LONDON CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY.
The Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity, or, as it is popularly called, the Charity Organisation Society, has for its object the scientific supervision of charity dispensation, in the deep-rooted conviction that slovenly and indiscriminate almsgiving is a most pernicious bane to society, and calculated to foster rather than diminish indigence. Personal inquiry is the keynote of the Society’s mode of operation. Trained, experienced, and apt persons—both honorary and paid—exhaustively investigate all cases of indigence brought under the Society’s notice. In each instance, one important point is established at the outset of the investigation, namely, whether the individual concerned must of necessity—through physical or other disability—habitually depend for sustenance upon the resources of others, or whether he or she possesses the latent means of self-support, which may be brought into action—under the fostering influence of personal guidance in moral and material things—after the temporary condition of poverty has been met by the judicious application of charity. Cases of the former description are relegated to the action of the poor-law—therein lying its true function; cases of the latter kind are taken in hand by the Society. But its action is not that of an individual charitable institution concerned merely with the distribution of its own resources. It acts as an intermediary between those who need charity and those who are anxious to devote money to charitable purposes. Hence, in the discharge of its functions, it places itself in connection both with benevolent individuals and benevolent bodies, seeking to secure the best relief for the different cases of destitution which come under its notice and at the same time to prevent ‘overlapping’ in charity dispensation. Where, however, it finds that a case of destitution cannot effectively be relieved from other sources, the Society brings its own funds into requisition. As to its function of ‘repressing mendicity,’ this it discharges by promoting the detection and prosecution of impostors.
And now for a word or two about the mechanism, if we may so call it, of the Society. The organisation consists of a federation of forty district committees—one or more being established in each of the poor-law divisions of London—and of a Central Council, at which every committee is represented. The committees comprise, where it is possible, ministers of religion, guardians of the poor, and representatives of the principal local charities. Their function is to receive, investigate, and deal, according to the general principles of the Society, with all cases of alleged want or distress referred to them; and each is intended to form a common meeting-place—a centre of information and charitable work—for persons in the district desirous of benefiting the poor. The Central Council supervises besides endeavouring to strengthen and consolidate the work of the district committees, taking into consideration, as well, all questions of principle and all matters relating to the general action of the Society. Of course the scene of the Society’s main operations is the metropolitan poor-law district; but it is glad to give general assistance, by sending information to agencies outside that area. We may add that the example set by the Society has given birth to many foreign and provincial organisations of identical aims and action.
It may be interesting to glance briefly at the broad method of investigation pursued by the inquiry officers—be they paid or honorary—of the Society. In treating a family, then, the following facts are in the first place arrived at: The ages of the parents; the amount of their earnings at the time of application and previously; the cause of their leaving their last employment; the ages of their children; and whether those children go to school (and if so, where)—or, if they are employed, what they earn. The previous addresses, with the references of the family, are next learned; and it is ascertained whether they belong to a club or have relatives who ought to assist them. Then inquiry is made as to whether the family have any debts hanging over them; what their rent is; how they are obtaining a living at the time of application; and, finally, how they think they can be thoroughly helped. Subsequently, it is the inquiry officer’s duty, among other things, to ascertain for himself the cause of the family’s distress, verifying the information they have supplied to him; to search out the best mode of helping; to familiarise himself with the character of the family, and find on whom, if its natural head be weak or incompetent, reliance can be placed to re-establish the family fortunes; and, lastly, to settle what means of future thrift and self-support can be fostered into life.
Did space permit, we should like to give some characteristic examples of instances where the indigent have been raised to a state of independence by the well-advised action of the Society, and tell how the workhouse itself has been made to yield material with which to work so happy a transformation. Some reference, too, would be justified to the numerous special questions in connection with which the Society has seen cause to take action. But we have said enough perhaps to effect our immediate purpose and indicate the nature of the Society and the scope of its operations. A considerable literature has grown around the Charity Organisation Society, and this is accessible to all who visit the central office of the institution, 15 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London, whither all communications to the Secretary, Mr C. L. Loch, should be addressed.
THE DENSCHMAN’S HAD.
A LEGEND OF SHETLAND.
From Widwick to Hermaness the cliffs rise steep and high from a deep ocean, so deep that a large ship might float alongside of the crags without danger of scraping her keel. What would be the fate of such a vessel, if she were carried by the might of that sea against that iron wall, I leave you to imagine. The rocks are broken all along their range by fissures and caves, inaccessible from the land, and scarcely approachable from the sea. He is a bold voyager who brings even a boat to thread the ‘baas’ and ‘stacks’—submerged rocks and needle-crags—which guard the way to those haunts of sea-fowl and seals. One of the caves is named the Denschman’s Had. I ought to explain that a ‘had’ means the den of a wild beast, his stronghold; and ‘Denschman’ is ‘Dane.’
In old days, Shetland (or Hialtland) was nothing more than a ‘had’ of vikinger, those pirates of the North who have so often been confounded with the noble sea-kings of Scandinavia; but while the islands belonged to Norway, their inhabitants were under powerful protection, and suffered little inconvenience from the uses to which the sea-rovers turned the sheltered voes and secluded islets. It was only when Scottish rule came in that the vikinger of Norway and Denmark turned their weapons against their brother-Norsemen of the Shetland Isles. During the times of the Stuarts, Scotland had enough to do to look after itself, far less to extend protection to an outlying dependency that was more plague than profit. Indeed, the Scottish kings and nobles seem to have regarded Hialtland as fair game, and robbed and oppressed the people after as cruel a method as that of the northern pirates. Between the two, those islands had a hot time of it; and the islanders, once a prosperous community, sank into poverty and hopeless serfdom.
About the time of Mary Stuart, the isle of Unst was harassed by a noted viking whose name and lineage were unknown. He and his daring crew were believed to be Danes, and his swift barque—appropriately named the Erne—and his stalwart person were familiar to the affrighted eyes of the islanders. When the Denschman swooped upon the isle, its inhabitants fled to the hills and rocks, leaving their homes as spoil for the lawless rover. What else could they do? The enemy were strong, reckless, brave, well armed and well disciplined. The islanders, groaning and disheartened under the yoke of an alien power, were at the mercy of might, and could neither resist nor make treaty; so the Denschman came and went like the fierce bird of prey whose name his vessel bore, and no man dared oppose him.