Wer betteln kann verhungert nicht.
Which, rendered strictly, runs about thus:
The old story—we have it still;
The beggar’s sure to have his fill.
But the efforts now made, by the banding into one great organization all associations for caring for the poor, are directed toward the actual disarming of the beggar by giving him work, and making him work, no matter how he comes by his beggary. The government comes in to aid the voluntary efforts, and enacts laws against the asking for alms, and any one offending is in danger of the work colony. The general public are not only cautioned against giving to a pauper, but are informed that it is an actual damage to the State and to the recipient. The government, of course, has nothing to say about the great cause of vagabondism—namely, intemperance. But no one now denies it. It is a confirmed thing, in every rank, that it is beer which makes the 100,000 beggars of the German empire. Various measures have been resorted to in order to cure intemperance. The one adopted in a Hessian town deserves the credit of originality. The name of any person found under the influence of liquor was posted on a public bulletin, so that every passer by, and even the school children, could read it. The effect has been marvelous. Previously, public drunkenness was common there, and even people otherwise respectable were found reeling along the streets. But so great has been the change that public intemperance has been driven from the place.
But what is now done with the German beggar? He is given work, such as he can do, and is paid for it. The whole land is getting to be covered with groups of paupers, or “colonies,” who soon lose the odious name and business, and are getting gradually converted into respectable and thriving citizens, and becoming absorbed into the surrounding population. The German believes that beggary is a mania, and grows upon one like any other vice or craze, and that it must be broken up. But the gentlest measures are adopted. Such work is offered as is congenial. The hours are adjusted to the person’s age and ability. If the pauper is an invalid, even that feature is cared for. His family is considered, and made a special study. His work seems to be paid for at a fair rate, and he hardly knows, from anything he sees or hears, that he has ever been a beggar. If, after leaving the colony, he relapses into beggary, his labor becomes more enforced, and assumes the firmer form of a penalty. Is it not about time that, in all countries, we look at the beggar with a sympathy broad enough to show him the way to care for himself, and to make to him the great revelation that even for him, with all his rags and habit of taking alms, there is still a possible manhood?
ROMANCE VERSUS REALITY.
BY MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD,
President of W. C. T. U.