le work, must come
from life itself. If we take no interest in the joys and sorrows of
human beings, if we show {15} neither judgment nor energy in the
conduct of our own affairs, if life seem to us, on the whole, a flat
and unprofitable affair, then no amount of reading will transform us
into good friendly visitors. Given the tactful, kindly spirit, with a
dash of energy added, study and experience can teach us how to turn
these to the best account in the service of others. Our reading must
be supplementary to experience, of course, and can in no wise take the
place of it.

Leaving all further generalization about friendly visiting for the last
chapter, in the following pages my point of departure will be the
organization of the poor man's home rather than the organization of
charity. The head of the family as citizen, employee, husband, and
father; the wife as homemaker; the children; the family health and
recreations; the principles involved in spending and saving; the
principles of effectual relief; the relations of the church to the
poor,--these will be considered in turn. Necessarily, in a book of
this size, the attempt must be to suggest lines of inquiry and points
of view, {16} rather than to treat adequately any one part of the
subject.

Collateral Readings: "Individuality in the Work of Charity," George B.
Buzelle in Proceedings of Thirteenth National Conference of Charities,
pp. 185 _sq_. "Scientific Charity," Mrs. Glendower Evans in
Proceedings of Sixteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 24 _sq_.
Chapters on "Scientific Charity" in "Problems of American Society," J.
H. Crooker. Papers on Social Settlements in Proceedings of
Twenty-third National Conference of Charities, pp. 106 _sq_. "The
Causes of Poverty," F. A. Walker in "Century," Vol. LV, pp. 210 _sq_.
"The Jukes," Richard Dugdale. "Tribe of Ishmael," Oscar McCulloch in
Proceedings of Fifteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 154
_sq_. "The Rooney Family," see Charles Booth's "Life and Labor of the
People," Vol. VIII, pp. 317 _sq_. "Life in New York Tenement Houses,"
William T. Elsing in "Scribner's," Vol. XI, pp. 677 _sq_. "An
Experiment in Altruism," Miss Margaret Sherwood.

{17}

CHAPTER II

THE BREADWINNER

A conference was held in one of our large cities lately of half a dozen
church and charity workers, who had been called together to make some
plan or agree upon some common principle in dealing with a cer