ted to use their children in the same way. Few worse things can
happen to a poor family than for their distress to excite the interest
of an enterprising journalist, who publishes an account of the
circumstances with name and address. It brings them an avalanche of
relief sometimes, but the visits from sentimental strangers, the envy
of their worst neighbors and the disapproval of their best, the
excitement and uncertainty, the repeating over and over the tale of
their trouble, and the destruction of all the natural conditions of
family life, leave behind a train of demoralization that lasts long
after the relief has been exhausted.

In a less degree, the congregating of the poor in any place for a
relief distribution is to be deplored, whether the relief is given out
upon presentation of an order or not. The standing in line, the
jostling and waiting, the gregariousness and publicity, are
demoralizing. {148} Missions, I regret to say, sometimes treat such
free distributions as an advertising spectacle; but "it is of the very
essence of charity that it should be private," and advertising, on the
other hand, presupposes publicity. I have often had opportunities to
give the poor tickets for Christmas dinners, free treats, and general
charitable distributions, but, as I have come to know the poor better,
and to care more for their welfare, I have learned to resent a charity
that would help them in droves, as if they were cattle. A form of
charitable relief that appeals to many good people in cold weather is
the free-soup kitchen, where the poor come with their kettles, and "no
questions are asked." The hot, steaming soup and the cold, shivering
applicants make a striking contrast, and the kind-hearted citizen is
very likely to think of such charity as "practical," and denounce the
people who object to it as "theorists." There is nothing practical
about a free-soup kitchen. It is the cheapest of cheap charity. If
the weather is cold, people must have fires at home to keep them from
freezing, and the gift of cooked food is {149} unnecessary. Soup is
not the most nourishing food to give, moreover, and the "no questions
asked" means that those who need most will get least, and that the
crowd of sturdy beggars always attracted by such distributions will
drive away the shrinking poor, who need help the most.

_The first relief principle is that relief should be given individually
and privately in the home, and that t