on reasonable calculation, be shut out? Judged even by the maxims of the most rigid political economist, no less than by the diviner impulse of a just compassion, indifference in such a case were not only a crime, but a blunder. For if by a judicious advance of money, it be possible to procure that attendance, medicine, nourishment, and change of air, required for the restoration of the sinking patient to his normal health, it is clear that the productive energy, which is the immediate source of national wealth, must be increased, by the same means that carry into effect a paramount part of Christian obligation. It is, therefore, very satisfactory to find that while the number of cases relieved by the Visitors during December, 1852, are less by one third than those of the corresponding month in 1851; even of these considerably more than half come under the category of sickness. The analysis of the Visitors’ books gives the following result of cases assisted in December last:—
| By employment. | In age. | In poverty. | Out of work. | Sickness. |
| 13 | 32 | 31 | 36 | 156 |
This return is an abstract of the work in thirty-two Districts only, yet in these, in one month, two hundred and sixty-eight families participated, more or less, in the bounty of the Society.