antage of his lack of shrewdness, and
every effort of his to get on, to get out of the old groove, is
resisted by such agencies. Surely, if any one stands in need of a
friend, who will patiently strive to see the world through his eyes,
and yet will have the courage to tell him the plain truth, it is the
breadwinner.

But that picture would be a distorted one which represented the poor
man as friendless save for the politicians. His neighbors and
companions are in no position to protect him from the foes I have
mentioned, but their neighborliness is none the less genuine. Most
patient and long-suffering of neighbors are the small landlords who
sublet. The tradesmen in poor neighborhoods are also heavy losers.
When a family applies for the first time to a church or charity, it
often means that they have been aided most generously for a long {25}
time by neighbors and small dealers. Sometimes one happens upon the
very best and most thoughtful charity given in this way. A Boston
worker tells of a street-car conductor, not only supported through the
winter by his fellow-conductors, but faithfully nursed by them at
night, each one taking turns after the long day's work. Such glimpses
as this show us how queer is our usual charitable perspective, in
which, as in a picture on a Chinese fan, we see the church steeple in
the middle distance and the church visitor looming large in the
foreground, while the poor little object of charity, quite helpless and
alone save for us, huddles in a corner. The fact is that every life
has a background, if we will but take the trouble to see and understand
it: all the barrenness is in our own imaginations.

When the poor man attempts to be charitable without knowledge, he is
just as clumsy as the rest of us. Writing of "The Attitude of
Workingmen toward Modern Charity," Miss Clare de Graffenreid says: "A
notable instance of reckless giving came under my observation just
after the great strike in the mining regions, {26} when a man who had
lost both arms went begging in Georges Creek Valley. How he was
maimed, whether he was worthy, proved immaterial. Nor does it appear
that he was even a miner; but he asked alms at all the mines. Now the
miners had had no money since they were paid off for April, the strike
having begun on the 7th of May and having lasted until the 1st of July,
while some workers were unable to secure employment until later. After
two months and more of idleness