HOW GIRLS CAN HELP WORKHOUSE INMATES (Part Two)
by B.C.Saward
The Girl's Own Paper (February 2nd, 1895)
In our first paper we devoted our available space to draw attention to the condition of the helpless inmates of the workhouse and to excite a desire in our readers' minds to come to their aid. This paper will be occupied with giving an insight into the various formalities required before an entrance to the "Idle Ward" is permitted, and to the way to behave when such admittance has been granted. Our future papers will treat of the various occupations these poor people are most successful at, and that a trial of ten years at the Kensington workhouse have been found the best to teach.
It must be remembered by all would-be teachers that they are only granted admittance to the institution as a favour, therefore they must enter on their work with a humble mind as to the authorities, not in a spirit of opposition to them and championship towards the inmates, and also they must not be puffed up with a sense of their own importance and deep charity. Many a good work in the outer world has come to an unsatisfactory end by reason of these foibles being indulged in by really Christian people, therefore if this spirit is carried into the walls of a house where obedience to fixed rules must be maintained, it is sure to neutralise the good work hoped for, if it does not bring the whole scheme to a disastrous conclusion.
Ladies who are willing to undertake this work should form themselves into a committee and elect from their number an honourary secretary who is a capable woman, an enthusiastic and persevering worker and endowed with the gifts of organisation and persuasion. This lady and the committee should try to become personally known to the Poor Law Guardians, and explain to them privately what work they are desirous of doing, and how that it is not intended to increase the rates or diminish their authority. This done, a formal application for permission to enter the workhouse and to teach the inmates is laid before the Board of Guardians, and the whole scheme submitted to them with accounts of its favourable working at other workhouses. If the Board allow the scheme to be tried it must be left to them to settle the day and the number of hours they will allow the ladies to come and teach. The time generally granted is one afternoon a week.
The next step is to secure the interest and co-operation of the matron of the infirmary; as no one can be employed without her sanction, and the apportioning of labour is one of her prerogatives; therefore, unless she views the work in a favourable light, only the most decrepit among the women will be permitted; but should she be convinced that no infringement upon her rights is intended, and that the work will help in maintaining discipline and harmony, women who are afflicted and yet intelligent will be allowed to become workers. There is a much greater choice amongst the men, many of whom, although incapable of hard manual labour, are not absolutely crippled; but in many instances the men, though able to set about their tasks, are not very willing, and ladies must persevere in their encouragement of interest in the undertaking until a sale of the work done is organised and the sum received expended in gifts to the workers or the general community. That sale once successful there will be no need to set forth the advantages of work; all who can hold a tool or thread a needle see what it can do and are eager to help the common cause.
The intelligent help of a matron is of great importance to the success and permanency of the undertaking, and pains should be taken to conciliate her. She being in authority and constantly at hand (while the teachers are away) can incite the inmates to persevere and can help them in various ways; to her is entrusted the cards of membership for distribution and on those cards she writes the names of those people whom she selects for employment, and no person can do needlework, etc., without producing this card when called upon to do so. This system of giving of cards is arranged to check the patients doing needlework for their friends and recieving in payment for the same money or spirits. Anyone unable to produce this card, and yet engaged in needlework not belonging to the establishment, is at once detected in breaking one of the rules of the establishment.
The committee of ladies having gained an entrance into the workhouse, and obtained the co-operation of the authorities and a certain number of workers, next proceed to find out what each individual is most capable of doing, and each lady is given the teaching of one particular branch to the workers, and presents her report to the secretary of the materials necessary. The secretary having communicated with the Brabazon Employment Society and obtained their grant, buys what is required, keeps the finished work and all materials not in use. She also undertakes a general supervision and the completion of any articles for sale, and enters the cost of each article to make and the price it should obtain in a book. It must be always remembered when buying materials that the grant of twenty pounds is only a loan, not a gift, and that this money must be realised before any profits begin, therefore that great care in selection of good and yet reasonably priced materials are required, as should the money be wantonly or carelessly expended, the poor people's profits will be very small, if any.
The work given out is chiefly knitting, crochet, embroidery, netting, basket-work, iron filigree-work, carving, poker-work and decorative painting. The men can embroider and knit quite as successfully as the women, and they can make nets for lawn tennis, for fishing, for covering shrubs, and for hammocks and as they are more exempt from the labour of the workhouse than the women, it is amongst them that the best painting, filigree-work and poker-work is produced. Both sexes can do basket-work, either of the useful or ornamental kinds. All the necessary materials, with the exception of the poker-work machine and the carving tools, are inexpensive, and friends interested in the undertaking will often give the committee materials that they might hesitate to purchase by reason of their expense. Amongst the articles required for starting the undertaking are spectacles; these are often absolute necessities, and are permitted to be bought out of "the grant."
When a certain amount of work is finished, a sale (not in the workhouse but in the town from which the inmates are drawn), is organised; and for this the articles should be priced to obtain a fair profit and no more, it being most important to sell them, as nothing encourages the workers to fresh effort so much as the knowledge that they have found purchasers for their work, and all articles bought are a kind of advertisement of the needs of the very poor, and extend the knowlege of the effort being made on their behalf.
The money obtained from the sale is divided into the sum paid for the cost of the material used, and the sum that is all profit. When materials are expensive and lasting (such as tools and machines) a certain portion only of the price is deducted from each sold article. This money goes to furnish fresh materials and to replace the "grant" money while the profit money is expended for the benefit of all the infirm in the "Idle Room," not only for the benefit of the workers.
The guardians are informed before the money is expended as to what uses it is to be put, and only after their sanction is obtained is it spent. What is most liked by the inmates is an invalid or bath chair which all can use, or money spent in hiring one. No greater boon can be given to the afflicted than a change from the monotony of the sick-room, and a breath of fresh air without bodily fatigue. Next to the chair, come parcels of books, plants for the room, warm vests, tea, work-boxes and tobacco. Money is never given, as it is difficult to know how it is expended, but a small sum is sometimes put away and used to help people who have only come into the workhouse as temporary inmates.
The ladies who teach sometimes find the people too infirm to learn anything else but how to read, and when this is the case they teach them to do so, and they also strive to humanise many an imbecile or idiot by playing to them, by singing, repeating short prayers, and by any wholesome light game that these poor people can take an interest in, so that as far as human aid can be given no one is left out, and the kindly light of religion, sympathy, love, and charity is shed upon all who will avail themselves of this great blessing, and all being done in the name of the blessed Saviour, it is hoped that it will work for the spiritual comfort of the recipient as well as for the temporal.